For those who pulled the lever for, or clicked on, Bush, I am not in the position to lord over them and say they were wrong, yet it does appear that they were misled. For those who hang on and announce the DOW is up and oil is down, I ask for how long after the elections? Regardless, the DOW is infamous for its manipulation — no dividends, no capital gains — and the DOW is only a small percentage of the broader market. Moreover, gasoline down does help the consumer to face the inevitable rise in home fuel come winter; however, lower prices only “fuel” more consumption on the gas-guzzlers. Besides, the market is simply a growing indicator of foreign assets. [During the Clinton years I pleaded with the Democrats not to make a big deal out of record highs in the market since they are but tentative spikes.]
For those for the war, I have no kindness. The war, sadly is going badly and unfortunately the only solution militarily is more bleeding and no one wants that. It appears we are willing to allow slow bleeding of the troops stuck there — and as I’ve said elsewhere — these brave men and women are the sacrificial lambs of a lost battalion. It turns out that Kissinger is bending Bush’s ear with the same old tired shibboleths he fed Nixon concerning Vietnam. “Victory over the insurgents is the only meaningful exit strategy” sounds good but how? — surely not staying the course of rampant chaos. As I implied, it is either massive troop deployment consisting of another quarter of a million [which we don’t have without a draft] to all corners of Iraq, or accept even more bleeding of civilians than the insurgents are now wreaking by strategic but pervasive bombing of enemy strongholds, including the mountainous border of Afghanistan to let Al Qaeda know we haven’t forgotten them. In the long run the collateral damage would be less than the current — apparently never-ending — situation of insurgent, sectarian violence. Of course, the compassionate thing is to end the impossible task of our existing troops by sending them home with the banner “mission accomplished: Saddam is on trial.” If all the fragile Iraqi government can do is pick up the red phone and call to the U.S. flagship in the Gulf for strategic bombing, then so be it. Alas, the hawks will turn to Kissinger for another “secret plan to end the war.”
Copyright © 2006 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: October 15, 2006.
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