The end of ideology!! Oh wait …
Uncategorized - - Posted on December, 20 at 8:38 pm by Ken L
Here’s something out of the blue. The Iraq incursion war difficulty thing has yet another label. See if you can spot it in these extracts from the latest interview with Dubya:
President Bush: Listen, a couple of things before we get going. Obviously, I’ve been thinking about — and talking to a lot of people about — the way forward in Iraq and the way forward in this ideological struggle.
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The reason why is, it is an accurate reflection that this ideological war we’re in is going to last for a while …
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The enemy wants to know whether or not the United States has the will to stay engaged in this ideological struggle.
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And I’m going to keep repeating this over and over again, that I believe we’re in an ideological struggle that is — that our country will be dealing with for a long time.
Did you spot it? Yep, the Iraq Project is now an ideological struggle. Mind you it’s not the first time he’s used this kind of language. Back in September he said:
“It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st Century and the calling of our generation,” he said.
“It is a struggle for civilisation. We are fighting to maintain a way of life enjoyed by free nations.”
Calling anything the decisive whatever of the 21st century when there are 94 years still to come is self-evidently absurd but let’s overlook that. The truly strange thing is that Dubya doesn’t seem to have realised that this was an ideological struggle until a couple of months ago. You’d think that it being so decisive and all he would have been explaining it since before the invasion war incursion struggle started. I guess he didn’t want us to lie awake worrying.
In my simple-minded way I was inclined to think that an ‘ideological struggle’ would be a battle about ideas. ‘A set of doctrines or beliefs that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system’ as the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language so elegantly puts it. Therefore I thought the way to win the struggle would be to persuade the Iraqis that American doctrines and beliefs are superior to whatever crap they believe at the moment. But Dubya seems to have decided in his plain blunt way that the answer is to send more troops. Maybe like another great Texan he believes that if you’ve got them by the balls, their ideology will follow. Whether another 20,000 troops is enough to get the required squirrel grip is, however, a moot point.
Posted in Uncategorized |
December 20th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
It’s nothing new. General Boykin’s version:
“Well you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his,” said Lt Gen Boykin. “I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.”
Or the McLusky version:
My dad is bigger than your dad
He’s got eight cars and a house in Ireland
My dick is tiny, and my brain tinier still, but my ideology is bigger than yours, nyah, nyah, nyah, says Bush.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:15 am
I was going to re-hash a highly pertinent point from the previous thread, something along the lines of:
But then I read this WaPo article (not the same as Ken’s but based on the same interview: WaPo is playing this 25 minute interview for all it’s worth):
Yeah, this is the WaPo spin version of the verbatim interview Ken posted. Same shit, different “objective filter” (as George puts it).
December 21st, 2006 at 12:17 am
Loved this bit:
December 21st, 2006 at 6:15 am
The whole interview is well worth reading. I’d say it reads like the thoughts of a man who is genuinely mentally unstable, except that would probably be sedition under one of Laughing Phil’s new anti-terror laws.
December 21st, 2006 at 11:13 am
Anyone got a sweep running on how long before John Howard calls Iraq an ‘ideological struggle’?
December 21st, 2006 at 12:21 pm
spot on polly, just waiting for it to happen.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Someone’s been into the flour tin again. What are they trying to distract us from this time?
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/white-powder-scare-in-downers-office/2006/12/21/1166290655478.html
December 21st, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Dolly dropped his foundation compact.
December 21st, 2006 at 4:38 pm
It’s a distraction from the latest AWB disgrace - tax deductability for bribes to Suddam, PTO.
Really, this is unbelievable. I don’t know how much lower this country can go, but this coupled with the continued brutalisation of David Hiscks is beyond the pale.
December 21st, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Sorry that my spelling is also beyond the pale! So angry!
December 21st, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Can someone explain to me the gap between the fact on the ground that the US is gonna send more troops, and the oft heard (in the past) assertion that the US has got no more troops, please?
And why do people make that sort of shit up?
December 21st, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Sorry - serious question this time - anybody care to comment on the theory that the extra troops that will move into the region will be - ahem - dual purpose?
December 22nd, 2006 at 2:30 pm
I just dunno Baboon.
Powell is now saying that there’s no more troops, but he’s a proven bullshit artist (UN powerpoint presentation).
They seem pretty stretched with the national guard guys over there for multiple lengthy tours.
Also Bush has created this mess in part by creating a second front for himself in Iraq while still fughting in Afghanistan. Is he really such a pillock as to go east while he’s still got this shitfight at his back?
Don’t answer that.
The US political climate wouldn’t seem conducive to the draft either.
December 24th, 2006 at 12:50 am
Well something’s got to give. We are in a holding pattern of carnage at the moment. All we get for a while now is debate, speculation and all the while the killing always the killing.
Something is going to give. The current Whitehouse and the current situation in the Middle East is a huge disequilibrium.
December 24th, 2006 at 11:53 am
QUIET Sean! Don’t mention the draft!
Military Draft System To Be Tested
Friday 22 December 2006
Washington - The Selective Service System is making plans to test its draft machinery in case Congress and President Bush need it, even though the White House says it doesn’t want to bring back the draft.
The agency is planning a comprehensive test - not run since 1998 - of its military draft systems, a Selective Service official said. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009.
At the direction of the White House, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson is making it clear he is not
advocating the reinstatement of a military draft. He told a news conference that society would benefit from a return to the draft, but a few hours later, after the White House disavowed the remark, Nicholson issued a statement in line with administration policy. He said he strongly supports the all-volunteer military and does not support returning to a draft.
President Bush has repeatedly stated that the all-volunteer army would remain all-volunteer.
“We’re kind of like a fire extinguisher. We sit on a shelf,” Scott Campbell, the service’s director for operations and chief information officer, said. “Unless the president and Congress get together and say, ‘Turn the machine on’ … we’re still on the shelf.”
The administration has for years forcefully opposed bringing back the draft, and the White House said Thursday that policy has not changed and no proposal to reinstate the draft is being considered.
The “readiness exercise” would test the system that randomly chooses draftees by birth date and its network of appeal boards that decide how to deal with conscientious objectors and others who want to delay reporting for duty, Campbell said.
The Selective Service will start planning for the 2009 tests next June or July, although budget cuts could force the agency to cancel them, Campbell said.
President Bush said this week he is considering sending more troops to Iraq and has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to look into adding more troops to the nearly 1.4 million uniformed personnel on active duty.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, increasing the Army by 40,000 troops would cost as much as $2.6 billion the first year and $4 billion after that. Military officials have said the Army and Marine Corps want to add as many as 35,000 more troops.
Recruiting new forces and retaining current troops is more complicated because of the unpopular war in Iraq. In recent years, the Army has accepted recruits with lower aptitude test scores.
In remarks to reporters, Nicholson recalled his own experience as a company commander in an infantry unit that brought together soldiers of different backgrounds and education levels “in the common purpose of serving.”
Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, plans to introduce a bill next year to reinstate the draft… etc etc etc