Sometimes it is just sitting right in front of you.

[underpants]

I have learned from my experience on DU not only a great deal of facts but a whole new way of looking and listening to what comes in front of me. I have to add that "What's the matter with Kansas?" is the single best political book I have read.

Sometimes it is sitting right in front of you. Forgive me for being so late on this.

All we used to hear was how all the big tough guys WOULD take care of things IF they were in charge. They loved to bluster about how Clinton didn't do anything about BinLaden, who we knew was responsible for the Embassy bombings, while talking about how the military hated Bill as if the military brass didn't have any imput into dealing with such matters. Aside from the possible projection in that as we see it now we now see what these toughies have done with complete control.

So Mr.Bigpants-toughguy Bush who doesn't know about any "international law" he doesn't care about "convention" or about "custom" he is going to do what he feels in his gut he needs to do to protect this country....since 9/11 (that is a whole other tangent).

Back THEN we knew where OBL was we had the whole US military at the ready. Clinton failed to pull the trigger X amount of times. Now....we know precisely where OBL, who we know is responsible for the Embassy bombings AND 9/11, is (disregard that nonsense coming out of Pakistan last week) but now Mr.Bigpants can't go in---

sovereign nation
friends of ours in the war on terror (really?)
very complicated situation
Can't just attack this region (they have them some squirrelly guns ya know)
Terrain is too rough
Terrain is too rough...for our troops

and so forth.

Bulls**t

This is freaking West Virginia. If you really don't care what you have to do blast the hell out of the place. You are worried about the locals?? Since when? Hell you weren't even worried about the locals in New Orleans!!!

Mr.Toughguy can't pull the trigger.

Hell we know where alSadr is too but oh no can't go in there. Too many people too complicated need his support.... Bulls**t it is one neighborhood in one city!!!!


Both of them are sitting right in front of him.

[blm]

1. GREAT POST..... they play it both ways, don't they?

.

[underpants]

2. Center of gravity

I am half way through "Fiasco" and if Thomas Ricks doesn't point this out at the end it seems pretty clear that the insurgents in Iraq have hit us right in the center of gravity. Ricks tells the whole story of the lessons learned from Vietnam and one of the main ones is that we have to hit them in their center of gravity. He tells the story of a VC officer saying that yeah you beat us on the battlfield but that the US never hit them in the center of their gravity...this lesson was learned.

Franks decided that Baghdad was the center of the Iraqi gravity so we had to rush and get it first. The insurgents seemed to either have know this or they got their hands on FM100-5 (the US how to book since Vietnam) and they are hitting us in our center thus the "surge" is needed to try to reclaim Baghdad all over again.

[blm]

5. Kicking and recommending.

This is the kind of simple insight I admire on DU.

[havocmom]

3. Mr Toughjuy's handlers won't let him kill the goose that lays their golden eggs

But they, and he, are all quite comfortable killing lots or our troops and lots of innocent civilians.

Turning blood to money - the REAL neocon/PNAC value.

But, yeah, the CHICKEN hawks can't put up so they won't shut up with their tough talk. Any restraint on their part now is owing to fears of The Hague.

[underpants]

4. This isn't just bullying

and this isn't the responsiblity of governance

This is just simply being unwilling to pull the trigger and make THE kill.

Bush is a loser. He always has been and when it comes down to it losers lose if they are forced to they make sure of it themselves.

[redqueen]

6. But if they hit them where it hurts...

that might jeapordize their plans for "unending war".

[Parche]

7. KANSAS

So what is the 'matter' with Kansas!!!!?????


I dont live there, just DU wondering!!


Everything you said is true!!

I like the fact that before Sept 11th, Bush was a do nothing President, vacation all the time
not tending to national affairs, then all of a sudden, everything is 'terror' and its like
the terrorists have sprouted, when in fact, terrorism has been around for centuries.

[underpants]

8. The problem with Kansas

Franks points out that Kansas is very representative of the US as a whole. As a native he is very proud of that as well as very knowledgeable about the details.

The main point is that the Republicans have been able to use not just wedge issues but unresolvable issues to get people to aid/support the Republicans for that and only that reason. For instance-abortion. Franks has the story of one guy who worked in a factory who felt so passionately about it that he basically let it consume his life. He now lives very well being one of the main forces in the "right to life" field, not one of the main voices mind you just an organizer and infrastructure guy. The republicans set him up as both a "wholesome middle american blue collar" kind of guy but also to keep this issue going. It will not be resolved because it in and of itself gets money and people who are completely NOT represented by the Republicans to give money but most importantly be the foot soldiers-the callers the cavassers the door knockers directly or indirectly for the GOP. Same with guns and now immigration.

It is pro wrestling. Lots of screaming and yelling but never EVER any conclusion it is never ending please come back next (time period) same time same channel.

[Parche]

9. Factory Guy

Probably the same 'factory guy' that has been working there his whole life,
and the Republicans dont give a crap about him, or minimum wage, they probably
helped his company farm out jobs to India.

[underpants]

10. Right

it's been 18 months (when we went to the hospital to have our baby) so that was from memory.

Franks talks about how this guys wages have been kept down by the dissolving of unions as well as basically telling the guy how lucky he was to have a job anyway. Franks goes into how the meat packing plants around the state are enviromentally disasterous, how the '96 farm bill was the creation of the Repubs and has destroyed the independent farmer (in favor of big Ag), and so forth and yet they continue to come to work for these issues that have little to do with them directly and how they are working against themselves.

[blm]

11. Around for centuries, funded and nurtured by BushInc throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s.

And THAT is the fault of some Democrats who not only looked the other way, but helped to cover up the crimes of office committed.

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. Definitely.. We can't let (oil rich) Iran have nukes, but (kimchee-rich) North Korea can.

Wha hoppen???

[underpants]

13. SUV's don't run on kimchee pal

There is something in the ground there and there is something in the ground over there. One is not like the other. One is much more, erm, coveted.

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. Of course. Evidently, they want oil more than Kimchee.

Just puts it in perspective. Nary a word on North Korea, yet Iran is the new Evil Empire (tm).