Friday, February 1, 2013

Note to Senator McCain

Dude, I have to tell you. I'm not entirely certain that I could have answered your yes-no question (as to whether or not the surge was "effective"), either. I mean, yeah, whenever you add more checkpoints to an unruly area, militarily or via a police action, there's a decent chance that the mayhem will be suppressed. But in my opinion, the more critical components of this outcome had a hell of a lot more to due with a) the fact that we apparently had to cut a deal with some of the more unsavory elements of the Sunni resistance and b) the fact that the country had already largely been ethnically cleansed and all that had to happen afterwards was mop-up.................................................................................................And don't you think that maybe it's still a little too early to say with definitude that ANYTHING has worked? I mean, I don't know about you, but I seriously doubt that the final chapter has been written on this and it wouldn't surprise me one iota if the whole damn thing fell back into chaos, the fact that those idiots seemingly haven't gotten along for centuries, etc. ("They're worse than the Jews" is what one Sunni recently said about a Shia - case in point).

13 comments:

BB-Idaho said...

You pretty much got that right.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

This is one of the reasons that I didn't vote for McCain (the 2000 McCain I actually liked). He always seems to want to solve EVERY problem with a military first, ask questions later, way.

Les Carpenter said...

The old warrior living the new Neocon delusions.

dmarks said...

Not sure he was ever a neocon, though.

I agree the surge thing was pointless. What bothers me more about Hegel is that he is the choice of a major group of terrorists that wants to kill off every American.

dmarks said...

Also, how many agree with me that sometime between 2000 and 2008, McCain changed from someone who could have been a great President, to something of a weird crank?

Les Carpenter said...

I liked McCain when he was a maverick. Goes back further than 2000. By then he was becoming what he is.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Yeah, I see a huge distinction between the McCain of 1998-2002 and the John McCain of today. I'd have more than likely voted for the guy in 2000.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And to be fair and balanced about it, Chuck Hagel doesn't seem quite like the same guy, either. That guy who berated his colleagues in 2006 about "if they wanted a safe job that they should go sell shoes" seemed like a feeble old man the other day. It was sad.

Rusty Shackelford said...


Hagel appeared the fool at his hearing.He was either totally unprerpared or totally clueless.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Sadly, he's past his prime.

dmarks said...

Will said: "That guy...seemed like a feeble old man the other day. It was sad."

So what you are saying, was it was like Lemmon and Matthau bickering in "Grumpy Old Men 3". But without the humor.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And without the spunk.

dmarks said...

Might be kind of cool if one of them leaves a rotten fish under the other's car seat, though.