WinterBear's Discontent

Chaney administration

2012-05-06T01:36:00.001-05:00

an interesting perspective...

"The degradation of the ideals of the United States became very apparent starting with the 2000 elections, when we got president Cheney. Georgie was playing tiddledywinks, and just signing Executive Orders put in front him, designed by the most devious in his administration, in order to dismantle every conceivable law and regulation that helped to protect the interests of the people. Cheney's administration knew that no matter who got elected in 2008, the road was carved to either continue the plunder or make it so difficult for the opposition that it would be too difficult to fix. We know what happened, and they succeeded in many ways and I think that President Obama has done an admirable job doing what he could in areas where he could, such as the brave Affordable Health Care Act. " -- unitedwestand

It's all about presidents for Presidents with power

2011-11-18T01:09:00.001-06:00

Dan Gillmor - Nov 15, 2011 - Posting on Google+

The Obama administration, demonstrating again that it is more hostile to basic liberty than any of its predecessors, says it's a federal crime to do anything whatever that is not allowed in Internet companies' terms of service. No, they probably won't prosecute you.

But when governments create laws that are broken by essentially everyone, they are holding in reserve the ability to punish anyone for any reason. This is an extremist stance by Obama's Justice Department, but sadly it's not surprising.

Is Lying On The Internet Illegal? : NPR

Under a Department of Justice interpretation of existing law, it's possible for the government to bring charges against Internet users who for example lie about their weight on Match.com.

My response:

For me its all about the precedents that were set. Pick a subject... say, war powers. Used to be the president had limited powers regarding waging war. Then !!!emergency!!! and all of a sudden prez has more power... and its really really hard to take that away and it takes a truly great man like Washington to walk away.

For example, drones. It was unthinkable that a president 150 years ago could have launched an attack, killed 20-50 people and it wouldn't even make the weeks top news stories and nobody would debate it and that the event would cost the prez no real political capital. Slowly it has become ok to reach out and "touch" those we disagree with... unless they are citizens. Whoops.. that one went by the way side this summer. President set... next one will be easier.

Korea was a "police action" that made Vietnam easier which made gulf war 1 a piece of cake. Then !!!tragedy!!! 9omg11 and we panic and attack without declaring war killing over 1 million. Now we can launch unmanned vehicles to take out pretty much anyone and no one raises an eyebrow. The precedent has been set... its only controversial the first time you do it. We are the frogs in boiling water.

It takes real leadership to reverse this... it also takes the collapse of a presidential administration. After Nixon resigned lots of checks were put into place. But its been a while since any of the war powers have been reigned in...

GWB was not Hitler. But He may have been "John the Baptist" clearing the way for a truly charismatic and power mad President who will react to some !!!event!!! and use the power it grants him to make major changes in our republic, turning it into something that more openly resembles a totalitarian empire. Or not... if we can reset some of those precedences and limit executive power.

Happy One Month day

2009-02-20T20:28:00.001-06:00

Happy Obama plus one month.

We voted for change.... and so far so good.

Its over. We won.

2009-01-31T16:21:00.001-06:00

The last 10 days have been amazing.

Its over.

We the people won.

The NeoCons lost.

We voted for change. Some we will like, some we will not. But it should be a much better ride than the last one.

Whoooo hooo

Response to McCains statement that bringing troops home is "not to important"

2008-06-11T11:52:00.002-05:00

Iron Man Versus the Imperialists

2008-05-19T13:25:00.000-05:00

Heroism, when applied to foreign policy, is a moral vanity that usually prescribes a cure more corrosive than the disease it confronts. It will always be good celluloid for Iron Man to incinerate terrorists who -- living out their own imperial perversions -- overrun villages full of innocents. But the real world does not contain magic suits that kill the bad guys without harming the civilians and let the good guy fly away without a scratch on him. In that world, the actual answer to the Iron Man complex is one of two things. America either needs to submit the Iron Man armor to a series of institutions to govern its just use, or it needs to take off the suit once and for all.

