I agree with Atrios that the “great failure of the Right since their awesome adventure in Iraq has been to create a new Hitler for us to fear and fight”. I don’t think that Chavez or Kim Jong-Il cuts it. And I think the Hitler-within strategy they’re trying with Obama genuinely does alienate those moderate voters Cokie and Broder are always talking about.

The logical candidate for the next Hitler is China. While the right has yet to settle on a single Chinese leader as Hitleresque, that shouldn’t be a problem. There must be some with Maoist ties and, in the Beckian calculus, that pretty much makes them Hitler.

Yesterday, two prominent neocons, Bobo and Niall Ferguson, both started in on this (I’m positive they coordinated these things). Ferguson warned Americans about the dangers of Chinese aircraft carriers. Bobo explained that the reason Americans feel shitty right now isn’t that they don’t have jobs and health insurance, it’s that we’re jealous of China; the solution to this, interestingly enough, is to move to a Chinese-style government-directed economy.

Now, I don’t think an actual war, or even a Cold War, with China is in the cards. But I think conservatives could say things like “if China gets to Mars before we do, we lose” or “if we don’t build more aircraft carriers, then there will be an aircraft carrier gap and then what” or “if we don’t let Phil Gramm have control of the economy, we can’t compete”. And, of course, Obama can be accused of dithering about China, lacking a comprehensive Chinese policy, and so on.

I’m not sure this will work, but they’ve got to give it a try.

Update. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out how awful the first two paragraphs of Bobo’s piece are, not just because they summarize all of American history in four sentences, but because of the way the opening resembles an unholy marriage of Neil Young’s “Helpless” and the last chapter of The Great Gatsby.

Update update. This is interesting, from commenter comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

Hi, former intelligence officer here responsible for, among other things, Chinese naval stuff, back when I was at the Pentagon.

Yes, a lot has changed in the last 15 years in China’s military, new weapons systems, better production of higher tech things, etc.

One thing hasn’t changed: the answer to the strategic question regarding a Chinese aircraft carrier. That answer? They don’t need any. Sure, they might build 1-2 just to show the world they can do it but that’s it.

I don’t know why Erick Erickson hasn’t already announced a fund-raising drive to bring this… unusual… artwork celebrating President Obama’s visit to China back to a venue where it can really be appreciated…

(via WGNtv.com Chicago)

Perhaps the Red State Strike Farce simply can’t decide who’ll get custody. Or possibly $15k is some $14,913 $14,999,913 more than Red Erick’s Army can scrape together?

(I really liked the YouTube video “Obama Marketing Hits China“, but Reuters has chosen to disable video embedding.)

Soonergrunt posted this late last week, and I’m just sorry it didn’t get front-paged sooner:

I don’t have all the answers. I have said before that I have very little faith in anybody who speaks about Afghanistan as if they know exactly what to do, or they have a single, un-nuanced answer.

Again, I write now strictly from my own experiences in the eastern and northeastern parts of the country, as well as some stuff that I have picked up in open source news. I was there last in 2006-2007 when things were really starting to heat up.

When I arrived in Afghanistan, there hadn’t been any activity in the Kabul region for over a year. By the time I had left, every base in the Kabul area had been directly attacked at least once. I was a member of an Embedded Training Team. I, and one other ETT (we were supposed to be in teams of four, but there weren’t enough of us) were embedded directly into an Afghan National Army Infantry company in the 201st Corps in the eastern and northeastern part of the country. This was my third combat deployment, my first in Afghanistan.

In my experience, as well as recent reporting from sources such as NPR, there is no fundamental difference between the Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban, and Al Quaeda.

As most of you know, the Taliban was financed and managed for years by ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service. The ISI saw the Taliban as a way to control Afghanistan, keeping it out of the Indian orbit, as well as a place for Pakistani militias to train and get combat experience before going to fight in Kashmir. Al Quaeda was also deeply involved in this aspect of the taliban. I fought against all three groups, sometimes all at once. There were almost always Pakistanis mixed in with Afghan Talib and other AGM (Anti Government Militia).

When I first got there, it was routine for the Taliban to winter over in a place called the Korengal. Some of you may remember Richard Engle’s series on NBC last year following a US Army unit in the Korengal.

