Failed Conservative Policies
The LA Times opines that perhaps, just perhaps, invading and occupying a country halfway around the world for no good goddamn reason wasn't a good idea. This op-ed almost qualified for another episode of Tales Of The Obvious!, but we at Punch and Jude decided to keep with our "Failed Conservative Policies" meme-planting advocated a few days ago. It's a pretty good article, but you have to ignore their cartoonish characterizations of Panama, Grenada, Vietnam, and Gulf War I.
Also missing is any condemnation of the press' own rah-rah cheerleading in the months prior to Bush's Vanity War. Still, it's better than nothing.
Speaking of failed policies, how about training your enemies? Gosh, I couldn't see this coming. Henceforth, there will be no more comparisons here between the Iraqi army and the ARVN. The ARVN, by and large, just didn't fight at all--they didn't turn on US forces (in a significant way, that is). Of course, the Vietnamese didn't have a millennium of beef with the West--there were no Crusaders in Southeast Asia a thousand years ago (the Vietnamese millennium of beef was with the Chinese). Al-Salibiyyah ("the Crusade") was largely confined to the Middle East back then.
In case you're curious, some Muslims in the Middle East call Western colonialism of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (of which they consider the State of Israel and the US invasion of Iraq to be parts) Al-Salibiyyah. Ponder that one for a minute or two.
The LA Times opines that perhaps, just perhaps, invading and occupying a country halfway around the world for no good goddamn reason wasn't a good idea. This op-ed almost qualified for another episode of Tales Of The Obvious!, but we at Punch and Jude decided to keep with our "Failed Conservative Policies" meme-planting advocated a few days ago. It's a pretty good article, but you have to ignore their cartoonish characterizations of Panama, Grenada, Vietnam, and Gulf War I.
Also missing is any condemnation of the press' own rah-rah cheerleading in the months prior to Bush's Vanity War. Still, it's better than nothing.
Speaking of failed policies, how about training your enemies? Gosh, I couldn't see this coming. Henceforth, there will be no more comparisons here between the Iraqi army and the ARVN. The ARVN, by and large, just didn't fight at all--they didn't turn on US forces (in a significant way, that is). Of course, the Vietnamese didn't have a millennium of beef with the West--there were no Crusaders in Southeast Asia a thousand years ago (the Vietnamese millennium of beef was with the Chinese). Al-Salibiyyah ("the Crusade") was largely confined to the Middle East back then.
In case you're curious, some Muslims in the Middle East call Western colonialism of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (of which they consider the State of Israel and the US invasion of Iraq to be parts) Al-Salibiyyah. Ponder that one for a minute or two.
posted by Jude at 4:02 PM
