== America Loses Another War = Mark Morford. What a treasure he is

[madokie]

============= MARK MORFORD'S NOTES & ERRATA =============
SFGate.com - Wednesday, December 13, 2006


Iraq: a shameful ass-whupping, or just a pathetic trouncing? Ugly disgrace? Choices, choices
(By Mark Morford)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/12/13/notes121306.DTL&nl=fix

The good news is, we're all back in harmony. All back on the same page. No more divisiveness and no more silly bickering and no more nasty and indignant red state/blue state rock throwing because we're finally all back in cozy let's-hug-it-out agreement: The "war" in Iraq is over. And what's more, we lost. Very, very badly.

Sure, you already knew. Sure, you sort of sensed from the beginning that we couldn't possibly win a bogus war launched by a nasty slew of corrupt pseudo-cowboys against both a bitterly contorted Islamic nation and a vague and ill-defined concept that has no center and no boundaries and that feeds on the very thing that tries to destroy it. It was sort of obvious, even if half the nation was just terrifically blinded by Bush administration lies and false shrieks of impending terror.

But now it's official. Or rather, more official. Now it's pretty much agreed upon on both sides of the aisle and in every Iraq Study Group and by every top-ranking general and newly minted defense secretary and in every facet of American culture save some of the gun-totin' flag-lickin' South. We lost. And what's more, we have no real clue what to do about it.

After all, it's not easy to accept. It's the thing we do not, cannot easily hear, the thing most Americans, no matter what their political stripe, just can't quite fathom because we're so damned strong and righteous and handy with a gun and we are the superpower and the God among men and the bringer of light to the world and therefore we never lose. Except, you know, when we do. ...

Read the rest:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/12/13/notes121306.DTL&nl=fix

[atommom]

1. "What we don't have is, well, any idea what the hell we're doing..."

I love Morford.

[madokie]

2. Me Too

I happened upon his writing a couple years ago and was like WOW, he writes like I think. I sent him a link to DU after I had found this place, I thought, what the heck maybe he would like to post here or something, but anyway. Nary one of his articles would I cull.

[StrictlyRockers]

12. "We lost. And what's more, we have no real clue what to do about it."

Speak the truth, Mark! I love it.

Moford totally rocks!

[rodeodance]

3. gee, has he told the WH this??

[madokie]

4. I would hope someone there might read his articles

but I'm sure if there was they would be thinking about all the things he would love to be doing to MM that that person wouldn't remember what he had just read, just saying

wordcheck

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. "...we are incredibly crappy losers." K&R

Using Morford's words, Bush is still trying to find a way to "stumble into the end-zone to victory". Rather than see that the game is over, he's still surrounding himself with yes-men lackeys telling him that it's all gonna turn out right and that "victory" is just a matter of tweaking the failed game plan.

[deepthought42]

6. I look forward to reading his column

every wednesday & friday. Gives me a little bit of hope in this otherwise bleak world we live in...Not that I'm pessimistic or anything... :sarcasm:

[madokie]

7. It gives me great joy in knowing there is someone else who sees the way

things are so much like I do but in his case he can put it in words that are readable, where as

[deepthought42]

13. Yes, very true.

And some of his columns are hilarious, especially when it involves vibrators. I loved the one that was a mock IM conversation between himself and B***. :rofl:

[Jcrowley]

8. K & R n/t

[bloom]

9. Thanks for posting.

k&r

[femrap]

10. Don't you wonder what Karl Rove

is thinking now? Did he ever foresee his creation of a monster like this? And what do the members of the WHIG think now? I wonder if their conscience ever bothers them....

We need an Intervention...* needs to be wrapped up in straitjacket and escorted to Rehab. It's a clean way to mop up this mess. Cheney retires for health reasons and Pelosi becomes President.

[madokie]

11. Pelosi becomes President

may I go start screaming that throughout the land. What a pleasure it would be to have a President Nancy Pelosi. don't you just love it

[femrap]

18. It'd be a dream come true....

Stranger things have happened.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Ah asking to redefine the national character

and move away from American exceptionalism. 'Bout bloody time I saw that in a US paper. I have been thinking this for oh... at least ten years now

[eridani]

15. Looking on the bright side--

--we're too moral to do what it would actually take to win, assuming that the goal is and was control of the oil resources of the Middle East by military force. Really large-scale genocide would accomplish that very handily (and if you don't think that point of view has a lot of advocates, you probably stay well away from the conservative whackjob blogosphere), and we certainly have the military capability of doing it. Our ruling elite, however inclined toward sociopathology, is thankfully unwilling to put that on the table as a option.

[B Calm]

16. Kick.. Mike Malloy loves reading Mark Morford.

[Big Sky Boy]

17. It ain't over 'till it's over

and the troops are home.

11 American service members died the day the ISG delivered its report.

We will lose an average of two or three a day until we finally pull out.

If Vietnam is any indication, our government lacks the will to admit a mistake and retreat in what suicidal hawks call "defeat."

Walter Cronkite delivered his famous editorial on February 27th 1966. We finally pulled out nine years and 37,000 U.S. deaths later.

It takes a lot of courage to walk away from a fight you've already lost.

We need to press our new Congress. Write them every day and demand the change in direction that they promised us.