Cutting through the machinations and effects of the US empire
Dry and cold
Snowless
The big change this week is it's gotten cold, sort of (-11C overnight, -7C during the day). This is almost laughable, considering -10C ``cold'' for this time of year. Where is the -20C or -30C that we should be getting by now?
In other news, Friday Garden Blogging is now on hiatus until there is some pretty snow on a Friday.
15 Saudis and no Iraqis were among the hijackers
President Bush has now sent more Americans to their deaths in Iraq than were killed in the 9/11 attacks. With seven more reported today, the toll is now 2,978, five more US deaths than on 9/11.
This FBI list of the 9/11 hijackers contains no one from Iraq. Yet the likely number of Iraqis killed as a direct result of the invasion and occupation of their country under the command of President Bush is over 600,000.
Winter solstice
Dusk at 3:45pm
Outdoor laundry on winter solstice?
Seen in the neighborhood, reindeer family
I love the long shadow from the clothesline pole at noontime. It is quite notable that this year we have no snow on the first full day of winter. A pretty good rainstorm is due tomorrow, after several days of near-picnic weather.
And oh boy, a big budget increase too
Scrooge makes one prediction for 2007, ``...it's going to require difficult choices and additional sacrifices...'' as he strikes a classic Bush pose -- the one he gives when he tells the American people the bad news that they will have to pay even more in lives and treasure for his failed policies.
Some Democrats are walking straight into a trap. The incoming leader of the new Democratic Senate majority, Harry Reid of Nevada, told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that he would support a ``surge'' of additional troops to Iraq.
Reid said, ``If the commanders on the ground said this is just for a short period of time, we’ll go along with that.''
Reid may have backed off a little on Monday, writing in the Huffington Post, ``Frankly, I don't believe that more troops is the answer for Iraq. It's a civil war and America should not be policing a Sunni-Shia conflict. In addition, we don't have the additional forces to put in there.''
But the trap may already have been sprung. Only the usual suspects amongst the Democrats are stepping up to demand rapid withdrawal, while key ones signal that they might go along with the surge.
With the opposition thus muted, this is how it could go from here. The surge gains momentum. Bush promotes it as some sort of solution to get the US back to ``winning.'' If the additional deployments begin to happen in a few months and the news from Baghdad gets a little better (unlikely), then the troop levels will have to stay to keep up the momentum. If everything gets worse, despite the new deployments (likely), Bush will insist the additional numbers will have to stay ``because the enemy is merciless and violent'' and these ``extremists and radicals'' can't be shown a weak America that ``grows weary and leaves.''
It is irrelevant whether or not the surge policy succeeds, or more likely, fails miserably. Bush has decided that a ``merciless and violent'' response is the only medicine, whatever is the situation.
There is great concern that the military is breaking under the weight of the Iraq adventure. For example, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Dan Christman, who was head of the strategy, plans and policies department during the first Gulf War, and is now senior vice president with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, gave CNN's Wolf Blitzer dose of reality on this topic last Sunday.CHRISTMAN: ...the consequence of sending them has been often overlooked, and that is, what happens to the Army back in the states? An Army that in terms of the redeployment is really badly broken. And so, what you've got is a professional military that I think almost to a senior officer has said please don't do this. But a political inclination to do just the opposite. And I think that clash between military and civilian cultures is looming to be a very, very great divide.
So, the president, apparently realizing that the military is inadequate for the mission he wants to escalate, now announces that part of his new strategy will be an embrace of the Democratic notion that the size of the military should be increased. Bush said, ``I'm inclined to believe that we need to increase in the permanent size of both the United States Army and the United States Marines.''
Along with that proposal is a new, enormous price tag, ``99.7 billion dollars.'' Draw your own conclusions about why they stopped just shy of $100 billion. Oh, and that would put the number for the off-the-ledger war budget at $170 billion in the current year.
Somehow I get the picture that the ``surge'' concept is mainly a sales tool for the budget. But the cost will be a lot more than money. The true cost will be paid through death and destruction for thousands of Iraqis, not to mention the American troops and their families who will suffer even more maiming, dying, and pain.
