June 27, 2003
Stuff and nonsense.
There's not much going on today that hasn't been more than adequately covered by other bloggers. I must post anyway, though, if only to push Whiner's ugly face down "below the fold," so it's not the first thing everyone sees. Yanking his chain is all fine, but seeing his face several times a day is enough to give me the runs.
So. Stuff that's happening.
According to Steve Gilliard at the Daily KOS, "things are getting worse" in Iraq, which comes as no great shock. Temperatures in Baghdad are in the 110's, nearly 120 and not only has the occupying power not gotten the electricity turned back on, what there was has been lost to sabotage. I saw at least one article today that, again, compared Iraq to Viet Nam, not in detail but in the general shape of things. Really, Iraq is becoming more like Viet Nam every day, as the US is pulled deeper into the quagmire and as Iraqis decide that they just want us out, and never mind about "nation building." As far as our soldiers are concerned, they would be ecstatic to do just that, leaving Iraq behind forever. Kos himself wonders, "How will servicemembers vote as GOP continues to screw them? I think I can make a pretty good guess, and it's not going to be for a Republican.
Meanwhile, about one American soldier a day comes home in a body bag.
Of course, how can the situation in Iraq not be expected, given what is going on in Afghanistan. The Taliban is coming back, our military there is ignored and embattled. Iraq is getting the attention, and Afghanistan is left to slowly crumble. The Taliban resurges, farmers return to growing poppies, Iran takes over the southern province of Herat in all but name, and we don't bother to pay attention. Our soldiers there have noticed our lack of attention, too, and don't like it. Sean-Paul of The Agonist was in Tashkent yesterday and encountered some US soldiers on leave. As one of them said,
Well, all you really need to know is that it’s fucked. The pockets of resistance get bigger all the time. Of course the press is obsessed with WMD, Iraq and tax-cuts. They don't give a shit about us guys bleeding in Afghanistan. Nor do the politicians. They got us into this crap and they aren't giving us the tools to fix it. We CAN solve this problem. … It’s getting bad there. And Mr. Bush don’t give a shit.
That about sums it up.
Another horror show that we're ignoring is going on in Africa. Try "Thousands of kids dying in Congo war." This horror show makes all the rest look pretty insignificant. Rape, murder, cannibalism, added to hunger and disease. The US pretty much ignores it, though, even as "Annan pleads for troops in East Congo." But we would rather pay attention to windshield trials, Scott Peterson and
campaigning for President.
On the home front, those of us who believe that all human beings have the same rights and should be treated equally are reasonably happy about the Supreme Court's ruling that overturned all the sodomy laws in the US, meaning that gay folks can have sex just like straight folks, without worrying about breaking the law. More significantly, it means that this "law-breaking" can no longer be used as an excuse to deny child custody to a gay parent or to otherwise disadvantage them. Of course, this leaves conservatives foaming at the mouth and predicting the "end of civilization as we know it." I refuse to link to any of them, but examples can be found in abundance. I wonder, though, just what it is that scares them so much. I can only conclude that in their complete ignorance they must think that allowing people who happen to be homosexual to live just like everyone else will somehow cause them to become gay. Or something. I admit that their rationale eludes me utterly, probably because while it may be their purported rationale, it isn't rational. Then, of course, there are the loony religious folk, who think that homosexuality is a "sin," that one becomes homosexual by "choice" and that it is possible to "cure" homosexuality. Basing their lives and belief systems on a fantasy, it's not surprising that they will react irrationally. I'll just be glad when those people finally force Bush into taking a stand, one way or the other. It's a decision that he can't win. Heh.
So now Bush is beating the drum for war with Iran. At a guess, it'll happen sometime in 2004. Like, say, October?