The first whimper is the one that comes after “not with a bang but…” — President Obama has announced all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of this year.
It really is good news, but it seems a bit … anticlimactic, yes? See also Digby, who points out that we’ve got the Mother of All Embassies in Baghdad, and it’s going to take a small standing (and probably mercenary) army to protect it.
Sell the bleepin’ embassy to a mall developer, I say. Who needs it?
The next whimper is from Eric Cantor, who canceled a speech at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business zchool today because he was afraid … of increased attendance? That’s what Ben Smith says … “Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring said the decision to cancel was made as a result of the increased attendance.”
“Increased attendance” may have referred to the this —
Occupy Philly, the Center for American Progress and Keystone Progress, in addition to Penn students, planned a protest outside the event with an expected crowd of 500 to 1,000.
The third whimper is more of a bleat — Lindsey Graham thinks we need to get people on the ground in Libya, fast, because there is money to be made there. And oil! Seriously. Just listen:
Via Annie Laurie, here is a partial transcript:
If we could have kept American air power in the fight it would have been over quicker. Sixty-thousand Libyans have been wounded, 3,000 maimed, 25,000 killed. Let’s get in on the ground. There is a lot of money to be made in the future in Libya. Lot of oil to be produced. Let’s get on the ground and help the Libyan people establish a democracy and a functioning economy based on free market principles.
Yes, let’s invade another Muslim country because it has oil. Charles Pierce:
Jesus H. Christ on a catamaran, he could’ve waited a couple of days.
But Senator Huckleberry Grabitall is an impatient fellow. There’s oil under them that corpses, and it’s by god our oil, so we should just go in and drink that damn milkshake before our plucky allies decide that, just because it’s under their sand, they have some sort of legal right to the stuff. Sorry so many of them got killed — Psst! A lot more of them would have been alive if Mighty Man Me had been running things — but we’re past all that now. Sweep ’em aside and let’s go to work.
Sometimes I wonder if people like Huckleberry actually know how ludicrous they sound, not merely to us, but to the rest of the world. Right now, whatever government exists in Libya is rolling bandages, collapsing from exhaustion, and just trying to keep seven or eight light bulbs burning at once. That’s okay, though, because Senator Huckleberry wants to air-drop the Economics Department from the University of Chicago in there to set up a “government based on free-market principles” — which, in this case, means don’t even think about nationalizing your own oil, Achmed.
Elsewhere — Rupert Murdoch could be whimpering after some of his investors get hold of him.
I’m sure Lindseed has some experience at ‘leading from behind.’
Unless of course, I’m wrong and it’s not ‘leading,’ but being the recipient of being led from behind.
NTTAWWT, of course!
Jesus, Linseed, just wait a few days before you decide to fellate Big Oil!
At least give the poor Libyan people a day or two to dream that they accomplished something besides letting you and your corporate bud’s to look at another country as the newest entry into 21st Century Manifest Destiny.
DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Air power is “impartial” isn’t it? Bombs tend to take the “God will know his own” approach. Certainly the wounded, maimed and killed are regrettable, to say the least, but does anyone have any statistics or other reliable indication that casualties might have been lower if more bombs were dropped?
I’m sure Lindseed has some experience at ‘leading from behind.
That’d be my quess also…. 🙂
We don’t even bother to hide our greed anymore, not even for a little while.
Hmmmm. A few years ago a post like this would have garnered 80+ comments at Hullabaloo. What happened to Digby’s loyal following?
Funny how Graham didn’t wring his hands over how we were going to find the money for all this spending in Libya, isn’t it?
As for Cantor, “afraid” isn’t a word we use nearly enough about Republicans, but they really are afraid of pretty much everything but talking to Fox News or Fox News-lite: In related news, a diary over at dKos points out that big, tough, straight-talkin’ Herman Cain gave a speech in Detroit today, and somehow forgot to tell the people in a state with a poverty rate of 37.6 percent and a child poverty rate of 53.6 percent that if they didn’t have a job and weren’t rich it was their own damn fault.
The big whimper (in my book) is Canter running from a direct confrontation with an ‘Occupy’ protest group. The GOP is worried about this election turning into the ‘haven’t v ‘have nits’ where the republicans have clearly sided with the 1%.
Expect the powers-that-be will trot out the tea party soon and say ‘these bums are even poorer than OWS demonstrators – and they’re dumber, too.’
We’re still leaving our wallet in Iraq.
Bombs tend to take the “God will know his ownâ€
Yeah, smart bombs..they’re so smart that they can detect a civilian from a terrorist and get the terrorist every time. I don’t know how they do it,but I was always amazed at how they managed to kill only terrorist.
For all the quirks evident with the ‘Buffoon” who ruled Libya, he managed to keep the banking and oil cartels at bay; his people and countrymen were not shackled by usury, and had free access to medical care and education.Not ‘zactly “freedom”, but pretty damned good for an African nation.
Weather or not we agree on his antics or method of rule, I think we can all agree that his execution was more than ideal for those who have the helm of power;
DEAD MEN TELL NO INCONVIENIENT TALES.
Liberation is near, and the “markets” will soon be open. At least so long as the “remnants” decide to roll over.
Bombs destroy all things, and it matters not if they are delivered by “saints” or “sinners”. There is a video out there (which I will not link to) showing a pair of children impacted by the bombing. The little boy’s jaw is terribty mangled, the girl’s foot hangs by a thread. They were “hurt”, woulded” or something.
I would describe the wounds as “mangled”, a term the press seems to avoid.
My view of the whole Libyan / Nato affair is not positive, I share the opinion of Pepe Escobar, again, I will not provide a link.
There will soon come a day when the American population will stand back and actually admit that all these wars of “liberation” are more about opening up markets with the added bonus of demonstrating to the world the consequences of denying the powerful.
And rest assured, there will be no NATO “liberation” of Tibet or no big push to rebuild Haiti, which could have been rebuilt 10 times over with what was spent in Libya.
Soon , we will hear the sabres rattling again because there is still Syria and Iran to deal with, and as the old PNAC mantra goes, “Real Men Go To Iran”,
Well, let those real men lead the charge.On foot. With a holy pistol.
Fat chance, cuz they would ruin their manicures……………..
Yeah Swami, even our bombs are exceptional.
Freeman Dyson, who analyzed bombing data for in the RAF during WWII (the big one) remarked that for undefended targets “smart bombs” were indeed somewhat more accurate, but for defended targets their accuracy was no better than conventional bombs. (I believe this observation was in Wim Kayzer’s “A Glorious Accident”. But, I might be misrememberizing.)
If the bombs were truly smart and knew who the real bad guys were … well maybe we could write a “Twilight Zone” about it.
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