ianstone
06-16-2010, 07:12 PM
Nervous is wall st, think you not deliver, army promise of winning war not: Yoda says that is crap and the boys and girls will deliver, YES
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Waking Up To Tunnel Vision In Afghanistan
By RICHARD COHEN (http://www.investors.com/Search/SearchResults.aspx?source=filterSearch&Ntt=RICHARD+COHEN&Nr=AND(Author%3aRICHARD+COHEN)) Posted 06/15/2010 05:57 PM ET
http://www.investors.com/image/ISScohenC.gif.cms (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISScohenC.gif&docId=537390&caption=) View Enlarged Image (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISScohenC.gif&docId=537390&caption=)
Gregor Samsa, the general counsel of an exterminating company, was in New York on business when he was hit on the head by a flowerpot (geraniums) being watered by one Dorothy Obdean three floors above street level. This happened in 1970.
Samsa went into a coma from which he awakened only last week. Almost immediately, he read the major newspapers with astonishment. "For some reason, they've changed the name of Vietnam to Afghanistan," he said.
Samsa read on. Other than the name change and some other minor differences, he noticed that everything else was the same.
Some military officers he had never heard of, preternaturally trim and so smart that he had to wonder why they had chosen the business of killing in the first place, were predicting the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning or some such thing. He looked for the phrase "light at the end of the tunnel," but inexplicably it was gone.
Samsa turned the page. There, as he expected, he found that the battle of Marja, which was once going to be the "turning point" of the war, was now seesawing back and forth. Both the Washington Post and the New York Times had reported — in the words of the Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran — that the Taliban "have regained momentum in recent weeks, despite early claims of success by U.S. Marines."
Samsa visibly relaxed. Now he was sure they were talking about Vietnam.
Samsa kept reading. Elizabeth Rubin reported in Foreign Policy that the leader of the former Vietnam was acting bizarrely. The leader had an odd name for a Vietnamese person, Hamid Karzai.
He had fired his director of intelligence and his interior minister not, as he had said, because they had failed to prevent a recent rocket attack but because he thought they were in cahoots with the Americans. Karzai believed the Americans were trying to intimidate him. Maybe Westmoreland can settle him down.
The president's brother, meanwhile, apparently objected to a long-planned assault on Kandahar and it has been delayed for that reason. The brother — actually the half-brother, and we all know from Psych 101 what that means — is a very powerful warlord or something.
Eight Years Of War
He is also as corrupt as your average Chicago alderman or, as Samsa was quickly learning, virtually any member of the New York state Legislature. For literally years, there had been reports that the Americans or his (half) brother or maybe the Mossad would get rid of him, but he was still in power. The fact that nothing had changed was oddly reassuring to Samsa.
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Dems Haunted By Different Sort Of Malaise (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/537593/201006161850/Dems-Haunted-By-Different-Sort-Of-Malaise.aspx)http://www.investors.com/image/ISSdionneC_tmb.gif.cmsA weird malaise is haunting the Democratic Party. That's a risky word to use, I know. It's freighted with bad history and carries unfortunate implications. So let's be clear: President Obama is not Jimmy Carter, not even close. And Obama's speech on Tuesday was nothing like Carter's 1979 "malaise ...
06:50 PM ET
Sorely Lacking In Recovery: Animal Spirits (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/537267/201006141848/Sorely-Lacking-In-Recovery-Animal-Spirits.aspx)http://www.investors.com/image/ISSsamuelsonC_tmb.gif.cmsIt's psychology, stupid. Not since World War II has an economic recovery been so hobbled by poor confidence. Every recession leaves a legacy of anxiety and uncertainty. But the present residue is exceptional, because the recession was savage and its origins (housing bubble, financial crisis) were ...
06/14/2010 06:48 PM ET
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06/11/2010 06:40 PM ET
Tea Party Does Nevada's Reid One Big Favor (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/536973/201006101831/Tea-Party-Does-Nevadas-Reid-One-Big-Favor.aspx)http://www.investors.com/image/ISSmilbankClr_tmb.jpg.cmsHarry Reid is looking at life from a whole new Angle. Only weeks ago, the Senate majority leader was a dead man walking, facing a seemingly inevitable defeat in his re-election battle in Nevada. But then came Tuesday's primary, and Republicans selected as their candidate Sharron Angle, a woman who, ...
06/10/2010 06:31 PM ET
Wrath Of Left Boils Over On Speaker Pelosi (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/536825/201006091838/Wrath-Of-Left-Boils-Over-On-Speaker-Pelosi.aspx)http://www.investors.com/image/ISSmilbankClr_tmb.jpg.cmsFor 17 months, anger at President Obama and congressional Democrats has been pooling on the left. On Tuesday morning, it spilled onto the floor of a hotel ballroom and splashed all over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The celebrated San Francisco liberal took the stage to greet what should have been a ...