Korean War -Truth about mass killings comes out

2008-05-18T13:47:00.001-05:00

Fifty-eight years ago, at the outbreak of the Korean War, South Korean authorities secretively executed, usually without legal process, tens of thousands of southern leftists and others rightly or wrongly identified as sympathizers. Today a government Truth and Reconciliation Commission is working to dig up the facts, and the remains of victims.

How could such a bloodbath have been hidden from history?

Among the Koreans who witnessed, took part in or lost family members to the mass killings, the events were hardly hidden, but they became a "public secret," barely whispered about through four decades of right-wing dictatorship here.

"The family couldn't talk about it, or we'd be stigmatized as leftists," said Kim Chong-hyun, 70, leader of an organization of families seeking redress for their loved ones' deaths in 1950.
Kim, whose father was shot and buried in a mass grave outside the central city of Daejeon, noted that in 1960-61, a one-year democratic interlude in South Korea, family groups began investigating wartime atrocities. But a military coup closed that window, and "the leaders of those organizations were arrested and punished."

Then, "from 1961 to 1988, nobody could challenge the regime, to try again to reveal these hidden truths," said Park Myung-lim of Seoul's Yonsei University, a leading Korean War historian. As a doctoral student in the late 1980s, when South Korea was moving toward democracy, Park was among the few scholars to begin researching the mass killings. He was regularly harassed by the police.

Scattered reports of the killings did emerge in 1950 — and some did not.

British journalist James Cameron wrote about mass prisoner shootings in the South Korean port city of Busan — then spelled Pusan — for London's Picture Post magazine in the fall of 1950, but publisher Edward Hulton ordered the story removed at the last minute.

Earlier, correspondent Alan Winnington reported on the shooting of thousands of prisoners at Daejeon in the British communist newspaper The Daily Worker, only to have his reporting denounced by the U.S. Embassy in London as an "atrocity fabrication." The British Cabinet then briefly considered laying treason charges against Winnington, historian Jon Halliday has written.

Associated Press correspondent O.H.P. King reported on the shooting of 60 political prisoners in Suwon, south of Seoul, and wrote in a later memoir he was "shocked that American officers were unconcerned" by questions he raised about due process for the detainees.

Some U.S. officers — and U.S. diplomats — were among others who reported on the killings. But their classified reports were kept secret for decades.

Intel Mash Maker, Mashups for the Masses

2008-05-16T20:49:00.001-05:00

Today, I came across this really interesting mashup built for the site http://mashmaker.intel.com/web/. It is powered by Intel's Mash Maker technology. If you have it installed, you can see the mashup by clicking http://mashmaker.intel.com/bm/?bm=1186.Mash Maker's natural and simplified approach to creating mashups, makes it easier, faster, and fun to create personalized mashups on-the-fly. Mash Maker's inbuilt technology enables you to browse and easily view information the way you want, and presented the way you want. You can even program it. Download it now from http://mashmaker.intel.com.

Bush Tells Isreali Knesset that Obama is like Hitler... WTF?

2008-05-15T18:39:00.003-05:00

I really thought things could not get much worse... I thought GWB had done it all and stooped as low as it goes..

Oh, how wrong I was...

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.
"We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
U.S. President George W. Bush's speech to the Israeli parliament 5/15/08

Bush today broke all the rules of protocol. In front of the Israeli Knesset he said that Obama and the other democrats who want some form of diplomacy instead of the constant saber rattling and arrogance of the bush years... he called them the same as Nazi sympathizers before world war II.

He broke the unwritten rules about talking about US politics in front of foreign audiences.
He broke the long standing protocols against a sitting presidents using their office to partisan ends in the election of their successor.

But worst of all he broke Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies)

"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

No rational discussion or measured discourse is possible once Godwin's law is breached.

What a maroon.

Letter to WinterBear from Barack Obama

2008-03-05T10:08:00.002-06:00

WinterBear --

We may not know the final outcome of today's voting until morning, but the results so far make one thing clear.

When the dust settles from today's contests, we will maintain our substantial lead in delegates. And thanks to millions of people standing for change, we will keep adding delegates and capture the Democratic nomination.

We knew from the day we began this journey that the road would be long. And we knew what we were up against.

