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JackRiddler wrote:.
justdrew, let's entertain that thought for a little bit, that this can be the beginning of a scripted drawdown from the wars. Just to have all our bases covered.
There was this:
What in the World? The military's secret plan...to shrink
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com ... to-shrink/
Which together with the stories of the last week led me to write this for kicks over at depleted, um democratic thingie...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1011589
Multidimensional chess players, here's your man's chance. What will come of it?
Interesting past week:
Obama -- born! (In 1961!) A muscular, lightly ironic video at the White House press dinner shows NFL hits and baseball victory celebrations, intercut with a dancing birth certificate set to the tune of a song called, "I AM A REAL AMERICAN."
Trump -- naked! Republican dwarf candidates -- laughing stocks!
Osama -- dead! Buried at sea, case closed. Americans chanting USA! USA! and primed for closure on the era of 9/11.
Reelection 2012 -- a wrap, if it were today. Obama administration, reset and popular, "political capital" restored.
The Bush man at the Pentagon, Gates -- retired. Obama's choice, Panetta, is in. Petraeus -- neutralized, withdrawn from his Afghanistan flag-waving photo-ops and sent into the bowels of the CIA, an agency with a proven history of stimying and dispensing with directors considered hostile to it.
Afghan government -- practically inviting a drawdown, the July 2011 date for beginning a withdrawal almost here. Pakistan urging Karzai to get the Americans out. Supposed mission in Pakistan can be declared a victory right now.
Iraq -- the Status of Forces Agreement negotiated between Iraq and the Bush regime calls for all US troops out by December 31st.
A report by top ranking members of the Navy and Marine Corps officers serving Adm. Mullen at the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the US has been wrong to pursue military solutions instead of political ones, spent its treasure on war when it should have invested in education. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are ready to entertain this! [???]
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com ... to-shrink/
The next budget -- not just a crisis but an open book. Ryan proposal -- now anathema to most. Initiative can be seized by the liberals, if the executive is willing to provide leadership.
Arab Spring -- an opportunity to redefine all relations there. The US can stop playing Big Cheese and let an Egypt on the Turkish model show the way to new possibilities.
So here's the big chance. No more excuses. The chess pieces are positioned for action. Iraq can be over, this year. Afghanistan and Pakistan can be declared almost over, this year. A shift in spending from the wars and the "defense" budget toward human needs and investment at home can begin, this year. Even Yemen can be vacated, this year. (Dare we even dream that pressure can be applied for a real peace in Palestine?)
Obama has the position and the pieces to make these moves, this year. The neocon rationalizations of why the terror wars must continue forever ring hollow, can be counteracted. Obama can declare a bunch of victories and GET OUT OF THE MESSES.
Is your man going to live up to that? Does he really want to?
You don't have to convince me.
It's much more important that if YOU want that, if you really want it, you show that you do. Calls and letters are nice, but there will be rallies and strikes and public pressure for it... if YOU want it.
.
gnosticheresy_2 wrote:justdrew wrote:just an FYI - I'm done with this subject. it's irrelevant. the details, the stories, the contradictions, the lies, all utterly meaningless.
MOST people are completely controlled by the media, nothing we can do will change that, or give us any degree of control over said media. no independent media will ever be allowed to truly compete. It's over, there's no point in pretending there's still a fight here. anyone inconvenient will simply be killed. it's pointless. The population is lead around by the nose via their neurotypes and all of society is ever geared to turn babies into little growing authoritarians. I'm walking away from this. hope for humanity is dead. not OBL.
BOOORRING. YOU ARE SO BOOOORRRRING. BEING HOPELESS IS BOOOORRRRING. HAVING HOPE IS BOOOOORRRRRINGMOST people are completely controlled by the media
Yeah but that's why they're so much fun to wind up![]()
So what you going to do? You're going to die anyway and so are all your loved ones, maybe in front of you in horrible ways. OR MAYBE NOT. So what are you worried about? Fight, fuck, love, laugh, be happy, be sad, try and change things for the better or run away and live in a shack. Whatever. LIVE YOUR LIFE cos we're all doomed. DOOMED I TELL YE!!
AlicetheKurious wrote:Wait a minute. I'm positive I heard on the Al Jazeera English that the SEALS found bin Laden asleep upstairs in bed.
The most likely candidate is in Parachinar, 12 miles inside Pakistan, which housed many mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
justdrew wrote:
it's still possible this is all leading on to a scripted end with the war-on-terror nonsense.
MacCruiskeen wrote:JackRiddler wrote:Come on people, you gotta see some black comedy in all this. The radio woke me up yesterday with "shot in the head, burial at sea." Burial at sea! I couldn't stop laughing. Am I bad person?
Yes, Jack, you are a very bad person indeed. For shame. Why, even those rough, tough, salty Marines were touched by the passing of Osama, whose body was a temple, though by then a temple with only one eye, so to speak.
Imagine the scene, or rather, let the Newspaper of Record imagine it for you:"So the Qaeda leader’s body was washed and placed in a white sheet in keeping with tradition. On the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, it was placed in a weighted bag as an officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker, according to the senior Pentagon official.
The body then was placed on a prepared flat board and eased into the sea."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/world ... gewanted=4
"Eased".
The Newspaper of Record actually said "eased".
"We shall not see his like again".
2012 Countdown wrote:So as 8bit posted a few pages back, they found all these hard drives and data...a 'treasure trove'.
Yet they also claim they located him (OBL) for the conspicuous LACK of internet/technological activity. The dog that didn't bark, so to speak.
Just pointing this out.
Nordic wrote:
Weird. He's a Huff Post guy, always posting stuff from them. Ugh. I'd rather deal with a conservative sometimes, at least most of them have a healthy distrust of the government right now.
2012 Countdown wrote:HOT OFF THE PRESS (relayed to me through the TV machine):
Obama has invited GWB to 'Ground Zero' for a ceremony on Thursday, and Bush has declined.
So there's going to be a ceremony? WTF is Obama going to do at ground zero?
Searcher08 wrote:
2012 Countdown wrote:HOT OFF THE PRESS (relayed to me through the TV machine):
Obama has invited GWB to 'Ground Zero' for a ceremony on Thursday, and Bush has declined.
So there's going to be a ceremony? WTF is Obama going to do at ground zero?
2012 Countdown wrote:So as 8bit and Jack posted a few pages back, they found all these hard drives and data...a 'treasure trove'.
Yet they also claim they located him (OBL) for the conspicuous LACK of internet/technological activity. The dog that didn't bark, so to speak.
Just pointing this out.
barbobailey wrote:
"bardobailey"special puppets
addicted to hope
strung by despair
throwing chickens
into the air
justdrew wrote:
it's still possible this is all leading on to a scripted end with the war-on-terror nonsense.
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