can't question how or when or why when I'm gone
Vanity Fair has a detailed article about the push towards bombing Iran: From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq.
"Everything the advocates of war said would happen hasn't happened," says the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, an influential conservative who backed the Iraq invasion. "And all the things the critics said would happen have happened. [The president's neoconservative advisers] are effectively saying, 'Invade Iran. Then everyone will see how smart we are.' But after you've lost x number of times at the roulette wheel, do you double-down?"
You know an idea is truly batshit when Grover Fucking Norquist (Mr. "Drown Government in a Bathtub") is playing the voice of reason.
US says Iran is helping Iraqis build roadside bombs. Whether they are or they aren't, it's all part of the very obvious "we gotta bomb Iran!" PR build-up. (Juan Cole explains why the NYT's reporting on Iran is full of crap, again, here.)
And you know it's intervention time when... Dubya's soulmate is calling us "very dangerous" and pointing out that we're encouraging countries to get nukes.
"This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law.
"This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons."
And as usual, someone stating the obvious causes Republicans to clutch the pearls. :p
Speaking of war apologists, a couple years ago, right-wing Jonah Golberg tried to bet Juan Cole $2,000 on how the Iraq War would be going in 2007. Cole refused to make the bet, because he found it unethical to wager on the lives and deaths of human beings. Goldberg, of course, saw that as a sign of weakness, and took a "victory lap."
Now, lo these two years later, and Iraq is still the violent quagmire Cole predicted, without satisfaction, that it would be. And although the bet was never made, liberal bloggers are making the $2000 donation to the USO that Goldberg said he'd make with Cole's money if he won the bet. But they're asking Jonah Golberg to admit, contrary to what he said at the time, that Cole has better judgement than him, "when it comes to the big picture." (USO will get the money whether Golberg does this or not.)
All this may seem like some amusing needling of a pompous windbag - and it is - but I think it's important, because we're as a country are still listening to the same roster of jerks that got us into this mess. Any time someone can pin one of them down and make them admit their (deeply) fallible judgement on Iraq, or at least highlight it to the world, that's an argument against their inevitable cheerleading for bombing Iran.
"Everything the advocates of war said would happen hasn't happened," says the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, an influential conservative who backed the Iraq invasion. "And all the things the critics said would happen have happened. [The president's neoconservative advisers] are effectively saying, 'Invade Iran. Then everyone will see how smart we are.' But after you've lost x number of times at the roulette wheel, do you double-down?"
You know an idea is truly batshit when Grover Fucking Norquist (Mr. "Drown Government in a Bathtub") is playing the voice of reason.
US says Iran is helping Iraqis build roadside bombs. Whether they are or they aren't, it's all part of the very obvious "we gotta bomb Iran!" PR build-up. (Juan Cole explains why the NYT's reporting on Iran is full of crap, again, here.)
And you know it's intervention time when... Dubya's soulmate is calling us "very dangerous" and pointing out that we're encouraging countries to get nukes.
"This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law.
"This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons."
And as usual, someone stating the obvious causes Republicans to clutch the pearls. :p
Speaking of war apologists, a couple years ago, right-wing Jonah Golberg tried to bet Juan Cole $2,000 on how the Iraq War would be going in 2007. Cole refused to make the bet, because he found it unethical to wager on the lives and deaths of human beings. Goldberg, of course, saw that as a sign of weakness, and took a "victory lap."
Now, lo these two years later, and Iraq is still the violent quagmire Cole predicted, without satisfaction, that it would be. And although the bet was never made, liberal bloggers are making the $2000 donation to the USO that Goldberg said he'd make with Cole's money if he won the bet. But they're asking Jonah Golberg to admit, contrary to what he said at the time, that Cole has better judgement than him, "when it comes to the big picture." (USO will get the money whether Golberg does this or not.)
All this may seem like some amusing needling of a pompous windbag - and it is - but I think it's important, because we're as a country are still listening to the same roster of jerks that got us into this mess. Any time someone can pin one of them down and make them admit their (deeply) fallible judgement on Iraq, or at least highlight it to the world, that's an argument against their inevitable cheerleading for bombing Iran.