Variety Pack: Iraq, Gordon Bell, Wie

End of combat in Iraq, whether it makes sense or not

Prez Obama today, as you all know, announced the end of combat operations in Iraq -- over seven years after Bush gave his famous mission accomplished speech on an air craft carrier. Bush was jumping the gun just a little bit back then, but is Obama? He is drawing a line and pulling troops out, which you have to do sooner or later, but some people feel it should be later, including Iraq's most senior military officer:

"At this point, the withdrawal is going well, because they are still here," Zerbari told the AFP news agency on Wednesday.

"But the problem will start after 2011 - the politicians must find other ways to fill the void after 2011. If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020." link

Maybe he's just a little nervous about going it alone. We can hope.

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Beginning of combat with Free Press mods

Another article today about Gordon Bell where everybody in the comments are arguing about whether a field will fit there or not. A debate that I could constructively assist if I were able to post a link to my post with the pictures of a field super-imposed on the area. But I can't because the Free Press mods are being a bunch of cunts. They allow ex-Green Peacer Ron Thiessen to post a link to his web site filled with lies and propaganda about bipole III in their comments section a while back, but I'm not good enough for them. Bitches.

Anyhow ... good to see that they're finally getting a start on the "Field of Dreams". Driving past that site makes me think of an abandoned Detroit inner-city school yard.

Although, given that consultations on what to do haven't even started yet, the tractors tearing up the concrete may just be a "hey look! We are doing something!" reaction to the negative publicity last week that started on the New Winnipeg forum and spread to the Freep. Not unlike the new stadium, actually. What can we do to make it look like there has been some kind of progress? Hmmm, let's rent a backhoe and dig a hole.

I wonder how much consulting there is to do though. After they shoe-horn a field in there, all they will be left with are three small triangles of land. They're going to hire land-scape architects for that?

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And the Wie-ner is ...

I made a comment in my last post about Michelle Wie ... something about her perhaps drawing attention that was not proportional to her skill level. Well, perhaps it was warranted after all. Congratulations to Michelle on her outstanding win at St. Charles.

Now, I shall study my video of her for many many hours to see if I might capture some of that magic myself.

Peace adhors a vacuum

When the U.S. invaded Iraq and ousted the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein, a power void was created that allowed Al Qaeda to establish a presence in the country, and all sorts of other fanatical nut jobs to build their power base and feed ethnic and religious conflict that is still continuing today. Saddam was a ruthless murderer, but his ruthless rule kept the country in some sort of order in spite of all the different factions, tribes and ethnic groups. When he left, Iraq became a much more dangerous place to live.

The Winnipeg Police have apparently take the lessons-not-learned from Iraq and applied them to the Gang War in Winnipeg. From the Free Press:

Police say a pair of newly arrived gangs are at the centre of the brewing battle as they try to fill the "vacuum" created by a major undercover sting operation dubbed "Project Divide" that ended last December. Police used a career criminal-turned secret agent to infiltrate the Hells Angels, resulting in the arrests of 34 high-ranking members and associates. Police say every member of the Zig Zag Crew, the Hells Angels' so-called puppet club, was put behind bars while only a handful of Hells Angels remain free.

Awwwwwwesommmmme. So good to see the Rock Machine moving into town, with their guns and their bombs.

"So, smart guy", you ask, "what's the solution?" While some may advocate legalization of drugs. If drugs were legal, like alcohol, there would be nothing for the gangs to fight over, except for small-ticket things like prostitution and black-market organs. Though I might support legalization of pot, I have a real hard time advocating the legalization of crack, meth, heroin, and other such things.

Truth is, I don't have an answer. Going after the street dealers will not get rid of drugs. I say legalize and tax pot to take a huge chunk out of the market for illegal drugs, and let the Hells Angels control the rest. Or you can keep fighting gang after gang and paying off informant after informant, while people die in the streets. Maybe after 10 years of battle, the enemy will give up and we will be at peace. Maybe Iraq will elect a representative government that will bring all factions together, and settle into peaceful coexistence. Or maybe not.

Pictures from Iraq

Dr.Mohammed the dentist has some pictures of the recent car bombings in Iraq over at his blog, Last Of Iraqis


Check out some of his other posts while you're there. Interesting insights into life in Baghdad.

Why I'm glad Bush is gone

That was a long eight years.

