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Podcast #92

By Thomas Jeffrey

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Article Posted: Sunday March 4, 2007

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Iraq continues to circle the toilet, US Senate just can't get it together, the return of realpolitik at the State Department, and more!

Transcript

Coming to you once again from the suburbs of Metro Detroit, where taking your dog for a walk in a local park can turn into an episode of CSI, it’s the Leftwing Nutjob Podcast, episode 92, for March 4, 2007.

My dear listeners, as I come before the microphone this Sunday evening some 3 weeks since my last broadcast a lot has happened both in and outside the beltway, as well as around the world. But unfortunately, in so many ways, not that much has changed.

The US Senate still can not decide whether or not they will debate what is perhaps this nation’s greatest foreign policy challenge of the last 40 years. And as members of that chamber struggle for relevancy as their Congressional colleagues in the House continue to grab headlines and advance the anti-war agenda, this nutjob finds little pity for 100 men and women who often work only 2 days a week, all the while professing to understand the struggles of the millions of families that they purport to represent.

Our presence in Iraq continues to provoke hatred and resentment from both the Sunnis and Shiites, with more and more victims of the endless violence placing blame squarely on their so-called liberators rather than the radical sectarian elements jockeying for control of that broken country. And while the war has long since passed the point where any semblance of a traditional victory for the United States could have been obtained, this nutjob continues to be amazed by the musings of our president, whose own isolation fuels his pronouncements of achieving nothing less than total victory in Iraq.

The vice president, living within his own private Idaho, spent the past week being the barer of bad news to several of our allies in the war on terror, delivering an ultimatum of sorts to the government of Pakistan; specifically, start delivering the goods and cracking down on the Taliban and al Qaeda that are residing within your borders or face the very real possibility of losing tens of millions of dollars in military aid. Almost on cue, Purvez Musharaff’s government announced the capture of a high level Taliban official while Mr. Cheney was still ‘in country’, leaving many to wonder just how stupid they think the Bush Administration,and the world, really are.

The government in Baghdad continues to struggle with both its identity and its ability to govern. Too often they lack enough representatives in attendance to achieve a quorum, with many members of parliament choosing to spend their substantial salaries on maintaining residences in neighboring countries or in Europe, where they openly acknowledge that the situation in Baghdad leaves them fearing for their own safety as well as that of their families.

The irony of Iraq is that we are sending our best and brightest to fight and die for a country whose own people don’t even want to live there. And if that truly is the case, then why are we there? Some of the more conspiracy minded listeners would answer OIL, but in the nearly four years since the invasion Iraq’s oil production has never approached its capacity, often falling well below levels that were produced under the UN’s restrictive oil-for-food program in the 1990’s.

However, this past week saw Iraq’s cabinet pass the much delayed Oil Revenue Sharing Act, effectively setting the stage for foreign investment in that country’s vast oil fields. And while some would point to this measure as merely proof positive that the real impetus behind the invasion of Iraq is about to be realized, the reality on the ground since the fall of Saddam leaves this leftwing nutjob a bit more pessimistic of this law’s real value. I’ll be taking a wait-and-see attitude, if you don’t mind.

This past week saw the Bush Administration radically change direction in regards to diplomatic relations regarding two members of the infamous ‘Axis of Evil.’ Yes, it now seems that after years of the White House maintaining that it had nothing to say to either Damacus or Tehran, it was announced that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with her Syrian and Iranian counterparts to discuss the situation in Iraq — a course of action that was suggested by the Iraq Study group and one that the White House had resisted until only recently. And while some within the diplomatic community welcome a return by the State Department to engage once again in realpolitik, more savvy observers merely point out that the iron grip of Dick Cheney and his minions on the reins of administration foreign policy have finally reached an end.

And our nation’s intelligence agencies helped themselves to yet another slice of humble pie this past week when they acknowledged that they didn’t know with any degree of certainty what they where absolutely sure of just a few years ago. Citing a number of “alternative views” regarding the nuclear capability of North Korea — and perhaps indicating a strong willingness to avoid the kind of marginalization they suffered as the scapegoat for Iraq — members of the intelligence community acknowledged the they may have overestimated what Pyongyang was capable of back in 2002, leading one unidentified intelligence official to opine that Washington’s saber-rattling at that time may have directly led to Kim Jong Il doubling his efforts to get his hands on the bomb and conducting a somewhat successful test of a nuclear device last year.

That’s all for this edition of the Leftwing Nutjob Podcast. Our sources for this episode included the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press. Send your comments and suggestions to leftwingnutjob at gmail dot com and visit the blog at triple w dot leftwing nutjob dot com. Until next time this is Thomas Jeffrey, your host, saying good bye and good day.

- posted by: Thomas Jeffrey and Mar 4, 09:28 PM in Podcast

 

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