Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Incompetence rules


The outrageous scandal of NSA and CIA intel collection and use is a serious problem but, even  more serious, is the growing violence in the Middle East.
The Bush invasion of Iraq was not the cause of this violence but it was the catalyst.  The consequential uprisings from Tunisia to Libya to Egypt to Syria were labeled the Arab Spring.  That always sounded like a marketing term, a typical American approach to a serious undergrowth of religious and political resentment.
President Obama couldn't keep from involving our country in all of these conflicts.  He has bungled every intervention.
The latest error was approving the shipment of 1300 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia. What are they for and who will use them?  And against whom shall they be used?
Now there is talk about firing weapons at or in Syria.  Why?
Another war for America.   Just what we need.
Eight years of George Bush.  Five years of Barack Obama.  Two of the most incompetent and dangerous Presidents I can remember.  And Obama has three more years to go.  What will be left to pick up and rebuild with?
Question: where did Syria get the chemical weapons? 
UN inspectors are in Iraq to assess the truth of the matter.  Some American officials say we can't wait for a report.  Secretary of State Kerry says it doesn't matter what the report might be.  We must act.
Where have I heard this before?  Oh yeah, the WMD's in Iraq.  Remember the mushroom cloud?

Eagle Valor, Chicken Mind 

Unhappy country, what wings you have!  Even here,
Nothing important to protect, and ocean-far from  the
nearest enemy, what a cloud
Of bombers amazes the coast mountain, what a hornet-
swarm of fighters,
And day and night the guns practicing.

Unhappy, eagle wings and beak, chicken brain,
Weep (it is frequent in human affairs), weep for the terrible
magnificence of the means,
The ridiculous incompetence of the reasons, the bloody and
shabby
Pathos of the result.

Robinson Jeffers (American poet)
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