ToutSuite wrote:

Ray, of Light wrote:

Colonel K wrote:

the image of America bludgeoning Sadaam to death with the sheer weight of its cock alone makes me want to straddle the bomb that melts this fucker into a designer vase.

There's a vivid change in tone since the postuing and trial balloons of a few months ago. Before, they were talking crazy stuff: surgical this and that, we'll drop ninjas through Saddam's skylight, whatever. Now, the generals are quoting Clausewitz and questioning nothing except whether conquering the nation will disrupt their plans for Valentine's Day.

What's more fascinating is America's move-after-next. My foreign-policy smarts come from playing Risk, so jump in if you actually know jack-shit about any of this stuff.

It seems to me holding Iraq by the nuts alters the strategic landscape. For one thing, Israel: given their lack of crude and unwillingness to abadon that fifth-reich project, why not throw 'em to the dogs? You score points with the new neighbors and get a lightning rod for free.

For another thing, oil: a modern military is ridiculously dependant upon oil. Given a convenient excuse to pump it dry, Iraq would be a big boost if Bush plans to conquer anything else. Or everything else. Or, he could just drop into the domestic economy to guarantee re-election.

We live in interesting times.

Ray!

This really is the last desperate gasp of our Empire, finally.

Bush II is hell-bent on invading Iraq, and clearly either hasn't decided what he's going to do afterwards, or isn't telling us. The fact in two years we could potentially elect another president is rendered meaningless given what he (or, snicker, she) would be inheriting. If Bush had actually decided to fight a War on Terrorism, things might have turned out differently for us this century, but leaving Afghanistan the mess it is, ignoring the Palestinian problem for the first two years of his presidency, treating Pakistan like a redheaded stepchild who DOESN'T have nuclear weapons, ignoring North Korea, etc., etc. has left us with the reality that by 2100, El Presidente Garcia will be governing a nation marked by armed vehicles on Main Street. Those trucks will be multi-use, rooting out foreign nationals, enforcing curfews, and distributing propaganda leaflets. The morning news will list the latest hot zones so we'll know the safest routes to the office. We'll have a richter scale for bomb detonations. At least gas will be slightly cheaper for the next 50 or 60 years, until it runs out completely.

The good news: all of us except possibly the janitor will be long gone by then.


I could be wrong, but unfortunately I'm not.