The second page, while eating, lunch at Chin's, which had TVs on the news, and the fortune cookie said, "Those who laugh loud also cry hard":
The third page, I'm home, watching the television as the President informs us of what millions of Americans are doing, quietly, inside our head:
The fourth page, I'm still watching TV, and the President inspires readiness....
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36 comments:
This post begins in a cafe, but it is not a "cafe" post.
Not an open thread. Specific topic.
In 2003 super majorities of Americans supported the Iraq war and almost every major politician voted to go forward.
As late as 2010 politicians like Obama and Biden were lauding Iraq as a great success and noting the progress that was made.
WMD's were found and destroyed. Tons of Uranium were shipped to Canada.
History is being rewritten every day by the left.
I remember how I felt: We're doing this and trusting those who were in power to be in the best position to make a decision and needing support because they were committing to it.
Did we get victory?
First you have to define victory.
We have no consensus on what it is.
Ann Althouse said...
I remember how I felt: We're doing this and trusting those who were in power to be in the best position to make a decision and needing support because they were committing to it.
A few years into the Iraq war we started using electronic surveillance to hunt down Al Quaeda. By 2008/9 after Al Quaeda was quickly destroyed in Iraq they moved us to afghanistan where we used the same tactics against the taliban. After a few years all Taliban leadership was dead or hiding in Pakistan.
But things changed in 2009. Leadership started to emphasize different priorities. By 2010 we were running a strict catch and release program.
It was also around that time the tactics we were using overseas were being turned on a different target. American Citizens.
Bush started it with abuse of the patriot act. Obama was spying on political opponents in mass by the end.
You all are going to learn some crazy shit soon.
“.... then I’ll get on my knees and pray, we won’t get fooled again.”
David said...
Did we get victory?
First you have to define victory.
We have no consensus on what it is.
That is because a good number of people in this country hate this country and want it to fail.
The best part of the Obama years for them was the pathetic economic growth and the declining standards of living for the middle class.
It is why they are so angry the economy, without them, is growing again.
They wanted us to lose. Obama clearly wanted more of us killed and he clearly wanted the Taliban to win.
"In 2003 super majorities of Americans supported the Iraq war and almost every major politician voted to go forward."
Immaterial to whether the war was right or justified. We were lied to and most Americans believed the lies. (Many didn't, though.)
"As late as 2010 politicians like Obama and Biden were lauding Iraq as a great success and noting the progress that was made."
Immaterial to whether the war was right or justified or a success. Obama and Biden were/are just establishment Washington politicians selling the same lies and bullshit their compatriots in the previous administration were selling.
"WMD's were found and destroyed. Tons of Uranium were shipped to Canada."
No WMD were found...except for forgotten, aging remnants of the WMD Hussein had lost track of or forgotten about when he destroyed the great majority of his WMD stocks years before. The massive, fresh stocks Bush/Cheney lied to us were being manufactured at that time never existed.
"History is being rewritten every day by the left."
It's being rewritten right now, by you.
"I remember how I felt: We're doing this and trusting those who were in power to be in the best position to make a decision and needing support because they were committing to it."
I certainly didn't feel that way. I was completely perplexed how an attack by stateless criminals on the USA had turned into a campaign to fabricate a war against Iraq. And it was obviously a fabrication at the time.
I remember being dubious but hoping for the best. Our leaders surely had more information. We were told the war was about WMD but the war was also deliberately sold in a way to influence many people into believing that Iraq had something to do with 9-11. Hard for me to believe GW Bush could have been completely unaware of what he was getting into. What was it about? Eventually it was about confronting "(radical Islamic) terrorism" over there so we wouldn't have to do it here. Not that violent jihad has anything to do with Islam. That's where we are now.
Robert Cook said...
I certainly didn't feel that way. I was completely perplexed how an attack by stateless criminals on the USA had turned into a campaign to fabricate a war against Iraq. And it was obviously a fabrication at the time.
The US was in a shooting war with Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion and even George Bush's election. If you disagree, ask yourself: why we don't put a blockade on N Korea? (Answer: it's an act of war.)
