"Just a Comma"

It's not as funny as Foley-gate, but the ongoing war in Iraq is, obviously, more significant. The president is running around the country slandering Democrats and lying about their stand on his administration's illegal surveillance initiative, while telling people the violence in Iraq will be "just a comma" in the history books. Not, obviously, to the 2,700 and growing dead American soldiers. Not to their wives, husbands, and children. Nor to the thousands more maimed or wounded or their families. Nor to the tens of thousands of dead Iraqis and their families and friends. Or, indeed, to those inspired by the war to join radical terrorist groups, or to those who will be the victims of their future crimes.

According to Woodward's book, Bush says he'll continue the war in Iraq even if the only ones left supporting him are Laura and their dog. And, presumably, he means it. Loose talk of winning or losing the war is, at this point, irrelevant. The president has defined our war aims in Iraq purely in terms of continuing the war indefinitely. For him, keeping all of these troops over there and handing the whole shitpile off to his successor is success. Nobody else should find that very comforting.

10/5/06 9:59AM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

Great post, Matt. You really nail it especially in your conclusion. Your text coupled with that powerful photo was pretty moving. And I've been pretty goddamn cynical and hardened about the War for a while now.

Nice work.

Posted by: Mr Furious on October 5, 2006 10:29 AM

Probably wants to join Halliburton in 2009 and needs to keep the cash coming.

Posted by: Tim on October 5, 2006 10:37 AM

That photo is heartbreaking. This stupid fucking war will be our eternal shame. So much waste.

Posted by: Hoyt Pollard on October 5, 2006 10:40 AM

Matthew

Good post ..."just a comma" has the potential to replace "Mission Accomplished" as Bush's legacy

We riffed on it the other day

News In Brief - Snow: “Just, Simply, A Naughty Little Grammar Snafu”
New White House Problem: Held Report Allegedly Says Iraq History Will Have Exclamation Point, Not Comma
http://puregarlic.blogspot.com/2006/10/news-in-brief-snow-just-simply-naughty.html

Peace
JTD

Posted by: J. Thomas Duffy on October 5, 2006 10:47 AM

How do we know that Bush's dog supports the war in Iraq? Count me sceptical.

Posted by: otto on October 5, 2006 10:54 AM

You shouldn't be, Lieberman has talked about his support for the war many times.

Posted by: daveNYC on October 5, 2006 11:01 AM

I thought it was Tony Blair! But seriously: the "Laura and dog" remark says it all about GWB's contempt for democracy.

Posted by: Stitch on October 5, 2006 11:05 AM

It's "just a comma" for the neocons, because they are just getting started in remaking the Middle East militarily. Bush doesn't want to end this war and maybe doesn't care whether he wins. They've got to change regiemes in Iran, Syria, and elsewhere. Here's Perle et al.'s paper, "A Clean Break" http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm

Here's a group that's been studying the neocons and has determined that much of the plan above has been implemented:
http://www.irmep.org/Defaults.asp

Some quotes from IRemp:

"In one of the most interesting passages, the 'Clean Break' plan proposes that members of Congress, our members of Congress, be tempted with pork from missile defense contracts"

"Other 'Clean Break' objectives include using Cold War rhetoric to make Israel’s case to the American people. We of course were all treated to the new phrase 'Axis of Evil' instead of 'Evil Empire'”

"A second 'Clean Break' objective is to destabilize, contain and rollback regional challengers, publicly questioning Syrian legitimacy, assuming that all treaties with Syria are in bad faith and indeed striking Syria directly, striking select targets as well as rejecting land for peace on the Golan."

"Other objectives [include] redraw the map of the Middle East, challenge Arab countries as police states, fortify regional analysis and interestingly for a document written in 1996, emphasize the weapons of mass destruction [WMD] threat"

"one of the most important recommendations made by this study group was that peace for peace and balance of power could be used to overcome and make moot any land for peace negotiations." LOOK: "Peace for Peace." US supplies the war, bestows peaces on those friendly to so-called "US interests."

Posted by: cotterperson on October 5, 2006 11:20 AM

Everything in life is one great big fucking comma to Dubya, the worst of it mere speed bumps on the drive to the vault for him and his cronies. This was all intended from the beginning as a grand scheme to swell the coffers of a few thousand RNC contributors and a couple dozen defense industry corporations. Let's see, approx. $300 billion spent so far and 2700 dead. Some rough division means we've spent $111 million per to get each one of those soldiers killed. Since Iraqis aren't worth anything to Dubya their deaths are gratis.

Posted by: steve duncan on October 5, 2006 11:37 AM

Of course dumping his disaster onto someone else is a success to him-- hell, doing the same damned thing throughout his entire life eventually led to the White House.

Posted by: latts on October 5, 2006 11:44 AM

He shouldn't be so sure he still has his dog.

Posted by: Chris M. on October 5, 2006 12:03 PM

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is rejoicing that America no longer has an army available to create more trouble (I know, too bad there's still a Navy and Air Force).

It's interesting to watch a military empire decline. Like all their predecessors, Americans won't give up their beloved militarism until long after there's no empire left.

But we'll always have WW2.

Posted by: Gary Sugar on October 5, 2006 12:18 PM

Bush "slandering" Democrats?

Nah, I'm with Amy Sullivan here: let's put this in terms the Christian majority of this country can relate to.

