“And what is Aleppo?”
– Libertarian Party Candidate Gary Johnson
What's your plan to fight ISIS?
The plan, man! What’s the plan?
I am this morning reminded as I often am of that scene in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
You know the one.
Sure you do.
Max, Savannah Nix, and the Feral Kids have kidnapped Master and along with Pig Killer busted out of Bartertown's power plant dungeon. They're barreling madcap down the train tracks through the blasted wasteland in a ramshackle makeshift pig-shit powered steam locomotive. Max works his way up the side of the train, fighting Tina Turner's post-apocalyptic punk-metal roadies all the way and finally reaches Pig Killer at the controls of the engine.
"So, what's the plan?" Max shouts over the roar of the slipstream.
Pig Killer grins in unbelieving mirth. "Plan?" He laughs in delirious glee. "There ain't no PLAN! Hahahahahah...."
God, I love that scene.
I digress.
I'm not really sure what the point of last night's "Commander In Chief Forum" was, unless NBC wanted to publicly confirm how utterly incompetent Matt Lauer is as a journalist. It was 30 minutes of, "So, Scumbag Lying Hillary, tell us more about your criminal email scheme to destroy America," and 30 minutes of "Gee, Awesome Donald, you're so dreamy!" Lauer repeatedly cut Clinton off and repeatedly failed to follow up on Trump’s increasingly bizarre and ridiculous statements.
If they still teach forum moderation in Journalism School, this would be a good example of how not to do it.
Somewhere wedged in between Trump's gushing schoolgirl man-crush on Vladimir Putin (and honestly, was it just me or did anybody else expect Trump to go full on Tom Cruise couch jumping at that point? I LOVE HIM! I LOVE HIM! No? Just me then) and the ten billionth recounting of Clinton's email server, somebody in the audience asked Trump, "What's your plan to fight ISIS?"
What's your plan to fight ISIS.
The plan.
What’s the plan?
What’s your plan to fight ISIS?
That question shows just how little Americans, including a lot of veterans who ought to know better, actually understand about the Islamic State and the ongoing mess in the Middle East.
What's your plan?
Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan: Have we anything resembling a plan?
Herger the Joyous: Ride till we find them. Kill them all.
-- The Thirteenth Warrior, Touchstone Pictures, 1999
As if it's that simple.
As if “ISIS” is even the right label.
As if you could just sum up a solution to two thousand years of sectarian violence in a Tweet. I mean, think about it, Lauer wouldn’t give Clinton two minutes to explain her goddamned email, right? But Trump is going to give us the war plan in the same amount of time? Sure, why not.
As if "ISIS" was just this one little unified group of easily identified shitheads confined to one little chunk of land instead of a vast nebulous entity spread across half a dozen countries and mixed in with millions of innocents.
As if the "ISIS" of January when the new president is sworn in would still be the same "ISIS" of today, right now. As if the enemy is all, “Whoa, hang on, flag on the play. Let’s us just wait for the new guy over there in America. It’s only fair!” As if the tactical situation would be unchanged between then and now. The international situation unchanged – including no further actions by Trump’s beloved Putin between now and then. The terrain, the weather, the supply routes, the intelligence, the bases and strongholds, the available assets, all unchanged. Trump claims to be some genius real-estate mogul, but even real-estate doesn’t work like that. Is this guy really so naïve that he thinks the vastly more complex world of war and geopolitics remains static from day to day?
As if you can formulate an actual workable plan to deal with a staggeringly complex problem without detailed information, without a full assessment of available assets, without the consultation of Congress (you know, the people who have to fund and authorize such an adventure), without some kind of actual national strategy which includes military and nation-building options and contingency plans for when the enemy doesn't roll over and cooperate.
As if you can do all of this by firing the nation’s top generals and running it all yourself from the Resolute Desk, apparently by using your vast Hitler-like military genius.
As if it was just "Okay, you military guys, listen up. Here’s what we’re gonna do: Bomb some shit. Yeah, bomb some shit. And, uh, some fighter jets! And Tanks! And SEALs! Yeah! Green Berets! Kill 'em. Kill 'em all. God Bless America! High fives all around! Profit!”
Crazy, right?
Yeah, but see, the worst part is this: that really is Trump’s whole damned plan:
“Part of the problem that we’ve had is we go in we defeat somebody and then we don’t know what we’re doing after that, we lose it, like, as an example you look at Iraq what happened how badly that was handled. And then when President Obama took over and likewise it was a disaster. It was actually somewhat stable I don’t think it could ever be very stable it’s a war we never should have gone into it in the first place but he came in and he said, “When we go out” and he took everybody out and really ISIS was formed. This was a terrible decision and frankly we never even got a shot. And if you really look at the aftermath of Iraq Iran is going to be taking over Iraq they’ve been doing it and it’s not a pretty picture. The, and, and I think you know, ‘cause you’ve been watching me I think for a long time I’ve always said shouldn’t be there! But if we’re gonna get out take the oil if we would have taken the oil you wouldn’t have ISIS because ISIS formed with the power and wealth of that oil.”
That, that right there was Trump’s actual answer to the question, “What’s your plan to fight ISIS?”
That rambling incoherent stream of unconscious, that goddamned gibberish, was his answer.
What’s your plan, Commander?
Well, see we go in, right, and we defeat some people and then we don’t have a plan for after that. Sad.
Okay, thanks for the history lesson, Professor, but what’s your plan?
Well, Iraq, see, I supported it but I didn’t support it and we won and it was stable but also not stable. We shouldn’t have gone in but we shouldn’t have left. And that’s how Gazpacho is made!
Yes, yes. But what’s your plan?
Iran is taking over Iraq. Not pretty! Not pretty! They’re doing it. People tell me they’re doing it. Sad!
I got it. But again, what’s your goddamned plan?
Take the oil! We should take the oil. In Iraq. Because ISIS, which is the Islamic State in FUCKING SYRIA, somehow something something Iraq invasion vague hand waving Putin squirrel Assad.
Jesus H. Christ, man, what’s the plan?
Plan? There ain’t no plaaaan ahahahahahahaha!
It’s gibberish.
It’s just goddamned gibberish.
Trump is ramshackle makeshift train wreck carrying a cast of pig-shit covered lunatics down the tracks into a wasteland.
If you take Trump’s statement apart, line by line, and you get rid of all the digression and all the filler and the non sequiturs, the only coherent thing you can parse from his response is this: Kill ‘em all, take their stuff
Kill them all, take their stuff.
That’s not a plan for defeating the Islamic State, you lunatic! THAT’S THE ISLAMIC STATE’S PLAN.
Kill them all, take their stuff.