06/09/2010 06:38 PM ET
Comments Showing 1-5 of 11
Posted By: concerned(1390) on 6/16/2010 | 5:53 PM ET
RC definitely has a serious case of Vietnamitis. This piece, in its way, is just as silly as his previous diatribe calling for the reinstatement of the draft to encourage, believe it or not, civil disobedience. Any comparison of Vietnam to Afghanistan with Vietnam's 2,000 casualties a week versus a hundredth of that or less for Afghanistan is inappropriate on that basis alone, not to mention the current absence of a Cold War environment and other huge differences between the two.
Posted By: BradO(2765) on 6/16/2010 | 11:25 AM ET
Cohen really is gagging on the Democrat Kool-aid. That's a very good sign. If you read closely, he just threw Obama under the bus. Wow, what a turn of events.
Posted By: 13mogul(640) on 6/16/2010 | 11:16 AM ET
Love how these disillusioned leftists decry the very wars and policies that protect their way of life. Don't place any value on your personal freedoms? Move to Iran, or China, or Venezuela, and leave us alone. Obama and his cronies are completely clueless and are letting our enemies take advantage of our country and our people. And they ARE enemies, make no mistake about it. Mr Cohen should reread his history.
Posted By: BaltimoreJoe(1615) on 6/16/2010 | 10:30 AM ET
The reason Afghanistan is up in the air is that the Afghani people and the government don't trust America's commitment to stick around for the long haul. George Bush the so-called "idiot cowboy" promised as much to Iraq in January 2007, which history will smile upon as a master stroke. Remember, Obama in January promised a time table for withdrawal to start in 2011.
Posted By: bholt(235) on 6/16/2010 | 9:48 AM ET
After reading this piece (of what, I leave to you), it is my humble opinion that Richard Cohen is, in fact, crazy.
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Waking Up To Tunnel Vision In Afghanistan
By RICHARD COHEN (http://www.investors.com/Search/SearchResults.aspx?source=filterSearch&Ntt=RICHARD+COHEN&Nr=AND(Author%3aRICHARD+COHEN)) Posted 06/15/2010 05:57 PM ET
http://www.investors.com/image/ISScohenC.gif.cms (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISScohenC.gif&docId=537390&caption=) View Enlarged Image (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISScohenC.gif&docId=537390&caption=)
Gregor Samsa, the general counsel of an exterminating company, was in New York on business when he was hit on the head by a flowerpot (geraniums) being watered by one Dorothy Obdean three floors above street level. This happened in 1970.
Samsa went into a coma from which he awakened only last week. Almost immediately, he read the major newspapers with astonishment. "For some reason, they've changed the name of Vietnam to Afghanistan," he said.
Samsa read on. Other than the name change and some other minor differences, he noticed that everything else was the same.
Some military officers he had never heard of, preternaturally trim and so smart that he had to wonder why they had chosen the business of killing in the first place, were predicting the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning or some such thing. He looked for the phrase "light at the end of the tunnel," but inexplicably it was gone.
Samsa turned the page. There, as he expected, he found that the battle of Marja, which was once going to be the "turning point" of the war, was now seesawing back and forth. Both the Washington Post and the New York Times had reported — in the words of the Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran — that the Taliban "have regained momentum in recent weeks, despite early claims of success by U.S. Marines."
Samsa visibly relaxed. Now he was sure they were talking about Vietnam.
Samsa kept reading. Elizabeth Rubin reported in Foreign Policy that the leader of the former Vietnam was acting bizarrely. The leader had an odd name for a Vietnamese person, Hamid Karzai.
He had fired his director of intelligence and his interior minister not, as he had said, because they had failed to prevent a recent rocket attack but because he thought they were in cahoots with the Americans. Karzai believed the Americans were trying to intimidate him. Maybe Westmoreland can settle him down.
The president's brother, meanwhile, apparently objected to a long-planned assault on Kandahar and it has been delayed for that reason. The brother — actually the half-brother, and we all know from Psych 101 what that means — is a very powerful warlord or something.
Eight Years Of War
He is also as corrupt as your average Chicago alderman or, as Samsa was quickly learning, virtually any member of the New York state Legislature. For literally years, there had been reports that the Americans or his (half) brother or maybe the Mossad would get rid of him, but he was still in power. The fact that nothing had changed was oddly reassuring to Samsa.
