8/22 Go Team Swamp-Foot!

Top 3 stated U.S. reasons for invading Iraq:

1) Find Weapons of Mass Destruction-- FAILED, they had none.
2) Topple a regime with ties to Al Qaeda-- FAILED, they had none.
3) Spread Democracy in the Middle East-- FAILING RAPIDLY, and the US is openly admitting that. "officials now say they are willing to settle for a government that functions and can bring security." --wait, didn't they already have one of those? Oh yeah, we toppled it over the first two falsehoods.

So what did we do over the last 5 years? Oh yes, killed at least 70,000 civilians directly, and dislocated, crippled, and orphaned countless more. Just for good measure, we destroyed the infrastructure of an entire nation, crippled its political, economic and social instability for decades to come, and burned a cool trillion dollars doing it. High-five, America!

USA!! USA!! USA!!

Oh my god, what a resounding, complete and utter failure and if your best argument for it NOT being a failure is 'we haven't been attacked again' then you are a fool grasping at straws, and an asshole for willingly trading hundreds of thousands of lives 'over there' for the speciously slimmer chance that we could not lose a fraction of that 'over here'--a trillion dollars would have bought a lot of homeland security. Not to mention that military analysts knew from Clinton's time that a full scale invasion of Iraq could never work without a minimum 400,000 troops (more than double what we have now) to control sectarian violence-- and that was before tensions were ramped up following 9/11. So, you know, way to go, guys. You ignored the giant 'Warning!' sign and stepped in quicksand and even as you sank, continued to insist that this was part of the master plan. Now, you're looking for branches and accepting the fact that all you've really succeeding in doing is wasting time and fucking up your shoes.


Man, I have this stunning ability to get WAY side-tracked, don't I? Much less momentous than all that, but I got workshopped to a shockingly useful response all around. Some overwriting, too many jarring voice changes, some really great underlying themes, some really great lines, dense with symbols and ideas that, if presented right, could be extremely powerful. So, woo! Finished the vodka despues de clase, started a new book, got a little editing work done, and listened to me some Jim Croce and Something Corporate. Second best moment of the day: getting an email from Patrick saying the new edition of Etchings is out with The Old Cartoon Writer and he's mailing them off to me tomorrow! First best moment of the day: I finally got my hands on the Japanese bonus track from Everything In Transit, and it's quite excitingly awesome (and poignant). Some lyrics:

I'm coming home from my hardest year
I'm making plans not to make plans while I'm here
And this life has been no holiday, a complicated situation
I'm fine with all my memories
Still I could use vacation

It's Christmas in California
And it's hard to ignore that it feels like summer all the time
But I'll take a west coast winter to remove my splinters

It's good to be alive

Drink Count: 6

P.S. 48 hours until I know about that contest. International fingers crossed, ya'll!