Chris Floyd: Rolling Out the Product: A New Full-Court Press for Pakistan War

[laststeamtrain]

Rolling Out the Product: A New Full-Court Press for Pakistan War
Written by Chris Floyd

We asked for signs,
And signs were sent.
-- Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"


I.
We are now in the midst of a full-blown campaign to "roll out the product" for a new war: this time, in Pakistan. Anyone who lived through the run-up to the invasion of Iraq should be able to read the signs -- anyone, that is, who is not blinded by partisan labels, or by the laid-back cool of a media-savvy leader far more presentable than his predecessor.

We noted some of these signs in a long post yesterday and won't belabor them here. But today brings yet another bumper crop of panic buttons and alarm bells from the powers-that-be, with ever-increasing emphasis on the "Taliban kooks with Muslim nukes" theme: one more variation on the old "mushroom clouds rising in American cities" ploy that has worked like a charm for our militarists lo these 60 years or more.

Some of the war-pushing powers-that-be are public figures in the Obama Administration (including Obama himself, who has dutifully taken on the Bushian mantle of Fearmonger-in-Chief), and some of them are shadowy, unnamed eminences in the military-security apparat, clearly aiming to act for Obama as those daggers of the mind did for Macbeth: "Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going."

The first story to greet America's political class as they sat down to their prunes and Post Toasties this morning was a big New York Times spread with one loud, clanging message: You cannot defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan without going deep into Pakistan.

It seems the Times has discovered an unusually loquacious "Pakistani logistics tactician" who for some reason has spent the last six months spilling the beans on the Taliban's strategy to the leading newspaper of the American establishment. The anonymous 28-year-old guy from somewhere in Pakistan's tribal lands told a harrowing tale of the "workings and ambitions of the Taliban" as they prepare to defeat Obama's Afghan surge from their safe havens in Pakistan, then seize Islamabad's nuclear arsenal.

What's more, the "logistics tactician" has provided his American enemies with a ready-made, pre-positioned "justification" for the mass civilian slaughter that will inevitably accompany Obama's surge:

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http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1756-rolling-out-the-product-a-new-full-court-press-for-pakistan-war.html

[KoKo]

1. But if our new Democratic President needs to do it...then he's gotta' do what

he does. It will make us safer in the long run and ...after all he's certainly not Bush and will not Torture. There is always "collateral damage" in war, it's just a fact of making our world safer.
Obama will do what he needs to do and end this war. We are being very short sighted in not understanding that he's cleaning up for Bush...who didn't make us safe because he focused on Iraq instead of going after Bin Laden and the Terrorists in Afghanistan who killed all our citizens.

[laststeamtrain]

2. No, ending our empire & foreign adventurism will make us safer. N/t.

[KoKo]

3. I know....

I didn't put the :sarcasm: thingy in... I was just being cranky..because it's so frustrating watching this over and over and over.

[laststeamtrain]

4. I'm sorry. I couldn't tell. I'm getting numb.

:hi:

[BeFree]

5. I was gonna say...

...did someone take over KoKo's keyboard?

But really, KoKo, what you wrote is probably being written and regaled over on the freeper board. No joking.


Obama needs to back out now, or at the very least fire all the generals over there and totally revamp what our troops are doing, or we are in deep trouble.

[KoKo]

11. I know....(I'm starting to repeat)

It's all so sad...Don't know what to make of it... We are supposed to "Keep the Faith" though...

Who knows. Glad you picked up...I was being sarcastic. :hi:

[bemildred]

6. "You cannot defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan without going deep into Pakistan."

That is a perfectly correct statement. The problem is that you cannot defeat the Taliban by going into Pakistan either. Sometimes you just lose. That's why some wars are stupid. Once you get into them, the only issue is how much it's going to cost you in the end, how much it's going to take to wise you up.

[Tutankhamun]

7. Americans will eventually get tired of losing wars.

First, we'll have to learn to admit that we've lost.

[ShortnFiery]

8. Perhaps considering that no mater how many tribal peoples we kill, those natives in both

countries are NOT GOING ANYWHERE? In other words, just like those wily Vietnamese, they just wouldn't QUIT. I think it has something to do with countering Invaders within THEIR Native Land. :shrug:

We seemingly NEVER Learn. :thumbsdown:

[margotb822]

9. Is it ok for me to blame this on Bush

I just can't help but think that if we had actually stuck to our goals in Afghanistan the first time, this might not be a problem. Then again, if Bush had actually dealt with Pakistan as the country it is, instead of the country he wanted it to be, maybe we wouldn't have handed billions over to such a corrupt and useless leader.

I don't know, I want to blame someone for mishandling this from the beginning...and I think I know where that belongs. But, it's Obama's show now, and anything that happens from here on out is on his decision making skills. Will he be lulled into the "war is freedom" argument? I sure hope not...

[The2ndWheel]

10. Can't really name a decade where the US Government wasn't

somewhere on this globe with an active military goal. Seems like Pakistan is as good a place as any for the upcoming 20-teens.

I'd say place your bets now for the 2020's.

[bertman]

12. Too late to rec, but being kicked because it's true as hell. This is just freakin unreal to

see this bad movie playing again--and with my favorite President as the star.

Killing more innocent Pakistanis and Afghanis will definitely win us many friends in the region. Especially muslim friends.

Military-Industrial-Financial-Intelligence complex.