Some People Never Learn

In Bob Woodward's new book about the Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice hastens to remind us just how blind and stupid they have been, no doubt to make sure that no one in his or her right mind could possibly pull that "Republican" lever in the voting booth this November or ever again. The precise quote is, "There are a lot of things if I could go back and do them differently, I would. But the one I would not do differently is, we should have liberated Iraq. I'd do it a thousand times again. I'd do it a thousand times again."

Condi! You have not liberated Iraq! You have destroyed Iraq and murdered hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children! You have nurtured a civil war for your own purposes and you have done so both cynically and incompetently!

A thousand times. Well, that's 4.1 million American deaths that Condi thinks would be worth it to pursue her policies in Iraq. That's 4 quadrillion dollars she would spend all over again to get rid of one of many dictators around the world (and one that we nurtured for years). That's ten million dead Iraqis (conservatively) and 4.7 billion Iraqis displaced and homeless. That's $4,000 per gallon gas! That's five thousand years of war! Cheap at the price, Condi would say in order not to repent her sins, but what have we gotten for it?

A Recession!

A broken military!

A President universally scorned!

An ongoing culture war!

A Constitution shredded!

Thanks, Condi, your conscience is clear.

Comments

[Berettasskeeter]

HuffPost's Pick

A Recession! Not only are we not in a recession, but the economy continues to grow. The formal definition has formal requirements that are not being met. Can you explain this?
A broken military! The military is not broken! As a vet, I'll tell you that you should thank God that we have a military that is so experienced. Our combat troops are 100% blooded, for all intents and purposes. What is broken is the Congressional appropriations process, which depends on the anti-military side of the Congress for movement, while the Republicans shout to the heavens about the time wasted!
A President universally scorned! Where does it say that our President must be universally loved? I, for one, am happy that the rest of the world looks at us warily, rather than taking us for granted as was done for several decades. Respect does not necessarily mean love!
An ongoing culture war! Sorry, this has been going on since before I joined the Marine Corps in 1970. This is nothing new, merely bigger!
A Constitution shredded! Can you name a single iota of the Constitution that has been overturned or abused? In spite of the screams from the Left, I haven't seen it at all!
Semper fi

[knighthowl]

This must have been chosen as a HuffPost's Pick because the reader mistook this for sarcasm.

Berettasskeeter means every word of this idiocy.

As to not having seen any portion of the Constitution abused, he is either blind or ignorant. Sadly, not many marines know the contents of the Constitution they were sworn to uphold. Likewise a certain President.

[LewisWalsh]

Quoted in Wikipedia, think that Jane Smiley sized this type fellow up quite nicely:

"The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry.­..I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 millions have not...Igno­rance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states...T­he error that progressives have consistently committed over the years is to underestimate the vitality of ignorance in America...­The history of the last four years shows that red state types, above all, do not want to be told what to do - they prefer to be ignorant. As a result, they are virtually unteachabl­e...Listen to what the red state citizens say about themselves, the songs they write, and the sermons they flock to. They know who they are - they are full of original sin and they have a taste for violence."

[Rascalitis]

What exactly does "100% blooded" mean? Aren't we all? Most people appreciate not having their blood shot out of their bodies.

[LewisWalsh]

The most unrealistic assessment of current realities that I've seen in some time.

[Mason]

Jane,

Check this out:

According to Jo Fish, a blogger at Firedoglake, Palin instituted a policy when she was the mayor of Wasilla that charges rape victims anywhere from $300 to $1200 for the rape kits that are routinely used to collect evidence. The story was first reported in the Frontiersman in May 2000. Here's the link.

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2000/05/23/news.txt

Quite a gal, huh?

[jylnc]

I hate the concept of war going back to World War II and the atom bombs dropped on two Japanese cities. I also lament the lives lost on both sides of the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts. They all happened under the guidance of the Democratic party. Mistakes were made, lives lost, and that is the tragedy of war. The Iraq war is just another sad chapter in our history. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat history. I can't believe the generation who went through the Viet Nam conflict ended up with the Iraq War. The only difference is the Republicans were in charge this time. Neither party is exempt from mistakes of war, neither party.

[castlerider]

Jane, I want to petition the Obama camp to have you be one of our speakers on the Sunday Morning talk news shows. YOu always have the right vitriolic answer for the ridiculous spin we get hammered down our throats constantly.
Would you please take the job if you get the call? Many who have been taking up the Dem side have been sorely lacking in cutting off their spin, and taking the truth back at 'em... We need you bad.

[gconners]

Condoleezza Rice was the National Security Advisor on 9/11/2001. I would really like to know why she wasn't fired! Instead, she got PROMOTED?? Maybe someone could help me here because I can't seem to find the archive anywhere, but I could have sworn she was on MTP 9/9/2001 and all she talked about was the missle-defense system. I don't remember anything about Osama Bin Laden or Islamic terrorism.

[rubinoff]

Condi, who????,,,,oh, yeah,...sh­e's out 'buying shoes.'

