Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I Hate to Sound Pessimistic But...


...doesn't President Obama sneaking into Baghdad under heavy security kind of remind anyone of the previous boob who had to do the same thing, even to the point of skulking back out under cover of night?

Especially when the most substantial thing he can say is, "Guys, you've gotta stand up on your own so we can stand down."

I mean, I applaud the new President for showing more energy and commitment to responsibly getting our troops out but when he starts sounding and acting like the last guy, I'm not exactly filled with a lot of hope that we'll finally get most of our people out within that much ballyhooed 16 month timeline.

So far, in this hurricane of activity in the first 77 days or so of the Obama administration, I haven't once heard the president address the other problems regarding Iraq, such as contractor abuses in the form of corruption and ineptitude. Outsourcing basic needs that used to be met by the military even down to feeding the troops to corporations and enticing them with cost-plus, no bid contracts that actually rewards them for their incompetence is perhaps the single biggest problem in Iraq that Obama hasn't addressed.

He never even bothered mentioning these very real problems during the campaign as did none of the other major candidates.

In other words, instead of worrying solely about nation building, we need to take steps to ensure that such greed (or have we forgotten about the 363 tons of cash that we'd airlifted into Iraq years ago?), laziness and incompetence never happens again next time we invade on false pretexts a nation whose leader had killed far fewer of his countrymen than the maniacs in Sudan and Burma.

Then we can, perhaps, turn our attention to nation building here at home after the wrecker balling by which we'd been victimized for the last eight years.

12 Comments:

At April 7, 2009 at 2:17 PM, Blogger Dr. Know said...

You would think...

There is a long list of people who should be lined up awaiting prosecution for war crimes and, at minimum, war profiteering. And yet I hear... Crickets.

I fear Obama's turning out to be just like all the other tools - just better spoken. Which is pretty much what I've been expecting. No one is going to risk rocking the boat. Remember that a rising tide lifts all plutocrats.

 
At April 7, 2009 at 3:37 PM, Blogger Lisa said...

JP,

This is far too sensible for the blogosphere. . . "YEA team Obama" does seem to overlook the multifarious and persistent problems in Afghanistan. It is yet more -- "stay the course" tripe.

"Oh," the liberals say, "but he promised he would ramp up Afghanistan during the elections." Well, sometimes people can do better with enhanced data.

Oh, but he is beloved by the Repubs with this one. Only they'll never really give him the time of day. . . jes' keep rollin' that money along, and surely the economy will kick in. . .

As with the lovely tome The Bible, sometimes stances need altering. "Go forth and multiply" might no longer be necessary, though the Pope is loathe to cut off his revenue source. . .

 
At April 7, 2009 at 7:31 PM, Blogger jurassicpork said...

There are so many things that Preisdent Obama could be addressing if not actually correcting. Still, I remind myself, it's not all gonna happen overnight and the man hasn't even been in office for three months yet. I keep telling myself, "Some day, JP, some day..."

On an unrelated note, Bukko, me Bucko, email me privately. I need to talk to you about your, ahem, letter from Down Under in the mail today.

 
At April 7, 2009 at 9:32 PM, Blogger nunya said...

I see some marginal improvement, but D Eisenhower did originally have the speech writtten to say military-industrial-
congressional-complex.


Defense budget plan tough sell on Capitol Hill
By DONNA BORAK – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates' proposed budget, which axes some multibillion-dollar weapons projects, is encountering strong resistance from lawmakers whose districts stand to lose thousands of jobs during a recession.

 
At April 7, 2009 at 10:53 PM, Blogger Bukko Boomeranger said...

I hate to sound pessimistic too, but are you able to read Glenn Greenwald during your somewhat disconnected state, JP? He's been detailing the ways in which Obama is acting like a kinder, gentler George Bush with bailing out the bank maggots who caused the collapse instead of prosecuting them, clinging to Bushian rules about spying on any American they want to, and on and on.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss -- this time, in colour!

And as for my letter, JP -- don't tell me that someone opened it and stole the Aussie money. Who wants that shit anyway? I can't give it away fast enough.

 
At April 8, 2009 at 12:52 AM, Anonymous Kootenay said...

Honestly, can you imagine the result if Obama was to announce well ahead of time that he was going to be travelling to Iraq? It'd be a security nightmare - I'm sorry, but a surprise visit is the only kind of visit an American president can have there at this juncture. Please don't equate being sensible with being coy.

Give the man some time - for those feeling impatient, check out the Politifact Obameter, to check out his current progress on keeping his campaign promises: http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

Not even three months - certainly some disappointments there but also many positive signs. Certainly it would be premature to condemn Obama's presidency this early in the game! Iraq is an altogether nasty piece of work, and I can't imagine anybody pulling that pile of shit together real quick. I don't think most Americans have a clue how bad it is. Hell, most Americans are scared to read Al-Jazeera news in case the FBI notices. Did you think you could wave the Obama-wand and make all the bad stuff instantly disappear?

 
At April 8, 2009 at 3:31 AM, Blogger Bukko Boomeranger said...

Koot, I'm not quick to condemn Obama. I voted for him, even thought it cost me $4.05 in Aussie postage to mail my ballot. And I don't expect him to sweep away all the evil of the previous eight years in three short months.

However, I expect to see some changes at least. I haven't checked your link, but I will. When it comes to things like banks, unions, war, gays in the military... I could go on -- I've seen no changes from the Cheney regime, just different rhetoric. The radio talkers on the left-wing American shows I listen to say Obama might be trying a rope-a-dope strategy, but I'd feel like a dope for believing it.

 
At April 8, 2009 at 6:26 PM, Blogger jurassicpork said...

Give the man some time - for those feeling impatient, check out the Politifact Obameter, to check out his current progress on keeping his campaign promises...

Koot, read my last comment. Of course I'll give him time. The sheer massive amount of evil that was left alive and quivering would kill lesser men.

No, Bukko, I generally don't have enough time to answer all my emails, read comments, do the occasional post and go blog surfing. I have to confess, however, that I miss the A list blogs that I used to poke fun at.

 
At April 9, 2009 at 2:23 AM, Anonymous kim said...

Keep in mind that if Obama does anything toooooo different, he will probably be assassinated. So he has to be very careful how he does stuff.
He never was as liberal as I would like -- but neither was Clinton. Either one of them is far better than Grampy McCain. And there is something to be said for charisma: if he can wean Americans away from their addiction to fear, we can turn the whole tide of the country -- but it turns like the Titanic, that is, it takes a while. We, the People, will have to loudly insist on what we want from Obama -- but Democrats are more likely to listen to us than Republican'ts.
The idea I would like to get out there into The People's minds is that business should be run democratically rather than the feudal oligarchy it is now: it's time to complete the Revolution we started in 1776.

 
At April 13, 2009 at 7:24 AM, Blogger jurassicpork said...

Just to let you guys know I haven't completely fallen off ther flat edge of the earth. Net access has been bad lately and my God, with everything going on!

Pirates and kidnapped captains, Obama in Iraq, gay marriage in Vermont and Iowa! Man, I cannot weait to get back to you guys!

 
At April 13, 2009 at 7:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi JP,
Good to see your makin' do.
Just saw an ad for Verizon DSL $17.99/mo.
You could put up that Pay Pal button or give up the cigs. Then you'll unlimited access.

Mike

 
At April 14, 2009 at 7:46 PM, Blogger jurassicpork said...

Mike: Can you offer a link, please?

 

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