Rants and Raves
With all of the things going on in Washington and the Middle East these days, I thought I’d ask some political questions. And then proceed to answer some of them if I feel like it. A few are rhetorical questions with no answers. I’d love to hear your answers on any of these questions.
Q) Why does America use taxpayer dollars to detain and torture people without charges?
A) We’re bigger pussies than we think. It doesn’t bode well for our country’s future if 9/11 created enough fear to allow our leaders to pee all over the Constitution and the Geneva Convention with fright-urine. (Did I just coin a term?) It’s just as bad as handing the White House over to Osama & Co.
Q) 2000 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq the same week as that country passed a constitution, the first one in the history of Arab civilization I believe. Was it worth it?
A) I don’t think the blood of 2000 Americans, some Brits, and some tens of thousands of Iraqis was worth it. I have a problem with setting up a democracy at gunpoint. UNLESS… unless it turns out to be a solid democracy, where the factions do not fight one another, the country gets along with its neighbors, and the government is relatively stable and free of corruption. The jury may be out on that, but my instinct has been all along that it’s not going to happen. In my opinion working to exile, kidnap, or assassinate Saddam and his two sons with more multinational cooperation would have been a far better course of action. The way things are now, the US has been utterly incompetent in its post-war planning. I’m not a fan of assassinating assholes, or anyone for that matter, but it looks likely that Saddam’s trial will end in an execution, and his sons were killed in the fighting anyway. In the worst-case scenario, the war fuels more insurgency and terrorism from the Middle East toward our shores than we would have seen with Saddam in power, making the United States even less secure than before.
Q) If the entire Plamegate CIA leak scandal was set off by Robert Novak and his stupid column, and all of these other journalists were somehow subpoenad as a result, why haven’t we heard about his testimony? He said his sources were two administration officials. Who were they?
Q) With the Republican Party in such disarray with the DeLay scandal, Frist scandal, Plamegate, and a failed Supreme Court nomination, why aren’t the Democrats pouncing all over the place, eating the GOP’s lunch and playing ball in Congress?
A) The Democratic Party in America today is a castrated high school JV squad that only knows how to play defense (protect our basket! don’t let them shoot the three!). It took a fucking Republican appointee, Fitzgerald, to bring down the White House, and it took him two years. What kind of two-party system is that? Democrats have so much they could hang Cheney with, and they’re not even able to get an answer on his involvement or non-involvement.
Q) Why would someone ever leak an undercover CIA spy’s identity to the press just to get back at her husband? What kind of third-grade logic is that?
Q) Why did the CIA send an ex-Ambassador, Joe Wilson, with full State Department credentials to find out if Niger was trying to sell yellowcake to Iraq?
A) Our intelligence is that bad. The CIA’s human intelligence and technology should have been able to debunk a story that was so incredibly fictitious, without having to send some ex-Ambassador with no secret cover to find out the truth. That’s how this whole mess started in the first place.
Q) What role, if any, did Valerie Plame play in organizing that trip?
A) Valerie must have sent him. It’s too much of a coincidence that Wilson was working on an issue that we now know was his wife’s area of expertise at the Agency.
Q) Were any of Valerie Plame’s contacts abroad killed as a result of her being "outed?"
A) It’s the most tragic possibility of this entire affair.
Q) Did Libby, Rove, et al know that Plame was under cover?
Q) How are things going in Afghanistan?
A) Could be better, from what I’ve read lately. We should have focused on doing that one job well.
Q) How should America have responded to 9/11?
A) It should have been a prosecution, not a "War on Terror." 9/11 was a criminal act, that should have been followed by a rapid search (with massive force) for Osama, his Al-Qaida loser cohorts, and the Taliban leadership that harbored them. Those guys should have been captured and tried publicly for the entire world to see, with special legislation in an international court setting. The international caselaw created would have set a precedent for any future trials. And I wouldn’t have executed them. I would have made them all rot in jail for the rest of their lives. Network TV could have done a reality show about these freaks with their pathetic lives behind bars. That would be a better way to deter terrorist wannabes.
By making it a war, we are playing the game on their terms. We make Al Qaida seem more important and more powerful than they are or should ever be given credit for. It is a war that has no end in sight, just like the "War on Drugs" which has been an utter failure. Fresh recruits will always pop up as long as American soldiers hang out in Middle Eastern neighborhoods. The Iraqi occupation reeks of colonialism, even if that isn’t the administration’s goal. What matters here is the perception of us on the "Arab street." We don’t exactly look like heroes to most of them, especially not when we’re buying all their oil.
One problem with America is our lack of empathy. How many Americans would like it if our streets were being patrolled by foreign troops and our innocent neighbors were getting killed, even if it the deaths happened accidentally in the cross-fire? I’m no lover of Bush’s, but I would fight back if someone attacked my home. Similarly, an Iraqi doesn’t have to be a Saddam loyalist or identify with Osama or Zarqawi to want to pick up a gun or strap on some explosives to go on a suicide mission.
Q) What is the solution to the specter of Islamic terrorism?
A) End our dependency on Middle Eastern oil. It’s that simple (obviously, as an idea, not to implement). If we didn’t need to set up all of our commercial and military interests in the Middle East to pump out and ship that dark crude, those guys wouldn’t have attacked us on 9/11! Believe it or not, the 9/11 hijackers weren’t insane. Terrorists may be morally wrong, but they’re not crazy. The world would be much safer if America allowed the armies and militias of the Middle East to screw each other. Artificially propping up the regimes over there, only to see them fall if we ever packed up and left, is not a solution. Guess what, sports fans? The oil will run out anyway sometime this century, at which time we’ll have to pack up and leave anyway. I’m not saying we should neglect the spread of democracy, globalization, commerce, etc. in the region. I’m saying that there are better ways of doing it- such as focusing our energy on forcing the Israelis and Palestinians to make get along with all of our energy and resources.
Well. It was one of those nights. Tonight, the world of politics just seems to suck, so I had to rant and rave about it. I feel better now.
By the way, is anyone else as annoyed as I am by the emails telling you that someone updated their blog? Friendster should have a way to shut that off.
