Silly Season – Politics

Yep. It is that season again. And the war on Iraq was “fucking stupid“. On the Other Hand, if it’s the silly season, where’s the silliness? And music has been a consistant theme, so where’s the music?

Well, I thought I’d provide a bit of both. Like Sean, I’m probably far left. It is worth noting that if you are outside of the US this is considered “slightly left of center”. There are no main real left-wing parties in the US.

And, unfortunately, I’m likely to vote for Obama, despite being very upset at him for voting yes on telecom immunity.

Anyways, politics brings out song parodies, and pro and con songs for both candidates, and I thought I’d play a few.

Today, I’m going with pro.

So here’s a pro Obama song. Sort of. On acid:

Barack OBollywood

Silly pictures of Obama aside, this song is “Chori Chori Gori Se”, being sung by Jimi Mistry.

Now an interlude, to remind us of our present leadership:

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Bush sings (sort of) U2. This is a brilliant piece of editing.

I suppose I should have something pro McCain here, for fairness:

Who’ll Stop McCain?

You know, now that I’ve played this, I’ll have to play something more firmly pro-Obama then O’Bollywood. Wish I could have found something as out there for McCain. But then, he’s decidedly boring.

Ever notice that anything for McCain *has* to badmouth other candidates, though?

And don’t worry, I’ll do a post of anti songs at some point…

Silly Season – Counter-Insurgency Expert Develops Foot-in-Mouth Disease, Says Iraq Invasion Was “Fucking Stupid”

For those of you who still support the Iraq invasion and have convinced yourself – somehow, I don’t know how – that the gains in the surge™ have made it all worth it…

Well, it seems David McCullen, who helped General David Petraeus design the counter-insurgency in Iraq, disagrees. In fact, he told the Washington Independent that the invasion was “fucking stupid”.

I’m sorry, he called it “f..king stupid”. Censors, you know.

Oh, but it get’s better, according to The Australian here (bold mine):

Dr Kilcullen said on Small Wars that the journalist “did not seek to clear that quote with me, and I would not have approved it if he had”.

“If he had sought a formal comment, I would have told him what I have said publicly before: in my view, the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was an extremely serious strategic error.

“But the task of the moment is not to cry over spilt milk, rather to help clean it up: a task in which the surge, the comprehensive counterinsurgency approach, and our troops on theground are admirably succeeding,” he said.

I got news for you, McCullen. People ain’t crying over “spilt milk” in Iraq. They’re crying over pieces of their loved ones.

Still don’t get it? Let me put it this way. If I decide to crash my car into a preschool, the doctors may “admirably succeed” in putting the kids back together, and the carpenter may “admirably succeed” in building another preschool. But neither of these actions validates or affirms my original decision to crash a ton of Japanese rolling stock through and over a covey of five-year-olds. What it does mean that a lot of people had go out of their way and be inconvenienced, even put in danger, because of my stupidity, and that now a lot of people hate my guts.

Lessee here, which presidential candidate opposes the Iraq war? And which has supported this “fucking stupid” war?

And a nice fruit basket to Juan Cole for this one.