« Previous Article in On The Left (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/537267/201006141848/Sorely-Lacking-In-Recovery-Animal-Spirits.aspx)
Next Article in On The Left » (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/537593/201006161850/Dems-Haunted-By-Different-Sort-Of-Malaise.aspx)
See Also
Dems Haunted By Different Sort Of Malaise (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/537593/201006161850/Dems-Haunted-By-Different-Sort-Of-Malaise.aspx)http://www.investors.com/image/ISSdionneC_tmb.gif.cmsA weird malaise is haunting the Democratic Party. That's a risky word to use, I know. It's freighted with bad history and carries unfortunate implications. So let's be clear: President Obama is not Jimmy Carter, not even close. And Obama's speech on Tuesday was nothing like Carter's 1979 "malaise ...
06:50 PM ET
Sorely Lacking In Recovery: Animal Spirits (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/537267/201006141848/Sorely-Lacking-In-Recovery-Animal-Spirits.aspx)http://www.investors.com/image/ISSsamuelsonC_tmb.gif.cmsIt's psychology, stupid. Not since World War II has an economic recovery been so hobbled by poor confidence. Every recession leaves a legacy of anxiety and uncertainty. But the present residue is exceptional, because the recession was savage and its origins (housing bubble, financial crisis) were ...
06/14/2010 06:48 PM ET
The Figment Of A Crime-Ridden Border (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/537142/201006111840/The-Figment-Of-A-Crime-Ridden-Border.aspx)http://www.investors.com/image/ISSSchmacherMatoes_tmb.gif.cmsThe Associated Press reported the week before last that the U.S.-Mexico border is one of the safest parts of America and that Border Patrol agents face less danger than your average city cop. These are the hard facts of official statistics. Yet presented with the evidence, this is what Texas ...
06/11/2010 06:40 PM ET
Tea Party Does Nevada's Reid One Big Favor (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/536973/201006101831/Tea-Party-Does-Nevadas-Reid-One-Big-Favor.aspx)http://www.investors.com/image/ISSmilbankClr_tmb.jpg.cmsHarry Reid is looking at life from a whole new Angle. Only weeks ago, the Senate majority leader was a dead man walking, facing a seemingly inevitable defeat in his re-election battle in Nevada. But then came Tuesday's primary, and Republicans selected as their candidate Sharron Angle, a woman who, ...
06/10/2010 06:31 PM ET
Wrath Of Left Boils Over On Speaker Pelosi (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/536825/201006091838/Wrath-Of-Left-Boils-Over-On-Speaker-Pelosi.aspx)http://www.investors.com/image/ISSmilbankClr_tmb.jpg.cmsFor 17 months, anger at President Obama and congressional Democrats has been pooling on the left. On Tuesday morning, it spilled onto the floor of a hotel ballroom and splashed all over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The celebrated San Francisco liberal took the stage to greet what should have been a ...
06/09/2010 06:38 PM ET
Comments Showing 1-5 of 11
Posted By: concerned(1390) on 6/16/2010 | 5:53 PM ET
RC definitely has a serious case of Vietnamitis. This piece, in its way, is just as silly as his previous diatribe calling for the reinstatement of the draft to encourage, believe it or not, civil disobedience. Any comparison of Vietnam to Afghanistan with Vietnam's 2,000 casualties a week versus a hundredth of that or less for Afghanistan is inappropriate on that basis alone, not to mention the current absence of a Cold War environment and other huge differences between the two.
Posted By: BradO(2765) on 6/16/2010 | 11:25 AM ET
Cohen really is gagging on the Democrat Kool-aid. That's a very good sign. If you read closely, he just threw Obama under the bus. Wow, what a turn of events.
Posted By: 13mogul(640) on 6/16/2010 | 11:16 AM ET
Love how these disillusioned leftists decry the very wars and policies that protect their way of life. Don't place any value on your personal freedoms? Move to Iran, or China, or Venezuela, and leave us alone. Obama and his cronies are completely clueless and are letting our enemies take advantage of our country and our people. And they ARE enemies, make no mistake about it. Mr Cohen should reread his history.
Posted By: BaltimoreJoe(1615) on 6/16/2010 | 10:30 AM ET
The reason Afghanistan is up in the air is that the Afghani people and the government don't trust America's commitment to stick around for the long haul. George Bush the so-called "idiot cowboy" promised as much to Iraq in January 2007, which history will smile upon as a master stroke. Remember, Obama in January promised a time table for withdrawal to start in 2011.
Posted By: bholt(235) on 6/16/2010 | 9:48 AM ET
After reading this piece (of what, I leave to you), it is my humble opinion that Richard Cohen is, in fact, crazy.