[hopeless277]

Heaven is a glorious place. A place so beautiful that no human mind can begin to imagine it. The most wonderful sections of Heaven are reserved for those who suffered most on Earth. Hence, the suffering of the Iraqi people guarantees them an even more beautiful afterlife. How can they believe in Allah and not wish for suffering and eternal life? Sending millions to Heaven is a proud tradition with conservative christians such as Bush and Rice. That they activly practice their faith is no crime.

[KareninSac]

Don't kill unborn children, but wait until they grow up and if they have brown skin or don't worship Jesus, kill them. That's the good ole' Republican American way, right?

"If McCain is president, China will invade us, call their loans due, and have us all working in their labor camps."

[martinspringfield]

"If McCain is president, China will invade us, call their loans due, and have us all working in their labor camps."

Now why don't Democrats run fear blurbs like that? More probable than anything coming out of Sarah Palin's mouth.

[MikeDu]

You've almost got it. Rebubs believe you should raise as many children as your loins can stand then as they come of age feed them like ground chuck into the gaping jaws of war. Doesn't Palin realize what she's done shipping one of her own off to war just so she could gain political points? Reports of 20,000+ military calls to suicide hotlines, tens... hundreds of thousands possible undiagnosed traumatic brain injuries from the occupation. Here in the Boston area I'm seeing more and more otherwise-fit young people on the street missing hands, feet, legs, eyes.

[nickwib]

I think you are being a little hard on the lady. Iraq was not her decision; she just does what her bosses tell her. That is why she has the job. I doubt she has had a single idea of her own in her life. She vacuums the carpets and polishes the furniture, how her bosses make their millions is no concern to her.

[Mason]

Your comment is sexist, of course, but if it's your opinion, you've seriously underestimated how dangerous she is. As Governor Sibelius pointed out a few days ago, Palin is the only small town mayor she has ever heard of who hired a federal lobbyist to acquire federal money to pay for small town projects. Palin began with a budget surplus and, despite the federal money, she turned it into a $22 million deficit. She also fired the head of the city library for refusing to sign-off on a loyalty oath after the librarian refused to consider banishing any books.

As Governor, Palin also supported Senator Ted Stevens's pork barrel project to build "the bridge to nowhere" and didn't announce her opposition to it until after the feds funded it. Then she denounced the project stating that the good people of the State of Alaska would build the bridge if, and when, it became necessary. Good press for which she claimed credit as a cost-cutting maverick unafraid of confronting powerful entrenched politicians, since Senator Stevens has been indicted by a federal grand jury. She would deserve accolades but for one inconvenient fact. She kept the money.

This woman is way smarter and more ruthless than Bush or McCain and no one should underestimate the threat that she will be to our Republic, if McCain is our next President and he fails to survive his term in office.

[chekhov]

Ms. Smiley:

Thanks for the post, which reaches to a related issue that has bothered me. For a long time, Saddam's "mass graves" were a neocon talking point. There were periodic accounts in the press of discovery of mass graves, but I am not aware of systematic reporting describing the full numbers and origins of these bodies. There has been adequate time for an accounting on this question, and perhaps you or others have the specifics that have escaped my notice. (I am excluding here casualties from the Iraq-Iran war.) Given my skepticism of this "mass graves" talk, I have been inclined to assume that our war has been responsible for more Iraqi casualties (civilian or otherwise) than Saddam's regime. Is this a true statement? I note in passing that Saddam was hanged for the casualties that he inflicted on the Iraqi people.

[RobHughey]

Excellent and well-put question. Does anyone have an answer and can show us where they got it?

[INDmind]

Keep it up. We need these reminders to help Congressional elections across the country.

[gettysburg]

" we should have liberated Iraq." Maybe or maybe not. But we didn't.

[LewisWalsh]

Most frightening to me, Jane, is how easy it seems for the GOP pied pipers to lull the public to acute collective amnesia by simply trotting out some new show pony. A proverb roughly translated from the Italian says that, "Each misfortune that comes along is not aimed at us, but at evil. Perhaps, the world would be better off with another weakened bankrupt super power.

[ProfessorDuh]

Maybe it's easy because a good number of American voters think they're going to "Rapture" and fly around in the air, like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. You can sell and do anything you want to people that stupid.

[MikeDu]

Yeh, we don't have to concern ourselves with global warming or endangered species because the Rapture is just around the corner. Funny, though, how the same logic doesn't seem to apply to corporate profits or protecting oligarch family wealth. Why would Ozarks trailer park dwellers be so concerned with the inheritance tax and top corporate tax rates anyway, Rapture or not?

[bugdog]

What do you expect? You have a nation full of drooling, TV watching idiots who think a god made the earth and want it taught in the schools.

Put down the pens and pick up the guns before it is too late.

[Bladernr1001]

I dispute that we hhave killed 10 million Iraqis. We have killed our enemy...th­e insurgents. Most of whom are not Iraqis.

[ProfessorDuh]

Look up the meaning of "insurgent­."

[RobHughey]

High-Five to ProfessorD­uh...

[gconners]

Please do. And Bladernr1001, try to remember the "insurgents" weren't our "enemy" until we attacked their country.