Trump isn’t talking about defeating ISIS, he’s talking about pillaging Iraq.
Trump is actually talking about invading a country and looting it.
No wonder this guy admires a Russian despot. Because that’s some shady Cossack shit right there.
How does this work?
No really, I’d like to hear the details.
We … take the oil? Right. Okay. How?
No, that’s not a rhetorical question. Trump disparaged Obama for not taking Iraq’s oil on the way out. But how would we do that? Do we drill new wells, build massive new pipelines, and then what? Pump the country’s entire oil supply to a fleet of giant supertankers waiting offshore? How long does that take? Who pays for the wells and the pipes and ships – do we maybe just enslave the Iraqis and make them build it? And the other Gulf States are gonna what? Just watch us sail away with the booty, with enough oil to completely collapse the world market and completely destroy their economies? I guess we’ll have to fight our way out of the Gulf. Good thing giant lumbering tankers don’t make easy targets. No. What do we do with it? Billions upon billions of barrels of oil, where does it go? To refineries in America? They don’t have that kind of capacity. To storage tanks? Do we just park it offshore for a while? Who cashes out on this? Do Americans get a cut? Sure, we’ll all be Saudi Sheiks. Or do we just give it to Exxon? Here you go, fellas, Merry Christmas! Maybe we give it to Putin?
And what if the natives resist? Do we send in Colonel Quaritch and his fleet of flying tanks to burn down the big tree they all live in? Because it’s looking a lot like Trump got his entire plan from watching Avatar.
So, we take the oil from Iraq, we kill all the big blue natives, and somehow this magically ends the war in Syria and stops global terrorism.
I guess Trump never watched the end of the movie.
Maybe it’s just me.
Jake Sully: This is how it's done. When people are sittin' on shit that you want, you make 'em your enemy. Then you're justified in taking it.
-- Avatar, 20th Century Fox, 2009 (Director’s cut)
bravo....
ReplyDeletegussak...
DeleteMaybe Trump will dig up General Westmoreland. "Militarily, we succeeded in Vietnam. We won every engagement we were involved in out there." William Westmoreland
ReplyDeleteRead up on Gary Johnson: "The Gary Johnson Swindle" https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/gary-johnson-swindle/
ReplyDeleteI think if Trump DID watch Avatar he clearly turned it off before the Na'vi and Eywa stomped and crushed the sawtute and sent them home as giant LOSERS.
ReplyDeleteIf America elects Trump and gets behind his unintelligible gibberish, then we deserve nothing less.
"... then we deserve nothing less."
DeleteNo, WE don't. The republicans do. The libertarians do. Fuck 'em, and fuck those who want to spread the blame around to "all Americans" as opposed to those of us who do everything we can, every day, to advertise what a lot of shitgibbons a third of this country are.
So, Tess, I take it you're happy with how things have been going for the last 7.5 years.
DeleteA hell of a lot better than the previous 8, or the 12 years of Ronnie raygun and Bush 41.
DeleteThis is the very reason I like to read your blog. You cut through the crap and give things a new perspective. Sane people knew for a long time that Trump had no plan on how to deal with the situation the middle east. I appreciate you pointing out the changing environment and how ridiculous it would be to even know what one would face in January 2017.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. There's a great Washington Post article series called "Fractured Lands" that goes through the history of the region and how we got to where we are today, but it's 130 pages of reading.
ReplyDeleteI'm a law student looking to work in diplomacy and peacebuilding. Simplistic solutions and ones that come from coercion never work.
Love your stuff, man. Keep up the good work.
I'm fairly sure that 130 pages counts as a book!
DeleteDo you mean this series in the NY Times Magazine?
Deletehttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/11/magazine/isis-middle-east-arab-spring-fractured-lands.html
It's not just you... Well done... AGAIN!!!
ReplyDeleteNailed it once again; loved the Avatar quote.
ReplyDeleteTrump is unqualified to lead a discussion much less our country. Unfortunately, he's not really the problem. The media giving him a free pass time & again (see Matt Lauer e.g.) & his supporters blindly following His Orangeness because he's "an outsider" with zero regard for the actual character & abilities (or lack thereof) of the man they're proposing become the leader of the largest military on earth. They are what scare me, they could help this buffoon run our country off a cliff with a hard, bloody, disastrous landing.
ReplyDeleteBut what the hell, he's going to make America great again so his plans are fluid as is the verbal diarrhea he spews. How anyone could consider this moron as presidential material is beyond my ken.
ReplyDeleteWhat drives me crazy about this meathead an his ilk is that he doesn't seem to understand that Iraq is a sovereign nation. It is not a Soviet style client state or a colony of the US where we can come and go as we please. The US (under Bush the Younger) negotiated a timeline in which to withdraw our troops. The Iraquis, who felt that nearly every single problem that they were having was being made worse by the presence of Americans, did not want to change that timeline.
ReplyDeleteAnd looting a sovereign nation of its natural resources is a war crime. It's what the Colonial governments did. It's what the Japanese and Germans did in WWII.
Love me some Mad Max... so how do we fight ISIS anyway? Considering that our actions in the Middle East basically created ISIS.
ReplyDelete@Jennifer Harrison : In fairness, I do think its a bit more complicated than just being all "our" (USA's? Western nations generally? Coalition of the Willing?) fault that Da'esh /Islamic State of Syria and Levant / whatever they call themselves today was created.
DeleteTheir formation and rise is a long messy, murky story that involves the extremist douchecanoes leading it splitting from Al Quaida and waging subsequent turf war plus what happened in Syria's civil war started back in the short-lived "Arab Spring" with Assad & Al Baghdadi & plenty of others outside the "Western" / "Anglosphere" / American "empire"* having plenty to do with it too.
Then we have the fact that the Syrian Civil War was triggered in part by Global Overheating & so on.
In short, its complicated not that simple and I don't think we can blame any one group apart perhaps from the actual leaders of the sometimes so-called Islamic State themselves directly.
* Variously constituted and defined and debatable terms.
I could feel my IQ dropping just reading Trump's quote from last night. Great job again Jim. Trump showed on many levels just how much he doesn't understand about the Mid East.
ReplyDeleteGary Johnson had a better grasp on it once he figured out what Allepo was. "That is one big complex mess," is how he summed it up. Trump is beyond awful. If he is elected it will be a world wide tragedy.
ReplyDeleteYou obviously didn't listen. He has a plan and clearly spelled it out with a little prompting from Lauer.
ReplyDeleteFirst, you get rid of all those generals and flag officers who have been running the show, the "rubble."
Then you give your generals and flag officers a few weeks to come up with a plan to defeat ISIS and see how it fits with your secret plan to rid the world of ISIS.