We knew that the closer we got to the change we seek, the more we'd see of the politics we're trying to end -- the attacks and distortions that try to distract us from the issues that matter to people's lives, the stunts and the tactics that ask us to fear instead of hope.

But this time -- this year -- it will not work. The challenges are too great. The stakes are too high.

Americans need real change.

In the coming weeks, we will begin a great debate about the future of this country with a man who has served it bravely and loves it dearly. And we will offer two very different visions of the America we see in the twenty-first century.

John McCain has already dismissed our call for change as eloquent but empty.

But he should know that it's a call that did not begin with my words. It's the resounding call from every corner of this country, from first-time voters and lifelong cynics, from Democrats and Republicans alike.

And together you and I are going to grow this movement to deliver that change in November.

Thank you,

Barack

Paid for by Obama for America
This email was sent to: WinterBear Westerberg at blogspot.com

OBAMA

2008-03-04T13:29:00.003-06:00

OBAMA

Winterbear has figured out over the years that he is a "Centrist" but he defines that differently than most people.

As a Texan he is indorsing Obama in todays Primary elections and tonights caucuses for the following reasons.

1) I want a balanced supreme court. If we dont elect a democrat, the republicans will pack the court for the rest of my life.

2) I want every neo-con to get fired on Jan 20, 2009

3) I do not want the clintons to get another 8 years (although I think they would do a passable job on 1 and 2)

So this website and WinterBear Westerburg are indorsing Barac Obama for President.

And if your in Texas remember you get to vote twice today! Vote once in the priamary before 7pm and go to your local caucus meeting and vote again!

Viva Tejas...

Univ. Michigan Electoral US results map 2004

2008-02-29T14:24:00.002-06:00

Very interesting map that shows the mathematics behind the 2004 voting and where the population and the votes for both Republicans and Democrats were cast.

Amazing stuff...

Your doing a heck of a job, bushie

2008-02-27T16:23:00.003-06:00

Our Currency is Collapsing. The Euro passed 1.50 to one dollar for the first time today. It was 1 to 1 with the dollar when George took office.

Heck of a job

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/27/business/econ.php

The Legacy of GW Bush's Presidency

2008-02-08T10:15:00.000-06:00

http://zaiusnation.blogspot.com/2008/01/legacy-of-george-w-bushs-presidency.html

Who is to blame for poor Republican turnout?

2008-02-07T13:17:00.000-06:00

While Obama gets credit for bringing in most of the new voters, Clinton is solidly bringing in hers (some say the real Dem base). Part of my Obama support comes from my fear that if Hillary is the nominee the GOP base, with no one to vote for, will come out in droves just to defeat Hillary. While I think that still is true, the turnout numbers for the Dems have me believing that even an energized GOP base will not be able to counter this Democratic surge. Yes, it's possible that some of Obama's supporters won't show up, but once you get the voting bug it's hard to shake it. Once you get the idea stuck in your head that government can actually work, that incompetence does not have to rule, that a Republican does not have to win, the motivation to vote will be there. Everyone will show up in November and the numbers will be huge.

And who do we have to thank for this revival? George W. Bush. Who would have thought one man could motivate so many? He's like Obama with the motivating, except different.

George W Bush's Resume

2008-01-30T14:09:00.000-06:00

from http://fablog.ehrensteinland.com/2008/01/29/resume/

“This person needs a job. This individual seeks an executive position. He will be available in January 2009, and is willing to relocate.

RESUME: GEORGE W. BUSH, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20520

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
Law Enforcement: I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver’s license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been “lost” and is not available.

Military: I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam .

College: I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE: I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.
I began my career in the oil business in Midland Texas , in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn’t find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock. I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas .

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS : I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America.

I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida , and my father’s appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President of the United States , after losing by over 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT: I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.

I spent the U.S. surplus.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.

I’m proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My “poorest millionaire,” Condoleezza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President.

I am the all-time U.S. and world record -holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history, Enron.

My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.

I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution.

More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history. I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I appointed more convicted criminals to my administration than any
President in U.S. history.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States Government.

I’ve broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspector’s access to U.S. “prisoners of war” detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US election).

I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.

