I have so many thoughts going through my head I don’t know what to write about. I just know that I need to write or it’ll be another sleepless night. I want to start by saying in my last post I wrote about the vice presidential debate from the perspective of only listening to it on my car radio while I was heading home from the doctor’s office. Also, I only heard about half of the debate. Since then I have had the chance to see almost all of it on video and it was almost more than I could stomach. Especially after listening to John McCain at a rally shouting out something like, “Did you see Sarah Palin last night?” and as the republican crowd cheered, “How about that Sarah Palin!” and then one of those hideous giggles from McCain that would even put GW Bush to shame almost made me gag. And the republican audience he was speaking to just sucked it right up. We have big problems in this country! As one of McCain’s advisors said early on, “We’re going to make this campaign about personalities and not about issues.” As stupid as that statement seems, that is exactly what they’re doing and the republicans, starving for someone to cheer for, are doing the same thing they did in 2000 with GW. The fact that their candidates are incompetent seems to be irrelevent. You would think, considering the state of our country both economically and in its world standing, their own self-interests would lead them to want someone with a brain in the White House.
As I watched Palin winking at me as she answered something other than the question which had been posed, and doing so quite confidently (and repeatedly,I might add), I realized that she had been coached to just say anything and pretend like it’s meaningful no matter what was asked of her. And she had a quiver full of one liners that she shot out at random – like, “Say is aint so, Joe!” When I heard the references to “Joe six-pack,” “Hockey moms,” and other folksy bull s@#$ all the while with this unbelievable painted on smile, I realized that she was the perfect candidate to run with McCain. She might be new to the ticket, but she’s an expert at looking you in the eye and shamelessly lying, in a way that should make GW proud. Also, she definitely draws a crowd. The so-called republican base who got energized because she is definitely anti-abortion are coming out in droves and the democrats and independents are looking on, I think, just to see if what they’ve been hearing about someone completely incompetent running for vice president could possibly be true. Well, it is true and it is a bit scary thinking that the republicans have stolen two elections and knowing that if they pulled it off twice, they could do it again. That is why, to me, this election has to be anti-republican. We need two parties, but the only republicans I would consider voting for would be the ones who reject the Bush doctrine – both internationally and domestically.
The good news in that regard is that there seems to be a solid group of “conservative” republicans in the house that are willing to reject Bush and hopefully McCain/Palin. At least on the Wall Street bailout bill there were over 100 who voted against Bush/Paulson/Cheney/McCain (and I’m sorry to say Obama) along with about 60 democrats. With the economy in the shape its in, I can’t imagine why anyone would consider voting for McCain/Palin. Neither one has a clue about what is going on and we would end up with the likes of Phil Gramm and associates running the economy should McCain succeed in stealing this election. This bailout bill is just one more example of how low McCain will go. First he “suspended” his campaign so that he could return to Washington and “solve” the crisis. The result of that was the first plan (which he hadn’t read) falling apart. He even took credit for getting the republicans “onboard” before the original vote when they banded together to defeat Paulson’s initial proposal. He then supported the modified version that passed only because a bunch of “pork,” you know the earmarks he so detests, was added to the bill to “persuade” enough of the no votes to change their mind. I haven’t heard any commentary on the irony of that.
On top of his self-centered and disengenuous claims about his role in the economic crisis (that he helped create along with a plethora of republicans who believe that the government is the enemy) he continues to claim responsibility for the so-called surge in Iraq, which he says is leading us to “victory” in that occupation. Of course, he had nothing to do with the surge, other than the role of cheerleader because the thought of accepting that we made a huge mistake, like we ultimately had to do in Viet Nam, is unacceptable to him no matter if Iraq bankrupts our country and no matter how many more troops have to die for Bush’s blunder. Due to our economy being in meltdown the Iraq “war” has made it to the back pages of any newspaper that is still paying attention. Therefore, the public is pretty much unaware of anything that is going on over there. The thought of a hot head like McCain (he is really showing what a grumpy, tempermental “dude” he is as the campaign unfolds) and an air head like Palin (I appoligize to all my female friends for that last characterization, but I’m calling it as I see it) in charge of this war and the destabilized world that Bush has created should scare even the most rabid of republicans, let alone the rest of us.
The reduction of violence in Iraq, as far as I can tell, is the result of two distinct things, neither one of them related to the surge. First, in around August of 2006 (approximately one year prior to the surge troops being deployed) the Americans started arming and paying Iraqi Sunni’s to take the fight to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. These were insurgents who had been killing American troops and now their attention was diverted to Al Qaeda. Secondly, somewhere around the end of 2006 Moqtada al Sadr ordered his Mehdi army to cease fire. The Iraqi government temporarily went after Sadr’s forces in Southern Iraq after the surge troops were in place, only to be soundly defeated, causing them to initiate a “cease fire” to a conflict that they had started. Whether the US, along with the Maliki government, like it or not, Moqtada al Sadr has a following of somewhere close to 2 million Iraqi’s or more. This lull in violence is very likely temporary.
As I’ve written previously, I believe it is a bit naive to expect these Sunni tribes to lay down their arms and accept a government ruled by Shia who are bitter enemies and want nothing more than revenge against those who supported Saddam Hussein for all those years and have so much Shia blood on their hands. If the US stops paying these “Awakening” Iraqis – again, they were killing Americans before we bought them off – I find it hard to believe they are going to just lay down the arms we gave them and go away. To me, it’s kind of like Bush’s management of our economy, just hoping that over time some miracle happens and they all live peacefully “ever after.” Additionally, Sadr is in Iran and within three years, by the accounts I’ve read, will attain the designation (I’m not sure if that’s the correct word) of Grand Ayatolla. I have no doubt that his intention is to return to Iraq after the US leaves (or before if McCain should somehow win the election) with the ultimate goal to institute a Shia led theocracy similar to Iran. Of course, when this happens, if the “battle” with the Sunni’s that we have armed to the teeth hasn’t happened yet, it will probably happen then. The ultimate result of Bush’s misadventure into Iraq will be a Iraq/Iran coalition that will totally tip the balance of power in the middle east away from the US’s interests.
We can’t afford “more of the same.” We can’t afford McCain/Palin in the White House. Even republicans should be able to see this. There are so many other reasons why, but trying to fix the problem in Iraq/Afganistan/Pakistan will require a completely different approach to our foreign policy. There is hope if Obama is elected, but he is going to have to be willing to make some tough decisions and he is going to have to act like a statesman. Returning the moral authority of our nation needs to be a top priority. He will have to be doing this while, at the same time, taking extreme steps to restore the fundamentals of our economy. He is going to have to be willing to challenge the American people to sacrifice. This idea that we just keep “cutting taxes” has to be debunked. The trickle down economists have brought us to the brink of bankruptcy as a nation and on top of that, Bush has nearly destroyed our military along with our standing in the world.
As I listened and watched Palin the other night, I thought maybe these people don’t “get” how bad things are. How could they possibly think that Sarah Palin has any idea how to solve these major problems. She couldn’t even connect the script she was given with the right questions. When she answered the question about what the McCain/Palin administration would cut due to the money spent on the Wall Street bailout with an answer about how she was an expert on energy and how Alaska had a lot of oil, or something of that sort, I actually shuddered. I hoestly can’t even believe that I’m having this discussion. The republican party, starting with Reagan and then with the two Bushes, along with a little help from Clinton (he went along with a lot of deregulating) have driven this country to the verge of bankruptcy. And the nomination of McCain/Palin in the face of all these crises has proved that the Republican Party is bankrupt.