May 02, 2011

Obama gets Osama!

Thoughts on the news of the day:

Mission accomplished: Obama gets Osama!

Obama does what Bush couldn't do.

Can we get out of Afghanistan now?

"Shucks," said a disappointed ex-president Bush. "I was still looking for him under the table and behind the sofa."

Who'll be the first Republican to blame Obama for doing something wrong? Any bets?

Conservatives weigh in

Bush reiterates that he was never concerned about Osama bin Laden. "I got me the real terrorist: Saddam Hussein! Only cost me 4,000 American soldiers...a bargain!"

"I'm happy but a little confused," said the peanut-brained Bush. "Cheney told me bin Laden was in Iraq. Dick?!"

What do Charlie Sheen, Donald Trump, and the royal couple think about Osama? Or vice versa?

Donald Trump quickly claimed credit for bin Laden's death. "Obama finally did what I told him to," said the short-fingered vulgarian with the fox on his head.

Confusingly, Trump added, "I won't believe Osama is dead until I see his death certificate."

Look for krazy konservative kooks to embrace Trump's new "deather" theory.



Moral of the story: Never send a boy (George W. Bush) to do a man's job.

Rob's approach was best

‎"Apply relentless political and economic pressure against the Al Qaeda network and anyone who supports it until the terrorists surrender or are surrendered. Carry out covert missions against Al Qaeda and other terrorist cells and nests beyond government control."Rob Schmidt, Sept. 17, 2001This is the alternative I posted to the idiots who thought invading (or nuking) Afghanistan would kill "the terrorists" and make us safe. Glad to see Obama and the US finally followed the Schmidt approach. Better late than never, dummies.

Instead of this approach, Bush gave us two unnecessary wars costing a trillion-plus dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives. And yet, I'm not in charge of everything yet. Hmm...odd.

In related news, many critics say we'll have to negotiate a settlement with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan. Too bad we didn't negotiate a settlement with the Taliban to begin with. One that avoided an unnecessary war and included the the surrender of bin Laden.

It's tough to be right all the time, people. Trust me on that!

Bring in the clown

From his bunker/ranch somewhere in Texas, worst-president-ever Bush whined, "Those Pakistanians were harboring terrorists. They weren't with us, they were against us. We need to invade or nuke Pakistan now."

‎"Remember how presidential I was after 9/11?" Bush added while wiping away a tear. "Remember?"

Some conservatives think Obama should thank Pretzel-dent Bush. "Yes, thanks for being so incompetent that America would actually elect a black man to replace you. A trained poodle could've done a better job of hunting Osama bin Laden, but our Commander-in-Chief finally got it done."



When Cheney suggested trained SEALs to Bush, Dubya reportedly responded, "Dolphins ain't gonna cut it, Dick. Osama's in a cave somewhere, not in the water."

‎"I saw a trained poodle act on the TV the other day," Bush added. "Get 'em on the phone. Maybe they can sniff out Osama."

‎"Seals in Afghanimastan?" Bush chortled to himself. "Might've worked against that Katrina whatchamacallit, but not in the desert."

"That's why I'm the decider, Dick, not you. I know about seals and dogs and whatnot."

The bottom line

The Ability to Kill Osama Bin Laden Does Not Make America Great

By Kai WrightOsama Bin Laden, evil incarnate, has justified so, so much American violence in the 21st century. We have launched two wars and executed God knows how many covert military operations in the ethereal, never-ending fight he personifies. We have made racial profiling of Muslim Americans normative, turned an already broken immigration system into an arm of national defense, and reversed decades worth of hard-won civil liberties while pursuing him, dead or alive. We have abandoned even the conceit of respect for human rights in places stretching from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay in the course of hunting him down. Now, finally, the devil is dead.

Upon the news of this victory, crowds gathered in front of the White House and at Ground Zero to chant “U.S.A.! U.S.A!” It was as if we’d just won an Olympic hockey game, rather than capped a decade worth of war and recession with a singular act of violence.
And:The gap between rhetoric and reality has long been a defining trait of American life. Lies about our values have shielded us from the brutal facts of our nation ever since we built it on the back of genocide and slavery. But it is in times like these that the dissonance becomes unbearable.

The president says we can do anything we want because we can kill. We could not stop poverty rates from spiraling upward to a record-setting 14.3 percent of Americans in 2009, but we can kill so we are exceptional. One in four black and Latino families live below the poverty line now, and as a result America’s child poverty rate—one in five kids—is the second worst among rich nations, behind Mexico. But we can kill, so we are great.

Fourteen million Americans are out of work, nearly a third of them for more than a year. The Depression-like jobs crises in black neighborhoods around the country have become so acceptable as to be literally unremarkable in national news media. When overall joblessness inched downward in March, the fact that black unemployment increased, again, was greeted with callous shrugs from the White House to CNN. But America is exceptional because we can kill.
When we end poverty and discrimination, provide jobs and healthcare for all, and address the ongoing destruction of the planet, then maybe I'll cheer "USA! USA!"

And when we honor our Indian treaties, too.

For more on the subject, see Terrorism:  "Good" vs. "Evil" and Native Intelligence:  The Long View.

5 comments:

Jaine said...

Great bottom line comments Rob. I quite like the quote circulating on Facebook at the moment:
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that"
— Martin Luther King Jr
I'm not sure the quote is 100% correct but it's a centiment I agree with.

dmarks said...

""Cheney told me bin Laden was in Iraq. Dick?!"

When did Cheney ever say this? Source please.

dmarks said...

And about the silly map cartoon, most of the terrorists were Saudi nationals. But they were not based there, and their organization was strongly opposed by the Saudi government. The same is true of Egypt. The cartoon-maker is probably completely ignorant of these facts.

Iraq, at the time, was run by a major terrorist kingpin who was an ally of bin Laden, and one of the few nations to celebrate the 9/11 attacks. It was engaged in military aggression against the US, in violation of the cease-fire agreement. The dictator of Iraq hosted and promoted and funded a large number of terrorist groups. A situation which also violated the cease fire... and after 9/11, it made a lot less sense for terrorist aggression to continue like this.

And actually the cartoonist is lying about the timeline. The US retaliated FIRST against the nation that was run by the 9/11 terrorists: Afghanistan. long before the retaliation against the terror regime in Iraq.

Rob said...

I'm not sure what the Saudi government's position is on al-Qaeda, DMarks, but Saudi support of the group is well-documented. The cartoon is right on that point and you're wrong.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/world/middleeast/24saudi.html

Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/09/us-saudis-still.html

U.S.: Saudis Still Filling Al Qaeda's Coffers

Rob said...

That Saddam Hussein was an ally of Osama bin Laden is utter rubbish. Funding other terrorist groups wasn't the reason Bush the liar gave for invading Iraq. In fact, he gave a dozen or more reasons, all contradictory, including his complete fabrication of the threat of WMDs.

It doesn't matter that Bush invaded Iraq a whole year after 9/11. His people strongly implied it was a response to 9/11. Here's some documentation of the Bush administration's litany of lies:

http://terrasol.home.igc.org/IraqLies.htm

Bush's Lies About Iraq

http://projects.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/

False Pretenses

Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.