While he didn't have enough time to lay out all the details, we know from earlier speeches that some elements of it include bombing the shit out of them. Torture. Kill their family members. And as he noted, TAKE THE OIL!
Walla. ISIS defeated. That's a solid plan. One that is good enough for 30-40 percent of the electorate.
You don't know, but his secret plan may well include his bro, Putin.
Voila
DeleteI watched that interview too. Something that I heard that I have not seen or commented on was when Trump was talking about "his secret plan" and his generals. His comment was something like..(paraphrasing) if I come up with a plan I'll see if I like mine or my general's plan better. The key phrase for me was....if I come up with a plan. HE HAS NO PLAN!
DeleteHIS Generals?
DeleteThank you so much for this one line that says it all. "That rambling incoherent stream of unconscious, that goddamned gibberish, was his answer."
ReplyDeleteTrump will make Mexico pay for the pipes and storage and shit.
ReplyDeleteHe always answers like the smarmy kid in school that cheats on every test and never reads the class material. Here he is detailing how he plans to revive the "American Dream."
ReplyDelete"Look, We can bring the American Dream back. That I will tell you. We're bringing it back, Okay? And I understand what you're saying. And I get that from so many people. 'Is The American Dream dead?' They are asking me the question, 'Is the American Dream dead?' And the American Dream is in trouble. That I can tell you. Okay ? It's in trouble. But we're going to get it back and do some real jobs. How about that man with that beautiful red hat? Stand up! What a hat!"
Donald Trump, Rochester NH Town Hall Meeting
Sept 17, 2015
Believe it or not, tRump supporters actually believe he laid out a detailed plan in that running line of b.s.
Great analysis of Trump's buffoonery! And Muricans are still buying his bullshit?
ReplyDeleteYep, "Muricans" are. Americans, on the other hand, are disgusted and out of patience.
DeleteThe only thing I would add is that taking the oil out of Iraq would be a war crime, according to what two different generals said last night after the forum.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why the news media cannot adequately interview this jerk! How many times has he said, "well, that's what people are saying" or "many people think" and then repeated some utterly ridiculous crap? I swear, I keep hoping I'll wake up from this nightmare.
ReplyDelete"Kill 'em all, take their stuff."
ReplyDeleteIt isn't even ISIS/DAESH's plan.
It's the premise of Steve Jackson's MUNCHKIN.
It reminds me of a quote from that horrible excuse for a human being Ann Coulter :
Delete"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
Plus a vague memory of something Jim Wright discussed one of his co-workers (?) spewing on another Stonekettle station post long ago* and a whole lot of really ugly, nasty, cruel and thoughtless rightwing memes about taking their oil and destroying the Arabs / peoples and lands in Southwest Asia.
So yeah, unsuprisingly for Trump it ain't an original, very bad idea.
* The one where one of his workers also (?) quoted a sick, unfunny old joke about killing Pakistanis / Afghanis being a "good start" maybe?
Best plan for ISIS, sit back, do some terror attacks, and watch as America and Europe fulfill their aim of drawing a line between Muslims and the rest of the world by actually drawing that line themselves. All ISIS has to do is promote fear on their end and America and Europe will respond in kind. We saw it in 9/11, we saw it in the Paris attacks and Charlie Hebdo and a number of other much smaller incidents.
DeleteAnd we will keep seeing them, over and over, until fear loses its effect as a propaganda weapon for those who wield it.
Which will be never unless people as a whole reject dear as a motivator.
Watch the movie Brazil again.
DeleteThe ability to make me laugh at the lunacy of it all is a gift I shall never be able to repay. Thank you. (again)
ReplyDeleteSeconded.
Delete^ What he said!! ^
DeleteGreat work, as always, Jim!! I'm excited about my first typo catch (way more satisfying, I imagine, than Pokemon...)!
ReplyDeleteThat, that right there was Trump’s actual answer to the question, “What’s your plan to fight ISIS?”
That rambling incoherent stream of unconscious, that goddamned gibberish, was his answer.
What’s your plan, Commander?
Well, see we go in, right, and we defeat some people and then we don’t have a plan for after that. Sad.
Okay, thanks for the history lessen, Professor, but what’s your plan?
*lesson
Puhleeze. We know what to do with the oil. We re-activate the old British pipeline from Mosul to Haifa. Duh.
ReplyDeleteWhat?
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
I think it was more like the underpants Knomes.
DeleteGnomes not Knomes!
DeleteCurse you Autocorrect !!!
To be honest, though, he did clearly nail one part. The war in Iraq was something that we should not undertaken.
ReplyDeleteHe also supported said war despite his trying to claim he did not ( he also supported the actions in Libya at the time).
DeleteTrump can't clearly nail anything. He won't [or can't] communicate in clear structured language. You know: With real grammatical sentences. All he can do is spew enough of the right nouns sprinkled with repetitive adjectives off of the short list and insist that this is what everybody knows. And let his listeners fill in the blanks with whatever the listeners want to hear. It is the only way they can make his attempted communications coherent. The human mind does want to fill in the missing blanks when it sort of sees a pattern. This is how he can flip from supporting a war one day and the next he never supported it. He's not paying any attention to communicating his thoughts. He's just trying to rile up his supporters and turning them into his voters.
DeleteThe trouble is the supporters WANT to get all big and bad and throw around the weaponry. And his supporters will see to it that if he does get into office he is backed into a corner where he puts us into that shooting war again.
That was only after the shit hit the fan on the war, after it became clear America had no exit strategy.
DeleteBefore that he was all for it, and he was ALWAYS for taking the oil, THAT stance never changed.
Not like most of his other stances in general.
Reading this, I hear the collective head slaps of the leaders of the civilized world while they say "Jesus H. Rosevelt Christ...what is America letting ding-dongs like that run for President." And I have now lost any respect I had for Matt Lauer. I think he has spent too much time reporting on fake celebrities to be a credible journalist anyone. Thanks Jim, it's always nice to hear the voice of reason.
ReplyDeleteOutlander references, like Fireffly references, should always receive extra credit
Delete"You cannot wage conventional war against an unknown and unseen unconventional enemy" my quote from long ago. How little we seem to have retained from the unpleasantness in SE Asia. (1954-1975) The rag tag VietMinh won, Ho Chih Minh won. They had no bombers, they had sandals, bicycles, and the support of the locals. The NVA moved massive amounts of supplies up and down the the trail. They won against the best Westmoreland could fetch up. The trail went mostly through Laos. We failed to disrupt it in spite of the massive bombardment. Worth a bit of study, folks, to see how it was done, not by us but to us. Medusa was easy, you could see all the heads. One of your best, Jim.