I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period.

After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

I garnered the most sympathy ever for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to
simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.

I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. Citizens and the world community.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families in wartime.

In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.

I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.

I am supporting development of a nuclear “Tactical Bunker Buster,” a WMD.

I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES:All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father’s library, sealed and unavailable for public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

I specified that my sealed documents will not be available for 50 years.”

This just in from the land of Oz

2007-09-01T10:17:00.001-05:00

We may not have gotten the wicked witch of the West this week, but we damn sure downed a couple of his flying monkeys!

RE: Alberto Gonzales resigns

Neocons on a Cruise: What Conservatives Say When They Think We Aren't Listening

2007-07-19T03:01:00.000-05:00

an amazing article by a british journalist who goes on a cruise ship fans and editors of the National review. He was really nice and patient with these folks... A great read, funny and enlightening.

"A sweet elderly lady from Los Angeles is sitting on the rocks nearby, telling me dreamily about her son. "Is he your only child?" I ask. "Yes," she says. "Do you have a child back in England?" she asks. No, I say. Her face darkens. "You'd better start," she says. "The Muslims are breeding. Soon, they'll have the whole of Europe."

I am getting used to these moments - when gentle holiday geniality bleeds into… what? I lie on the beach with Hillary-Ann, a chatty, scatty 35-year-old Californian designer. As she explains the perils of Republican dating, my mind drifts, watching the gentle tide. When I hear her say, " Of course, we need to execute some of these people," I wake up. Who do we need to execute? She runs her fingers through the sand lazily. "A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralise the country," she says. "Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that's what you'll get." She squints at the sun and smiles. " Then things'll change."

Bush legacy is the bankrupcy of patriotism

2007-06-17T21:12:00.000-05:00

From MetaFilter by felix betachat:

One of the saddest legacies of the Bush years is going to be the way his reign of error has systematically bankrupted the very idea of patriotism. It's become synonymous with unblinking loyalty to a cabal of thugs. It used to mean pride in one's national institutions, respect for one's fellow citizens and a deep sense of obligation to devote oneself to the protection of both. After seven years of "L’État, c’est moi", we are left with a meat-grinder, plutocrat's war and a sorely impoverished national conversation.

All those kids who threw themselves into harm's way after September 11th have been betrayed so that Bush and his buddies could make some serious money. And those of their commanders who held onto a sense of personal honor and respect for the constitution have been mocked and tossed aside. Half of this administration's strategy seems to have been to empower savage bastards and the other half seems to have been to exploit decency wherever it could.

Is the far-right the only sector in American society that didn't respond to 9/11 with some sort of patriotic selflessness? How else to explain this unremitting stream of filth, this corruption of the very ties that bind American society together?

Bush and Nazi "enhanced interrogation" are the same

2007-05-31T01:04:00.000-05:00

The phrase "Verschärfte Vernehmung" is German for "enhanced interrogation". Other translations include "intensified interrogation" or "sharpened interrogation". It's a phrase that appears to have been concocted in 1937, to describe a form of torture that would leave no marks, and hence save the embarrassment pre-war Nazi officials were experiencing as their wounded torture victims ended up in court. The methods, as you can see above, are indistinguishable from those described as "enhanced interrogation techniques" by the president. As you can see from the Gestapo memo, moreover, the Nazis were adamant that their "enhanced interrogation techniques" would be carefully restricted and controlled, monitored by an elite professional staff, of the kind recommended by Charles Krauthammer, and strictly reserved for certain categories of prisoner. At least, that was the original plan.

Also: the use of hypothermia, authorized by Bush and Rumsfeld, was initially forbidden. 'Waterboarding" was forbidden too, unlike that authorized by Bush. As time went on, historians have found that all the bureaucratic restrictions were eventually broken or abridged. Once you start torturing, it has a life of its own. The "cold bath" technique - the same as that used by Bush against al-Qahtani in Guantanamo - was, according to professor Darius Rejali of Reed College,

pioneered by a member of the French Gestapo by the pseudonym Masuy about 1943. The Belgian resistance referred to it as the Paris method, and the Gestapo authorized its extension from France to at least two places late in the war, Norway and Czechoslovakia. That is where people report experiencing it.

