So This Happened
I'm doing my thing today, scanning headlines, keeping up with news and opinion. Mostly international and national stuff.
Local politics bores the fuck out of me. Local politics is like watching little kids fight over who gets to eat the cat shit in the sand box.
I'm seeing these articles from Right Wing Fucktards like John Bolton, Karl Rove and William Kristol about how President Obama has been "dithering" over Libya.
That's the Krazy Klown Kollege talking point Buzzword Of The Day. Dithering.
Obama is a "Ditherer".
John "Got Milk?" Bolton said it.
Krazy Karl Rove said it. Dithering!
William "Wild Bill" Kristol, in an article he apparently wrote next Monday and was kind enough to send back in time to us, also accuses Obama of "Dithering"!
To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, "That word you keep using. Dithering. I do not think it means what you think it means."
I think the word they are searching for is deliberating.
It was in this context that I saw that the topic on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" today was "Sussing Out An Emerging Obama Doctrine".
Neal Conan would be discussing the subject with Bob Woodward, associate editor for The Washington Post and half of the Woodward/Bernstein Team that broke the Watergate Scandal and brought down the Nixon Presidency.
So, naturally, I had to fire off an email expressing my opinion on the subject.
Apparently someone on the NPR staff felt it was broadcast-worthy. Here is an excerpt from the transcription of today's broadcast:"CONAN: Here's an email from Xavier, who writes: President Obama understands something a lot of people don't: Anything America touches is perceived by the rest of the world as being tainted and corrupt.
The only thing people in the Middle East despise more than their totalitarian dictators is us. After all, we bear primary responsibility for keeping those dictators in power by doing business with them.
When there's a popular uprising of people yearning for freedom, the best thing we can do for them is stay out of it and let them fight. As soon as we intervene, it becomes about us, and the freedom fighters are undermined by association with us.
Mr. WOODWARD: That may turn out to be the case, and it may not. If you -there's so much we don't know. If you asked who are the rebels in Libya? What are their names? I mean, there's vague data on it.
You know, apparently six of them are known; 24 or something like that are not known. You know, maybe these are wonderful people and great leaders. Maybe they're not."
You can find the full transcribe here.
You can listen to the full podcast here. Conan reads my email between the 19:09 and 20:09 marks.
Just to wrap this up, I'll point out that the oppressed people of the world aren't looking for us to liberate them.
They want to liberate themselves! Yes, they want what we have. They want freedom. But not at the price that we charge. They want to get it themselves, on their own terms, without owing America a Goddamn thing.
The absolutely worse thing we can do is to "help" them. They don't need or want the help of the people who facilitated their oppression by doing business with their oppressors and keeping them in power.
When we "help" people fighting for their freedom, the rest of the world interprets that as us co-opting the fight for our own political purposes and that delegitimatizes the freedom fighters.
Posts
14 comments:
I think Obama should get another Nobel Peace Prize for this illegal war that he's started with Libya.
Then previous Presidents should be simarlarly awarded for the illegal wars in Iraq 2, Afghanistan, Iraq 1, Somalia, Grenada, Vietnam and Korea.
The last time the United States legally declared war, according to The Constitution, was in 1941.
When I think of the sound a donkey would make when it farts, EMAW says it the best.
@XO- Agreed. Obama is the same as GWBush, except that Bush waited and deliberated longer before launching his war. Oh yeah, and Bush's wars were authorized by Congress.
@Sponge- HAHAHHAAAA I see what you did there. You made fun of my handle so you wouldn't have to address the content of the discussion. Good one!
You're famous !! Well, sorta..lol
I happen to agree with you on this one. Stay out. No more wars. Those people put their religion first, then maybe their freedom. We can't win this one.
Prepare to self combust because we're in complete agreement on this one.
I'm with you on this one too, X. Why are we in any of these wars while so many of our own go without health care?
Obama has continued the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He has had time to get out. They are his wars now.
And he has even got us in another one.
By the way, Democrats sent combat troops to Korea and Vietnam.
Obama Lies, and People Die.
The Raytown Traffic and Mold Expert
Given it is nearly a week since you wrote this post and now you have the President's speech last night, I'd like your thoughts as of today (since you're not writing about anything else anyhow ;-) )
Jools - I didn't watch the President's speech because I was busy doing other things.
But I'm still against the intervention in Libya.
I've long contended that we should lead by example, not intervention.
I think we would do far more good in the world by quietly being Americans and living up to the values of our founding documents than stomping around the world trying to force people to be like us.
When we constantly and hypocritically interfere in the affairs of other countries with more regard for our bottom line than anyone else's freedom and independence, we don't exactly inspire other peoples to be like us.
When it comes to spreading freedom, democracy and independence, we are our own worst enemies.
Thanks for the update, XO. I think most of the country is war weary, even most of we conservatives. Frankly, it's all about oil... this humanitarian stuff is a smoke screen. Even tho we don't get oil from Libya, the Europeans do and we're supporting them cause their 3 planes with 2 bombs each can't do the job. Further, any disruption in the oil producing countries does affect us in some way or another...such as price or access to it, etc.
The Leftist commentators get stuck on the same word all the time.
Remember when Cheney gave the ticket "gravitas"?
A lot of people are going without health care because of the Obama economy.
Regarding Obamacare, that has been declared unconstitutional yet the Administration keeps on implementing it.
The only reason we intervene in the middle east is to bring some 'stability' to the region and to keep an American presence. If it were about oil our gas prices wouldn't be what they are.
I don't think Lybia is our issue. however, soon all of this unrest in the middle east will be Israels problem. Given the current Palestinian issues, the last thing Israel needs are arab nations nuking each other or the middle east as a whole bombing Israel for the hell of it and using unrest as an excuse.
Post a Comment