Wonderful conclusion, completely devoid of supporting facts, and essentially a distraction because it assumes there are only two choices, Mastodon or Unicorn.

I realize you Unicorn-Lovers can’t fathom that it’s possible to avoid supporting the lesser evil, and that it’s possible to actually pursue real changes. Yes, I realize that. But as long as you’re mired in fantasy land, and have your noggins filled with such lies as “electability” and the like, you’re going to keep believing in the fantasy of the Magical Unicorn.

Here’s a quick reminder for you: back during the primaries, just the Unicorn primaries, there were a number of choices far better than Empire-Boy Obama-the-Liar, Corporate Slattern Clinton-the-Zionist, Fake Populist Edwards-the-Playboy. but sadly you idiotic Unicorn-Lovers listened to Rahm Emanuel, Jim Carville, Howie Dean, the DNC and the DLC and started just blindly accepting the lies that real alternatives do not exist because of “electoral supermajorities” and the like.

If any of you Unicorn-Lovers knew the faintest thing about how American government works, you wouldn’t have this problem of massive delusion. But instead you let others tell you, in lying tones, what THEY want you to believe is the story of Fed Govt Electoral Politics. And you’ll all be damned before you’ll skeptically question what one of your beloved “experts” tells you.

I suggest waiting for Keith Olbermann’s input. Failed sportscasters are the most prescient analysts of Fed Politics. How do I know this? You Unicorn-Lovers tell me so!

I know you weren’t. I was mocking your inability to consider that they should have a voice, or that, God forbid, Obama should listen to them.

I think he’s behaving more like an Asian than an American, in that he’s trying for consensus on most issues.

Interesting. Is it typically Asian behavior to shoot up sovereign allies with drone missiles and to cover up war crimes?

As for “the Iraqis” wanting or needing American troops, once again, it ain’t the people wot are being consulted. It’s our stooges and tools. What do you propose, that we dump al-Maliki and let the Sunni and Shi’a fight it out till a leader is found who is acceptable to all? With the exodus of the secular, educated population, chances are it’ll be some mullah or the other.

I’d respond to the rest of your comment, but it’s a waste of time. I’m with nyambol on this. It’s not easy to schlep X thousand people from one location to another in X days flat. Logistics, planning, prep. Yes, everybody wants to be home yesterday. But that won’t make them any more thankful when they suddenly realize they haven’t got an income and jobs are not to be found. Hell, I’ve been looking for two years myself, with precious little luck.

As for Obama, he is the best and most competent person THAT WE COULD ELECT. There may be better and more competent people for the position, but either they’re not interested, or they’re not electable. DA says O’s got a list of priorities. I tend to agree. It’s not an easy job he’s got and he’s doing fine. The comments about his milquetoastiness I disagree with. I think he’s behaving more like an Asian than an American, in that he’s trying for consensus on most issues. Maybe that’s my own skewed Asian viewpoint. Feel free to yell s’more.

And of course, they can be mustered out of uniform and into the reserve, if the service chooses to do so. That’s what a military Reserve is, “inactive” duty.

My own opinion is that the unemployment issue is likely a factor in decisions like these. There are also legal limits on what the military can do onshore. So, it’s not the case that you can just march them out to fix the roads or clear brush in the national forest. But, I think ultimately the major consideration is that it’s just not a priority item for Obama. I think he has a list, at the top of which are economic recovery, close down Iraq intervention, foreground Afghanistan, Palestine, and probably some others. He’s focussed on those and excluding pretty much everything else. It’s hard to say how much of his current positioning is based on actual conception and how much is based on political convenience.

But then, I didn’t have high expectations of him. I expect him to be competent but not great President. So far, that is born out.

Thanks.

mp

Saying that Obama lacks the stones or the impulse to change this, isn’t exactly showering him with praise or an attempt at apologetics, I don’t think. Though it may well be ‘shockingly stupid’ as per Emperor USA.

Of course, there were only 70 comments when I checked. I imagine the next several hundred will get back on the usual track.

Jebus. Somehow people manage to fight entire wars in less time than that.

