Map of the day.

Hat tip to John Cole.

Good question...

...from Glenn Greenwald...

How could any rational person expect their government to spend a full decade (and counting) invading, droning, cluster-bombing, occupying, detaining without charges, and indiscriminately shooting huge numbers of innocent children, women and men in multiple countries and not have its victims and their compatriots be increasingly eager to return the violence?

Heh™.

A somewhat bittersweet Heh™, perhaps, but Heh™ just the same. Fran. via After The Bridge...

It's not everything....

...but it's something. You could even call it change. President Obama...

“The one thing we have not done is we have not launched a war.”

Thanks for that, Mr. President.

Question?

No question. Not really. Steve Benen...

...there's no real question as to whether the country is better off now than in January 2009.

Then the nation was hemorrhaging jobs; now it's gaining jobs.

Then the economy was shrinking; now the economy is growing.

Then the American automotive industry was on the verge of collapse; now it's starting to thrive.

Then taxpayers were sending money to Wall Street; now taxpayers are being paid back.

Then Osama bin Laden was targeting Americans and our allies; now he's dead and al Qaeda's leadership has been decimated.

Then U.S. troops were headed into the Middle East in greater numbers; now they're headed home with their heads held high.

Yep. Individually, some of us may be treading water and some of us may be sinking, but as a nation, we're doing better.

No question.

Not really.

Not what digby said, exactly…

…but what David Atkins said over at digby's place...

Republicans are absolutely, 100% terrible on national security. Terrorist attacks happen on Republican watch. Wars are lost on Republican watch. The wrong countries get invaded for no reason on Republican watch. International terrorists run free on Republican watch.

Exactly.

And no small part of the reason that...

From the "Lessons learned" file.

Professor Sinhababu instructs...

If somebody kills thousands of American citizens, a Democratic president will kill him. A Republican president will kill thousands of unrelated people.

Keep that in mind. It'll come up in the final next November.

Another mission accomplished...

...another village saved. Via Obsidian Wings...




Not a pesky insurgent in sight!

I have here in my hand a list…

…a couple of 'em, actually, that I've lifted from Tensor...

Here’s a partial list of events which did not produce a flurry of public teabaggings:

1. Our Supreme Court appointing the loser of the 2000 elections to the Presidency
2. Warrantless wiretapping
3. Gitmo
4. Attacking a country which had nothing to do with 9/11, and could not have attacked us
5. Abu Ghraib

And here’s the entire list of things which did:

1. Black guy getting elected President, giving Democrats control of House, Senate, and Presidency, all in full accordance with our Constitution

Maybe we can petition for reparations.

After all, if anyone's democracy needs a little repair these days, it's ours. Fixer...

Like I've said since I began blogging here (6 years so far), the War on Terror was won on 12 September 2001 by Al Qaeda. They managed to turn the United States into a cowardly, bankrupt, quivering gelatinous mass. In our quest for "safety", we've willingly given up our civil rights and given the government almost complete control over our lives. We've thrown away our money in two theaters of war and given the rest to billionaires and corporations, yet we can't help out the worst off among us.

Back in the day there was a patch popular among Vietnam vets that read 'Second Place - SE Asia War Games.' Time to whip up something like that for the WOT.

Just the facts.

No fun. Via Truthdig...

The U.S. has now been fighting in Afghanistan longer than in any war in American history, including that other quagmire, Vietnam.

From the "Winning hearts and minds" file.

Reuters - Four Afghan civilians, including two children and a woman, were killed by U.S. forces in southern Kandahar city Saturday, a police official said.

Damn.

The wrong people get killed in every war, of course. That's one of the reasons that war should be the very last resort in problem solving, engaged in only the most desperate circumstances.

And another reason the the right way in Afghanistan is out.

It's time for...

It's time for...

A modest proposal…

…from Gordon.

One thing - these are not pictures of 'war dead'. They are photos of highly sanitized flag-draped aluminum containers that contain corpses or parts of corpses.

I have a suggestion. Put helmet cams on Army medics and Navy medical corpsmen. Little lipstick cams with a real-time satellite uplink. Raw footage available 24/7.

See what they see and hear what they hear...

Yep.

Sarah speaks.

Like any good thrill ride, part of the fun is that it's downright scary. An annotated overview of some early AP reporting...

In other words, no…

McCain has defended her qualifications, citing her command of the Alaska National Guard and Alaska's proximity to Russia. Asked whether those were sufficient credentials, Palin said: "It is about reform of government and it's about putting government back on the side of the people, and that has much to do with foreign policy and national security issues."

Or they may not...

She also said she had never met a head of state and added: "If you go back in history and if you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer that I just gave you."

Indisputably…

"There have been mistakes made."

Clarity. Sort of...

Asked to clarify that she'd support going to war over Georgia, she said: "Perhaps so."

Eyes wired open…

…you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can't blink. So I didn't blink then even when asked to run as his running mate."

As you can see, the requisite scariness is in abundant supply.

John McCain is a liar...

...and a Republican. But I repeat myself. Hubris Sonic...

John POW© McCain likes to tell this story about how one of his captors in the POW camp once drew a cross in the dirt in front of him in a show of Christian solidarity with his torture victim. A story he only started telling in 1999. It's a touching story, but I prefer the original version by Alexander Solzhenitsyn...

Why does anyone believe any of his war stories? Or anything he says, really.

(Apoligies to Mr. Clemens)

Good question…

…from Ed Kilgore.

How many wars, cold or hot, regional or global, are Americans really ready to undertake?

I'm guessing at least one less than John McCain wants to start.

(And I'm wondering, what if there were no rhetorical questions?)

Yep…

…pretty much. Gordon...

It's time to round up neocons, declare them enemy combatants, and jail them for life.

Me neither.

Steve Benen…

I don’t think the war’s over.

It's not a question of whether there's a war, but of which war, and whose wars they are. That's the problem with the "conditions on the ground" talk we hear. Among the conditions on the ground is the war caused by the presence of an occupying army. We can stop that war any time we like. There's another war, taking place on both military and political levels, that's ongoing but will likely intensify in our absence. That's a hard truth. Things in Iraq may well get very much worse before they get very much better, and there's likely nothing short of endless occupation we can do about that. We can't just wait out the conflicting forces. They live there. They have no where else to go.

Of course, even if we try to outlast the potential for post-occupation conflict, there will be at least two low intensity wars - a nationalist fight against occupation and a civil war between conflicting religious, ethnic and political interests looking for power, or a share of power, in a post-occupation Iraq.

Withdrawal won't be peace. It's a necessary first step, though.