Chicken Hawks squawk
So, here's a twist: The normally super-patriotic, love-to-kick-brown-people's-asses Republicans are now criticizing the no-fly zone over Libya. Unlike the mamby-pamby Democrats of the Bush era, these Republicans aren't saying we shouldn't be bombing the hell out of brown people (again), but that we're not doing it enough. The typical over-the-top right wing talking heads say we should go to Syria, while we're Libya kicking the ass of governments killing their own people for protesting. In a left-handed way, the wing-nuts are trying to play some kind of turnabout "Ah-ha!" bullshit, by implying that the whiny Democrats have a double-standard when it comes to making war in the Middle East.
OK, so here's a little clarification: America was attacked by terrorists (mostly from Saudi-Arabia) on 9/11/01 -- a year we will never forget in the States. Then Bush attacked Afghanistan because that's where the al-Qeada training ground was and those Taliban guys were general assholes, anyway. All right, Americans can get on board with that. Sounds good. But then Bush, who may have just discovered Iraq's proximity to Afghanistan, decided to invade the country his father should have invaded ten years ago. Americans were told it's because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (insert dramatic music). Americans were a little more reserved about this move because it seemed kinda tangential to what our original mission was -- as if Bush's ADHD was revealing itself on a horrific scale.
Mostly, Americans bought the story. Some were astute enough to point out that not only had none of the 9/11 attackers come from Iraq, but that Iraq had plenty of trouble with the al-Qaeda nutjobs. Well, details, details -- right? In America, it's the sound bite that matters and just about half of the population doesn't care who we go to war with, just as long as we can keep making country songs about kicking ass all over the world. "Quagmire" was the word brought up by the left, as a spooky spectre of the Vietnam war. Turns out, they were pretty right. We found that we couldn't find any weapons of mass destruction, because they weren't there. They never were. But at this point, the Americans had already killed thousands of civilians and Iraqi soldiers -- so we were kinda stuck in one of those embarrassing positions, like if you call out your mother's name during sex... OK, that's more creepy than embarrassing, but you get the point.
Now the Americans had to stay and pretend the whole "war thing" was intended. "He was a monster," said Bush. Yeah, Saddam was a bastard and his people should have overthrown him if they really wanted him out (like the Libyans are doing with Khadaffi) -- and in the long run, I'd say most Americans are glad Saddam is no longer gassing his own people. But it was still a helluva way to do it. Bush was wrong. I'd go as far as saying he probably lied as long as he could to cover his ass and middling intellect. And he never apologized for being wrong, which wouldn't be so bad if thousands of people hadn't died for this huge fuck-up.
Now, let me switch to Obama and the wing-nut chicken hawks. Libya was a country in civil war. It's quite clear the world community (which wasn't entirely on board with the Iraq invasion) was champing at the bit, once it was clear this was a civil war. France initiated the call for war. France. That really got into the chicken hawks' collective craw. Freedom-fries France decided it was time to kick Khadaffi out.So, the right wing is stating Obama is weak because America wasn't out there leading the charge to bomb the brown people again. There was talk (callers on Glenn Beck's radio show) that Obama was really a Muslim in league with the leadership of the Middle East. So, I guess it's OK if Bush is in bed with the Middle East for money, but if Obama is colluding with them because of Allah, then we must have a problem.
Obama was cautious and I believe waited the right amount of time to get a quick strike and get the hell out. The UN was even handed the reins shortly after the Americans coordinated the attack. I'm damn glad we're not the sole world police in this action. Dear hardcore conservatives: There's a big fucking world out there. Really big. Bigger than your bank accounts, your golf courses, your estates, and even bigger than your egos... definitely bigger than your minds. Believe it or not, every country doesn't want to be America. They're pretty damn happy with their governments. They have their problems, but you don't hear too many countries saying, "Hey, see what America did? Let's do that." As part of this world, the developed countries influence each other. We get ideas from each other. We trade and negotiate with each other.
Lewis Black had a great routine about America's role in the world. He said imagine working in an office where once a week, a co-worker would burst in and say "I'm better than all you fuckers and you'd be nothing without me!" He'd be real popular, right? Yeah, right.
OK, so here's a little clarification: America was attacked by terrorists (mostly from Saudi-Arabia) on 9/11/01 -- a year we will never forget in the States. Then Bush attacked Afghanistan because that's where the al-Qeada training ground was and those Taliban guys were general assholes, anyway. All right, Americans can get on board with that. Sounds good. But then Bush, who may have just discovered Iraq's proximity to Afghanistan, decided to invade the country his father should have invaded ten years ago. Americans were told it's because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (insert dramatic music). Americans were a little more reserved about this move because it seemed kinda tangential to what our original mission was -- as if Bush's ADHD was revealing itself on a horrific scale.
Mostly, Americans bought the story. Some were astute enough to point out that not only had none of the 9/11 attackers come from Iraq, but that Iraq had plenty of trouble with the al-Qaeda nutjobs. Well, details, details -- right? In America, it's the sound bite that matters and just about half of the population doesn't care who we go to war with, just as long as we can keep making country songs about kicking ass all over the world. "Quagmire" was the word brought up by the left, as a spooky spectre of the Vietnam war. Turns out, they were pretty right. We found that we couldn't find any weapons of mass destruction, because they weren't there. They never were. But at this point, the Americans had already killed thousands of civilians and Iraqi soldiers -- so we were kinda stuck in one of those embarrassing positions, like if you call out your mother's name during sex... OK, that's more creepy than embarrassing, but you get the point.
Now the Americans had to stay and pretend the whole "war thing" was intended. "He was a monster," said Bush. Yeah, Saddam was a bastard and his people should have overthrown him if they really wanted him out (like the Libyans are doing with Khadaffi) -- and in the long run, I'd say most Americans are glad Saddam is no longer gassing his own people. But it was still a helluva way to do it. Bush was wrong. I'd go as far as saying he probably lied as long as he could to cover his ass and middling intellect. And he never apologized for being wrong, which wouldn't be so bad if thousands of people hadn't died for this huge fuck-up.
Now, let me switch to Obama and the wing-nut chicken hawks. Libya was a country in civil war. It's quite clear the world community (which wasn't entirely on board with the Iraq invasion) was champing at the bit, once it was clear this was a civil war. France initiated the call for war. France. That really got into the chicken hawks' collective craw. Freedom-fries France decided it was time to kick Khadaffi out.So, the right wing is stating Obama is weak because America wasn't out there leading the charge to bomb the brown people again. There was talk (callers on Glenn Beck's radio show) that Obama was really a Muslim in league with the leadership of the Middle East. So, I guess it's OK if Bush is in bed with the Middle East for money, but if Obama is colluding with them because of Allah, then we must have a problem.
Obama was cautious and I believe waited the right amount of time to get a quick strike and get the hell out. The UN was even handed the reins shortly after the Americans coordinated the attack. I'm damn glad we're not the sole world police in this action. Dear hardcore conservatives: There's a big fucking world out there. Really big. Bigger than your bank accounts, your golf courses, your estates, and even bigger than your egos... definitely bigger than your minds. Believe it or not, every country doesn't want to be America. They're pretty damn happy with their governments. They have their problems, but you don't hear too many countries saying, "Hey, see what America did? Let's do that." As part of this world, the developed countries influence each other. We get ideas from each other. We trade and negotiate with each other.
Lewis Black had a great routine about America's role in the world. He said imagine working in an office where once a week, a co-worker would burst in and say "I'm better than all you fuckers and you'd be nothing without me!" He'd be real popular, right? Yeah, right.
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