Saigon Redux

Posted on December 21, 2006
Filed Under Politics |

This is what McNamara heard when he went to Saigon for LBJ. Didn’t these sons-of-bitches live through Vietnam? Harkins & then Westmorland always wanted a “surge” in troops. It was what they did. A few more thousand would definitely do the trick. This time. The president is about to escalate himself into a full-scale maelstrom. I’m not letting myself write much about politics on this new incarnation of the blog, but I simply have to record my sense of sickening vertigo at the recent news from Iraq, but even more from Washington, where some bizarre & cancerous delusion has simply fucked up everybody’s heads.

Comments

3 Responses to “Saigon Redux”

  1. randi on December 22nd, 2006 10:52 am

    love that ’sickening vertigo’ but you are a writer..and I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do but I ONLY read your old blog for the political comments, (I am not as probably most of your readers an academic though I enjoy your thoughts on the music and writing). Anyhoo, I guess what I liked and why I read was your passion and alarm at what seems to be clearly happening politically..But I’m an old gal too and know all that takes energy so I respect your decision to self preserve a bit..I’ll continue to check in. Happy Mithras, Randi

  2. Joseph Duemer on December 22nd, 2006 11:04 am

    Randi, thanks. You know, I was just driving home from the feed store with a load of dog food & listening to one of those talk shows on NPR, The Connection. And here are supposedly sober people discussing this idea of a “surge” in troops in Iraq & they don’t sound as if they have blood spurting out of their ears & their eyes rolled back in their heads. I mean, they sound sane. Until you listen to what they’re actually saying. And I’m talking about liberals & moderates here. I guess being a professional journalist involves engaging in an elaborate pretense that the men running the United States are not stark, raving, batshit crazy.

    As for political posts on the blog, they’re not going to disappear entirely, but I really need to present a wider variety of subjects in order to preserve my own sanity, however shakily. I hope that those other subjects will provide a context that can support an occasional howl of political protest.

  3. andru on December 22nd, 2006 11:07 pm

    My impulse is to follow behind you as you storm over to the computer, and say, “Joe, Joe, you’re blood pressure!” But it really is uncanny how Santayanan this whole war has been — history repeating itself. I’ve removed myself from the place partly to retain my own sanity. You can’t live long in a nuthouse and stay sane.

    I too always enjoyed your rage, but it was coming to dominate the old blog, to its overall detriment perhaps. It’s striking to read about baking a little bread, then to get so much anger. But you’ve got to stay sane too, and howling against the insanity has to help.