ReplyDeleteCane Rattler
But we won all the battles.
DeleteThe reason we didn't bomb laos at first was a political decision. I think they didn't want to ignite a war all across asia, so containment. Then the CIA did interdiction. The same thing has happened in the Middle East. Containment of the war. Limited Response. Hopefully we are getting better at picking allies that want to fight, and we have the political will to support them. Then again when the wind changes so do our Republicans leadership. So long as they make their profit, they are satisfied that "Mission Accomplished" That is why we need to be very careful before going to war, there are many long term consequences which most Republican political people don't understand.
DeleteWow. Everything I every wanted to say, but so much better. Thanks, man! Keep 'em comin'!
ReplyDeleteI've always believed that you cannot drag a nation or its people out of bondage. They must do it themselves or the reward of freedom and/or a better life won't be as meaningful. In the Middle East and Central America we failed to offer any real hope or ideas, we just chose a side and pulled the trigger. Perhaps i am wrong? I'm not opposed to helping as some ticks are real hard to remove. I'd rather offer guidance and then show them by living those principles as a nation that has everyone's best interests in mind. America has shown the world with this Presidential race that we want to piss it all away and not hold ourselves to that higher standard of tolerance and respect. All it takes is one bad idea spun to the extreme to get people to abandon good ideas that have worked so well (for the most part).
ReplyDeleteAny idea, no matter how good, spun to the extreme is fanaticism. And fanatics make terrible decisions. (That's why bookies always win)
DeleteYou and your two brothers in arms are confronted with 18 "locals" six of which are trained and armed and intending to kill you. Which six? One is a young woman with a "child" in her sling, another is a bent old man, a third is a 12 year-old. and of course there are 16 more, dressed in their tribal garb just like the others . ISIS is like that. If you eliminate 13 of the group, you will kill at least 7 innocents. And you have no idea if they were the bad guys. You can retreat, of course, but then you lose the opportunity and the slight upper hand. Which would you choose? This is the problem to which Mr. Trump has a solution so he professes. What would you do? You are outnumbered six to one.
ReplyDeleteThat wouldn't be a problem to Trump or the Trumpians, he would just kill them ALL.
DeleteHe's said as much as well, bomb the shit out of them. Bombs are indiscriminate after all.
Truth! Keep spreading it, please!!
ReplyDeleteSpot on as usual, and quick. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that just about no one else, anywhere, is stating the obvious: what Trump says is meaningless gibberish, and Trump supporters either believe him wholeheartedly because they have no concept of analysis of actual meaning, or they ignore it because notHillary.
So, are her advisors (all of whom I presume you know)neocons or neolibs (whatever that is) - or just a mixture of both? And you're sure NONE of them are knowledgeable career foreign policy experts? You know - like you.
ReplyDeleteJZinFL
Thank you Jim. You put into words what I can only begin to think.
ReplyDeleteJust curious...how is it that there is a "Donald Trump for President - Make America Great Again" advertisement right below the comment window at the bottom of your page. I am guessing you have no input into what ads appear here, but it is a real shame it has to be Donald Trump asking for a campaign donation.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking you would prefer something more suited to your political sensibilities.
This election has turned into a giant IQ test for the U.S. voter, but the price of failing to clear the bar is a lot worse than being held a back a year.
ReplyDeleteI see it as those with intellect vs MOB mentality. Those who failed to grow up, and those who are trying to pick the best course through the minefield. The mob wants to run through the minefield to glory! After 80% of them are killed, then they finger point at the intellectuals who had a plan, which they ignored, asked to get assets in place... nope no time for that.. we must send other people's son's to die to distract from what we are doing. That is the whole thing... the Republicans are like gamblers and so long as the wheel turns you don't know where it will land. By keeping the system spinning, they hope that their bet at the roulette wheel will come out on their numbers or color. And they do this because their is no cost to them. Failure, with Romney they went and published what they should do... logical thinking. Then they hyped the media to draw on their raw emotions from their supporters and decry the lack of logic to pick their candidate? We don't live in a casino except Sheldon Adelson where he plays with other people's money, or chinese money to influence elections. The justice department needs to go after these organizations that are non profit and put out all the right wing propaganda. Campaign Finance Reform is not a want, its a mandatory need. The right is giving government contracts at 3-5x the cost to organizations that funnel money back to them. So the line that they want smaller government is to get rid of the Democratic Base. Because they don't care how much it cost, they put the burden on the Middle Class Democratic base to pay for their own. Just as most Republican States are welfare recipients from Democratic states. How do we educate people so that they see what the Republicans are doing and how this is a corruption of the system?
DeleteI watch Trump and can feel my neurons and synapses misfire and crossfire. I get an aura like a migraine is coming on (and I don't get migraines). My hands twitch and I have to keep them from throwing the remote at the TV. He has this power to lobotomize interviewers. Maybe Katie "What Newspapers Do You Read" Couric would have better luck, she has experience with Palin.
ReplyDeleteIf he could figure out (or have someone else figure out & take the credit for it himself) how to harvest all of the brain cells & IQ points that we have been losing during his campaigns & sell them for a profit he would be all over it like stink on shit!
DeleteJust like his theme song from the Apprentice shows..."Money Money Money, MONEY!"
You've presented me with quite a quandary. For years I've understood that Americans are idiots, but you've both reinforced that some Americans are idiots, while smashing down that wall by showing you are as astute and sharp as a tack.
ReplyDeleteI suppose this means I have to add yet another blog to my growing list. Thanks,
Isn't the concept that "Americans are idiots" similar in nature to the concept that "Muslims are terrorists"? That is to say, what a huge generalization! I think if you read the rest of the comments here, you'll see more Americans that are not idiots. And read Jim's Facebook posts and you'll get to see even more Americans that are not idiots.
Delete@ ^ Terri : Yep. Spot on and seconded.I know Americans, I've been there (for a week or so - LA), I've talked with them. I know plenty of them online who cringe as much as anyone here at the horrific willful despicableness of Trump & his supporters.
DeleteIts pretty axiomatic really. We're all humans, all individuals*, whoever and wherever we happen to be born. Every human group** has its share of, well, how can we put it, people who let their people down and make them look revoltingly repellent?
Every group.
Just people for all the good and bad that brings.
Plus others who exemplify what is best about who they are, which nation they are from and its ideals. People, peeps. Not stereotypes, not generalisations.
So yeah. Americans are not idiots, Muslims aren't terrorists. Each of these are diverse groups of individuals that have historically and culturally been collectively (mis~ &)perceived in certain ways for certain reasons.
