Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Rubin is now a Murdoch flunkie. I wonder how many other ex-Clintonistas found shelter under the wings of that evil buzzard.

Versions of his plan have been a staple of discussion with the "anti-this-war-now" internets Democrats. They always sayin' how much they support the war on terror, but not the war in Iraq, and how shocked they are that the Bushists (hey! we couldn't have known) never "finished the job" in Afghanistan.

I don't think Rubin is actually thinking anything when he suggests a scram-o-stan policy. He's just creating a talking point, possibly one he plagiarized from muscular pwog blog, and polishing his personal brand by having a byline in the NY Times.

I don't know, not bringing some of them home might not be a bad idea, given their total estrangement from decent society.

They had some sociopathic Marine lieutenant on the Daily Show the other day - a true believer - who, everytime his men started to lose their morale, showed them a tape of 9/11, to remind them why we're fighting in Iraq [sic]. He spoke rather fondly of the Falluja campaign, regretting that he had to be in the delivery room with his wife as she was giving birth, instead of storming the gates with his "band of brothers" - his "sons" and his "other family" as he referred to them. Strangely enough, John Stewart didn't challenge him at all on any of his woefully false assumptions and blatant propaganda. I guess even the normally irreverent John Stewart considers the testimony of "someone who's been there" to be inviolable.

I agree with J. Alva. I dont think this chap is saying anything. Remember the name, though, in case the Dems ever get back in power. Intellectually, this could be the start of a new trivia game: "Triangulate This!", in which you take two meaningful issues and mix them together so they don't mean anything.

Tim D--

You have a point -- one of the serious blowback problems is the guys and gals who have had eighteen months of power over others, a la Abu Ghraib or Haditha, and they're going to have a hard time coming back into the world of tax returns and toll collectors. Yeah, they're going to be a pain in the ass -- but even so: better here than there.

At least if they're here, they won't be persuading people to fly airplanes through my office window -- which is what they're doing now.

MJS - I know, I agree. It just that when you read about how Marines have been so nonchalantly raping and pillaging over there that you begin to question the wisdom of reintroducing such individuals to civilized society. I imagine that not a few of them have sunk to levels of barbarity and cynicism that could qualify them to president of the United States...

But seriously, the rising tide of post-traumatic stress disorder amongst returning troops coupled with a deficient veterans' health service system that lacks sufficient access to mental health professionals certainly should be alarming for all of us.

It's traditional to stiff returning veterans. Some of them will turn to organized crime and domestic terrorism after they get home. There's no mystery to the process. Is it too paranoid to say that it's deliberate?

frankly
i find this back and forth on our section 8 vets
odious

i wish we did
get blow back that fierce
from our own
discarded meat weapons

i wish they did
return snap
and
Rambo savage
the empire's
corporate HQs

but no such luck

as to the career course
post service
of most military enlisted folks exposed to
present iraqathon
occ patrol conditions .....

i say we're better off
putting
the legends aside

only their spouses
and maybe a few bar mates
usually
get the blow back

long long odds
that mrs bush senior
will share
that pain

JSP - I think you're right that the potential victims of these malcontents to-be will probably range from wives/family member to local bar patrons.

You know, back when Murtha came out against the war he delivered a speech in Congress that really captured the essence of the American military reality:

"Now, let me personalize this thing for youI have a young fellow in my district who was blinded and he lost his foot. And they did everything they could for him at Walter Reed, then they sent him home. His father was in jail; he had nobody at home -- imagine this: young kid that age -- 22, 23 years old -- goes home to nobody. V.A. did everything they could do to help him. He was reaching out, so they sent him -- to make sure that he was blind, they sent him to John Hopkins. John Hopkins started to send him bills. Then the collection agency started sending billsImagine, a young person being blinded, without a foot, and he's getting bills from a collection agency."

His impassioned soliloquy on the Hill underscores - inadvertently on his part in my opinion - just how much the war mongerers in our government care about the footsoldiers of the empire. One can imagine that this individual soldier's predicament is hardly unique. It really is quite astonishing that none of these former soldiers, completely abandoned by the very people who are responsible for their miserable plight, have not yet tried to burst into the Capitol building to spray the inhabitants with M-16 fire...