Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Mixing hockey and politics #4



Rattle and Hum. Great band, awful movie. With the exception of that and a few other scenes. At that point, they were only a few years away from their greatest period.

Dans les news:

"Values voters" my ass. God LIVES in the Pepsi Center.

Master criminal relocates to Calgary.

Good-old Marc-Edouard Vlasic returns to the Shark Tank.

Why I like Joe Biden:


M: Can I ask you a question? It seems that one of the shortcomings of the neoconservative worldview is precisely their focus on states.

B: Exactly right, bingo.

M: Okay.

B: You're one of only three goddamn guys that've gotten this.

M: Well, can you --

B: The fundamental flaw in the neo -- forget flaw, the fundamental difference between Joe Biden, John Kerry on the one hand, and the neoconservatives on the other is that they genuinely believe -- I'll put it in the negative sense -- they do not believe it is possible for a sophisticated international criminal network that will rain terror upon a country, that has the potential to kill 3,000 or more people in a country, can exist without the sponsorship of a nation state. They really truly believe -- and this was the Axis of Evil speech -- if you were able to decapitate the regimes in Iran, Iraq, North Korea, you would in fact dry up the tentacles of terror. I think that is fundamentally flawed reasoning. If every one of those regimes became a liberal democracy tomorrow, does anybody think we wouldn't have Code Orange tomorrow in the United States? Rhetorical question. Does anybody think we don't have to worry about the next major event like Madrid occurring in Paris or Washington or Sao Paulo? Gimme a break. But they really believe this is the way to do it.

3 comments:

Razor Catch Prey said...

See, to me Biden's comments look like lunacy. Of course we should target governments that harbor terrorism. If you deprive them of their habitat, then they'll be far, far less effective. Just like Pandas.

Mortimer Peacock said...

In the case of Afghanistan, I'd say that's true. The removal of the Taliban WAS necessary (that's the Obama-Biden position as well, by the way). Because they provided a haven for, you know, the mastermind of 9/11.

But Al Qaeda's primary source of money is Bin Laden's oil wealth, which comes of course from the Gulf states. Does that mean we should overthrow the Saudi regime (who, coincidentally, are despised by Bin Laden)? The Saudi regime is monstrous, but can you imagine the bad, bad, bad impact an Iraq-esque American intervention on Saudi soil would have? It would multiply Sunni extremism like nobody's business.

And the primary source of training for Al Qaeda? Rogue Islamist types from the Pakistani military and secret service. NOT the Pakistani state. I believe that young man from Communist Egypt (and Biden in his speech last night) said something about attacking Islamic fundamentalism where it actually breeds threats to our security. That would be no man's land on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. What overthrowing Saddam Hussein has to do with anything is beyond my imagination. Same goes for an attack on those wicked Iranians. Of all the things the Iranian mullahs are guilty of, supporting Bin Laden is not one of them.

But since Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham instruct us they're developing nuclear weapons and will SURELY attack Israel and the year is perpetually 1938 and whatever foreign head of state we dislike is always the New Hitler, we'll have to bomb Iran into oblivion and hope their largely pro-American youth population won't mind.

Sorry; I realize that was a longer reply than you wanted. Feel free to fire away.

Razor Catch Prey said...

"Jane, you ignorant slut."

I agree totally that we need to target the training grounds in the untamed areas such as the Pakistani/Afgani border, but you can't discount the effect of state sponsorship, harboring, and funding of these groups. Just like the war on drugs, you can't go after just one aspect if you hope to make any difference.

That little bit being said, I vote we debate this in person next week rather than taking up space where we should be discussing why Carey Price has Garth Brooks on his goalie mask.