Pathetic

Woman falls out of third story
window, lands on hood of car,
goes to sleep in neighbor’s house.

I hate to have to say it but I think what is happening now with respect to American Foreign Policy is, in a word, PATHETIC. After nine years of “war,” against Afghanistan (the longest war in U.S. history), one of the poorest nations on earth, against fighters armed mostly with small arms, no air force, little or no artillery or tank support, and etc., we are obviously “losing” (or at the very least not “winning”). With supposedly the greatest military in history, with the most sophisticated arms and equipment, the best technology, a military budget that is greater than all the rest of the world combined, supposedly the greatest intelligence and spy satellites possible, drones, and who knows what all else, we have not only failed to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, WE DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE HE IS! It seems to me there are only two possibilities, either we are unbelievably, even pathetically incompetent, or there are unknown reasons we have not really wanted to capture or kill him (I truly do try to resist any form of conspiracy theories but this situation is demanding too much of my feeble intellect).

What is even more pathetic, we don’t even know who we are fighting or why. According to Leon Panetta, the Director of the CIA, there are only 50 to 100 al Quaida in Afghanistan. We have something like 150,000 troops there plus untold numbers of civilian personnel and spend billions fighting them. Is that not pathetic? What is worse, we show no signs of giving up. President Obama is now concerned over our apparent “obsession” with the deadline for getting out, even though he established the deadline himself and up until now has insisted we will meet it (and it is obvious we cannot afford to continue). We are now fighting the Taliban where previously we were fighting al Quaida. The Taliban were not, and are not our enemies. They merely want us out of their country. They are NO threat to the U.S. (or anyone else for that matter). This is even worse than pathetic, it’s insane.

Because we have managed to impale ourselves on a massive national debt there are those who are now suggesting we should give up social security because we cannot afford it. It is no secret these are the same people who have always opposed social security and long wanted to repeal it, but their argument that we cannot afford it, while fighting two phony and unnecessary “wars”, and maintaining a pseudo-empire that we clearly cannot afford, is transparently pathetic.

Elena Kagan is in the midst of demonstrating that her description of Supreme Court confirmation hearings as a “charade” is right on. It appears she will be confirmed. But some Republicans are determined to stop any Obama appointee, no matter how qualified. So of course they are bringing up every tiny nitpicking detail they can think of to attempt to derail her. As even that is proving difficult they have decided to trash Thurgood Marshall, one of the greatest Supreme Court Justices ever, who also had Kagan as an aide. I guess that although they would never admit it, they are still upset that any civil rights legislation was passed. Their opposition to Kagan is not only disingenuous, it is pathetic. These hearings are a complete waste of time and money, the major point being that every blowhard self-important Senator gets his/her few minutes of national attention to make a fool of him/herself.

Perhaps most pathetic of all (ignoring the Oil spill for the moment) is the Republican opposition to extending unemployment benefits to over a million people. One of these unprincipled nitwits has even argued that denying them further benefits will force them to get jobs, a kind of Panglossian argument that even the good Dr. himself would probably choke on.

How the mighty have and are falling. There was a time when the U.S. was more or less solvent, when the rest of the world admired, envied, and copied us, when we at least gave the appearance of knowing what we were doing, when we adhered to our principles of fighting only when attacked, no torturing, and observing international law and our Constitution. Thanks to Reagan/Bush/Cheney and the Republican criminal conspiracy, those days are gone, probably forever. Get used to living in the Third World.

LKBIQ:
People are fond of spouting out the old clich%uFFFD about how Van Gogh never sold a painting in his lifetime. Somehow his example serves to justify to us, decades later, that there is somehow merit in utter failure.Perhaps, but the man did commit suicide.
Hugh Macleod,

TILT:
Herring was once known as “two-eyed steak.”