Bin Laden in his Second Fatwa 1998 specified three the reasons for the 9-11 attack, two of them related to Iraq: the military "containment" of Iraq and the need to service that military containment with a US military infidel presence in the "land of two cities" (i.e., Saudi Arabia).
This fatwā complains of American military presence in the Arabian Peninsula, the blockade of Iraq and American support for Israel. It purports to provide religious authorization for indiscriminate killing of Americans and Jews everywhere. It appeared in February 1998 and the embassy bombings followed in August.
but the war was also deliberately sold in a way to influence many people into believing that Iraq had something to do with 9-11.
Could you please provide one link - or statement - from any Bush Administration official that claimed Iraq was in any way responsible for 9/11.
Not links from people claiming Bush Administration people were saying it. An actual statement, comment or claim.
Thank you.
Robert Cook said...
"WMD's were found and destroyed. Tons of Uranium were shipped to Canada."
No WMD were found...except for forgotten, aging remnants of the WMD Hussein had lost track of or forgotten about when he destroyed the great majority of his WMD stocks years before. The massive, fresh stocks Bush/Cheney lied to us were being manufactured at that time never existed.
There were warehouses full of shit. I saw the ISR feeds of the truck convoys driving to Syria.
You may believe what you are saying but it is complete bullshit.
"History is being rewritten every day by the left."
It's being rewritten right now, by you.
I was there. You were not. I saw the reports. The photos. The buildings. There were even stories in the news.
I hate Bush almost as much as Obama. Both have allowed this fiction to grow. And there are always people like you who will soak up whatever the state media tells you. I am convinced Bush and Obama worked together to turn the ME into as much of a festering shit hole as possible. The Bush clan obviously supported Hillary.
Why the fuck are these people trying to get Iran nuclear weapons? Why did they turn Libya into a slave market?
What is going on in Saudi Arabia right now is an amazing story. And it took someone outside the deep state to start it. If you want to be anti-war then start championing what is going on now between Israel and Saudi Arabia and Egypt. That has better prospects than the Iraq invasion did.
The only obstacle to a reformation in the ME is Iran. Why is the deep state supporting Iran?
Hopefully this is considered on topic.
I have mentioned this before when Althouse has posted her sketches and drawings, but I will repeat myself: Althouse is very good with the pen.
Some of her previous posts have had a heavy hand in the blacks, and it is interesting to see these sketches with an airier touch (the cafe illo, and the left side of the second illo).
The cafe illustration is very nice. Open line, clean, capturing what is needed, confident, not adding extra detail to 'sell' the drawing. Nice composition inside the page -- no sense of running out of space and cramming in an element to fit.
Simple lines, with no hesitation marks. The backs of the chairs are great in a what-is-drawn/what-is-not-drawn way.
The illo on the left side of the second page shares these characteristics, but with a tighter feel: the line captures angles without feeling like there are corners disrupting the flow. Really love the inline arm and hand, and the downward face/hair: gives the essence of lighting, without resorting to fills of shadow. This is one of my favorites of what I have seen of Althouse's posted work.
The other drawings are well done, too, but don't want to fill out more paragraphs.
I work in graphics, and have been digital-based for years; not much time for the pen. But I still love a clean hand-drawn pen line, and the visual feel of pen on paper.
Thanks for showing.
The Germans have a word for this.
There were supposedly contacts attack had with baathist officialsin plague, afterthe first months of the war, archives revealed
The regimes to Egyptian jihad, Algerian terrorist and hezbollah
Led
Perhaps the worst thing to come out of the Iraq war was the loss of political capital needed to push through reforms responsive to the warnings and reforms coming from his own administration about the housing bubble and the financial crisis.
Did Bush press less hard over the course of his term because he thought he could buy some goodwill from congressional Democrats while they exploited war casualties for political gain?
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=84704
"'but the war was also deliberately sold in a way to influence many people into believing that Iraq had something to do with 9-11.'
"Could you please provide one link - or statement - from any Bush Administration official that claimed Iraq was in any way responsible for 9/11."
