Welcome to a New Kind of Tension

First I'd like to thank Dr. Fallon for giving me the opportunity to blog here. For those of you that might not already know, Typepad has had some major bugs since their mass "upgrade" last Friday. That "upgrade" has somewhat impeded by blogging activities.

That said, I recommend you read Robert Scheer's column from today's LA Times. Their site might ask you to register, but I'd recommend it. I've always thought of Bush's "War on Terra" as the new Cold War. Scheer's piece titled "Bush Is Serving Up The Cold War Warmed Over" captures this analogy perfectly:

In the process, Bush has justified an enormous military buildup, spent tens of billions of dollars in Iraq, reorganized the federal government, driven the nation's budget far into the red and assaulted the civil liberties of Americans and people around the world, all without bothering to seriously examine the origins of the 9/11 attacks or compose a coherent strategy to prevent similar ones in the future. Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden remains at large, as do his financial and political backers in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

But why has the White House pursued this nonsensical approach over the loud objections of the country's most experienced counterterrorism and Islamic experts? Because it allows the administration all the political benefits the Cold War afforded its predecessors: political capital, pork-barrel defense contracts and a grandiose sense of purpose.

And because the war on terror has no standard of victory, it can never end — thus neatly replacing the Cold War as a black-and-white, us-against-them worldview that generations of American (and Soviet) politicians found so useful for keeping the plebes in line. It's a one-size-fits-all bludgeon.

What is the end game? Endless war. That is the best way to keep the people in line. Are we re-living the 1950's era of conformity and fear? Well, the new McCarthyism is already here. Remember... liberal = terrorist. If you ask questions you are un-American and a traitor!

If it only weren't for the liberals then we would be winning this war?! Wait, we are winning this war! A fine cadre of conservative pseudo-journalists are setting to prove just that:

WASHINGTON — A contingent of conservatives talk radio hosts is headed to Iraq this month on a mission to report "the truth" about the war: American troops are winning, despite headlines to the contrary.

The "Truth Tour" has been pulled together by the conservative Web cast radio group Rightalk.com and Move America Forward, a non-profit conservative group backed by a Republican-linked public relations firm in California.

"The reason why we are doing it is we are sick and tired of seeing and hearing headlines by the mainstream media about our defeat in Iraq," Melanie Morgan, a talk radio host (search) for KSFO Radio in San Francisco and co-chair of Move America Forward, said. Morgan said the media is "imposing a Vietnam template on this war." "This is not Vietnam," she said. "War is war, and it's dangerous, and the killing is taking place all of the time. At the same time, where there is danger, there is success and there is a mainstream media that is determined to shut out that success."

And she would know because she is a war hero and top military strategist, right?

God, I need some drugs. I can't take much more of this insanity.