Month: August 2005

The Anti-Military Right?

Digby offers the following, very fascinating, suggestion:

I’ve been thinking for a while that we might be seeing the beginning of a new trend in American politics — the anti-military right. Rush is calling marines “pukes,” veterans are being called cowards and fakers, disabled vets are mocked for not having the right wounds or getting them in the right way, GOP hags are wearing cute little “purple heart” bandaids on their cheeks. People are selling busts of the president using his lack of combat experience as a selling point saying outright that physical courage is no longer particularly worthy of conservative approbation. Being a veteran buys you no credibility and no respect in today’s Real Murika.

This is how they transform Chickenhawkery into a badge of courage.

I suspect that what we are hearing (aside from the self-loathing fidgeting of those who loudly beat wardrums yet are too selfish to serve) is the distant rumblings of a massive rightwing frustration with the military’s inability to just “win” this damned thing so we can move on to our next country. It was supposed to be a cakewalk.

UPDATE: Thinking some more about it this morning, I wonder whether a “we got stabbed in the back by our own military” right-wing meme couldn’t emerge out of this line of thinking. Sadly, they’ll probably find some way to blame this on Bill Clinton or at least “the liberals” instead.

The Problem With Iraq

… is that we’re trying to preserve what the British put together in the 1920s with little thought to the actual people who lived there and their pre-existing tribal loyalties. That problem today is nicely encapsulated by Dexter Filkins:

When the Americans smashed Saddam Hussein’s regime two and half years ago, what lay revealed was a country with no agreement on the most basic questions of national identity. The Sunnis, a minority in charge here for five centuries, have not, for the most part, accepted that they will no longer control the country. The Shiites, the long-suppressed majority, want to set up a theocracy. The Kurds don’t want to be part of Iraq at all. There is only so much that language can do to paper over such differences.

Hat tip to Kevin (who appears to have either turned off or broken his trackbacks) for the link.

Congratulations, Claremont

It’s the little things that make a city special. Here’s one of the special things about New York:

On a steamy morning, traffic is backed up on West 89th Street near Central Park.

Moving vans and garbage trucks screech to a halt. Motorists fume. All they can do is honk their horns and watch as a line of eight horses and riders plods out of the Claremont Riding Academy up ahead, and enters the busy street.

“Look out for taxis!” shouts the leader to seven girls riding behind her. The horses walk serenely in front of the congestion. They clip-clop past a housing project and turn right at a pizza parlor. Minutes later, they disappear into the park.

The traffic begins to flow again.

Horses have been fixtures here since 1892, when a carriage depot was first constructed on the site. Today, the Claremont academy is the oldest continuously operated stable in the United States

America Supports Your What?

I’m trying to be openminded here and assume that for some people, this might actually be a way of taking the hell of 9/11 and trying to make a positive out of it. However, it makes me feel sick to my stomach.

The whole concept of 9/11 being “honored” by an overproduced parade and some cheesy country music is just so, so wrong. And of course since BushCo is involved, it’s not even that. It’s simply yet another pathetic attempt to milk 9/11 and boost support for their war machine. Just look at the title of the event: the “America Supports You Freedom Walk”. Ugh. And it gets better:

The goal for next year’s walk is to get each state to host its own Freedom Walk to provide an opportunity for as many citizens as possible to reflect on the importance of freedom.

Give me a freaking break! I can ‘reflect on freedom’ any time I want. I don’t need to be reminded by the Pentagon to do it. And certainly not by some faux event like this.