Archive for Death
Are There Gods In Hitchens’ Foxhole?
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Here’s an interview in which Christopher Hitchens talks, inter alia, about his impeding death. As you may know, the inveterate spokesman for non-God has got esophagal cancer, so his prognosis basically is, “How soon do I die?” He’s asked if he prays, and the answer is no. Towards the end, he admits to the possibility that in the physical wreck that he may well wind up being at the end of the disease’s ravages, he might do the “pathetic thing” as he characterizes the death bed conversion of a previously committed atheist. He denies that he would ever do this in his lucid state, and tells people to discount any rumors they might here to this effect.
This comment raised memories of Keyser Sr. He had been sort of raised a Catholic, but he too was an off-hand atheist, generally referring to anything connected with religion as horseshit. Keyser Sr. died two thousand miles away from your humble Pannonian, who can’t exactly say that he has no knowledge of the old man’s demise. For some appalling reason, the nurse at his death bed insisted on calling Keyser and making him talk to the comatose and dying man. Supposedly, people can hear you even if they give no acknowledgement of it. In the first place, how the fuck does anybody know that, since ex hypothesi the person supposedly hearing the words will never be in a position to say so (and Keyser entirely disbelieves the testimony of people who supposedly “come back” from death experiences). Take Keyser’s word for it, that the absolute last thing you want to do is talk for five minutes saying things you don’t really believe to someone who’s dying, while somebody you don’t know from Adam is listening. Truth be told, Keyser doesn’t recall at all what he said, but under the circumstances, it seemed inadvisable (and pointless) to say the truth.
Anyway, the reason Keyser mentions this is that when he attended the memorial service a little while later, both the local priest (a homosexual episcopalian) and Keyser Sr.’s second wife both swore up and down that in his final days, the old man sought “religious comfort.” Well, on the surface of it, Keyser flat out doesn’t believe it. He knew that man for something like forty-two years, and if there was anybody who had no religious feeling at all it was Keyser Sr. (Keyser generally finds that there’s no such thing as an ex-Catholic – they always retain some Catholic sensibilities, whether they like it or not – but Keyser Sr. never exhibited the least sense of loyalty or anything to the One,Holy, Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church.) Now, since Keyser wasn’t there, and it’s possible that the two were telling the truth, then the old man was the world’s biggest hypocrite or coward. Perhaps the two versions are not entirely incompatible, in that the wife might have badgered him and he then went along just to get her shut up (a form of cynicism that sounds a lot more like the Keyser Sr. that Keyser knew).
So it goes back to the old canard about there being no atheists in a foxhole. If so, that just means that there’s no Keyser in the foxhole, because you can rest assured that whatever Keyser Sr. and Christopher Hitchens may do on their death beds, Keyser certainly is not going to be wasting his time invoking some non-existent deity for a cheap form of consolation.
The virtuous man should rest content in a life well spent. As Hitchens would no doubt agree, in his lucid moments, at any rate.
Afghanistan: The Flags for Tots Program Continues
Posted by: | CommentsKeyser still has no idea why exactly the US (and others) continue with the attempt to occupy Afghanistan. Maybe the on-going production of US flags to give to the children left behind by the dead is part of the effort to keep the US economy afloat through Federal spending.
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Dave Mundy, executive officer of the Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 121, presents a U.S. flag to the widow of Lt. Miroslav Steven Zilberman during his memorial ceremony April 8, 2010, in Norfolk, Va. Zilberman was killed March 31 when his E-2C Hawkeye crashed while attempting to return to the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) from a mission over Afghanistan. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class William Wienert/Released)
You know, back in the day accusing Bush of being a latter-day Hitler for his war mongering was de rigeur for leftists. Somehow, all of that outrage seems to have slipped away. Think maybe it was more the president than the concern for the troops that was at the heart of all that protesting? Hmm.
After Death Visits, Life Moves On
Posted by: | CommentsKeyser’s been having thoughts of mortality, so it’s best to think of what makes life worth living.
Keyser Goes on He Trip He’d Have Preferred Not To
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Been a busy term, or all this talk about health care “reform” is too boring, or Keyser has no idea what, but he hasn’t had much to say of late.
Yesterday was a bad day. One of the cats has been sick for a while. After much folderol and money, it was determined that she had some sort of cancer in the intestines, and there wasn’t much to be done about it but wait. So we wait. It doesn’t seem that bad most of the time, but sometimes she’d strain and try to squeeze something out, and sometimes it would be a bit of piss with blood in it. Apparently, the thing growing inside of her sometimes would make her feel like she had to crap, but naturally it wouldn’t come out. Sometimes the blood was from squeezing the bladder coincidentally, but sometimes it was cancerous stuff. Or so Keyser gathered.
