I read this right before going to bed around 3 AM today. I get up around 11, only to find this.

So, this is either more bullshit from our military commanders, or the media is jumping the gun.

If we do end up waiting for 5-6 days, then we will have just been unnecessarily lied to, again. If we don't wait, then I'm going to be, like, why not? I read the first article at 3 AM, and I was thinking, hey, that's good. That will allow us to try and spend more time actually securing those southern cities and supply lines, and give the northern front more time to gather steam.

Oh well, I fully concede that I don't know shit, and the military won't be asking me advice on how to plan things in Iraq. Now, if they wanted to know where they could find some good free web porn, I'd be their man. That's probably not likely to happen, either.

Okay, no new links today, just some commentary.

Can the defense department just come clean with us? I have heard nothing but this back and forth action. We underestimated them. We didn't underestimate them. We under... I'd say it's pretty obvious that we're run into some unexpected shit. The Turks, Syria, guerilla warfare. And you know what? That's not so bad, for war, at least.

Okay, it really does seem like they should have been able to predict some of this shit. But why can't they just cop to it? No, we're not getting our clean, quick war, but it's coming along. Why can't they just say, some things are going bad, others are going well? Partially because the public is too fucking weak to handle anything too serious. Oh, and it's a bunch of lying assholes at the helm. By lying assholes, I don't just mean in the normal politician sense, I mean in the sense of getting us involved in unnecessary, troublesome wars under the guise that we're 'liberators'.

The thing is, they can't even keep their opinions consistent. Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense and a key architect of this war, said that they may have underestimated the war crimes that the Iraqis would be willing to commit. This one I'm just plain going to blame them for. First of all, how could Iraq not resort to tactics like this? Up against an intractable enemy with no hope of victory, we should have known they were going to have to go to some extremes. I'm not saying what they're doing is good, but I understand. Also, the administration has done nothing but vilify (in most if not all cases, rightly so) Saddam's administration. From what we've heard, this shit is par for the course. Why does it come as a surprise?

Here's a good one - Bush is getting fed up with the press and their second guessing of the war. There's still a definite propagandist slant in the media, but since the war has started, they've actually been asking some tough questions. Naturally, this doesn't sit well with the Administration, who has pretty much gotten a free ride from the press up until now. You know what, Mr. Bush? You got your war, you spoiled crybaby fuck. Now shut the hell up and take a little bit of grief.

Speaking of the media, I've found a newscast I like. It's the CBC's nightly news program, The National. Yup, I'm giving a shoutout to my Canuck brothers up north. Anyway, I've seen this a couple of times this week at 7 PM MST on CSPAN.

In closing, I still hope this war goes well. Now that we're in there, we don't have any choice but to finish it. I'm just not too optimistic about the future. I see the footage of destraught citizens in Baghdad who just lost loved ones in a market explosion. The Defense Department says it's under investigation; maybe the Iraqi military dropped the bomb themselves. I don't think it really matters; we know who those Iraqi citizens will blame. And all I can think is, oh my god, are these people going to fucking hate us.

Here's a long, but good article that gives a good history of the administration's motivations for war in a pretty objective manner.

Mentioned in the article is a letter signed by the likes of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. I believe that this letter was a product of The Project for the New American Century.

Draw your own conclusions from this, but the war with Iraq was a long time coming. September 11th was merely a catalyst/excuse for PNAC, many of whose members are senior Administration officials now, to begin enacting the Iraq portion of their doctrine. Although I feel there are other motivations for this war, I would say that PNAC's beliefs in the need for regime change in Iraq is one of them.

Yup.

Good, I wasn't the only one confused as to what the fuck was going on in Basra with the "uprising" on Tuesday.

What, are we pissed at Canada, just because they have French Canadians up there? Or, sorry, Freedom Canadians.

This should piss off the steel industry and their fucking lobbyists.

I'm not saying that the steel industry here should tank, unless of course if they're sucking ass like the automotive industry. The thing that pisses me off about these recently-declared illegal tariffs is that they were essentially a handout to the steel industry that was wrought from heavy lobbying.

This, to me, is similar to the support the airline industry got after September 11th. The handout the airline industry got at the time may have been a good thing, but the fact that a big proponent of it was Tom Daschle, whose wife is a lobbyist for the airline industry, just shows how fucking dirty the whole system is. Oh, on second thought, maybe it wasn't such a good thing, since the airline industry was in trouble well before September 11th, and this was an opportunity for them to solve their problems without doing it themselves.

Only they didn't fix their problems, because they're at it again, asking for more government handouts. This time, I say fuck 'em. They had their chance before. Yes, I can understand that the war is causing lots of people to re-think their travel plans, but we can't be giving the airline industry freebies every time trouble shows up. That seems to go against this 'free market' thing I keep hearing about.

In a related story, Tom Daschle is getting 500% more blowjobs this week.

Fuckin' A. Literally.

Parody at its best. Keep in mind that the British are our friends in this conflict, and they don't exactly have a ton of respect for dubya.

I've been linking to CNN quite a bit, but they are completely full of shit lots of times, and I frequently find myself pissed at their "reporting". Take, for instance, this.