Assumptions - question them and look for what the evidence says and then triple check it. Think and be kind. Know and hope that others are doing likewise with you.
* Obligatory "I'm not!" Monty Python ref.
** Even every individual at different times & stages in their life maybe?
I'll reserve my judgement about America and Americans till after the elections, but I must say I don't really have much confidence in the sanity and coherence of the American people simply because they've allowed Trump to be where he is today.
DeleteIf they actually end up electing him I think I'll have to give up on that completely.
And generalization? Is it not AMERICANS that chose Trump as one of the 2 leading candidates? Was it not AMERICANS that could have stopped him but didn't?
America and Americans built that, so I'll put the credit for such on them. Might sound like generalization, but it's always been the case that when a nation chooses a leader through free and fair elections, it's always noted as THE PEOPLE who elected that leader, not "the Democrats" or "the Trumpians".
Just as the German people chose Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, so too did Americans elect Barack Hussein Obama in 2008. And so too will Americans elect their next President in November this year.
Not Texans, not Floridians, not Democrats, not lefties, not righties, not conservatives, not liverals, not Trumpians.
Americans.
Just like Hitler... the Republicans have a vast propaganda machine. Its been working for 40 yrs and finally coming to fruition. Trump. If it doesn't work this time... keep spinning the wheel. Only by dismantling their base of money and lies can we change politics to move the entire country forward for the better. We have to have every Democrat and independent stand up and vote otherwise just as Germany was politically fractured we will to, and that leaves the door open for ... Trump.
DeleteSo, she's both a neocon and a neolib?
ReplyDeleteAnd this "plan" she has for the ME and Africa, the one she's clearly keeping secret.. but you know about it? I smell a plant, and it isn't that bud-laden happy plant kind.
The media is giving Trump a free ride. He lies in every second sentence, but not one major news outlets has actually come out and said "Liar!", while they all seem happy to call Clinton one, based on supposition and untruth from the entertainment arm of the Republican Party.
So, she's both a neocon and a neolib?
ReplyDeleteAnd this "plan" she has for the ME and Africa, the one she's clearly keeping secret.. but you know about it? I smell a plant, and it isn't that bud-laden happy plant kind.
The media is giving Trump a free ride. He lies in every second sentence, but not one major news outlets has actually come out and said "Liar!", while they all seem happy to call Clinton one, based on supposition and untruth from the entertainment arm of the Republican Party.
So it wasn't just me who thought Lauer and Trump needed a room until Trump started gushing over Putin maybe looking at him in the hallway innbetween classes? Talk about schoolgirl crushes.
ReplyDeleteRemind me again how Trump being elected is only for four, maybe eight years, and considering the other two branches of government, the US won't be totally screwed in that time? It feels like we're all doomed if he wins and I know too many supporters to discount him winning.
Two knock outs in one day?!!?
ReplyDeleteWell done sir!
That being said I think the mad tangerine might be thinking less SEAL, and more Ohio class.
For someone who's not a Trumpist you sure hit the script pretty good.
ReplyDeletetRump's motto: Baffle them with bullshit. Keep them coming, Jim. I have you set to land at the top of my news feed on fb.
ReplyDeleteOver the last decade or so, I have successfully avoided watching Trump on his reality show, I avoid those fake celebrity shows where they gossip about people and shamelessly plug new movies, tv shows, etc., so I didn't see him there. I haven't lived under a rock, so I've been fully aware of who he is and how toxic he is, but I have made it a point to live my life in a way that avoids having to constantly hear about him. The media, in giving this man so much air time and in reporting on his every utterance, no matter how stupid or bizarre, has forced me to have to be exposed to him every singlle day, multiple times a day. There's a good reason for me to cancel my subscriptions and refuse to watch network news and information shows, and yes, it's partly Trump, but mostly that establishment "journalists have proven that watching and listening to anything they have to say is a colossal, painful waste of time. Both the Republicans and the Democrats had better look good and hard at themselves and how they have created and contributed to this mess, too. Because it's going to be my mission to help sink both parties together with the news media after this fiasco.
ReplyDelete".... without the consultation of Congress (you know, the people who have to fund and authorize such an adventure)..."
ReplyDeleteThis is the heart of the problem, or at least one of the main symptoms of it. Trump and his attendants, not to mention many others in this country, have no idea how the government works. They have no knowledge of civics, neither the mechanics nor the philosophy behind those rights and duties.
The bread & circuses we're handed by his campaign and by the complicit media is designed to fill that gaping void; the one that exists where people's critical thinking and informed decisions used to live.
My suggestion is that we educate our citizens about their rights & duties as citizens and that we make sure every school age child understands the workings of government. Civics lessons are only a start, but with just that you'd have a citizenry able to have actual conversations about government. My guess is that with the correct vocabulary & some basic knowledge, you'd have citizens who wouldn't tolerate 8 years of an obstructionist congress, and who certainly would never entertain Trump as a legitimate candidate.
"My suggestion is that we educate our citizens...."
DeleteGreat idea -- how are you going to accomplish that? The teapublicans and libertarians are champing at the bit to dismantle what's left of our public education system. In some states, they may have already ruined it to the point that it will take a full generation to fix things IF WE START NOW.
The bible-belt-bozos have state school boards led by fucking HOMESCHOOLERS who don't believe in "science," that liberal plot! The citizens of Dumbfuckistan have a chokehold on what goes into all the schoolbooks in the country -- you know, this country where Moses was one of the founding fathers.
The only way to fix this place is to put a PROPER wall between church and state -- including concertina-wire on top of the thing, and machine-gun-equipped guards every fifty feet. Then, get all those sanctimonious asswipes out of government, from the post of dogcatcher all the way up to the Oval Office. Until the villainization of intellect and education has been removed from the USA, we'll remain the simple-minded provincial on the world's stage -- a simple-minded provincial armed to the teeth, and avid to abreact his inferiority complex.
If they get rid of intellectual thought we can be like Russia. Kill all the intellectuals. Instead of a frontal assault, they have learned to be more subtle. They get rid of teachers who are mostly Democrat, and put in Charter Schools, where they use the tax money to send their kids, while cutting funding for education. Then they lobby against the Department of Education so that they can teach like Muslim extremist in Madrasa. Where the poor ignorant of facts people can be taught the truth. Such as the Texas board of education... see Alec, most republican states...The Republicans are corrupt, corrupt, corrupt. Yet they want to own all the Intellectual Property, and anything that makes money. Power through Greed.
DeleteI watched that show, and the rich asshole once again proved just how goddamned clueless he is about how things work in the real world. He's very good at shifting the blame on everybody else, not so good at saying what HE would do to solve these problems. I think my favorite thing he said was "Make America great again, that's my theme, make America great again." Theme? What is this, a homecoming dance?