Sounds bad, but it didn’t happen that often. She was okay most of the time, and so the question would be, there seemed to be no need to kill her while things were basically okay, and you wanted to end things before it got bad, but how exactly do you tell when the line has been crossed separating “not so bad” from “no, this is bad”? Well, we crossed it the other day.
Last weekend she started vomited up green bile. Seemed to be the wrong end to be having problems with, but apparently the cancer was messing up her digestive system. Now, Keyser has no problem with the idea that once life becomes intolerable, it’s best to end things. Mrs. S. feels the same in theory, but can’t really bring herself to make that decision. The vomit seemed to indicate that the end was near, though Mrs. S. equivocated. Then things got a lot worse all of a sudden.
Yesterday, Mrs. S. went off to the university, while Keyser was at home. In the morning, he sitting at the table in the living room fiddling away at whatever he was fiddling away at, when the cat comes into view in the adjoining dining room. She was on the floor horking up some more of that green stuff, and then just pushed herself along on the floor through the stuff. “Uh oh, that’s bad. Do we have to go the vet’s?” The answer must be yes, so Keyser calls the vet. Can’t get an appointment until Thursday (this was Tuesday).
Then the cat shoved herself along the floor once more, maybe twice. Well, that does it. If you can’t even get up on your own, then the end is at hand. So Keyser calls Mrs. S. to see if she can’t finagle a sooner appointment (she’s better at that sort of thing). Keyser then starts his stationary biking, and in the middle of that, the phone rings. It’s the vet’s office. They’ve had a cancellation and an appointment is available at 2:15. Is that doable? Well, yes, it is. And conveniently, Mrs. S. doesn’t get off work until 2, so she’d be spared the unpleasantness of doing what she didn’t want to. Keyser considered just doing it himself and presenting her with a fait accompli, but he figured it was best to let her know ahead of time.
As it turned out, Mrs. S. was able to arrange to have the ex-Mrs. S. come along to (the cat had originally been hers).
Somehow, the cat had managed to get herself down the hall and was lying on the carpet outside our bedroom. He went to see how she was doing, and when he smoothed her, she tried to drag herself up on her feet. This reminded Keyser of the final words of the Emperor Vespasian, who is reported by Suetonius to have said in his final moments imperatorem stantem mori oportet “The emperor should die on his feet.” Well, regardless of ruminations of bygone Romans, Keyser thought it best to leave her alone if staying with her was just going to induce her to try and do what she couldn’t.
So the last hour was strange. Sitting around looking at distracting crap on the computer before driving over with the cat to the ex’s house to pick her up and go to the vet’s.
By the time it was time to go, the cat had somehow gotten herself under the bed. It was easy enough to pick her up, since she didn’t weigh much and had no energy. Seemed like an unfair thing to pick her up to take her to have her killed, but it was for the best.
It was certainly good that the ex was able to go. Keyser probably wouldn’t have felt any worse by himself, but it was nice to have someone else there. The ex held the cat while we waited for the vet. When she showed, up, the vet spoke to convince us that it was the right thing to do, but we hardly needed any convincing (Mrs. S. probably would have, not because she wouldn’t have known, but because she didn’t like knowing it). First, the vet gave her a sedative, which took about five minutes to work. Then she gave her whatever it was. The ex was write there, whereas Keyser looked away, so he can’t tell you what exactly she did (though he did she her get some needle ready). Actually, the vet offered that we could go before she gave the sedative and after the sedative worked. She said the cat wouldn’t notice anything, but it struck the both of us to be cowardice to leave. (As an aside, Keyser remembers reading a news story many years ago in college about some vet that would anaesthetize pets and then when the owners left, he’d actually not kill the pets but sell them for some sort of medical purposes. Now, can you really think of anything more abominable than that? Keyser can’t. Not that he suspected the vet here of that, but that appalling thought has always lodged in a part of his mind where unsetting ideas lurk.)
Anyway, it didn’t take very long, just a minute or so. Keyser gave the cat a farewell scritch, and it’s funny how different a body feels dead. Even in repose, a corpse has a sort of limp feel about it. Weird.