You know, I consider myself a conservative. Fiscally conservative anyhow. Socially, I'm more moderate. Many die-hard conservatives will always side with the right wing politician in any political debate, and if you look hard enough you can always find a way to glorify your guy and demonize the other guy. However, when you break down the US leadership to it's fundamental components it is clear that Bush has failed miserably as President. Only somebody with ideological blinders on would be able to deny that.

The Economy

Bush claims that he inherited a recession. Whether that is technically true or not, he is leaving the economy is much worse shape than he found it. The building blocks of the financial collapse may have first started getting stacked during the previous administration, but the problems accelerated during W's years, and in large part due to the policies of his administration. And ultimately, the collapse happened under his watch. The buck stops with him, right? Worse, the US is poorly positioned to combat another recession because ...

Dubya also inherited a budget surplus, which he has turned into a trillion dollar deficit. Yes, 911 changed everything, but consider that much of the accumulated debt under his two terms in office can be chalked up to unsustainable tax cuts, not to fighting terrorism. As a conservative, I am all for tax cuts within a balanced budget situation. Not as a stimulus policy necessarily, but because it's the right thing to do when the government takes in more money than it needs. Low taxes are also good for the long term health of the economy. Deficits are not, however, and the Bush tax cuts were therefore ill-advised.

Bush also spent money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. He did not veto a single spending bill his entire first term in office. In fact, he did not veto anything until a bill on stem cell research crossed his desk in his second term*. In other words, prudent fiscal management was a lower priority for Bush than blocking life-saving research because of social ideology.

The other thing that contributed to the huge deficits of course is the "War on Terror". Not so much the war in Afghanistan, but the much more expensive war in Iraq, which brings me to the next major leadership failure:

The War in Iraq

George Bush Sr. should have toppled Saddam when he had the chance back in the first Gulf War, when conditions were much more favourable. He did not because he knew doing so would create a big mess that could take years to mop up. I guess Sr and Jr don't talk about such things at the dinner table. Anyhow, invading Iraq was a policy decision, not a necessity. Iraq was crawling with UN weapons inspectors at the time. Even if they had WMD's, they were in no position to use them against the US, nor did they have any will to. But Bush and his buddies took advantage of 911 to push their agenda into Iraq, and in doing so they neglected priority #1: Afghanistan. This caused several things to happen, including:

1. That six foot four jack-ass Osama Bin Laden and his posse were allowed to get away and are still gaining strength, threatening Afghanistan and killing Canadian soldiers.

2. Iraq has become unstable, allowing Al Qaeda to create a presence there and ethnic tensions to escalate, causing an uncertain future that may end up with a regime that is no better than the one that was toppled, after all is said and done.

3. Violations of human rights by the United States at Abu Ghraib, at home, and at GITMO, destroyed any "moral superiority" that they may have had, inciting people to join the enemy out of hatred for the US, and ultimately putting all western nations and their soldiers more at risk.

Intangibles

The Economy and the War in Iraq are the two big failures of the George Bush legacy. You could find others, like his environmental record, for example, but one last thing I want to pick on is his statesmanship. Here's the thing about his statesmanship: he doesn't have any. As a world leader, he is a joke. He is a spoiled brat with an adopted Texas accent who gives inappropriate back rubs to other world leaders, speaks as though he's talking to 3rd graders, and butchers the English language every step of the way. Combined with his arrogance and selfish policies, the only way he could have left a worse impression upon the world is if he re-instituted slavery.

So there you have it in a nutshell. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of the White House, Dubya.

Awakening in Baghdad

Every once in a while I like to wander over to Last Of Iraqis to get another perspective on what's going on over in Baghdad, and keep me grounded when I consider the relatively minor controversies back here in Canada.

Many of his posts contain depressing and sometimes gruesome stories and pictures, but the past couple of stories give a glimmer of hope for at least one part of Baghdad. As Mohammed, the author, tells it, an organization composed of former members of various insurgent factions, called Awakening has come together for a common cause -- to route Al Qaeda out of the area and restore order ... ultimately for money and personal gain most likely, but nevertheless there has been a temporary reprieve from the violence that plagued the area, which is a good thing.

Now, I can't vouch for the accuracy of this guy. I don't know if he is who he says he is, but he does seem credible. Anyhow, it's worth a look. Make a point of checking out the "Art of death in the mesopotamian" post if you're in the mood.