[Peace-discuss] A fresh wind blows against the Empire.

[Stuart Levy]

On Sun, Sep 06, 2009 at 11:09:44PM -0500, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Principled?  Will seems to me to be making a purely prudential judgment.  
> Or, as we say today, "pragmatic," which means a judgment that specifically 
> excludes ethical considerations.
>
> There are two quite different ways to oppose America's Mideast war:
>
> [1] it will cost too much to achieve US war aims; or
>
> [2] it's a crime.
>
> Will seems to be embracing [1], not [2].  --CGE

There is a Third Way, too:

  [3] Obama's a Democrat, and I'm a Republican, and therefore Obama's
	wars deserve criticism

... as with G. W. Bush's opposition to Clinton's bombing of Iraq before
his own election.   I suspect that Will wouldn't have written an article
like this if we had McCain in the White House.
>
> E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
>> /"People can try and fool themselves that...Obama truly wants peace. The 
>> reality of facts on the ground dispute this.  We are deceiving ourselves 
>> if we think otherwise.  Obama is fully on the trajectory of the Empire, 
>> there is no denying this…I do not place the blame for imperial violence 
>> on any president:  It is the system...What can the people do to counteract 
>> our governments that don’t have our best interests in mind?"/
>> - Cindy Sheehan
>> Fresh Winds Blow Against the Empire, as the Nation Tires of Futile, 
>> Endless, Back-Breaking War.
>> by E. Wayne Johnson   republicmedia.tv (http://tiny.cc/ewjrmtv6sep09)
>> Conservatives Flee Failed NeoCon Dogmata, while Anti-War Left Fumes at 
>> Obama, and Former BHO Supporters Struggle to Fight Back Buyer's Remorse.
>> After 8 years, nearly a trillion dollars spent (that's the "Official" 
>> Figure, the "total spent" on the war when the "off-the-balance sheet" 
>> expenditure is known undoubtably much much more), over 5100 US lives lost, 
>> tens of thousands wounded, and more soldiers suffering from 
>> shellshock/PTSD, what do Americans have to show for the sacrifice?  
>> Bubkes.  Bubkes.  Who's got the bubkes?...  In the ancient Chinese classic 
>> Sun Zi Bing Fa ("Master Sun's Art of War"), Master Sun advised 2500 years 
>> ago that there are only two possible outcomes of War:  Survival or Ruin.  
>> Considering that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan had threatened our survival, 
>> the inevitable ruin was anticipated by our wiser leaders, but not by those 
>> who were in charge.
>> In a couple of extraordinary columns last week in the Washington Post, 
>> Conservative Pundit George Will speaks out against Bush's war which has 
>> expanded into Obama's war.  "The war already is nearly 50 percent longer 
>> than the combined U.S. involvements in two world wars" says Will, who 
>> finds a solution for military success in Afghanistan to be 
>> "inconceivable".   Will also notes that the Iraqis are quite likely to 
>> demand an end to the despised US occupation of their sovereign land, and 
>> says "The United States should treat this as a Dirty Harry Moment: Make 
>> our day.", meaning that a "Yankee Go Home" message from the Iraqi voters 
>> should be the cue for our long-overdue departure from Iraq.  Will suggests 
>> that there might be some need for a military force in the 
>> Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, but nonetheless his principled stance 
>> against the war is reminiscent of the pre-neocon Robert Taft Conservative 
>> days when the GOP was the peace party and the Dems were the war party.
>> Arch-neocon William ("Bloody Bill") Kristol wasted no time in asserting 
>> that George had lost his "will" by "urging retreat, and accepting defeat", 
>> and encouraging more expenditures and more effort and more troops in 
>> Afghanistan.  One is not surprised to hear such from Bill Kristol and 
>> gang.
>> (read more:  http://tiny.cc/ewjrmtv6sep09)
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