Well, Keyser bore up as you would expect a manly Pannonian too, apart from a bit of sniveling, which is probably excusable under the circumstances. After dropping the ex off at her house, Keyser found Mrs. S. as she was walking home. We took the filthy car to a car wash. It’s spring around here, which seems like an inappropriate time for death. (Because the ground is still frozen, we couldn’t just have a burial at home, so the cat will be cremated and we’ll bury the ashes in a month or so.) Getting the car cleaned seemed like a sort of sneer at death. Life goes on.
So, that’s part of the stuff that Keyser’s been occupied with recently.
Cancer’s a Bitch: Cat Edition
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Just came back from the vet’s. One of the cats almost certainly has cancer, so we’ll have to decide what to do. Keyser doesn’t begrudge God his decisions of life and death one bit. Good thing he’s omniscient, as these things aren’t so easy at all for mere mortals.
Merry Christmas, Sgt. Frazier
Posted by: | CommentsSgt. Daniel Frazier was quoted as saying, “I’m delighted to have had the opportunity of serving my country by giving up my life so that President Obama’s reelection bid can proceed according to plan. My death will give him political cover to wait until the last minute to cut and run before the primary season of 2012, thereby allowing him to “stand tall” until he has to cave in to the hard left at primary time. The man is a political genius!”
Oh, sorry, Keyser’s bad.
Soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, called ‘The Old Guard,’ conduct military honors for Sergeant Daniel Frazier during his burial ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery December 22, 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. A member of the 782d Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Frazier was killed November 19, 2009 in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when a suicide car-bomber attacked his unit.
Sgt. Frazier said nothing.
There Will Be Blood: Afghanistan Edition
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Of course, lots of people have been talking about the Prevaricator-in-Chief’s big Afghanistan speech last, and since Keyser has been mentioning his skepticism about the whole “campaign” for some time, he figures he should chuck in his own two dinar’s worth, even at the expense of saying what others have already said.
Basically, the Great Equivocator didn’t disappoint. So long as what you expecting was disappointment. He did his glib best to square the circle. He’ll give the military close to what they asked for, but not quite all. Why he quibbled about 4000 troops is hard to fathom. Presumably, that way he can say to the Kos Krazies, “See? I didn’t just do what they wanted, but I was decisive in giving them only 30,000 potential casualties instead of their excessive demand for 34,000.”
The extra troops won’t get their for many months (maybe not even by the summer of 2010), and then he’ll start the big non-post-victory withdrawal in 2011. WTF? He’s sending them in for basically a year and a few months? What for?
Well, of course, this may be entirely a coincidence, but it certainly will be felicitous for Barry that he can get the troops back a good half year before the caucuses and what not start up for the 2012 election campaign, when he’ll have to avoid getting Ted Kennedied from the left wing of the leftist conspiracy of the Democrat Party. (For the enlightenment of the many urban hipsters who read the Lair, Ted Kennedy challenged incumbent president Jimmy Carter in 1980 on the grounds that Pres. “Hey, you nice Iranian kids, look I brought the KY for you!” Carter wasn’t incompetent enough for leftard sensibilities.
In the meanwhile, Barry can tell the Lieberman types to STFU because, by heavens, his being decisive in getting US troops killed in a war he has no intention of winning. Because, let’s face it, he gave no indication of what the point of the exercise is.
“We must deny al-Qaeda a safe haven,” Obama said “We must reverse the Taliban’s momentum. … And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan’s security forces and government.”
Deny them a safe haven and stop the “momentum” of the Taliban, huh? Well, if that hasn’t got “victory” written all over it, then Robert de Nero’s nose must not be working right. But out of idle curiosity, how exactly do you gauge whether they’ve lost momentum in the 12+ months that the US is implementing “Plan Barry”? Do they have to move backwards, or is standing still good enough? Come to think of it, Keyser hated calculus in high school, but surely “reserved momentum” just means that their rate of momentum is slowing down, doesn’t it?
Such calculations are irrelevant, however, as this heap of bullshit is based not on military or diplomatic considerations but on nothing but his own political interests. He’ll go on with the war a bit in the short term (after all, claiming that Afghanistan was so important allowed him to campaign against involvement in Iraq as a distraction from the “real” war, which of course he didn’t actually give a shit about, but now he’s stuck with that position), but then bail soon enough that he can go into the primaries and say, “See? I did bail, after all.”
