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meegbear

(25,438 posts)
Mon Mar 3, 2014, 01:32 PM Mar 2014

The Rude Pundit: Look to Bush and Iraq, Not Obama and Syria ...

If You Think the U.S. Has Lost Influence in the World

The Rude Pundit woke up this morning, still trying to figure out what Matthew McConaughey's koans on the Oscars meant. He realized that, like every good practitioner of bloggery, like every so-called pundit on every so-called news show on every so-called news network, he was required to say something about Russia's invasion of the Crimea part of the Ukraine. "Well, fuck me," the Rude Pundit thought, "what the fuck do I know?" In general, sure, he thinks it's a bad idea to invade other countries just because you don't like how they're lookin' at you.

So he did a bunch of readin', lookin' shit up, learnin', checkin' out what people had to say about the situation, what they thought about President Obama's reaction, what the hell the whole thing's about. And, after an hour or so, the Rude Pundit sat back with his mug of coffee and thought, "I know enough to say some stupid shit that will make it sound like I know what the fuck I'm talkin' about." But he'd be lying if he pretended to understand much beyond "it's a bad idea to invade other countries..." He's no scholar of the 600 years of history behind the conflict between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples. He knows that his Russian students hate it when someone thinks they're Ukrainian and vice-versa.

The best things he read, to his mind, found the whole situation more or less a clusterfuck of ego, economic empire building, and nose-thumbing. Otherwise, the Rude Pundit concluded that he would be a fool to think that he had anything useful to say about any of it. Except this:

One consistent theme throughout the coverage of Ukrainegate (why not?) is that President Barack Obama is a big, wet pussy getting roughly fucked by the manly man Vladimir Putin. Obama drew a red line over Syria that he had to back down from, they say, because Putin stepped in to help get rid of Syria's chemical weapons, so Russia felt free to ignore Obama's red line on the Ukraine last week. Obama is naive or inexperienced or dumb or incompetent or some combination of those, others bitch. "Weak" and "indecisive," as Senator Lindsey Graham said, essentially repeating what he tells the young South Carolina twinks he picks up who are unsure if they wanna fuck an old man's ass.

There's one thing the Rude Pundit knows for sure about President Obama. He never came out of a meeting with Vladimir Putin and said, "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul." That is what the last president of the United States, one George W. Bush, said in June 2001 at a press conference with the ex-KGB spy standing next to him. Democrats criticized Bush at the time (as did some conservatives), but they didn't go bugnuts condemning him as a throbbing vagina. They just thought it was weird. And anyone could see that Putin was conning the rube. As Joe Biden said then, "I don't trust Putin; hopefully the president was being stylistic rather than substantive." But what does Biden know?

The other thing that the Rude Pundit knows is that President Bush started a war in Iraq by lying not just to the American people, but to the leaders of nations around the world about weapons of mass destruction. Remember the "Coalition of the Willing," the countries that were led by credulous fools or easily cowed wimps or the bribe-able who agreed to help in some way with the completely worthless attack on a sovereign nation? This ain't "Blame Bush" only. It's geopolitical history, motherfuckers. The shame of it all is that the people who helped engineer our slow demise in world influence, like Graham and John McCain, are still allowed to act as if they know what's best for the nation.

Now, the Iraq War may seem a distant memory for most of us in America because we've got the attention span of a gerbil on meth. But the rest of the world might think the United States is full of shit and approach things a great deal more cautiously, even if it's Obama in the White House (who has got to be seen as failing on that whole Nobel Peace Prize legacy).

(By the way you know who opposed the Iraq War? Yeah, soul-eyed boy Vladimir Putin. He reamed out Bush repeatedly over it. No matter what the motivation behind the opposition was, who was right? Bush or Putin? The United States or Russia?)

Whatever happens in the Ukraine will be dictated primarily by how much of a power play Putin is after (or, you know, so the Rude Pundit thinks after his one-hour of research). Obama's limited in how he can respond, not only because we're not fuckin' going to war with Russia, but because the rest of the goddamn planet thinks we're a bunch of assholes who need to pay a goddamn price for dicking everyone over.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2014/03/look-to-bush-and-iraq-not-obama-and.html
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sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
1. He IS Rude, but he's right. No one has a clue about the history of that region of the world
Mon Mar 3, 2014, 01:50 PM
Mar 2014

but it hasn't stopped them from wanting to rush in and straighten out hundreds of years of history.

The shame of it all is that the people who helped engineer our slow demise in world influence, like Graham and John McCain, are still allowed to act as if they know what's best for the nation.


Imagine if we had a real news media?

Imagine if we had some journalists who would put McCain and Graham through some rigorous questioning about their support for the War in Iraq?

Imagine if someone were to ask them why it took TEN YEARS rather than what Rummy promised, 'Weeks, months maybe' to finish the job of bringing Democracy to Iraq? And imagine if someone got the figures, the body count to begin with which I know 'we don't do', then the financial cost, which Rummy estimated at around '$40 billion at most'?

And then imagine if people in elected positions lie to get the country into war, violate human rights laws both here and Internationally, were held accountable?

But that is just a dream .... we are what we are and no one seems to have the courage to stop these morons from pushing for more war simply by asking them a few questions.

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
2. "more or less a clusterfuck of ego, economic empire building, and nose-thumbing"
Mon Mar 3, 2014, 02:17 PM
Mar 2014

Not a bad summary for one hour of research.

Martin Eden

(12,802 posts)
4. I posted this rebuttal to some RWers extolling Bush over Obama
Mon Mar 3, 2014, 03:43 PM
Mar 2014

GW's forays into Iraq & Afghanistan didn't showcase American power so much as it demonstrated the limits of that power. We can blow things up, but we can't force people to dance to our tune.

If American power resides solely in our military might, then we are no better than any of the monsters we go abroad to destroy. We are the leaders of the free world only to the extent our actions and the strength of the principles we uphold provide an example others want to follow.

We lost much of that power when we invaded Iraq eleven years ago, then the steady drain of blood and treasure left us physically and financially weaker.

The same chickenhawks who pushed us into that colossal strategic blunder are now heckling from the sidelines whenever the current president doesn't embark on another colossally stupid military misadventure at every minor conflict that flares up overseas.

These armchair generals fancy themselves patriots, but that kind of patriotism is shallow as a bumper sticker. The manner in which they would use American power is the surest way to relegate the erstwhile greatest nation on earth to the dustbin of history.

 

Maedhros

(10,007 posts)
5. Bottom line: the United States is unable to project its power into Ukraine.
Mon Mar 3, 2014, 03:58 PM
Mar 2014

Attempting to do so would require the mobilization of NATO for full-scale war.

Cha

(295,899 posts)
6. You be the judge..
Mon Mar 3, 2014, 05:39 PM
Mar 2014

ElmObamaCarez @lordxmen2k
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You Be The Judge: Senator John McCain accuses President Obama of being the "most naive President in history" #Ukraine
7:52 AM - 3 Mar 2014
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