ReplyDeleteI think that Trump is the least of our problems. I think that this article is right on the money. You are truly an extraordinary writer. You boil it down to the so that we see the crazy truth. People in the United States are flying solely on emotion. Reasoning skills have gone out the window. It is disturbing that someone who is acting like he is able to get so far and people are listening to him. We need to take our media back.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I think we have a whole lot of bad coming our way and Trump is the distraction. Psychology, and media have been honed to exploit people's emotional response so that they are not REALLY thinking about it. If we are in a completely emotional state we CAN'T reason. It is not possible. We have to control our emotions. However, in the U.S, emotionality is prized, when controlling our emotions is where true strength lies.
As a kid my coaches called "Being a killer in control. "
DeleteI'm sure they got it from someone else, but it served me well then and now.
Reporting the neverending stupidity of the gibberish that Trump spews is not slanted coverage. It's the truth, and if it stings, so be it. If you'd rather have a pathological liar, sociopath, and the poster child for unbridled greed and dirty dealing as president because notHillary, I'd say you have judgement issues.
ReplyDeleteWell said. Before last night, I routinely said that Trump was profoundly ignorant, but not stupid. I have now changed my mind. He is not only profoundly ignorant, he is just as profoundly stupid. He hasn't the faintest hint of a shadow of a clue. Thanks for this post.
ReplyDeleteIf that jackass gets anywhere near the White House, I might have to go postal. Damn, that would mean I'd have to buy a gun. And if that happens, then the terrorists win. (Says the chick with the kitty-in-a-cup icon.)
ReplyDeleteCouldn't read the Trump quote. It gave me a headache when I heard it the first time, and knew reading it wouldn't make it make any more sense.
Thank you, sir, for being the voice of reason in this chaotic shit-show.
I believe Trump is a real honest to god idiot. This is a man who has never read a book, who knows nothing about the world. I know this all seems funny but I don't think it's funny at all. This orange unselfaware freak could actually be president.
ReplyDeleteToday his little Putin love fest was on Russian propaganda tv.
24 hours after praising #Putin on US TV, #DonaldTrump cuts out middle man & goes on #Russia's RT propaganda network! https://youtu.be/9_5MtZ0Wv70
Jim Wright you are awesome! Your FB posts & essays are spot on. I love your humor & knowledge you put into all your writing.
Dear Gott in Himmel, your knowledge of the particulars here is help for me. BTW, I got to see Auntie, er, Tina Turner not too long after the release of that film. The 80s were the best(what bits I remember).
ReplyDeleteBack to real life; I read a piece about Obama's (right hand man/mouthpiece/press whisperer) and the thing that really grabbed me was that President Obama wants to get the USA as completely out of the Middle East as possible. His widely condemned fracking in the Dakotas, and the vilified Keystone pipeline were part of his strategy to get us out of the quagmire that is Syria/Saudi/Lebanon/Kuwait/etc. He's glutted the market and driven prices down. Even OPEC would have trouble trying to cut us off. Tell me, please, if this narrative is not so!
The more I know, the more I see Pres O as a chess player.
I hate to say this but your reality based commentary makes me sad. Sad that it has to be said at all. I know how we got here. Why still perplexes me.
ReplyDeleteThis is a deplorable state of affairs. The idea that people I have long thought to engage in careful, reasoned concern for how we as a people face the rest of the world, seemed to have just decided that doesn't matter anymore, is pretty gripping for me. I hate to say it but it's like they've all gone home, shed reason along with shoes, pants and uncomfortable foundation garments and are watching "Reality TV" or are lost in a glass of Trump Snapper. The fact that this "Candidate" was the best they could agree on would be hysterical, if it weren't for the fact that all these people who were want to go on about "Fiscal Responsibility" and the Constitutional Amendments of preference, oh and "Making America Great Again" are going to wake up and realize that not only do these two specimens have no economic plan, but the congress they face is not going to be able to just drop the ball for their own constituents for lip service to party loyalty. I wish I could relax and laugh about it, but I can't.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend (past tense). When Bush & company was building up to go into Iraq I sent around an e-mail suggesting that we pray for peace instead of war. My friend replied "Only after we WIN". And she was GOP way before this current craziness hit.
ReplyDeleteTrump and Palin must have learned how to convey their thoughts at the same Toastmaster's event when they spiked the punch with LSD.
ReplyDeleteIf he is elected and I was in a senior military position, I would be seriously considering retirement. Why stick around for the 'off with their heads' moment.
Can't wait to see Trump's selection of a subject matter expert on North Korea. What other choice would their be because everyone knows that Dennis Rodman has an in with Kim Jong-un.
Once again, welcome to the great state of Florida even though we do have a piece of crap for a Governor.
Chuck S.
Toastmasters. That is the best line of the day!
DeleteJim wins the internet, but for that line you win a silver.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump admires Putin's money and power, that's all! Trump desperately wants to be a dictator so that he too can live in a billion dollar mansion. Trump doesn't give a rat's ass about America or Americans, he cares only about money and power - a pure despot.
Isn't it curious that RWNJs have called Obama a tyrant for 8 years, yet that is what they want - so long as the tyrant is white.
BTW: welcome to the Eastern Time Zone, Jim.
Peace
Chris in S. Jersey
Good observation. Putin is a billionaire a few times over. No different for the Clintons who have made a fortune by selling influence, or even the Obamas who are apparently set up to make 15-20 million for their memoirs. Interesting that up until Gerald Ford cashed in, previous presidents considered it crass to profit off their prestige and connections.
DeleteFrom the time Lauer opened his mouth it was easy to see his bias. OK yes e-mails bad but every possible questions has been asked/answered and at some point you just have to say no more! We will never know about the missing minutes on the Nixon tapes, we will never see the e-mails Jeb erased in Florida, the e-mails Karl Rove sent while IN the WH for W's re-election or Cheney's visitors log and the e-mails Powell & Rice kept off State Department logs which is what he was advising HRC on -- how to avoid having to disclose -- which she didn't do. I'd rather concentrate on NOW but as long as Clinton Derangement Syndrome as been around the media and GOP will continue to chew on sand rather than move on.