You know, the leftards used to make the charge of being a “chicken hawk” against those who favored the war against Iraq, meaning that without being personally involved, they supported a war that would cost the lives of young soldiers. (Supposedly, chicken hawks prey on the young.) But whatever one thinks of the advisability of Bush et co.’s wars, there is no doubting that they genuinely believed that they were doing the right thing. Barry’s pretty much obviously pursuing in a half-assed way a plan that he doesn’t believe in at all. He’s the true “chicken hawk,” killing other people for no other purpose than his own political advancement. Barry’s not Pres. Chicken Hawk, but Pres. Chicken Shit.
This is in fact a policy that is guaranteed to fail. The US is in Afghanistan because Bush took a “stand” and stuck with it. That is, he decided that ousting the Taliban and Al-qaeda was a necessary objective and held to that plan (even it’s been executed in a somewhat lackadaisical way) for years, despite much opposition. Barry, on the other hand, is maintaining that stand for a very limited period of time and has announced in advance the time when he’s pulling out. You could call this so-called strategy “stand and run.”
Why is it bound to fail? Because you’ve already told you’re opponents how long they have to stick it out. The guys on the other side know that all they have to do is avoid complete defeat before the summer of 2011 and they’ve in effect won. You think 30,000 extra troops will bring the “smell of victory in the morning” by then under such circumstances? Perhaps they can, but that seems a tall order. And it also should be pretty clear to them that they can’t count on any real support for Barry, particularly since his “parameters” for the operation clearly don’t envision the only sort of outcome that would result in a loss for the other guys. “Denying Al-qaeda a safe haven” and “reversing the momentum of the Taliban” certainly does not sound like a policy that would result in their eradication, does it?
And what exactly is the foreseen outcome of this in terms of Afghanistan itself? Supposedly that the pro-US forces there (meaning the army loyal to Karzai, whom Barry called corrupt!) will maintain control after the “stand and run” policy has run its course. Let’s go back to India just after the Second World War. The British actually ruled the joint with a comparatively tiny number of Brits and a large number of Indians working for them in the police and military. So long as the British showed every sign of staying, the local “collaborators” were happy to enforce order for them. But once it became clear after the war that the British had neither the means nor the will to stay, the system of policing began to break down, because the locals who worked with/for the British could tell that their side was about to pull out and leave them in the lurch, so it made no sense for them to stay loyal to a government that soon would be gone. Or let’s go a few steps closer and think of South Vietnam in the period 1973-75. Once the US pulled out and it was clear that the US wouldn’t help substantively, the ARV (as the South Vietnamese army was called) stuck it out for a while but collapsed precipitously in the face of a determined attack from the North.
Now let’s think of things from the point of view of those who support Karzai and the US intervention. On the one side, we have the Taliban etc. whose goal is to get the infidels out of the country. On the other, we’ve got the US – whose stated goal is to get the infidels out of the country, by 2011. Which side do you think is going to win, and what do you think your actions are likely to be in, say, the spring of 2011?
It took Obama nearly a year to come up with this ingenious policy, did it? To Keyser, it reeks of self-serving bullshit. Say what you will of Bush, at least you knew what he stood for and why he was doing what he’s going. Actually, come to think of it, the same applies to Barry. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Afghanistan or the extra 30,000 troops he’s committed. This is simply a way of cutting and running before the primaries of 2012 in a way that will cause him the least grief. As for the large numbers of soldiers (from the US and elsewhere) whose lives will be converted into pieces of cloth to be given as mementos to grieving spouses and children, well, that’s the price of glory. His. [Update: Come to think of it, the people likely to get killed in Afghanistan probably vote Republican anyway, so this whole thing really is a win-win deal from Barry's perspective.]
Keyser never liked Barry to begin with. But now Obama has prove himself to be despicable. This policy is contemptible and disgusting.
Barry, you now own this war. The blood’s on your hands. Oh, and if you care, in the photo up there
The widow of US Corp Charles Gaffney watches as her twin daughters Mia and Cara receive a flag during their father’s funeral in Arlington, Virginia, after he was killed in Afghanistan by enemy fire.
Maybe you go to one of these things, now that you’re commander-in-chief, and they’re dying for your policy. Nah. You’ve got better things to do. Got a meeting to “strategize” with Axelrod and the boys!
Now There’s a Surprise: Death Penalty Edition
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Since there was a post the other day about the conviction of Lemaricus Devall ‘Slim’ Davidson for a truly mind-bogglingly horrific crime, it’s only fair to let you know of the jury’s verdict regarding the penalty:
A Knox County jury this afternoon sentenced convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson to death for the January 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
The jury of five women and seven men deliberated about four hours before returning its decision to a packed courtroom.