That's not what he said. He said, correctly, that the war was deliberately sold in such a way to convince people into believing Saddam had something to do with 9/11. And this is true. Many Americans did think Saddam was responsible for or complicit with 9/11, and many soldiers who signed up to go fight in the war believed this as well.
They simply mentioned Saddam along with Osama or the term 9/11 often enough that--without ever stating Saddam was responsible--they created the impression in many people's minds he was involved. Given that many Americans were angry and traumatized by 9/11, simply hearing Hussein mentioned do often imprinted in their minds the belief that he was wholly or partially responsible for 9/11. The Bush administration did this intentionally, as they wanted to go to war and needed a justification. This is what propaganda does, and we invented it. The Nazis admired and studied our propaganda techniques to learn how to do it.
"I was there. You were not. I saw the reports. The photos. The buildings. There were even stories in the news."
But you didn't see WMD, and stories in the news, as you know, are not always true.
George W. never looked good when making a public statement and reading from the teleprompter, but why did AA draw him as so young and wishy-washy looking?
Althouse started a notebook which started the whole world crying...
And then I started a joke which started the whole world crying
But I didn't see that the joke was on me....
Great sketchwork!!
And I thought the rat drawings were impressive...
Your art is much better and less political than Jim Carrey's.
I'd encourage you to post more of your work here for us to enjoy.
I can tell who you are drawing.
The first step to great art.
Congrats!
Robert Cook said...
I certainly didn't feel that way. I was completely perplexed how an attack by stateless criminals on the USA had turned into a campaign to fabricate a war against Iraq. And it was obviously a fabrication at the time.
You are correct Mr Cook, about Iraq. Let me also add that Afghanistan, Sadam Hussein and bin Laden weren't the problem either. Islam is the problem, and Islam attacked us. Unfortunately, there isn't a politician around who would say what I just said, and that's why we are currently in this predicament.
Best lesson that we learned from Bush's Iraq War II was losing our beliefs that any Muslim culture wants to become a western Democracy with equal rights for its captive women bad enough that it will fight Jihadist death squads.
That myth was totally destroyed, only to be resurrected by the Obama/Clinton Gang as their excuse for the next CIA sponsored Arab Spring. By plan it lost our newest ally Libya and nearly lost our strongest ally Egypt.
No wonder I've followed this blog for 10 years. Adorable.
Surprising, you were wrong again. What are the odds:
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/10/16/new-york-times-reports-wmd-found-in-iraq
No WMD were found? First you have to define WMD. What modern military doesn't have at least SOME WMD?
"No WMD were found...except...".
That's a funny way to say no. Reminds me a lot of yes.
Cui bono ? Iran, probably.
This pretty cool..charcoal kinescope.
The drawing on the first page of your sketchbook reminds me quite a bit of Evelyn Waugh's illustrations to his first novel, "Decline and Fall." Don't know if you see a resemblance; aside from the clean lines, I think it's the way you have incomplete drawings (trees, chairs) stand in for the complete objects.
Decline and Fall 1
Decline and Fall 2
Decline and Fall 3
Multi-talented!
<>
"Surprising, you were wrong again. What are the odds"
You obviously didn't read the article I linked to, or notice that I already acknowledged that we found old remnants of WMD that had been forgotten and lost track of.
I remain, as always, correct on this matter.
Here's how they sold us the war in Iraq.
"No WMD were found? First you have to define WMD. What modern military doesn't have at least SOME WMD?"
Correct, you are!
However, in the modern parlance, WMD refer specifically to weapons that create, ahem, mass destruction and death. Poison gas and nerve agents are typically included under the term "WMD," because a soldier doesn't have to be hit by a bullet to be harmed. He may be sitting elsewhere nearby, and the poison gas or nerve agent can be carried to him by the breeze and kill him. (Actually, such weapons are not nearly as effective on the battlefield as they are depicted.)
To be general and truthful, all modern weapons of warfare are WMD in terms of their lethal capabilities. However, to be specific, only nuclear weapons really fit the term as it is intended.
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