What pissed me off was the line "a building complex resembling New York's twin towers". If you saw this mural, but it didn't have an airplane crashing into one of the buildings, would you immediately think WTC? Maybe some, but not all. Of course, with the plane there in flames, we naturally think WTC. Chances are this mural was made post-September 11th, but I don't think they know for sure. Reporting "news" like this is just manipulative and inflammatory.

Of course, not everyone in the military is a hero. And can someone explain to me why it's just this week that someone from the Department of Defense inspector general's office is showing up to investigate this? It's been awhile since this story broke.

More on the trouble brewing up north.

Of course, there's always plenty of blame to go around, and I haven't even started in on the media and the role they have played in hyping the war and making us think it would be easy. This article is a good read, pointing out the media's culpability, some specific instances of where our leaders pushed forth the idea of a short war, and hitting several other important bases as well.

Tony Blair is quoted here as saying that "The loser will be the wider world" if the US and Europe don't do something to repair the rift that has developed over the past few months. Considering that we've managed to fuck things up in the UN, the EU, and NATO, isn't the world already losing? Furthermore, why does everyone else have to kiss our ass? Sure, it's nice and all to be this powerful and to reap the rewards that come with it, but I don't want others just rubber stamping the evil shit our leaders want.

Meanwhile, North Korea is stirring up shit.

Things don't seem to be going all that well in the war. That's ok; really. Sure, it would be nice if things were progressing more rapidly, but that's unrealistic since, as I've said before, it's fucking war.

What infuriates me still is how we were led to believe that the war would be quick and easy. I'd say we were pretty much outright lied to about this. I know I covered this issue yesterday, but it bears repeating. Our leaders, led by President Dumbass, bullshitted the entire world that we could do this thing with in minimal time and with minimal problems. Again, anyone who thouhgt it over knew that this wouldn't be the case. There are so many contingencies to plan for, that there's no way they could have this perfectly mapped out ahead of time. Now, we've got the Turks on the move, guerilla warfare, and the Republican Guard moving south from Baghdad to bring the fight to us.

I think our military leaders got a little overconfident, but our forces can still handle all this, so I'm not pissed at them. I'm pissed at the fucking lying assholes of this administration.

Well, at least the reality of things isn't lost on everyone, as evidenced by some of these articles.

To me, this is closer to what I think 'responsible' looks like. Maybe it's not enough, but it's a start.

Although I know that relations with the French will remain damaged for years, at least I haven't heard anything as obscene as 'Freedom Fries' as of late. Sure, we're trying to make the Russians look bad, but hopefully no one will ever have to order a White Freedom the next time they want kahlua mixed with milk and vodka. Meanwhile, I found this somewhat amusing.

Okay, as a side note, Bush isn't asking for the full $75 billion just for the war... Only $63 billion of that is for the war, which sounds much more responsible. Of course, this is just the beginning. Who knows how this war will go and how much it will cost in the end.

Still, this initial budget should have been laid out before the war started. Rough numbers in the neighborhood of $100 billion were thrown around, but it didn't seem like the issue was really pressed at all. Plus, the administration was much too busy bullshitting us as to how this war was going to be a cakewalk.

Any sensible person knew that this war wasn't going to be as easy as they said it would be, just simply because it's fucking war. Even still, the governent got everyone's hopes up that we would go in there, the Iraqis wouldn't fight back and instead just surrender, and we'd be out in no time.

After this past Sunday, we all know that it's getting ugly, and we can only imagine the mess that awaits in Baghdad.

On a side note, has anyone noticed how fucking sick the stock market is? Last week, markets surged on the news that we were finally going to war, and that it would be over quickly. This week, however, things took a plunge after this weekend's fighting. And you know what? Today, the markets are back up after a 'lack of any new setbacks' in the war.

Isn't it neat to see human lives reduced to dollars and cents? We sure are good at doing that.

So what's pissing me off today? Nonsense related to the war is high on the list, naturally.

Bush is asking congress to 'act responsibly' and front nearly $75 billion to fight the war. The war is a week old, and now he's asking for money? Shouldn't setting up the budget have been a prerequsite for going into war in the first place? Why exactly is it that Bush can get away with pretty much anything he wants? Also, does the word 'responsbily' make anyone else sick when Bush uses it? It's like those Bacardi Silver commercials where they say to drink responsibly, but the whole commercial involves a bunh of people comandeering a fucking subway car so that they can turn it into a disco.

Boy, it's a shame that no one could have predicted that even though we may bring freedom to Iraq, the people still aren't necessarily happy that it's the Americans cramming it down their throats. Oh, and while I support our troops, some of them are just fucking crazy. Yeah, I totally remember the first gulf war, and how we were on Baghdad's doorstep, and then that fucking liberal media showed up and helped the Iraqis repel the American invaders.

Big surprise.

Undoubtedly more later as I find other shit that pisses me off.

I'm pretty much beyond discouraged in the 'trying to find a girlfriend' department, and it just keeps getting more and more depressing.

Even fucking murderers can get girls. Underage girls, sure, but I don't even care anymore. This is just embarassing.

So what's this blog about? Bitching is pretty much the focus here. Oh, and if you're not a big fan of sarcasm, this place probably isn't for you. Not like any of this matters... I'm sure no one is going to read this crap, anyway.