Comments on: Keeping it Realist

By: peorgie tirebiter

peorgie tirebiter — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:37:19 +0000

Yes.

By: Rick Taylor

Rick Taylor — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:37:28 +0000

Isn’t it weird that foreign policy realism, the doctrine that we should assess foreign engagements using a cold calculus based on national self interest, formally identified more often with Republicans, has now become associated with Democrats and the most left wing of Republicans (like Colin Powel), as the Republican party has embraced a delusional form of American exceptionalism?

By: kenmeer livermaile

kenmeer livermaile — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:12:38 +0000

Yes, al-qaeda in Afghanistan is the current bullshit excuse, that is, the name brand excuse the average American will recognize as an Officially Sanctioned Excuse.

The excuse not-yet-shat-from-the-bull is that Pakistan is unstable, Islamically rabid (or is that rabidly Islamic? the fine nuances of xenophobia elude me), and has nukes ready for delivery.

It was a fine excuse on the campaign trail, allowing Obama to appear Tough on Terror (ToT) while rightfully sneering at Bush’s Iraqi fiasco. (I think Texas needs a new pro air hockey team called the Iraqi Fiascos.)

But the campaign is over.

By: AlanSmithee

AlanSmithee — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:03:02 +0000

A senior U.S. intelligence official told ABCNews.com the approximate estimate of 100 al Qaeda members left in Afghanistan reflects the conclusion of American intelligence agencies and the Defense Department. The relatively small number was part of the intelligence passed on to the White House as President Obama conducted his deliberations.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/president-obamas-secret-100-al-qaeda-now-afghanistan/story?id=9227861

Oh well. So much for the latest bullshit excuse. Next, pls!

By: kenmeer livermaile

kenmeer livermaile — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:14:14 +0000

Stop it with the logic awreddy! You’re shredding my softly padded cognitive dissonance down quilt! I am just a poor man though my story’s seldom told!

The outcome of this feral foorawh will be the decisive moment of my ability to continue drinking blue Kool-Aid flavored chardonnay.

I *like* to think Obama’s a hard-boiled savvy realist, and that his thinking is this:

‘OK. We’re gonna kill a bunch more more or less innocent people because my people have not yet gotten their warful bloodlust comepletely out of their system yet. So I’ll do this, and then I can say, Yo, I did it, now shut up and let me try and make the looming disasters our children will inherit a tad less terrible.’

That, you see, is what passes for optimism in my world today. And yet I get called Pollyanna wherever i go.

No one will let a poor man think his happy thoughts anymore. Here’s my happy thought: we’re gonna kill kill kill… and then we’ll STOP.

(gag…spew…): ‘You call this swill Thorazine! I’ve had better DTs from watered down Mad Dog! Savages!’

By: kenmeer livermaile

kenmeer livermaile — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:04:24 +0000

The Plaint of the Steely Dan:

By: montag

montag — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:16:13 +0000

Ah, well, Obama’s still conflating the Taliban with al-Qaeda, which is a convenient bit of sleight-of-hand.

By: secondharmonic

secondharmonic — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:55:20 +0000

We have ALWAYS been at war with women.

That’s why Tiger has his ‘clubs’, why lesbians wear their hair short, etc. etc.

By: Dain Brammaged

Dain Brammaged — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:21:26 +0000

I thought his ‘Woods’ were metal.

By: curv3ball

curv3ball — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:34:01 +0000

Well, we could always start a war on women to liberate them. It’s worked out so well for women in Afghanistan thus far…