VDH: Be Careful What You Wish For
For weeks we’ve been told that the Iraqis were playing tough and demanding time-lines for American withdrawal, the subtext being that mean George Bush was once again conniving for permanent imperial bases. Then Obama gets elected, and within hours we hear that Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari had announced that Obama has “reassured us that he would not take any drastic or dramatic decisions.” Lots of luck as they say.
In the coming weeks we may hear some interesting variations of this theme: Obamaniac Europeans shocked that we are consulting the UN on trans-Atlantic problems and conflicted about free trade; new-age hedge-fund directors shocked about new capital gains taxes; and hip Silicon Valley types shocked that their shredded 401(k)s have not surged back and now they learn that a 65% combined federal, state, Medicare, and FICA income tax really does apply to them, despite the Obama sign out front on the lawn.