ReplyDeleteI truly find it unprofessional when I hear media or anyone in Trump's camp excuse his stupidity with "well he's not a politician he's a businessman", Bull, Warren Buffet is a businessman and he can talk about things in a coherent fashion. Mark Cuban is a loud mouthed jerk but he is able to make sense. The most important fact in this is so what? He is running for the office of President and there are requirements like every other job. His stupidity and bragging is how an idiot behaves but because his father was rich he can get people to pretend he has a brain. Go to his website, look at the agreement each and every person (including volunteers)sign. He runs his own little world where no one can tell him (or the appointed ones) anything negative. Running for President certain requirements are automatic. Coherently discussing domestic and foreign issues and releasing tax returns, more important because he has never run for any office and his statements are at odds with the few facts we know. Grow up and no more excuses.
His entire life Trump has been a taker, he takes what he wants so "taking the oil" is his thinking and to him why else would you DO anything else but steal or take what isn't yours? He has people bid to build his hotels, etc. then refuses to pay them. HIS bottom line is the only thing HE thinks of. If it doesn't benefit him somehow he will fight until the guy he owes either dies or settles for less because he's broke. All it matters is that HE wins and that will never change. He is 70 years old, he's not going to suddenly "change". I would have thought THAT statement alone might have roused Lauer to splutter but invading and taking was kind of a Nazi thing or Soviet deal, we return stuff - that's what gives us a higher moral ground (at least on paper).
I also believe to the depths of my soul that he doesn't give one rip about sending people into harm's way -- he believes it is their duty to make HIM look good and if them dying achieves a second of glory for him then fine. He has no concept of hearing a shot fired in anger, of the sheer terror, the ugliness of war - to him it is a means to an end that glorifies him. He has learned to "say" the right words but they are only words. If he meant them his "foundation" would have given money to military charities just as his foundation takes the money and keeps it or uses it for their own use -- his charitable donations in the past are rounds of golf on HIS courses (so he can write it off in more than one place)or weekend in one of his hotels again this is why he is probably audited yearly. How many times did this deduction show up and where? He and his entire family are cons, the kids slicker and more attractive but cons all the same. Marlene
Thank you Jim for 'getting up in Lauer's face' about his dismal performance on Wednesday night. Methinks he is enamored by rich dickwads.
ReplyDeletePerfect
ReplyDeleteThank you. Just thank you. The people that NEED to read this unfortunately never will, the few that might try, will never understand. I am profoundly frightened for the future of this country.
ReplyDeleteUh, riddle me this. How did the whole train wreck in the Middle East become Obama's sole responsibility?? I mean WTF? What, things were just peachy mate, and then Obama gets in and there goes the neighborhood?
ReplyDeleteI guess you just keep repeating things enough, and they eventually become truth.
And no one ever mentions that was Goebbles (sp?) mantra. That was before mass communication so what is the media and OUR excuse now? Marlene
DeleteGWB owns Iraq. Obama owns the messes in Syria and Libya. Yeah, the neocons called him a pussy for initially resisting Syrian involvement, but for heaven's sake, there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim rebel.
Delete@ ^ Anonymous : Its not that simple. I don't know if you read Jim Wright's excellent piece on the Syrian civil war and whether we should get involved in it at the time ('Red Lines' Wednesday, August 28, 2013) If you haven't read it please do so. I highly recommend it. If you have read it then it still bears re-reading. Not that much has changed since - apart from a lot more dead and destroyed.
DeleteSyria is a complex mess and *all* of the actors who have shaped and created that mess right back to the Imperial French and the Ottomans have made it what it is. (Carved out of arbitrary borders along lines convenient for the ruling groups - Sykes & Picot & others - at the time doing the dividing but not the people who made it up. My suspicion is that perhaps Syria's break-up and also Iraq's break-up was / is inevitable but who knows?) The USA is *one* of those many parties but it certainly isn't the only one. There are centuries of complex, bloody ethnic / religious conflict here to consider, there's the role of Assad, the Kurds, Sunni vs Shia, colonialism, imperialism, etc .. and more.
So Obama doesn't "own" the mess in Syria, no one group I think really does. He may have made things worse or better, might have played a small role in the drama but he certainly wasn't its metaphorical playwright.
Nor do I think Obama is solely to blame for Libya either - again much the same applies. Long complex, gruesome history, clashing tribes and areas. Colonialism - by fascist Italy this time. Rivalry between the two large cities Tripoli and Benghazi (wow, I'm actually using that Benghazi-word correctly!) and so on.
Even on Iraq both USA George's I & II weren't alone and don't deserve sole blame for what happened for similar reasons - though Bush the Lesser certainly bears very much more culpability - jointly with Hussein Saddam - for the stupidity of invading in 2004 than Obama with his Hamletish prevarication bears for anything in Syria or Libya.
A little bit of historical and political and cultural perspective goes a long way. It may also explain why Obama behaved and acted and chose as he did knowing and thinking a bit more about that and his (& our) limitations.
PS. There were perhaps arguably and for certain value of the word "moderate" Muslim rebels in Syria once - at the start of this conflict and Arab Spring. Maybe. But they didn't stay moderate long (wars tend to have radicalising effects) and they've mostly been killed off from what I understand of this conflict. Which really isn't all that much.
You forgot the most important part, something, something, Patton.
ReplyDeleteFunny how you hit all the right notes for a Trumpian while saying you;re not one of them. Is that going to be a running meme for them now I wonder?
ReplyDeleteSo you'd take "bumbling" Don over "scheming Hillary" eh? Wonder why your justification for that is not shown at all, kinda like Trump's plan, especially since you say you'd want to choose NEITHER of them preferable, so why go with Trump over Clinton?
You know what, maybe it's because you're so much more like Trump than you even know, that's why.
Simply brilliant!
ReplyDeleteHow and why don't the trumpsters see this? Dumb question, I know, but it baffles me.
From my conversations with Trump supporters I suspect the reason for their support comes from his method of speaking. He tends to spew out vast quantities of words, allowing his listeners to pick and choose whatever they want to hear. Somewhere in the verbal emesis of his average speech any listener can find some thread to grab hold of and support him, as long as they are willing/able to ignore all the contradictory threads in the same speech.
DeleteRemember: " Journalism is printing what someone doesn't want printed. Everything else is public relations." -- George Orwell
ReplyDeleteIt applies equally to broadcast "journalism" -- what we have is "Please the advertisers."
Wish we could bring back Edward R. Murrow.
Holy crap. Who ARE you???
ReplyDeleteI liked your page after some Facebook friend shared your piece on Kaepernick. Since then I've enjoyed everything you've written. I searched the web for your bio & for books you might have published. There is no shortage of Jim Wrights out there. Please add a bio section. And keep writing. You're goddamned brilliant. Love your blog commenters too.
I sent you a comment on facebook messenger about your coffee dilemma. No other way to contact you. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI am adding this here for you, Jim, because it was awesome and I am ripshit they (Facebook) took it down. If you want to delete it, no worries - I know it's not in the right spot. But if you didn't have a copy when they axed it, I wanted you to have one.
