The First Draft: Afghanistan inspires Freudian slips about that other battlefield – Iraq
President Barack Obama may have invoked Vietnam to banish that ugly specter of defeat from his shiny new Afghan strategy. But a day later, Iraq seems to be the wartime nightmare dogging two congressional veterans of the Bush wars.
Vice President Joe Biden, who was a Democratic senator from Delaware during Rummy’s “Shock and Awe” bombardment of Baghdad, let the musings of his unconscious psyche slip out Freudian style in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America.
While refuting worries among critics that the Afghan strategy’s 18-month timeline might embolden the Taliban, Biden said: “How are they emboldened knowing that by the time we train up the Afghanis, we’re going to be gradually handing off beginning in 2003?”
2003 was the year of the Iraq invasion. The big year for the Obama plan is 2011.
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, long a forceful voice on military policy, proved a bolder Freudian by actually mentioning that other battlefield by name.
“I support the president’s decision to have a properly resourced counterinsurgency strategy with the addition of 30,000 troops, plus additional commitments from our allies, and I’m confident that we can succeed in Iraq and come home.”
…confident that we can succeed in Iraq…
The First Draft: Teddy’s Life of Remorse and Atonement
Oswald was the lone assassin. JFK wanted a way out of Vietnam. And Bobby’s death brought a bout of self-destructive drinking around the time Mary Jo Kopechne died at Chappaquiddick Island in an “inexcusable” car accident.
Those are some of the insights in a forthcoming memoir by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died last week but lives again in print as a leading figure in American politics.
In the book, “True Compass,” which Teddy completed while suffering from the brain cancer that claimed his life, he admits “terrible decisions” at Chappaquiddick in 1969 and says those events may have shortened the life of his father, Joe.
Teddy hardly knew Kopechne, who had been a young aide to Bobby, and was not romantically involved with her.
But after driving off a Chappaquiddick bridge with her as a passenger, he was dazed, afraid and panicked. He left the scene and didn’t report the accident until her body was discovered inside the car a day later.
The New York Times, which obtained an advance copy of the memoir, says Chappaquiddick occurred at a time when Teddy regretfully recalls “self-destructive” drinking in the aftermath of Bobby’s 1968 assassination.
“Some people make mistakes and try to learn from them and do better. Our sins don’t define the whole picture of who we are,” he wrote.
let he who has not sinned throw the first stone…. you didnt hang on a cross for his sins, Christ did. its not your place to judge him or forgive him.
Ironically, the Obama strategy in Afghanistan is identical to the Bush Iraq strategy in 2006: troop surge, improve security, enhance native forces, and clear/hold territory. The exact same strategy that Sen. Obama detested is the one he took 3 months to ponder and came to. Now the question is, will he be steadfast until victory is achieved?http://neoavatara.com/blog/?p=9 017