Thursday, December 3, 2009

Barack Tiger Obama Woods



Obama formally announced his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. This decision was shared informally a week prior so that the American public would have time to digest...oh and to give the media time to sell this strategy.

General McChrystal hours later told his troops "We are here to help the Afghan people". The obvious purpose was to get the soldiers in step with winning hearts and minds. However did these soldiers really sign up to risk there lives for the Afghan people?


Does this blog think that is the right thing to do? I honestly don’t know, but I do know I like what one pundit said. “Why are we using 100,000 troops for 100 people that wish us harm?”


I get that 9/11 scared the be-Jebus out of Americans (btw Obama deftly slipped in that fear reminder nugget early into his speech), but that was a different time.


The entire population is now aware of Jihadists. There are hundreds of millions of people constantly cognizant of such threats. This is not to say another “attack” won’t happen but I think the game has changed and working in anonymity is no longer a luxury Jihadists have.


I’m no pacifist but this war has been going on for 8 years now.


When I hear about young married men and women being sent off for 15 months to do a tour of duty I think about the social cost for those poor bastards. Who out there in their 20’s has a relationship that could withstand that? “Bye honey, see you in well over a year. Wait for me”.


Then you come to realize that a lot of these people have been sent there 3 and 4 times. Are you fucking kidding me?!


Jesus Christ no wonder Americans always pay lip service to the military. “Our brave men and women in uniform who exemplify...” is a nice line of homage to score points but it smacks of contrivance.


Reminds me of the South Park episode with Japanese businessmen distracting locals from uncovering their plot by saying ”You Americans have such large penises”.


Now I’m not going to get into the corrupt Karzai government that the US has helped install or talk of oil pipelines, quagmires, free elections and women’s rights. There are all kinds of tributaries to go down. I’m not even here to hack on Obama (although that Nobel Peace Prize might burn a little in his fingers now), all I’m saying is that we are always being sold something.


Want a recent example of being sold a story line? We were told (some people even believed) Tiger Woods was out for a shoeless, 2:30 AM, prescription drug-riddled drive when he crashed into a tree and his wife pulled him out of the car to safety.


Personally I wondered why she was the first one on scene when he ended up at a neighbour’s house. Then I wondered why they said she used a golf club to break a window and free him...only to find out she smashed the back passenger side widow.


Maybe...just maybe she was chasing his cheating ass and swinging a golf club on the side exposed to the house as he drove away.


Maybe...just maybe Obama is pitching America a palatable story and the truth is a lot more obscure than a spurned Norwegian. Perhaps we will never be told the full truth so we are left with only one reliable reality; that many more lives will be profoundly changed and in some cases ended, in a plight that may or may not be as it appears.


-Life is complicated and far from perfect but it is still great.

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