Update: This post was clarified and expanded on 12/21.
Follow-up on body counts
Wow, that quote from Bush I posted yesterday seems like it indicates a pretty significant policy shift. Tony Snow today:And there is quite often the impression — and I’ve talked about it up here — that our people aren’t doing anything; they’re just targets.
So, they're ``loathed''. But evidently that is not going to stop them from trying to generate some jingoistic cheering. If the perception is we're out there drawing blood too, the PR will be better, as if it's some kind of game.
And I think there’s a certain amount of unease in the American public because they hear about deaths, but they don’t hear about what’s going on.
I was speaking last night with a service member, just recently back. He was at our party.
And he’s frustrated because a lot of the activities that they do never get reported.
One of the things that never seems to be counterposed to the death counts is what our service men and women are doing. And one of the things they’re doing is they’re fighting the bad guys.
And as General Chiarelli said recently, bad guys haven’t won a single battle.
For obvious reasons, going back to the Vietnam era, people are loathed to do body counts, but it probably is worth at least giving a general impression of the relative battlefield success of what’s going on, which is a great many members of Al Qaida in Anbar, and also, people who are committing acts of violence in Baghdad and elsewhere, are dying or being captured as a result of these military activities.
Well, I repeat, the blood the Americans are drawing represents a war against the entire Iraqi population. The US forces never could separate the ``bad guys'', so they've always seen fit to attack and round up all the ``MAMs'', or ``military-aged men'', and a lot of others too. It only makes sense if the intent is to dominate Iraq permanently. The ``mission'' never will be completed because the MAMs, and just about everyone else in Iraq, do not wish to be dominated in this manner. Just like the Vietnamese nationalists.
Metrics of ``success''
Too many are still alive--Chimperor presses his Iraq delusions with grim military brass
I watch him to study the symbol of the empire squirming as his Iraq project consumes lives and treasure in a curtain of flames. He insists we can't quit. It seems he'll hold onto this until all that's left of Iraq, the Middle East, and maybe the world is nothing more than a hot cinder on top of an oil tank.
While Bushie Scrooge throws his weight around with the Iraqi people and the US troops he asks to keep churning the mess, he is desperate for images of ``success''. Observers with memory of the Vietnam era will recognize this:Our commanders report that the enemy has also suffered. Offensive operations by Iraqi and coalition forces against terrorists and insurgents and death squad leaders have yielded positive results. In the months of October, November, and the first week of December, we have killed or captured nearly 5,900 of the enemy.
My first thought was how the hell were there 5,900 to kill, and not even the slightest dent was made in the pitch of daily death & destruction that the US has unleashed? In fact, the pitch of violence only increases. Isn't it obvious that the ``offensive operations'' in ``the fight'' Mr. Bush has ordered our troops to be taken ``to the enemy'' in ``a lot of operations taking place, day and night'' is really a fight against the entire population of Iraq?
What is going to be left of Iraq when some far future ``success'' occurs? Will it be a``free Iraq that is democratic, that can govern itself, defend itself and sustain itself, and be a strong ally in this war against radicals and extremists who would do us harm?'' Sure, Bush. It just looks like only flies and grass will be left of the nation.
Finally a little snow
First snow cover
Finds in ground still not frozen
Thursday was remarkable. The temperature broke 10 C and I dug for carrots again, finding a bunch. This seems ridiculous to me in northern December. Then a blanket of wet snow overnight came and an icy wind moved through, sending the thermometer down to -10 C. But spring-like weather is supposed to return by Sunday.
Spirit
Fending off the darkness
Brief, powerful storm passes through
Solstice is approaching, and so is my fiftieth year. December roars in with the sounds of a really big, fast thunderstorm tearing through southern Maine about 8:30 this evening. This house just shook. Looks like all the trees are intact, though.
More seasonable weather will return now, after almost two weeks of very warm conditions. It felt almost tropical last night.
