Senator Joseph I. Lieberman announced Tuesday that he had hired a new spokesman, which is not in itself that noteworthy, except that the said spokesman, Marshall Wittmann, is one of the great career vagabonds, ideological contortionists and political pontificators ever to inflict himself on a city full of them.
To say that Mr. Wittmann defies classification is like saying Paris Hilton defies modesty. But in his peripatetic soul, he is a Washington Original, a man without a political country going to work for a senator without a political party.

Couldn’t have said it better myself…

The center is a bargaining position, but it is not a leadership position.

this promotes the lie about the right that they are strong on national security and the that the left isn’t. Nothing could be further from the truth.
.

It’s the refugees stupid! To turn a phrase here might serve us all to keep our eyes on the wave that’s now cresting across the Fertile Crescent.

The migration, and potential migration, of untold hundreds of thousands (perhaps in the millions) of Iraqi refugees to Jordan and Syria (and Iran to a lesser extent) is the unspoken fulcrum for U.S. leverage to facilitate our rapid exit from Iraq. Before I go on…I know some of you are wondering what about Saudi Arabia?…well that paleo-Sultanate will stay locked up tighter than a drum to in-migration (unless you count the sex-slave trade they are so adept at hiding), thus they will not be a player in the scenario I outline below.

Throughout history it is the transnational movement of sizeable refugee populations (those exodus that threaten a country’s national security and welfare) that provide the impetus for sovereign states to take regional risks. No rational player associated with the Fertile Crescent can ignore the likely refugee consequences of a U.S. withdrawal sans regional commitments to a stable Iraq.

Currently, it is money (usually dollars) that buys an Iraqi family passage into one of these neighboring countries. That will change very soon (if it has not already) as the human wave of Sunnis head West and the Shiites move East (or South), both running from each other and the militias fighting for control of center.

(Side Bar: Do not delude yourself that the militias are going to make a petrol-grab for the pipelines. They are well patrolled and too vital as spoils to the victor. Save that inferno for later.)

However, the second wave of refugees will not be the well-heeled, upper-crust, of Iraqi society. They will be the desperate and hungry, seeking to cross borders with all the motivation that fear, famine, and despair can muster. This movement will be huge. And, (take note here) it will be escorted by U.S. troops ordered to prevent genocide and mass starvations. Can you see it yet? The U.N. setting up colossal tent cities on the borders just inside Jordan and Syria? It does not take much imagination to picture such a ghastly scenario.

This pile of humanity is the fulcrum upon which our callous U.S. decision makers are now leveraging regional powers (and the U.N.). Watch the picture unfold in the next month. Our country is about to play a heartless (soulless) game of chicken within the region.

Just in case you are wondering why Dick Cheney went to Saudi Arabia recently…it was to deliver a promise to the Sultans of Slavery that they would not be subjected to the flood. Redeployment, in this case, means: “Sure your Highness, we’ll guard your border.”

The migration, and potential migration, of untold hundreds of thousands (perhaps in the millions) of Iraqi refugees to Jordan and Syria (and Iran to a lesser extent) is the unspoken fulcrum for U.S. leverage to facilitate our rapid exit from Iraq. Before I go on…I know some of you are wondering what about Saudi Arabia?…well that paleo-Sultenate will stay locked up tighter than a drum to inmigration (unless you count the sex-slave trade they are so adept at hiding), thus they will not be a player in the scenario I outline below.

Throughout history it is the transnational movement of sizeable refugee populations (those exodus that threaten a country’s national security and welfare) that provide the impetus for sovereign states to take regional risks. No rational player associated with the Fertile Crescent can ignore the likely refugee consequences of a U.S. withdrawl sans regional committments to a stable Iraq.

Currently, it is money (usually dollars) that buys an Iraqi family passage into one of these neighboring countries. That will change very soon (if it has not already) as the human wave of Sunnis head West and the Shiites move East (or South), both running from each other and the malitias fighting for control of center.

(Side Bar: Do not delude yourself that the militias are going to make a petrol-grab for the pipelines. They are well patrolled and too vital as spoils to the victor. Save that inferno for later.)

However, the second wave of refugees will not be the well-heeled, upper-crust, of Iraqi society. They will be the desparate and hungry, seeking to cross borders with all the motivation that fear, famine, and despair can muster. This movement will be huge. And, (take note here) it will be escorted by U.S. troops ordered to prevent genocide and mass starvations. Can you see it yet? The U.N. setting up colossal tent cities on the borders just inside Jordan and Syria? It does not take much imagination to picture such a ghastly scenario.

This pile of humanity is the fulcrum upon which our callous U.S. decision makers are now leveraging regional powers (and the U.N.). Watch the picture unfold in the next month. Our country is about to play a heartless (souless) game of chicken within the region.

Just in case you are wondering why Dick Cheney went to Saudi Arabia recently…it was to deliver a promise to the Sultans of Slavery that they would not be subjected to the flood. Redeployment, in this case, means: “Sure your Highness, we’ll guard your border.”

It really is time you joined up all the little dots and begin to confront the fact that Joe Lieberman is so one-eyed for GWB’s Iraq because he is an Israeli first and an american second and he knows very well that greedy, gullible GWB was sold the invasion so the US would fight the proxy war for Israel.

here’s my favorite music trivia stumper
Who wrote “I Don’t Need No Doctor” (from Humble Pie Rockin the Fillmore)?
No fair checking ‘the Google’

Oh, and our disaster of a Mideast policy does not begin or end in the cradle of civilization.
IMO, we need to keep a close eye on Turkey ( and not just because it’s seasonal)
and develop a realistic stance on Syria and Iran’s stake.
Neither is perfect, but both are serious stakeholders.
Syria’s ‘influence’ in Lebanon is problematic, but , let’s face it… Qatar and Jordon are not going to run the region.
Nor are we.
Nor should we, really.

sofistic @ 78

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I’m listening to CSNY’s “Our House,” what a blast from the past.

Trivia: Did you know that the steel guitar part on “Teach Your Children Well” was done by Jerry Garcia?

Swopa @
72

You make your pumpkin pie with the sugar you have, not the sugar you wish you had or the sugar you might have at some future time.

Cooking is untidy.

Comment of the day.

How about “Let’s tear apart the right wing, then the left wing, then the drumsticks too…?”