“The punishment is death,” the jury foreman said.
The victims’ families gasped at the verdict, but Davidson showed no reaction. Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner admonished those in the courtroom to control any outbursts.
“The murder was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel,” the foreman said, reading from the verdict form for Newsom.
So he showed no reaction, huh? What would the appropriate reaction have been, do you think? In any event, if that image up there is any indication, his attitude is pretty clear. The jurors should be glad that “Slim” won’t ever get a hold of them or they might have reason to consider the full implications of the legal expression “coercive anal penetration.”
Immagine del Giorno: Edizione Morte
Posted by: | CommentsSorry, folks, but today was an emotionally draining day at the vet’s. Not to worry, nothing too drastic going on here. But there’s an uncomfortable situation going on at home, and while Keyser and the Keyserling minimus are sitting in the waiting room awaiting the results, this woman walks in with a cat wrapped up in a blanket. Keyser idly thinks, “We’d never be able to bring any of ours like that,” and goes back to his thoughts. Then he hears the receptionist say, “Do you want an urn or a scatter box?” Hardly had Keyser formed his own question than the woman asked what a scatter box was. Seems they give you the ashes in a box so you can dump them in some suitable location. Uh oh. The woman has her back turned to Keyser, but he imagines that she must be upset. But no, she seems to be talking all right. But the thing in the blanket’s not moving. Could it be dead? Anyway, they want the money first. Costs $236 or thereabouts, and depending on how busy their “guy” is (the receptionist paused slightly before saying that–presumably his title is something else), she can have the ashes back Monday or Tuesday. Then the woman stands there, except now she’s rocking the cat, so obviously it’s not dead. Eventually, they’re ready, and the receptionist informs her that there are also kleenex in the room (as well as the ones on the counter in the waiting room). She cheerfully informs the woman that they have to keep lots on hand. While the woman had been sitting there, Keyser thought maybe he should said something to her, but what was to say and who knows if she wanted to be disturbed? So she goes into one of the two exam rooms with the cat in the blanket.
It took a while for our results to show up (a urinary tract infection, so that’s not so bad), so Keysers Two are still there when all of a suddenly the door to the room bursts open, and the woman marches out very quickly, her eyes all red. She left without saying anything, and apparently had forgotten where she’d parked. At any rate, she walked off into the middle of the cars and then stood there as if she didn’t know what to do next. Then she turned and walked off to the right, presumably having figured out where her car was.
Keyser found it very sad that this woman had her own little personal tragedy and was all by herself, with nobody to help or say anything to. At least, the little Keyserling opened the door for her when she first arrived, but that just helped her walk along a path she didn’t want to go down.
Do we all walk that road alone?
Whither the War in Afghanistan?
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Keyser’s been meaning to talk a bit about Afghanistan, but hasn’t gotten around to it. He came across an excuse this morning:
American soldiers serving in Afghanistan are depressed and deeply disillusioned, according to the chaplains of two US battalions that have spent nine months on the front line in the war against the Taleban.
Many feel that they are risking their lives — and that colleagues have died — for a futile mission and an Afghan population that does nothing to help them, the chaplains told The Times in their makeshift chapel on this fortress-like base in a dusty, brown valley southwest of Kabul.
“The many soldiers who come to see us have a sense of futility and anger about being here. They are really in a state of depression and despair and just want to get back to their families,” said Captain Jeff Masengale, of the 10th Mountain Division’s 2-87 Infantry Battalion.
“They feel they are risking their lives for progress that’s hard to discern,” said Captain Sam Rico, of the Division’s 4-25 Field Artillery Battalion. “They are tired, strained, confused and just want to get through.” The chaplains said that they were speaking out because the men could not.
The base is not, it has to be said, obviously downcast, and many troops do not share the chaplains’ assessment. The soldiers are, by nature and training, upbeat, driven by a strong sense of duty, and they do their jobs as best they can. Re-enlistment rates are surprisingly good for the 2-87, though poor for the 4-25. Several men approached by The Times, however, readily admitted that their morale had slumped.
“We’re lost — that’s how I feel. I’m not exactly sure why we’re here,” said Specialist Raquime Mercer, 20, whose closest friend was shot dead by a renegade Afghan policeman last Friday. “I need a clear-cut purpose if I’m going to get hurt out here or if I’m going to die.”