In Norway, we actually have a 1948 court case that weighs whether "enhanced interrogation" using the methods approved by president Bush amounted to torture. The proceedings are fascinating, with specific reference to the hypothermia used in Gitmo, and throughout interrogation centers across the field of conflict. The Nazi defense of the techniques is almost verbatim that of the Bush administration...

Dick Cavet on Bush's failed war

2007-05-27T22:32:00.000-05:00

nytimes.com
February 28, 2007, 6:03 pm
What My Uncle Knew About War

by Dick Cavett

It amazes me that this bungled war can still be considered controversial. Who are the 28 percent anyway, who think that George W., the author of this mess, has “done a heckuva job”?

The other word Bill hated was “sacrifice.” Sacrifice is something you give up in order to get something in return. What good are we getting from this monstrous error? Cooked up as it was by that infamous group of neocons (accent on last syllable) who, draft-averse themselves, were willing to inflict on the (largely unprivileged) youth of this country their crack-brained scheme for causing democracy to take root and spread like kudzu throughout that bizarre and ill-understood part of the world, the Middle East.

What service is this great country getting out of all this tragedy, other than the certainty that historians will ask in disbelief, “Was there no one to stand up to this overweening president?”

I cringe at the icky, sentimental way the president talks about what we owe to the people of plucky little Iraq. You’d think we all grew up ending our “Now I lay me down to sleep…” with “… and please, Lord, be good to Iraq.” They detest us now, along with just about everybody else. Personally, I don’t give a damn what happens to Iraq, and don’t think it’s worth a single American life. Or any other kind. Haven’t philosophers taught us the immorality of destroying something of infinite value — like a human life — in order to achieve a possible good? I guess not.

For weeks the word “cause” has rolled around in my head, attached to an elusive quote. I found it. It’s from Shakespeare’s “Henry V” (as distinct, I suppose, from Paris Hilton’s “Henry V”) and it’s the part where the king, in disguise and unrecognized, sits at a fire listening to some of his men discuss the next day’s battle and what it means to be fighting in a good cause. One says, “But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all, ‘We died at such a place,’ … their wives left poor behind … their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle. … Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it.”

there is almost no Al Qaeda in Iraq... never has been

2007-05-07T13:50:00.000-05:00

A recent study by Gen. Barry McCaffrey suggested that there are in fact 100,000 insurgents (I prefer the term guerrilla) in Iraq, not the 20,000 to 25,000 usually estimated by the US military.

Iraq's previous interior minister estimated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq at less than a thousand. Most of these are Salafi Jihadis of one sort or another (revivalist Sunnis).

So 99,000 insurgents are Iraqis. And none of them is al-Qaeda in the sense of being loyal to the organization or fighting for Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. They are fighting for some vision of the Iraqi nation, whether inflected by religion or not.

So who are the Iraqi insurgents? An important component is Baathists and ex-Baathist nationalists. These are former military officers, party officials, intelligence operatives, etc. The Baath Party itself is said in the Arabic press to have split into four groups [scroll down]. Among the more important of the four, and the least willing to compromise, is that of Saddam Hussein's vice president, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri. Last January al-Hayat reported in Arabic that there were attempts to hold an Iraqi Baath Party congress in Damascus and reunify the fragments in preparation for a rehabilitation of the party in Iraq when de-Baathification was ended. Al-Duri opposed this step because he saw it as leading to defeat, not victory. Although he is said by some to be in Syria, that is inconsistent with his stance on the Damascus conference, and I think it is more likely that he is in the Mosul area.

Calling out idiot America

2007-05-02T09:22:00.000-05:00

Outstanding article by Scott Ritter, a former Marine intelligence officer, served as a chief weapons inspector for the United Nations. Scott outlines the history behind the Sunni and Shiite conflicts that define our current problems in Iraq and how the actions of this administration, through ignorance of the history of the peoples of Iraq, has just made things worse.

the problem in Iraq is the President Cant admit to a mistake.

