Reverend Manny and The Twilight Empire

Maybe we’re not supposed to say it out loud, b.c. somehow it’s admitting daddy’s an alcoholic or mom cheats. Ignoring harsh facts is a far easier way to deal with what we used to call “the daily” than confronting those unpleasant elements over which we have little control.
Check out this article from the new york times… headline…

Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat

Jesus, now that I think about it, just about everybody must’ve heard about this bit of news.

How many times has President Bush said that we are taking the fight to them (in Iraq and other places — which ones?can we maybe try afghanistan? ) so that we don’t have to fight them here.

There are so many things inherently dangerous in this line of logic. Look at the “them”. That’s a huge part of the problem. It creates this huge box where we can safely place all our enemies. There are dozens of groups and sects of various leanings to both violence and religion (often in tandem) This “them” is mostly of our creation. Somehow we did the religious nutjobs of the middle eastern variety a huge favor. They hadn’t had much success overthrowing Saddam Hussein, but then along came Uncle Sam. We toppled the regime and left a dangerous power vacuum in its wake, only to have our army stand around limp and unresponsive as anarchy reigned the streets . From the moment we “took control” of the cities, we already started to lose it. Factionalism sprouted as like began to look out for like. The “them” was an image we had of all things needing to be stomped. In comes Al Qaeda and the various violent sects that now are much safer to roam the streets of Baghdad than their American, er, liberators. We did not originate terrorism and neither did the Taliban, Al Qaeda, the IRA or the Stern Gang. But we certainly did arm “our” “current enemy” when we gave Taliban guerilla fighters money, sidewinder missles, and various small scaled arms (not to mention training).

And then 9/11.

Maybe I’m just making this up, but didn’t Kung Fu”Tzu (Confucius) once say something about trying to kill ants with sledgehammers?

Do you remember that picture of the stone Saddam statue with the American Flag draped over his face? What about the one where his likeness’ oversized stone head is being carried out of the marketplace by four Iraqis, one of them symbolically beating it over the head with a shoe?

well..

and of course this:
(just as a parenthetical… the war goes on…)

Well, apparently taking the fight to them is not only encouraging a “them” to be formed, but its also creating more of “them” which I’m sure increases the likelihood of “them” hitting “us.” America has succeeded in creating the monsters that it feared.

Democrats have already jumped on this opportunity to score a few points in the electoral season.

Meanwhile, the globe keeps spinning and the humans (ever petty) keep acting like animals.

Might as well laugh at some of the stupider ones