ReplyDelete""You're expecting some kind of obligatory 9-11 post, aren't you?
Here it is, but you're not gonna like it.
15 years ago today 19 shitheads attacked America.
They killed 3000 of us.
And then ... America got its revenge for 9-11.
Yes we did. Many times over. We killed them. We killed them all. We killed their families. We killed their wives and their kids and all their neighbors. We killed whole nations that weren't even involved just to make goddamned sure. We bombed their cities into rubble. We burned down their countries.
They killed 3000 of us, we killed 300,000 of them or more.
8000 of us came home in body bags, but we got our revenge. Yes we did.
We're still here. They aren't.
We win. USA! USA! USA!
Right?
You goddamned right. We. Win.
Except...
Every year on this day we bathe in the blood of that day yet again. We watch the towers fall over and over. It's been 15 goddamned years, but we just can't get enough. We've just got to watch it again and again.
It's funny how we never show those videos of the bombs falling on Baghdad today. Or the dead in the streets of Afghanistan. We got our revenge, but we never talk about that today. No, we just sit and watch the towers fall yet again.
Somewhere out there on the bottom of the sea are the rotting remains of the evil son of bitch who masterminded the attack. It took a decade, but we hunted him down and put a bullet in his brain. Sure. We got him. Right? That's what we wanted. that's what our leaders promised us, 15 years ago today.
And today those howling the loudest for revenge shrug and say, well, yeah, that. That doesn't matter, because, um, yeah, the guy in the White House, um, see, well, he's not an American, he's the enemy see? He's not doing enough. So, whatever. What about that over there? And that? And...
Yeah.
15 years ago our leaders, left and right, stood on the steps of the Capitol and gave us their solemn promise to work together, to stand as one, for all Americans.
How'd that promise work out?
How much are their words worth? Today, 15 years later?
It's 15 years later and we're STILL afraid. We're still terrorized. Still wallowing in conspiracy theories and peering suspiciously out of our bunkers at our neighbors. Sure we won. Sure we did. We became a nation that tortures our enemies -- and our own citizens for that matter. We're a nation of warrantless wiretaps and rendition and we've gotten used to being strip searched in our own airports. And how is the world a better place for it all?
And now we're talking about more war, more blood.
But, yeah, we won. Sure. You bet.
Frankly, I have had enough of 9-11. Fuck 9-11. I'm not going to watch the shows. I'm not going to any of the memorials. I'm not going to the 9-11 sales at Wal-Mart. I don't want to hear about 9-11. I for damned sure am not interested in watching politicians of either party try to out 9-11 each other. I'm tired of this national 9-11 PTSD. I did my bit for revenge, I went to war, I'll remember the dead in my own time in my own way.
I'm not going to shed a damned tear today.
We got our revenge. Many times over, for whatever good it did us.
I'm going to go to a picnic and enjoy my day. Enjoy this victory we've won.
I suggest you do the same."
[NOTE: apologies re: the formatting. Thank FB and it's delightful tinkering with even the most basic copy & paste functionality.]
It's simple for Trump since his brain is simple (I mean that in a bad way). "Nuclear bombs? THIS is why we have them." BOOOOOOOOOM!! He doesn't care if it's an atrocity.
ReplyDeleteOr I guess about the radioactive fallout, millennia of environmental consequences that d't respect borders or that in setting this precedent he'll find other nations and leaders not to his liking will likely follow it and act likewise or respond in other horrific ways.
DeleteSpeaking for Tess, the last 7 1/2 years have been a hell of a lot better than the previous eight.
ReplyDeleteDRAINAGE! We drink Iraq's milkshake! We drink it up!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more Jim. Outstanding.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that bothers me the most about the War on Terror is that it is a war. This raises the small number of jihadists in existence, the very few poorly trained, badly led criminals, into the status of a nation. It gives them a cachet they do not deserve.
ReplyDeleteEven Daesh is not a nation. It's a criminal gang that uses Islam as an excuse for their actions. (Badges? We don' need no stinkin' badges!) They took advantage of the chaos in the Middle East, for which the West has an outsized contribution in my opinion, to establish a place where they rule, badly. But they are not a nation.
Terrorism is a criminal matter. It's isn't enough of an existential threat to deserve war. That we've gone to war against them shows how desperate we are for enemies because we can't seem to chart a course through the world without enemies.
I think Trump has a general idea, if not a plan for ISIS. Unfortunately it involves genocide of a large number of people in the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteI posted this on Facebook giving you attribution. When I went to find it a couple of hours later, it was gone Now, after reading what FB did to your 9/11 article, I guess they took this one down. I thought I didn't hit "enter" or made some other goof. This said everything I think about the CIC interviews and Trump's non-plan plan. I think I shared it with everyone, not just my FB friends. So, Jim, it appears there's something or someone at FB that doesn't like what you write. I love it. Please keep it up.
ReplyDeleteDear Jim,
ReplyDeleteI love your political writing because you are so LUCID. Vastly, poetically limpid.
But I must confess to a positively school-girl crush on you, for the acumen with which you deploy as support your love for and appreciation for, movies! The same movies I love! And for the same reasons! I feel like Judy Garland, singing to a photograph of Clark Gable!
You sir, are samurai.
Thanks for fighting the good fight so beautifully.
Amy
I have training and experience in three areas: journalism, military intelligence, and business academics. I have lived in, among other places, California, Alaska, and Florida--the panhandle, to be precise. The USAF taught me a few things about weapons and a whole lot about speaking and understanding Russian, this last courtesy of the Defense Language Institute.They also sent me on 31 combat missions in the 1970s. Northwestern University taught me something about research and writing, and the University of Tennessee taught me even more about research in the MBA and doctoral programs in transportation and logistics.
ReplyDeleteThis combination of education and experience taught me, above all, that the most important person in any dangerous situation is the person next to you. The members of my military teams remain the smartest people I've ever met, my highly intelligent and accomplished colleagues at my current institution notwithstanding. I served with a man who speaks 16 languages and has degrees in physics, astronomy, Egyptology, and electrical engineering. Another who played football for Texas, became a software engineer for Boeing, and then a medical doctor. Another became a bishop in the Lutheran church.
And what does that have to do with this post?
You remind me of those guys. They were and are smart, funny, impassioned, and capable. They could think, write, speak, and do whatever was necessary to get the job done. In my mind, you are one of them, and I cannot for the life of me think of a higher compliment.
Thanks for the hard work on this kind of research and this kind of writing. It's a great pleasure to read and it stimulates careful thought.