Plus, in case anyone’s forgotten, our Prime Tool in Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, is doing his best to establish a Shi’a Iraq, which means ensuring (with our help) that the Sunni are dis- or un-armed and rendered as powerless as he can make them.

Ethnic cleansing is fun! (What Sunni awakening? You have always been at war with the Sunni.)

Prez O isn’t going to tell teh people that we’re changing the date because the Iraqis need us there a little longer.

That’s nice. They don’t want you there.

And trying to explain teh details will simply have the crazies on both sides screaming “Bleaaargh! We R beingk cheated, lied to, and otherwise oppressed!!”

Yeah, an occupied population would have to be crazy to feel like that, so they don’t need to hear any details! Fuck you.

Speaking of daring not speak its name, why is it that when it comes to war and to Obama’s failings, we on the left suddenly turn into conservatives in the “Saying it out loud is endorsing it wholeheartedly” department?

National Guard = Vagrant Fail.

Private contractors in I & A are funded by the federal government, thanks to Bush who facilitated their astronomical rise (and stuffed their greedy maws with greenbacks). They also earn a lot more than government employed soldiers.

The problem is, Obama isn’t even trying, He’s actively making things worse.

Find me one person who’s complaining that Obama hasn’t fixed all of our problems in four months. Just one.

My complaint isn’t that Obama’s being too slow about undoing the wrongs of the Bush administration, it’s that he’s actually doubling down on Bush’s policies in Afghanistan, and with executive privilege and secrecy. And, in each case, the policy, whether it’s more troops for Afghanistan, or asserting that the government be immune from lawsuits over illegal wiretapping, is the result of an executive decision, and so can’t be justified on the basis that “we don’t have the votes in Congress” to do something else.

It’s simply not the case that Obama is being forced to do these things against his will. If he’s sending more men into the Afghan meatgrinder, or claiming that he should have the right to keep torture photos secret, it’s because that’s what he wants to do.

Some of the army currently in Iraq, and also, possibly, in Afghanistan, are reservists, who will have to be demobbed, unless they opt to sign up (not likely, reservists tend to be older, with family, and not career army). Given the contraction of the economy, those people can kiss their former jobs goodbye, especially if they’ve been stop-lossed since 2003. Six years is WAY too long to hold someone’s job in this economy. Plus, in case anyone’s forgotten, our Prime Tool in Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, is doing his best to establish a Shi’a Iraq, which means ensuring (with our help) that the Sunni are dis- or un-armed and rendered as powerless as he can make them.

It’s a combination of all those issues that makes for the foot-dragging on this. Prez O isn’t going to tell teh people that we’re changing the date because the Iraqis need us there a little longer. At least, I don’t think he is. Loss of face for all involved. And trying to explain teh details will simply have the crazies on both sides screaming “Bleaaargh! We R beingk cheated, lied to, and otherwise oppressed!!” People don’t seem to realize that it took between 8 and 12 years to scrape rock bottom and expecting it all to be fixed and shiny within four months betrays a childish lack of grasp of nuance that, frankly, annoys and frightens me. Mommy make it bedda NOW! Sheesh.

I’m not sure I understand your question, but the Bush administration negotiated a withdrawal timeline with the Iraqi government before Obama was even elected, and Obama is merely complying with that agreement, to the letter.

If you want to thank anyone for our withdrawal from Iraq, please thank the Iraqi resistance.

Think of the Millions and Millions of Contractors who would be thrown out of work if we stopped fooling around with play acting in both the DOD and the rest of the intelligence community. { many of whom are not even americans who would be able to add to the american economy. Why should we be shipping tax dollars to outerRurithania because some contractor for AFES got a good deal on them as the labor to sell ice cream…. }

So while AN argument can be constructed that this is a way to save folks, one has to really ask if this is a realistic approach to the problem – when the fed could just as easily be sending tax dollars to the various states where they can maintain state employees IN local economies….

Thus getting the obligatory better increase the velocity of money.

Try also to remember that by brining the TROOPS home we are still paying them till we demob them – it is not like they are going to be booted out the door from the plane at Dover or Charleston.

So please. Put DOWN the BONG, and work on a rational idea – or do this as a better Spoof!!!