2007-04-27T22:21:00.000-05:00

(April 27, 2007 -- 02:18 AM EST // link)

With Harry Reid's controversial 'war is lost' quote and with various other pols weighing in on whether we can 'win' or whether it's 'lost', it's a good time to consider what the hell we're actually talking about. Frankly, the whole question is stupid. Or at least it's a very stilted way of understanding what's happening, geared to guarantee President Bush's goal of staying in Iraq forever. A more realistic description is President Bush's long twilight struggle to see just how far he can go into one brown paper bag.

We had a war. It was relatively brief and it took place in the spring of 2003. The critical event is what happened in the three to six months after the conventional war ended. The supporters of the war had two basic premises about what it would accomplish: a) the US would eliminate Iraq's threatening weapons of mass destruction, b) the Iraqi people would choose a pro-US government and the Iraqi people and government would ally themselves wtih the US.

Rationale 'A' quickly fell apart when we learned there were no weapons of mass destruction to eliminate.

That left us with premise or rationale 'B'. But though many or most Iraqis were glad we'd overthrown Saddam, evidence rapidly mounted that most Iraqis weren't interested in the kind of US-aligned government the war's supporters had in mind. Not crazy about a secular government, certainly not wild about one aligned with Israel and just generally not ready to be America's new proxy in the region. Most importantly, those early months showed clear signs that anti-Americanism (not surprisingly) rose with the duration of the occupation.

This is the key point: right near the beginning of this nightmare it was clear the sole remaining premise for the war was false: that is, the idea that the Iraqis would freely choose a government that would align itself with the US and its goals in the region. As the occupation continued, anti-American sentiment -- both toward the occupation and America's role in the world -- has only grown.

I would submit that virtually everything we've done in Iraq since mid-late 2003 has been an effort to obscure this fact. And our policy has been one of continuing the occupation to create the illusion that this reality was not in fact reality. In short, it was a policy of denial.

It's often been noted that we've had a difficult time explaining or figuring out just who we're fighting in Iraq. Is it the Sunni irreconcilables? Or is it Iran and its Shi'a proxies? Or is it al Qaida? The confusion is not incidental but fundamental. We can't explain who we're fighting because this isn't a war, like most, where the existence of a particular enemy or specific danger dictates your need to fight. We're occupying Iraq because continuing to do so allows us to pretend that the initial plan wasn't completely misguided and a mistake. If we continue to run the place a bit longer, the reasoning goes, we'll root out this or that problem that is preventing our original predictions from coming to pass. And of course the longer the occupation continues we generate more and more embittered foes to frame this rationalization around, thus creating an perpetual feedback loop of calamity and self-justification.

It's a huge distortion to say that this means the war was 'lost'. It just means what the war supporters said would happen didn't happen. The premise was bogus. Like I said at the outset, the whole exercise is like getting trapped in a brown paper bag. You can keep going into the bag and into the bag and into the bag and never get out or change anything. Or you can just turn around and walk out of the bag.

Of course, the damage that's been done over the last four years of denial is immense -- damage to ourselves, to the Iraqis, damage to Middle Eastern security and our standing in the world. So walking out of the bag isn't easy and it won't fix things. But the stakes alleged by the White House are largely illusory. Most of the White House's argument amounts to the threat that if we walk out of the bag that we'll have to give up the denial that the White House has had a diminishing percentage of the country in for the last four years. The reality though is that the disaster has already happened. Admitting that isn't a mistake or something to be feared. It's the first step to repairing the damage. What the president has had the country in for four years is a very bloody and costly holding action. And the president has forced it on the country to avoid admitting the magnitude of his errors.

-- Josh Marshall

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

2007-04-24T21:16:00.000-05:00

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

"Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree - domestically - as many other nations. Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government - the task of being aware of the constitution has been outsourced from citizens' ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors - we scarcely recognise the checks and balances that the founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled. Because we don't learn much about European history, the setting up of a department of 'homeland' security - remember who else was keen on the word 'homeland' - didn't raise the alarm bells it might have.

It is my argument that, beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society. It is time for us to be willing to think the unthinkable - as the author and political journalist Joe Conason, has put it, that it can happen here. And that we are further along than we realise."