George W. Bush is bearing false witness about Democrats.

But that doesn't seem to bother the fundies much; that Commandment seems to have dropped out of their lexicon. Which is why I sometimes call them "nine-Commandment Christians."

Posted by: RT on October 5, 2006 12:18 PM

I have a 5 year old daughter. That photograph breaks my heart.

Posted by: Daniel, Esq. on October 5, 2006 12:24 PM

Daniel,
Not that having kids is necessary to being deeply affected by that photo, but I have a two-year old daughter, and I felt the same way.

"Just a comma . . ." What an incredibly heartless thing to say. In a way it's too bad that the 22nd Amendment precludes Democrats from running a third time against Bush. I'd really like to make him eat those words.

Posted by: Bragan on October 5, 2006 12:39 PM

Isn't "just a comma" simply a variation of that Seinfeld episode?

"The Iraqis voted in free elections...yaddda yadda yadda...and democracy spreads throughout the middle east!"

Larry David for Secretary of State!

Posted by: Robert Earle on October 5, 2006 01:40 PM

Spot on post. VERY powerful photo. Is there a backstory to it that gives a little context? I'd be very interested.

Posted by: sigh on October 5, 2006 01:56 PM

Who's to say that Laura will still support the war when that time comes...and if she goes, maybe the dog will too.

Posted by: jimm on October 5, 2006 03:25 PM

That photo was taken by Michael Yon a former Green Beret and currently an independent journalist. The flikr page attributes it to AP. There was a small controversy about the US Army misusing the photo without compensating Michael Yon. I don't know if he sold the rights to AP or not.

I highly recommend reading Michael Yon's first hand accounts of what he called "The Battle for Mosul".

Posted by: LLeo on October 5, 2006 03:29 PM

I forgot to add a link to the posting by Michael Yon that accompanied that photo and gives the context of the photo. Here it is.

There is another article which describes some of the problems Michael Yon has had with publications misusing (stealing?) his photo.

Posted by: LLeo on October 5, 2006 03:42 PM

Which is why I sometimes call them "nine-Commandment Christians."

Well, adultery, theft, and covetousness are also in there somewhere, and I'm not sure just how much respect the Sabbath gets, either.

Remember, Republicans want the Ten Commandments displayed in government buildings (a) to remind them what they all are, and (b) so they can more easily cross them each off.

Posted by: mds on October 5, 2006 04:09 PM

Isn't the 'comma' riff some kind of dog-whistle Bible thing? I forget what, exactly.

Posted by: live on October 5, 2006 05:06 PM

A propos of I'm not sure what, I was touched by hearing on the local news that a former member of the Sutherlin (OR) city council had been killed in Iraq this week. Apparently he had been looking forward to coming home on leave at Thanksgiving to remarry his ex-wife.

All kinds of ways to break hearts, I guess.

Posted by: Gene O'Grady on October 5, 2006 07:55 PM

It's not as funny as Foley-gate

Depends on your sense of humor. Lieberman seems to think it's pretty funny...at least, he thought that WMD skit was funny.

Posted by: Tom Hilton on October 5, 2006 07:57 PM

I went to the Clean Break site and I see these people who are advocating a strategy for Israel all seem to be Americans who ended up with great influence in the Bush administration. I always suspected the way was prompted by misguided Americans who thought they knew what was best for Israel and convinced the Israelis to go along. With friends like these, Israel doesn't need any enemies.

I loved this country. I joined the Marines to protect it. What I now sees disgusts me. We are supposedly in a war although I'm really not sure what war it is. Is it the Iraq war, the war against terror, or the war against the anti-Republicans. I'm not affected in any way by this war. In fact, a couple of days ago when I heard another group of Marines was killed I had a momentary thought,"oh, they're still fighting over there." Shamefully, I had forgotten that these young Americans were still being killed to help people who hate us and will hate us no matter what the outcome is.

Posted by: Savin H. Woods on October 5, 2006 09:00 PM

Bush may have a point. Here's how the comma will look:

In 2003 George W. Bush undertook the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which ended in disaster.

Posted by: claymation on October 5, 2006 10:07 PM

Regarding the dog whistle. the relevant quote is "Never place a period where God has put a comma." I know because I recently saw it on a cyclist's jersey. Neither does the reference makes sense in Bush's context---msybe the whistle is only for waking the dog.

Posted by: matt on October 6, 2006 02:54 AM

Despite having no children, that photo broke my heart also.

It may well be the single best representation of what George Bush has given us, Iraq, and the world.

Hell isn't hot enough and eternity not long enough for that worthless individual whom we must address as "Mr. President."

But I won't - not ever.

Posted by: Richard on October 6, 2006 01:53 PM

The photograph posted with this blog is protected by a copyright registered to Michael Yon, the photographer and writer a previous commenter mentioned. I work with Michael. No one from this blog asked permission to use the photo. If they had I would have been the person contacted. I am requesting that it be removed immediately. It is Saturday October 7, 4:31 pm eastern standard time. I will check back in several hours to make sure it is removed. As a professional writer I am confident the author of this post fully understands the importance of respecting other people's work and adhering to copyright law.

Posted by: Irene on October 7, 2006 04:36 PM

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Posted by: youtube on November 14, 2007 12:32 PM

Thanks
Best regards
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