New Huffington Post Column

Another good one Bob. I gotta say, even though I still support the president, I do appreciate the dissent from the left on this one. I think it’s necessary as long as they don’t get too nutty.

In his speech the other night, Obama began to quote Eisenhower by saying: “As president, I refuse to set goals that go beyond our responsibility, our means, our or interests. And I must weigh all of the challenges that our nation faces. I don’t have the luxury of committing to just one. Indeed, I am mindful of the words of President Eisenhower, who — in discussing our national security — said, “Each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs.”"That’s just an o-kay quote even though it was used very appropriately, but that’s not the quote a lot of people think of when they think of Eisenhower quotes, is it? When Obama said he was “mindful of the words of president Eisenhower…”I thought for a second, “there is no F-ing way he’s going there, is he…?”Of course he didn’t. That would have been crazy, right?He didn’t say, “beware of the dangers of the military industrial complex” like Ike did in his famous farewell address, but what I “heard” from Obama was, “…how’d ya like some ice cream, Doc…?” and… “I could’ve used a much better quote from any number of wartime/peace-keeping presidents rather than this generic Eisenhower quote about ‘broader considerations,’ but I’m just reassuring you– the justifiably paranoid and skeptical realist whom I empathize with– I’m trying to get control of the flaps and fly this shitty-shitty shitbird like my man Sully– buckle up!”As for me, I thank the invisible karmic sky gods everday that it’s a guy like Barack Obama making these kinds of decisions.I Remember when it was motherfucking Dick Cheney and motherfuckers like Donald Rumsfeld making these kinds of major decisions.What was it, like 300 days ago?And Bob says it better and best.

Great post, blog. And thanks for pointing out that just because we’ve been there for 8 years doesn’t mean we’ve been doing anything productive or useful for most of those 8 years. Not the fault of our way-too-much-is-asked-of-them soldiers, but there you have it.If I said that I’d been trying for eight years to lose weight and when asked how, I said by eating pizza and sitting on the couch, you would not then conclude that losing weight was impossible for me. How can we declare a goal unmeetable when we’ve barely even tried?