Welcome To Hell, Petraeus Style

Even though, like the youngsters and their "blogs," I try to keep the patter topical - Craig! Haggard! Foley! Johnson! - F_B, ever fair, speaks the truth. Sadly, the report won't be diapered instead of written, in which case I could have mentioned Vitter.

 

What a fucking sham.

 

That would also describe Sen. Craig's marriage, I'm thinking.
Or perhaps not.

 

It's definitely not part of the Kwai-jack either, though it would have been funny if the doctor said that when the bridge was being built instead of pussing out in the face of Alec Guiness.

If I've said it once, I'll say it again Sir David Lean didn't incorporate enough wacky, profanity-fueled characters or lines in his epics.

I don't think Lawrence Of Arabia would have been hurt if instead of "nothing is written", Peter O'Toole said "nothing is written, fuckstick!"

 

On the other hand.
Sarah Miles.
Ryan's Daughter.
mmmmmmm...

 

If the Washington press corps were still alive, this wouldn't be happening.

Now, where's John Edwards getting his hair cut these days . . .

 

Hold page one! Hillary's necklines have changed!

 

Key difference? Because the U.S. wasn't going it alone in Germany, other countries were able to help ensure that the fighting was over in less time than it's been going on over in Iraq.

 

Big difference between having bases in a friendly (or at least neutral) country and having your soldiers getting shot at and blown up.

The first is a perk. The second is a quagmire.

 

So basically, we're going to stretch our miliary dangerously thin for the next 20 years?

Jesus ... here's hoping there's not some other Superpower country out there growing a bustling economy, upping their military spending and readying themselves to take our place atop the heap when we finally fall over from exhaustion.

Huh?

Oh, that's right.

China.

Shit.

 

Funny. No one's said anything about our still huge presence in Kuwait, where we have massive bases (as was once noted to me by a rather astute soldier, "Camp Doha is a zoo."). Or Qatar. Or the UAE. Hmm.
And for those really wanting a great spot to be stationed, there's always Diego Garcia.

 

And don't forget Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

The difference being that we didn't have to lay waste to those places to gain access to them. Another being that most - or really all, except DG - of those permanent bases were built after the first Gulf War.

And don't forget that they were one of Osama bin Laden's main complaints in his rationalizations for 9/11.