Tag Archives: Iraq

Political Rants

Mission unaccomplished.

If there is one enduring truth about America, it is this: we are extremely good at making a mess and abysmally inept at cleaning it up.

The Veterans Administration controversy has been over a decade in the making, and is nothing unprecedented or even particularly unusual. Recall that the Afghan and Iraq wars were supposed to be conducted, in essence, free of charge with minimal casualties. The Iraq war, in particular, was low-balled by Bush administration officials, most notably Paul Wolfowitz, who opined to Congress that it might cost us a billion or two. They were convinced that the war would be short and sweet. They did not plan for the occupation of Iraq, nor did they plan for decades of health care services for returning veterans. It was going to be a cake walk.

wolfo-witsYeah, not so much. But it did sound good at the time, didn’t it? And now, many deaths, dismemberments, and billions of dollars later, we are faced with an enormous backlog of wounded and battle-stressed soldiers, attempting to access a VA system that does not have the physical infrastructure to serve them in a timely fashion. That’s a large part of what’s behind the deceptive practices we are hearing about now – people trying to feign success when the system is failing miserably, at least on the intake end.

It is worse than that, though. We also never provided adequately for veterans of either the Vietnam War or the Gulf War. Vietnam vets faced similar problems with the VA upon their return, and now as they age they are coping with the same types of difficulties as Iraq vets: not enough primary care doctors, not enough admission capacity at VA hospitals … simply put, not enough resources to serve them.

I used to bring my dad to the VA hospital in Syracuse so that he could get discounted medications for his glaucoma. That was long before the post-9/11 wars, and outpatient services seemed adequate, if a little stretched. What we need to do, more than anything, is roll the costs of veteran recovery and long-term healthcare planning into any proposed deployment before we undertake it. Just like the oil industry should be expected to invest in proven safety and recovery technologies before they drill, we should plan on these expenses instead of minimizing the impact of war on the lives of our military families and the wealth of the nation.

How can we act surprised when the predictable consequences of more than a decade of war come to pass?

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

For the money.

So the Reagan/Bush/Bush-appointed reactionary majority on the Supreme Court came down on the side of the mega-Rich in their McCutcheon decision. There‘s a big surprise. They’re just doing what they were hired to do – help the rich tip the scales of justice against the rest of us. Now Shelly Adelson can give the maximum donation to every candidate for every office in the country, from President of the United States to Town Council member of Taberg, NY,  and still have money left over from his weekly allowance to buy a spectacular night on the town. (Not Taberg, of course.)

Big sack of money wins againOnce again, thank you, George W. Bush, for locking in this reactionary Supreme Court majority for the rest of my natural life. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, like the Iraq war (motto: killing people from Fallujah to Fort Hood since 2003). So we should expect more of this sort of thing; ultimately, I am sure, the remaining flaccid constraints on the outright purchase of our elections by billionaires will be condemned as violations of “speech” and stripped away. McCutcheon was delivered with the same Panglossian assurances offered in Citizens United that, in essence, the market will govern itself. We’ve seen where that goes.

In truth, though, money in politics – outside of plain bribery – is only as effective as we allow it to be. Its main power is in the purchase of advertising, so it crucially relies on our susceptibility to marketing. We can counteract all of Adelson’s and the Kochs’ billions by simply not being gullible, by standing up and voting, by organizing, and by exercising those formal constitutional rights that haven’t yet been excised in service to corporate power. This isn’t easy, but it is possible. Ask anyone who has lived through an oppressive regime – they’ll tell you that people just assume what they’re being told is bullshit. We can do the same thing. We can make their billions worthless. (We saw a small demonstration of that in 2012.)

Let’s do it again this year. Let’s devalue their advantage. It’s the only way out of this mess, frankly.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Boots on the ground.

I won’t waste any breath on much of what’s happened in politics this week … that Hobby Lobby suit before the Supreme Court has got me hopping mad, but I’ll hold that for another week while I take the President to task for his speech to “European youth” about the Crimean crisis. One particular passage is very worthy of attention:

Russia has pointed to America’s decision to go into Iraq as an example of Western hypocrisy. Now, it is true that the Iraq War was a subject of vigorous debate not just around the world, but in the United States as well. I participated in that debate and I opposed our military intervention there. But even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people and a fully sovereign Iraqi state that could make decisions about its own future.

Laugh away.

Here, Barry seems to be saying that it’s all right to ignore the clear will of the UN Security Council (and General Assembly) and invade another country, so long as eight years later you leave what’s left of them to sort out their political future ( this after their refusing to sign off on a status of forces agreement we were pushing for). It’s as if the dubious notion that we had a “vigorous debate” (perhaps in the street, but certainly not in the mass media) prior to starting the Iraq War somehow makes up for the fact that we went into that country on obviously false pretenses, over the objections of major allies and partners, including Russia.

That was bad enough. But just the fact that we are comparing Russia’s incursion into Crimea (death toll: less than ten, to greatly exaggerate the actual number) unfavorably with our attack on Iraq (death toll: hundreds of thousands, with fratricidal violence still killing thousands a year long after our exist) is craven beyond belief. He didn’t even mention the continuing conflict in Afghanistan. Small omission.

Finally, the resource point is a red herring. We didn’t go into Iraq to “grab its resources for our own gain”, though how that fact makes us virtuous is beyond me. Still, if Iraq’s main export was chicken wings, we would never have been there. It isn’t about stealing the oil; it’s about having a say in where it goes and where it doesn’t go. That’s as old as the American empire, and twice as thick.

Russia is a bad actor, no denying it, but we are far worse. Before we start condemning them for mustering their soldiers within their own borders, we might consider pulling ours out of the scores of countries where they are stationed, all around the world.

luv u,

jp