Sergeant Christopher Hughes, 37, from Detroit, has lost six colleagues and survived two roadside bombs. Asked if the mission was worthwhile, he replied: “If I knew exactly what the mission was, probably so, but I don’t.”
Hard to know what exactly to make of this. On the one hand, chaplains are probably a leftist lot and so their pacifist inclinations may have fed into this (and perhaps been congenial to a leftist reporter). Nonetheless, you’d think that military chaplains would not be as leftist as your garden-variety priest, and in any case, they are in contact with the troops, which is more than most of the rest of us can say.
And we do hear from the troops too: “If I knew exactly what the mission was, probably so [that is, I might consider it worthwhile], but I don’t.” Indeed. As Keyser has commented before, the whole purpose of the exercise is entirely opaque to him. Eight years ago, the US helped out the local opposition to get rid of the Taliban on the grounds that they’d had something to do with the Al-Qaeda plot to destroy the WTC and the rest of it on Sept. 11, 2001. Well, that much was easy enough to accomplish, but then what?
The US has installed some guy called Karzai, who controls the capital of Kabul and not much else, letting his cronies fatten off US and other aid and rigging elections. Otherwise, the country is controlled by the various tribes and factions that have run the joint since time immemorial. They hate each other, and are happy to use outside assistance to get the better of their foes. But they’re all pretty much united in hating the foreigners in general and the non-Moslem West in particular. Just ask the British and the Russians (not to mention Alexander the Great) how it turned out for them trying to subdue the place.
For the neo-conservative crowd, Keyser gathers that this is some sort of “hearts and minds” gig. They imagine that the Moslem extremists are an outside influence, and if only you could cut them off, somehow the “real” locals would come to revere democratic government and Goldman Sachs the way any true blooded American would. Well, you can color Keyser dubious on this one. It’s not as if democracy and all the rights and stuff that go with it are some sort of natural aspect of human life, however much the advocates of it claim that it’s “self-evident truth.” Rather, Western values have a very specific cultural context and a tradition and don’t miraculously spring up from the ground like the people who miraculously appeared once Deucalion and Pyrrha tossed stones onto the ground. And the locals have their own traditions. It’s called Islam, and it’s main tenet is hating outsiders. It may well be some folks there would like to send their daughters to school without someone tossing acid in their faces, but that doesn’t mean that they’re quite ready to open a local chapter of “Hipsters for Obama.” Keyser’s thinking that if the US and others have been scrambling over hill and dale over there for going on a decade and the place still isn’t safe for Truth, Justice and the American Way, it’s not likely to change any time soon.
And speaking of Obama, what’s the Great Leader’s view? Well, it turns out that – surprise, surprise – all that campaign talk about how Iraq was just a side show and the “boy, we’ve really got to get down to business” talk was just so much bullshit. As always, the man hasn’t got a clue what the fuck he wants. Because he has no idea about the actual situation, and all that tough talk was just a way to pretend not to be pussy while on the election trail. Turns out that almost a year after he won the presidential election and well over eight months since he took charge, he’s still thinking about it. Hey, idiot. Time’s long past on that one. Make up your fucking mind and do something! You want to go with your leftard sensibilities and cut and run? Then do it! You have some other goal? Okay, figure out what that is, and again: do it!
Keyser’s gotten the impression that some of the pin-heads on DC think of it as some sort of “Great Game” move. “First, Afghanistan falls, and next it’s Pakistan!” Keyser’s got to roll his eyes at that one. So, you want to prop up Pakistan, huh? What for, and in any case, lots of luck with that one. But if that’s the goal, wouldn’t it be better to do something about Pakistan rather than screwing around to no apparent effect in Afghanistan?
Keyser has to agree with Sgt. Hughes on this one. If there’s a real purpose here, he has no idea what it is, and feels sorry for the Americans, Canadians and others shedding their blood over there for no apparent purpose…
Oh, and if you want to find a bunch of cool and fascinating images about the war in Afghanistan (including the image above, which shows Shelby Summers getting a piece of cloth to remember her father by), check out this article at the Boston Globe.
[Post scriptum. There used to be here a perfect YouTube clip of Jimmy Cagney leading a chorus of "Over there" with US troops in the First World War, but now it's gone for "violation of user terms." Presumably, some asshole movie studio was worried that hordes of people would refrain from buying the DVD of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" from 1942 because of that clip. Yeah, right. Anyway, here's a replacement that's no where near as good, but whaddaya gonna do?]