I helped build the road into the place and I helped build the Korengal Outpost, Camp Restreppo, and some of the other places you saw in that series. The Taliban would go there because the terrain was unpassable in the winter and they could hole up there and wait for spring. They did this until we built the Korengal Outpost, the KOP, or as the 10th Mountain guys called it, the Purple Heart Factory. I also worked in a place called the Tagab Valley, just east of Kabul and Bagram.

As an ETT, I spent a large amount of time going into villages and meeting with village elders and headmen. I did more and better counter-insurgency sitting on my ass drinking chai than I did actually shooting, and I shot an ass-load of ammunition. I went into villages on market day and bought stuff I didn’t need as an excuse to talk to the locals, and I had my trusted interpreter and a couple of ANA I trusted do the same. This is the way you win a counterinsurgency war. One village at a time. It’s fucking hard. The shortest, most glib way to describe it is to say that we want to show the people that we offer a better life than the other guys do.

What I know from that time, and this has only been reinforced by my study of the region and current events there since, is that we cannot simply leave these people to their fate. I’ve seen what the Taliban do to people who defy them. God knows that ISAF/US forces have made mistakes, and there have been western troops who have abused prisoners. We’re not perfect, and we’re not angels. But we don’t gut-shoot children to make a point, and we don’t burn teachers to death in front of their students. As I said earlier, I’ve been places in eastern Afghanistan where the capitol of Kabul was as foreign as Washington, D.C. Most of the Afghans I met couldn’t care less who was the president of Afghanistan. It has no bearing on their lives. The level of governance that actually affects people’s lives is at the district and provincial level. That’s where things get done. This is the main reason that the country was most successfully ran as a feudal state from the 1930s to the 1970s before the communist coup.

In the short term, we need to keep building up the Afghan National Army. When I was there, the unit to which I was attached was considered one of the better companies in the entire brigade, which was considered the best brigade in the corps. They and their parent Kandak (Battalion) could barely keep themselves supplied in the field. Logistics were at their bare minimum, and the we frequently used money from our petty cash fund to buy firewood good supplies for the ANA. When I left, they were a lot better, but still not what I would’ve considered reliable or capable. Their unit level tactics were vastly improved over the “everybody run towards the gunfire” level when I got there, but still left a lot to be desired.

(more…)

Some good info from Jake Tapper:

In Wednesday’s meeting, Pentagon officials presented more details about four strategies—two from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and two others—but President Obama was not satisfied with their assessments.

Specicially, he pushed the generals to clarify how and when U.S. troops would be able to turn over responsibility to the Afghan government.

“The key sticking points appear to be timelines and mounting questions about the credibility of the Afghan government,” an administration official said, adding that the President “wants to make it clear that the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan is not open-ended. After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance in Afghanistan must improve in a reasonable period of time to ensure a successful transition to our Afghan partner.”

I’m sure this will be met in greater Wingnuttia with abject horror, as they all have their marching orders from the Cheneys and will need to pursue the “dithering” story line no matter what. In fact, a quick perusal find that Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive is very close to soiling his camouflaged knickers:

If this is true then just about all the worst fears we had about Obama as Commander in Chief are coming true.

Meanwhile, Colonel Mustard, with his years of military and geopolitical training, offers up his sage advice:

Will someone tell our President this is not a term paper. You don’t get to move the paragraphs around, tweak the punctuation, and cut and paste until it reads just right.

I’m sure there is more, but why bother digging it all up? And while the usual suspects are all getting the vapors, it is probably worth remembering that the conservative position, back when there were actual conservatives, and not just reactionary loudmouths and know-nothing war-mongering idiots, was to weigh all the options before making momentous and important decisions. We even used to call it the “Powell Doctrine”:

The Powell Doctrine states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:

1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?
2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?
3. Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
4. Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
5. Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
7. Is the action supported by the American people?
8. Do we have genuine broad international support?

