or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
December 04, 2007
TomDispatch: Tom Engelhardt On Permanent Bases In Iraq
Iraq as a Pentagon Construction SitePosted at December 4, 2007 04:28 PM
How the Bush Administration "Endures"
By Tom EngelhardtThe title of the agreement, signed by President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki in a "video conference" last week, and carefully labeled as a "non-binding" set of principles for further negotiations, was a mouthful: a "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship Between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America." Whew!
Words matter, of course. They seldom turn up by accident in official documents or statements. Last week, in the first reports on this "declaration," one of those words that matter caught my attention. Actually, it wasn't in the declaration itself, where the key phrase was "long-term relationship" (something in the lives of private individuals that falls just short of a marriage), but in a "fact-sheet" issued by the White House. Here's the relevant line: "Iraq's leaders have asked for an enduring relationship with America, and we seek an enduring relationship with a democratic Iraq." Of course, "enduring" there bears the same relationship to permanency as "long-term relationship" does to marriage.
First-Pottery Barn Rules- and now-A Shotgun Wedding. (If YOU are not angry enough to call AND convince others to call, DON'T PANIC, you soon will be)(1-202-225-0100 DEMAND IMPEACHMENT)
Posted by: Mike Meyer at December 4, 2007 05:00 PMHas anyone told Tom that the defense budget is prohibited from funding permanent bases (as I believe Susan? pointed out previously).
Tee-hee-heee.
Eventually of course, it will come down to the MICFiC vs. Big Pharma in the final Armageddon on who gets to suck this country's corpse dry.
Posted by: Ted at December 4, 2007 05:06 PMHey, haven't you heard? The surge is working. The Democrats aren't saying anything about Iraq, because the news is so great. People are only dying violent deaths at half the rate of earlier this year (always assuming the statistics mean anything) and things are just peachy. The least the Iraqis can do for us is provide a few acres for bases after all we've done for them.
Posted by: Donald Johnson at December 4, 2007 07:00 PMThis should not come as a shock to anyone when one considers that Germany, Korea and Japan still have US military bases. They're not permanent. Nothing is, except death.
The ongoing conflicts in Iraq are really an advantage too. They mean no Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) to restrict the actions of US troops, for example, in confining 24,000 Iraqis including children.
Posted by: Don Bacon at December 4, 2007 07:53 PM
