Overstretched military? Never mind!

In today's Guardian, Jonathan Freedland writes about Bush starting a new cold war. An excerpt:

Say what you like about George Bush, but no one can accuse him of following the crowd. When everyone from the American electorate to the US military brass, along with a rare consensus of world opinion, cries out with one voice to say "enough" of the war in Iraq, Bush heads in the opposite direction - and decides to escalate. When his army chiefs complain of desperate overstretch in the war on terror, he takes that as his cue to open up another front. And that's just this week.

On Sunday night the US military launched an air strike - not on Iraq or Afghanistan, but on southern Somalia. Some reports last night claimed that the bombing has continued ever since. If you didn't know that Somalia was on the enemies' list - if you're finding it hard, what with Syria and Iran and North Korea, to keep track of Washington's foes, don't blame yourself. These days the axis of evil is expanding faster than the European Union, with a couple of new members added every January.

Comments

[ainelivia]

Before this "war" began we were in Kuala Lumpur visiting TC's family. The war came up in conversation and one of my sister's in law said: "CNN says that everyone in the UK is for the war". Duh?? I was gob-smacked. No-one I knew was in agreement with this war. My response? "What does CNN know about public opinion in the UK."

But, hang on a sec, maybe that's how this works; the media tells us we support it, we believe the media, and the government gathers their view of public opinion from the media, it's cheaper and easier than actually listening to voters I suppose. Maybe it's not just the governments we need to change?

[AscenderRisesAbove]

michael moore suggests sending the people who voted for him; thought that was worth a chuckle
www.michaelmoore.com

[Colette]

And in the midst of this, I saw two headlines one below the other:

Americans overwhelmingly against the war

McCain pinning his hopes to run for President on sending more troops to Iraq.

So McCain is now a dictator as well???

[Becca]

I have become afraid to turn on the news in the morning - who/where will we be attacking next? I barely recognize my country anymore.

[giggles]

OMG....WHAT NEXT? Thank fully there are those as yourself to keep people informed!!

Peace giggles

[Tammy]

What's frightening is we don't have enough troops for all these "enemies" and I see a draft coming...scary!

[tongue in cheek]

Talk about confusing! I cannot understand how he imagines peace when what he offers is war.

[ally bean]

"... if you're finding it hard, ... , to keep track of Washington's foes, don't blame yourself."

To me that's the crux of my problem. I can't keep up with Bush's latest schemes and I feel stupid/frustrated by the whole topic so I tend to lose interest. Which I suppose is what Bush wants most Americans to do, so that we'll just ignore him and he can do what he wants.

But I keep on trying to figure out what the heck he's up to. And then I'm really sad when I find out. It seems like such a lose-lose proposition to me.

[Alina Popescu]

Well, at least we are a couple of new members now, not "two countries from the poorest region in Eastern Europe!" A bit off topic I know, but I am starting to have issues with this :)

As for Bush, I no longer try to comprehend. I cannot imagine how Somalia suddenly became a threat of ultimate importance.