Funny that. Caspar Weinberger and Colin Powell, both of whom served under St. Ronald of Reagan, the man who single-handedly beat the Soviets. Now granted, the Powell Doctrine was there because some folks in the Pentagon and in the National Security apparatus actually learned some lessons from Viet Nam, and tried to avoid making that same mistake again. In fact, as Jake Tapper notes, someone with more brains than the 101st Chairborne is urging Obama to take his time:

“This is a very difficult one for him,” Powell said. “And it isn’t just a one-time decision. This is the decision that will have consequences for the better part of his administration. So Mr. President, don’t get pushed by the left to do nothing; don’t get pushed by the right to do everything. You take your time and you figure it out. You’re the commander-in-chief and this is what you were elected for.”

Powell said he had “advised him is to not be rushed into a decision because this one is the decision that will have consequences for years to come.”

The fact that Obama is concerned with details like timelines and a schedule for handing over control makes me feel about as positive as I have regarding the Afghan dilemma in a long, long time.

Something has to be done about this:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came face-to-face Friday with simmering Pakistani anger over U.S. aerial drone attacks in their country and drew back slightly from her blunt remarks suggesting Pakistani officials know where terrorists are hiding.

In a series of public appearances on the final day of a three-day visit, Clinton was pressed repeatedly by Pakistani civilians and journalists about the secret U.S. program that uses drones to launch missiles to kill terrorists.

***

During an interview with Clinton broadcast live in Pakistan with several prominent female TV anchors, before a predominantly female audience of several hundred, one member of the audience said the Predator attacks amount to ‘’executions without trial’’ for those killed.

Another asked Clinton how she would define terrorism.

‘’Is it the killing of people in drone attacks?’’ she asked. That woman then asked if Clinton considers drone attacks and bombings like the one that killed more than 100 civilians in the city of Peshawar earlier this week to both be acts of terrorism.

‘’No, I do not,’’ Clinton replied.

Well, Secretary Clinton might not think small unmanned drones firing missiles into villages is terrorism, but it is pretty damned clear a lot of people in Pakistan would disagree with that assessment.

And I’m pretty damned sure if predator drones were flying over American cities firing missiles into populated areas and killing a bunch of innocents, Secretary Clinton and everyone else in the country would pretty quickly label it terrorism. Hell, if someone mails an unnamed white powder to someone, we freak out for a couple months. Let alone blowing up dozens of people every week.

Not sure why he was given it, other than as a repudiation of the Bush way of doing things, but man I am enjoying the freak-out from the usual suspects.

Allahpundit sounds like he is about to stroke out, Breitbart probably won’t speak for two weeks, and this is yet another opportunity for Republicans to show the entire country what assholes they can be.

I’m really looking forward to it. There should be some pretty quality stuff coming from the wingnuts who just 24 hours ago were getting themselves worked into a froth over the art in the White House.

So not kidding.

Discuss.

***Update***

This seems like a good time to add a new tag but an old phrase for the blog: malkinfreude. Also added to the lexicon. Killed the lexicon; see above.

Sorry for stepping on the open thread, but I agree 100%:

I think our society has become a bit hysterical about teen sexuality, and that age limits and punishments for statutory rape have, in some states, started to get a bit exteme even if such relationships are inappropriate.

But the undisputed facts of this case are that she was given booze and drugs and raped. There may be other procedural legal issues as I said, but I really can’t believe people are minimizing what happened. What is wrong with these people?

I was talking to my mom and dad this morning, and we don’t agree on damned near anything regarding politics anymore (mom seems to think that Bob Dole is still what most Republicans are like), and told them I can not believe everyone apologizing for Polanski. They couldn’t either, and it really is kind of insane.

One of you all remarked in the comments the other day that Polanski is the upper-class OJ Simpson. I think that makes sense.

No one could have predicted:

A nine-month European Union investigation into the 2008 war in the Caucasus has concluded that Georgia triggered the conflict, but that Russia prepared the ground for war to break out and broke international law by invading Georgia as a whole.

Conclusions to the roughly 1,000 page report, released on Wednesday by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, also found that Russia-backed South Ossetian militias committed atrocities and “ethnic cleansing” of Georgian villages during and since the war. It faulted Russian forces in control of the territory that either “would not or could not” control the South Ossetians.

