i do not have much time at the moment, so will fade in more later: for the moment, however, i have to say that it boggles my mind that you can make any such claims about either iraq or afghanistan, ustwo, given the chaos that is unfolding in both places. i have no idea how you can make any meaningful separation between the american use of air power and the longer-term devolutions in either place...your argument about effectiveness would only hold if both situations were entirely other than they are.
not even a fervent bush supporter can erase that much reality.
the main point from hersh's article that seem germaine at the moment is its claim that the bushpeople were primarily interested in the israeli incursion into lebanon as a testing ground for an attack on iran. the idea behind that seems to me nothing short of lunacy: reliance on air power did not work in vietnam, it did not work in afghanistan, it did not work in iraq, it did not work in lebanon--the idea that the bushpeople would imagine that it woul work with iran seems lunatic. from this, two recent developments:
1. a congressional oversight committee released a report this week arguing that american intel has no real idea WHAT is happening with iran's nuclear program
while at the same time
2. folk from the far right have been complaining that the intel is not scary enough. they want scarier information. they want "information" that is fit to their policy ends. they want another war--i suspect because without another war (or attack) the right is done politically. particularly given the disaster that is the american "liberation" of iraq (from saddam hussein to civil war) and its origins in what was at the very best faulty intel (but more likely intel doctored to suit the political desires of the bushpeople), you would think that this kind of critique from the right would not happen.
it seems that there is no learning curve at all amongst the neocons.
no learning curve.
that is one thing that makes them dangerous.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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