On Sep 19, 2006, at 1:47 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote:
> Early next year we'll be coming up on the end of the 4th year of
> the war in Iraq,
On Nov 25 of this year, the war in Iraq will be as long as WW II (1,346 days).
> So the question is: why is the Bush administration pushing so hard
> on this stuff?
Politics and the expansion of executive power. They've been pretty masterful at mixing fright and reassurance, which keeps people loyal (as George Will said during the first Gulf War, heated minds are more malleable), and Dems on the defensive. And I think Bush & Cheney have been obsessed with accumulating power in the executive branch and marginalizing Congress and the judiciary. Nothing like this vague, 50- year war that requires "new" strategies (as if torture and perpetual detention are new strategies) to grease the way.
> As an aside, I'm in London today and I walked by the US Embassy in
> what used to be one of the nicer parts of town -- Grosvenor Square
> -- and the place is a fucking mess with anti-car-bomb-barriers
> blocking several streets and lots of temporary fencing strewn
> about. Bleah.
Sounds like Wall Street, which was once rather beautiful, and is now a hideous armed camp.
Doug