Was the McCain/Palin campaign right about anything? It is probably worth remembering that Randy Scheunemann, a long time lobbyist for Georgia and agitator against Russia, was whispering in McCain’s ear during the crisis as one of his key advisors, and he has now moved on to position himself as the next Turdblossom in a future Palin administration. Remember, being wrong about everything is a key qualification for promotion in the current Republican party.

If you ever wondered how the rest of the world views our wingnuts when they speak on the global stage, you should turn on CNN right now and watch Gadhafi’s rambling and incoherent speech.

Prepare for a complete and total shit fit from the 101st Chairborne, because the US is canceling the construction of missile defense sites in Czech Republic and Poland.

I’ll wait for Larison’s take, but I will say this- what would you think if China or Russia were building missile sites in Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico? How do you think we would react to that?

BTW- Every time I think of missile defense I am reminded of the John Rogers classic from several years back- “I Miss Republicans.” His word-fu is strong.

*** Update ***

Should have known Goldfarb would have the vapors.

Drill, baby, drill:

President Obama wants to make the United States “the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy,” but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the United States.

Chinese companies have already played a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by almost half over the last year. Shi Zhengrong, the chief executive and founder of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings, said in an interview here that Suntech, to build market share, is selling solar panels on the American market for less than the cost of the materials, assembly and shipping.

Checking my magic eight-ball, I think what would fix this is deregulating the oil industry more, allowing more offshore drilling, and more corporate tax cuts for oil and gas. I’ll have to check Reason magazine to know for sure, now that no one reads TechCentralStation.

I’m glad to read that another American “hostage” has been released:

Burmese authorities have released the American whose uninvited visit to the home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi led to her being sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest, allowing him to leave the country Sunday with Sen. James Webb (D-Va.)...
John Yettaw, 54, a Vietnam War veteran who suffers from epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder, was sentenced last week to seven years in jail for swimming across the lake behind Suu Kyi’s house to warn her that he had had a vision in which she was killed by terrorists.
Webb, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, is the most senior U.S. official to visit Burma in more than two decades. He used his rare meeting with the government’s leadership to ask for Yettaw’s release on humanitarian grounds, for a visit with Suu Kyi and for her release.
“They granted two of those three requests in the meetings. They have not yet communicated on the third,” Webb said Sunday.

Let us all hope that Webb’s third request will be granted. Aung San Suu Kyi really, really doesn’t deserve to be punished any further because, gosh, us Americans just love to be helpful, whether or not the targets of our helpfulness appreciate it.

But I’m curious: Why do some news stories turn into Major Media Narratives—for example, North Korea’s recent release of two American journalists—while fairly similar stories like this one remain under the radar? Is it because two female journalists are more interesting than one aging nutter-cum-missionary? Is it North Korea’s status on the “Axis of Evil”? Is Bill Clinton just sexier to the Media courtiers than Jim Webb?

And if “we”, including Suu Kyi, are still paying for America’s disastrous incursion into Vietnam… what kinds of wonderfulness do future generations look forward to, as the veterans of our current Iraq and Afghanistan deployments return home, many of them (we have been warned) with subtle forms of brain injury?

I’m glad the big dog’s trip to North Korea was successful, and the two Americans were released. However, this still made my blood boil when I read it:

Two U.S. journalists pardoned and freed by North Korea did cross illegally into that country, the sister of one of the women said.

“She did say that they touched North Korean territory very, very briefly,” Lisa Ling, sister of Laura Ling, told CNN on Thursday.

“It was something that they were never planning to do originally,” Lisa Ling said. “I mean, I said this before, when they left U.S. soil, they never intended to cross into North Korea. She said it was maybe 30 seconds. And then, you know, everything just sort of got chaotic.”

Seriously- how stupid do you have to be to do this kind of thing? And Euna Lee has a toddler, for chrissakes.

What a little candy and flowers will do:

SEOUL, South Korea—North Korean media say leader Kim Jong Il has pardoned two American journalists and ordered their release during the visit of former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Update. Who gets to write the WaPo neocon opinion piece about how this is appeasement, etc.? Do we have to wait to get Kristol’s next installment or might we get a Wolfowitz or Bolton piece tomorrow morning?