re: #183 Cato the Elder

But we always say we’re invading someplace because folks are suffering. Remember the bogus Kuwaiti incubators story? How about the pregnant Belgian women bayoneted by invading Germans in 1914? The U.S.S. Maine?

We did not invade Iraq because people were suffering; that’s sentimental eyewash for people who can’t handle the truth. Whether right or wrong, we invaded for strategic advantage, and whatever “timetables” are set, we’ll be there at least as long as our bases remain in Germany.

Which, if you think about what may well happen in Iran, is a damned good thing.

I have a pet peeve about people who talk about how important a U.S. presence in Afghanistan is—to help the women oppressed by the Taliban.

We didn’t give a good goddamn about the women of Afghanistan until 9/11. And yes, feminist groups did. I was on their mailing lists. But we went nowhere until it was a matter of US national interest.

I can deal with that, just don’t tell me we had to go to save the little girls who want to go to school. They would have grown old and died of childbearing at 30 if we hadn’t found a sudden vested interest in that corner of the world.