Comments on: More Insane Rantings from the Crazy Man in the Attic

By: brantl

brantl — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:15:06 +0000

I’ve often thought about introducing Dick Cheney to my “angry left”; I’d have to aim low, and wear a teflon glove to keep the stupid and ugly from sticking to my hand….

By: fatster

fatster — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:34:37 +0000

Forgot to add that Faulkner got another title from that MacBeth soliloquy: “The Sound and The Fury.”

By: bobschacht

bobschacht — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:09:44 +0000

David,
Welcome (back?) to the Lake!
bmaz has already answered your question, so I’ll only add this: The Taliban gov. of Afghanistan not only protected Bin Laden, but after 9/11 when the U.S. came knocking, what passed for the government of Afghanistan refused our demand to turn him over. That provided the casus belli.

Let me put it this way. Suppose a mafia don orders someone to be whacked, and the order is carried out, but in the process, the whacker dies. .The Mafia Don brags about the hit in public, but when the police come around, the Mafia Don takes refuge in the home of a city councilman with whom he has, shall we say, a close relationship. The FBI track him down and order the councilman to turn him over. City Councilman sez wait while I ask the city council, which is full of states’ rights folks who don’t trust the federales, or people who are on the take. So the CC meets, and most members resist this invasion of their space, so they decide to tell the FBI where to stick their arrest warrant.

So, what do you expect the FBI to do? Apologize to the city councilman for their intrusion and go home? I don’t think so.

Back in 2001-2002, I supported our intervention into Afghanistan. That support evaporated when BushCo decided to invade Iraq.

Now I think that our support for Afghanistan should consist of
(a) support for employment of Afghans working on humanitarian relief and other projects or which there is positive demand by Afghans;
(b) building schools and hospitals where Afghans want them built
(c) support for teachers and hospital staff who primarily serve afghans.

Bob in AZ

By: bmaz

bmaz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:08:19 +0000

You can, many have actually, argue that war is never justified; but that is not the point here. I think Swanson’s suggestion that there was no basis whatsoever is disingenuous. I do not think that we should still be in Afghanistan to the extent we are; not sure we should have ever gone it to the extent we did. But some action to root out al-Qaida was warranted and the Afghani people (to the extent there is even an Afghani people, which is really a misnomer, there are a bunch of tribes that are in a sector of land others have deemed “Afghanistan”) were complicit for allowing the Taliban and al-Qaida to flourish.

By: Leen

Leen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:04:53 +0000

A few of the people who attended the dinner. Joe Lieberman was there celebrating a trophy being given to a “felon’ as Chris matthews pointed out and an “unindicted war criminal’ as Ron Reagan pointed out on Hardball.

A partial attendees list
http://crooksandliars.com/bluegal/dick-cheney-free-speech-five-hundred-dolla

By: LizDexic

LizDexic — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:54:54 +0000

“Papa Dick” is EXCELLENT.

And the New York Times’ Helene Cooper reports this as,
“The White House and Cheney are at it again.”

By: Leen

Leen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:15:21 +0000

Watch this video and pass it on – Help End Dick Cheney’s Quagmire in Iraq
https://pol.moveon.org/donate/cheneyvideo.html

By: selise

selise — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:06:04 +0000

it is disingenuous to assert or imply that there was no causal link.

the causal link you refer to does not provide a moral justification for what we did any more than a few hamas rockets or attacks on israelis by some palestinians could ever justify what has been done to gaza.

causal link is to moral justification as apples are to oranges.

By: bmaz

bmaz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:45:32 +0000

You can quibble all you want about the efficacy and propriety of attacking Afghanistan, I might even join you in some of that; but it is disingenuous to assert or imply that there was no causal link. Al Qaida was headquartered in Afghanistan at the time and was specifically being sheltered, protected and supported by the “government” of Afghanistan at the time, such as it was.

By: David Swanson

David Swanson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:32:03 +0000

great work but gotta quibble with implication that the people of Afghanistan ever hit me or that the United States ever had any justification for bombing them

want to clarify that?