It's you, if you aren't on board with the agenda of the Tax Cut Traitors, to whom the violence which Kaplan fears will be a godsend, because it will allow them to blame it on "liberals" and "Democrats." You know, and I know, that the troops who made up the surge were only there for 15 months, but Bush/Cheney/Murdoch/Ailes will be claiming that they were withdrawn because a Democratic Congress refused to give them sufficient funding, and that failing to elect a Republican will be "surrender."

If the Iraq War had been fought as a REAL "war for civilization," Bush would have funded and manned it sufficient to win the fucking thing. But that would have forced an end to the Bush tax cuts and forced the super-rich to begin to pay for the cost of the war. Instead, the war was fought with a maximum amount of money and manpower which still permitted Bush to preserve the tax cuts. And, of course, that wasn't enough.

The purpose of the Surge was to make it APPEAR that victory was possible into the 2008 election campaign. If the Surge had never taken place, there would be no question of victory because Iraq would be a cauldron of violence. The purpose of the Surge was to defeat the enemy. It's just that the enemy was never terrorism, Bin Laden, or Saddam Hussein. It was us.

Well this certainly sounds good on paper. However, although I am not a supporter of in any ways or means of the republican party I can not agree with calling myself an enemy just becaue I am American. The acts of the Bush adinistration are probably on top of the worst in terroism the world has ever seen. This country has gone to a split polarized enviroment that is not going to be fixed. Howevever I pay my bills and taxes. I try to listen and not talk. I am not an enemy and hope and pray to god that the country sees another mass assasination and that be all involved in George Bush's mafia.

'Bush's mafia'? You mean, the majority of American voters in 2004 that put them in office again?

It'll be fun to watch what form withdrawal take in such sever cases of Bush Derangement Syndrome as you have in January, 2009 when W rides quietly off into the sunset unbeaten.

It makes me gag to think about it, but this is the best explanation for the rationale behind the SSurge yet. What is worse is that it might work.

but to my mind the best thing to come out of Bush's 8 years in office was that the agenda of the Neoconservative faction has been totally discredited. They got their shot, an opportunity on a silver platter and 8 years to put it through, and made fools of themselves. Don't take my word for it; just ask John Agresco. When a hard-core east coast Straussian like Agresco has to get humble, it's good news for the world.

Your post gets at two useful points:

-- Domestic opponents of the War of Civilizations are considered the enemy, as much as Al Qaeda itself if not more so. The right wing is quite open about that, ever happy to push it in your face. At some point this will stop being just a mater of polemics, and start to be an epitaph.

-- The Achilles heel of the WOC crowd is their aversion to taxes. Wars are expensive, and wars of civilization are extremely expensive. But we can borrow the money, don't worry. America can take on any level of debt necessary to finance the WOC because:

1) We can repudiate big chunks of our foreign debt at some future point or simply inflate it down, and (take your pick, depending on your flavor of WOC support) --

2a) Jesus is coming back anyway and Christians will go to heaven so who cares; or

2b) Israel's interests require it.

Where you are very wrong is where you imply that it's all just domestic political maneuvering, to win the next election. These people are true believers in the War of Civilizations, and domestic political maneuvers are a means to that end. You will come to understand that when the WOC continues and actually ramps up even after an AIPAC-approved Democrat wins the White House.

Tactically speaking, the War Of Civilizations and the War Against Progressive Taxes are the same thing, two fronts of the same conflict.

And by late summer, we will have more than losses in Iraq to fill our cup of woe: we're teetering on the edge of a recession. Carter-era stagflation will be all the news, because we will be in it. And bad as that might be, there will be the prospect of worse to come.

The lesson we will all be taught by the Bushies then and on into the Fall, will be that we can't afford all those entitlements and some if not all of them will have to be cut back. But raising taxes while the economy's shrinking? Blasphemy! There are lots of dolts around who believe that "Reagan's tax cuts fueled the recovery from the Carter years." And some of those dolts are in Congress, for now. The question is, do they feel lucky? They've held the line all year, and supported the partisan victories that have been all over the year-end wrapups. But will this continue? This part will be interesting to watch. If Bush makes his sale, we're fucked. But I think there's a reason why he plans to spend most of the next year jetting around the globe.

Every war has always had a group of people who objected to it. WW I, WW II, etc. Some people think nothing is worth fighting for and still others think fighting is only called for when their ass is directly in the line of fire.

Granted, Bush and the a#%holes whom he selected to prosecute the war demonstrated a staggering amount of arrogance, ignorance and stupidity.

Thankfully we have a general who knows how to prosecute the war properly and the suits are not getting in the way. What we need now are some politicians with the guts to do the right thing politically. IMHO that would be get others on the team and force Iran and their surrogates in Syria to back off. They we need to pressure the devil out of the Iraqi politicans to resolve their political problems within a year.

Remember, the U.S. didn't have near the baggage the Iraqi people have to deal with and it took us seven years to get it together.

Mike O:

'Bush's mafia'? You mean, the majority of American voters in 2004 that put them in office again?

It'll be fun to watch what form withdrawal take in such sever cases of Bush Derangement Syndrome as you have in January, 2009 when W rides quietly off into the sunset unbeaten.

WENT BACK FOR 3RD'S ON THAT COOLAIDE DIDYA?

That the war will be "paid" for by repudiating future obligations is, if the Tax Cut Traitors get their way, quite true. However, it won't be done by repudiating foreign debt, as you state, but by repudiating DOMESTIC debt -- specifically, by lowering Social Security payouts so that America's elderly finance it.

If we repudiate foreign debt, we discourage foreigners from financing our balance of trade deficits in the future. Plus foreigners are buying up our corporate sector these days and will have something to say about it. Citicorp will certainly lobby against dishonoring foreign debt because it has significant investors who hold that debt.

But American men and women who worked their entire lives and whose payroll taxes have been used to finance roads and wars and whatever the government needed are fair game, because the Tax Cut Traitors will claim that the benefits they were promised and paid for in advance are "entitlements"...you know, sort of like welfare. So fuck them.

Petraeus warned early on that the Surge might not produce victory and that military victory was unlikely in any case. The Surge is now going to come to an end -- not because "the suits" are against it but because the GENERALS -- Petraeus included -- oppose extending the tours of the soldiers who made up the Surge any further and THERE AREN'T ANY OTHER SOLDIERS TO SEND. Repeat: THERE AREN'T ANY SOLDIERS TO SEND. To Iraq, much less Iran or Syria. You are out of Army, chum, which means you are also out of options.

Whose fault is that, sucker? Who had control of all three branches of goverment from 2002-2006 and did NOT expand the armed forces to fight a real war to save civilization? Who never even CONSIDERED doing that? Who opposed any increase in taxes to fund the war because "it would ruin the economy?"

You had your chance to win this war, friend, and your people blew it. But not because they were stupid, but because they were never willing to do what had to be done to win it -- increase the armed forces needed for victory. And the reason they didn't do that is because they considered keeping taxes low more important than defeating terrorism.

I call them the Tax Cut Traitors, because their loyalty is never to their country -- only to their bank accounts.

Hmmm.

Interesting points slash. Is Tax Cut Traitors copyrighted?

Methinks a bumper sticker is in order.