The Art of War

Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculations at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

--Sun Tzu, The Art of War, 1.26

We all know that many calculations is not part of US strategy under the current maladministration.

During a White House meeting last week, a group of governors asked President Bush and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about their backup plan for Iraq. What would the administration do if its new strategy didn't work?

The conclusion they took away, the governors later said, was that there is no Plan B. "I'm a Marine," Pace told them, "and Marines don't talk about failure. They talk about victory."

Pace had a simple way of summarizing the administration's position, Gov. Phil Bredesen (D-Tenn.) recalled. "Plan B was to make Plan A work."

In the weeks since Bush announced the new plan for Iraq -- including an increase of 21,500 U.S. combat troops, additional reconstruction assistance and stepped-up pressure on the Iraqi government -- senior officials have rebuffed questions about other options in the event of failure. Eager to appear resolute and reluctant to provide fodder for skeptics, they have responded with a mix of optimism and evasion.
--Washington Post, 5 March 2007

One of the problems is that we never had a Plan A beyond invading and taking out Saddam. No plans for establishing the civil peace, no plans for sorting out any mess we might make, no plans for rebuilding beyond giving out lots of lucrative no-bid contracts to cronies in the energy and defense industries, no plan for winning hearts and minds, just no fucking plan whatsoever. Shock and awe followed by strut and preen (thanks Commander Codpiece). That was about it.

Well guess what? When you invade a nation you have to deal with it.

Oops.

Impeach him. Yesterday.
--the BB

A legacy of dismantling civilization

The NYT informs us:

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Saturday further cemented his legacy of fighting for strong executive powers, using his veto to shut down a congressional effort to limit the Central Intelligence Agency’s latitude to subject terrorism suspects to harsh interrogation techniques that are prohibited by the military and law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Bush vetoed a bill that would have explicitly prohibited the agency from using such interrogation methods, which include waterboarding, a technique in which restrained prisoners are threatened with drowning and that has been the subject of intense criticism at home and abroad.

Senator Feinstein and I disagree on many things and I protested to her office on several occasions when I lived in California. On this I agree with her:

“This president had the chance to end the torture debate for good,” one of its sponsors, Senator Diane Feinstein of California, said in a statement on Friday evening when it became clear Mr. Bush intended to carry out his veto threat. “Yet, he chose instead to leave the door open to use torture in the future. The United States is not well-served by this.”

The bill Bush vetoed would have restricted American interrogators to terms and methods set forth in the Army Field Manual, conditions that have served us quite adequately.

Bush, however, does not believe in regulation of almost any kind, especially if it might limit what he may or may not do (unless HE gets to regulate our rights, such as limiting free speech to "free speech zones").


I look forward to the day when the United States rejoins the company of civilized nations. In the meantime, impeach his sorry ass!

The Constitution makes it clear that, because we ratified them, the Geneva Conventions are among the supreme laws of this land. George Bush has willfully and knowingly violated them. It constitutes a high crime when the Chief Executive of this nation violates our supreme laws.
--the BB

How's that Iraq invasion working for ya?

"...if you murder the innocent to achieve a political objective, you're evil."
--George W. Bush
March 6, 2008

Res ipsa loquitur

You can't make this shit up.
--the BB

It's from a couple of days ago but still...

... incredibly illuminating. Or... the reverse. Does Bush actually suck intelligence out of the universe?



h/t to Hoffmania
--the BB

Criminal conspiracy ... and for what?

It is a fact startling in its cynical simplicity and it requires cynical and simple words to be properly expressed: The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush.

All the petulancy, all the childish threats, all the blank-stare stupidity; all the invocations of World War III, all the sophistic questions about which terrorist attacks we wanted him not to stop, all the phony secrets; all the claims of executive privilege, all the stumbling tap-dancing of his nominees, all the verbal flatulence of his apologists...

All of it is now, after one revelation last week, transparently clear for what it is: the pathetic and desperate manipulation of the government, the refocusing of our entire nation, toward keeping this mock president and this unstable vice president and this departed wildly self-overrating attorney general, and the others, from potential prosecution for having approved or ordered the illegal torture of prisoners being held in the name of this country.

Thus begins Keith Olbermann's special comment from yesterday.

The United States of America tortures. George Walker Bush has structured our nation to allow this to happen. He stands before us and says America does not torture. He lies.

All the political kabuki going on in the Capitol is to protect Bush and his cronies.

They deserve no such protection.

They are criminals.

War criminals.

They have violated their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.

Enough.

Impeach.

Now.

--the BB