Chamblee54

“We are asking Americans to think about that because how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?..”
John Kerry said that in 1971. In 2004, he tried to take on that chore. George W. Bush, who spent Vietnam in the reserves, beat Nam Vet Kerry in the election. W kept the war in Babylon going four more years, and dumped it on his successor.
BHO brought the POTUS parade to town yesterday. In a speech downtown, he said the last US combat troops will be leaving Iraq at the end of August. BHO did not comment on Mr. Kerry’s question.
Juan Cole sums things up: “The US did not ‘win’ the Iraq War. It simply outlasted it. It was strong enough to remain, during the Sunni guerrilla war and the Sunni-Shiite Civil War, until the Iraqis exhausted themselves with fighting. But the massive violence provoked by the US occupation so weakened the Bush administration that it was forced to accept a withdrawal timetable dictated by the Iraqi parliament, in part at the insistence of deputies loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr and others connected to Iran.”
Pictures for this bit of cheer are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” .

MusingsonIraq has a story about the history of WMD in Iraq. This was an often cited reason for the invasion. It was later revealed that WMD was an excuse rather than the reason for the war.
The story is fascinating. Iraq lived in a bad neighborhood, and started to develop chemical weapons in the 1960s. Saddam Insane took over in 1979, and invaded Iran a year later. An eight year bloodbath was the result, leading to the wars of 1991 and 2003.
It should be noted here that this was while Iran was holding Americans hostage. There was a great deal of ill will in America towards Iran at this time. Iraq was seen as the ally of the USA during this was, and the initial invasion may have been encouraged by the USA.
Chemical weapons (CW) were a key part of the war against the larger Iranian army. CW was used against the “human wave” attacks, that sent hundreds of thousands of Iranian youths to paradise. When Kurds did not support the war effort to Saddam’s satisfaction, CW was used on them.
The question is often raised, Who sold chemicals to Iraq? . UN investigators are reluctant to name sources. A company in Singapore was a major supplier, as were a variety of European companies. At least two American firms ( both now defunct) …Alcolac International of Maryland and the Al Haddad trading company of Tennessee…sold CW supplies to Iraq. Remember, up until the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Iraq was an ally of The United States. ( Actually, the Iran contra affair also happened. In this business, Israel served as the middleman for American weapon sales to Iran. This is highly ironic, considering the eagerness of some in Israel to nuke Iran recently.)
In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and became the enemy of the United States. This invasion was partially a result of the enormous debt that Iraq incurred as a result of the war with Iran. This war debt led to a scaling back of the WMD program, which now included biological weapons.
In 1991, the US led coalition drove Iraq out of Kuwait. Many of the factories and warehouses of the WMD program were destroyed in American bombing raids. After Iraq was driven out of Kuwait, many felt the US army should push into Baghdad and evict Mr. Hussein. Stories have emerged that Saudi Arabia did not want a Shiite state on it’s border, and preferred to take their chances with Saddam. In Baghdad, the belief was that the reason the American army did not advance to evict Saddam was the presence of chemical weapons. Mr. Hussein thought this was the second time that CW had saved him, the first being the war against the larger Iranian army.
After the 91 war, the heat was on Saddam about chemical weapons. He secretly destroyed most of the remaining WMD. However, he was still afraid of Iran, and wanted Tehran to think that he had WMD. The cat and mouse game continued throughout the nineties .
After 911, the American war machine had the excuse it needed. Whether concerns over WMD would have led to war is a question that will never be answered. It is an old saying, that if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. Saddam Hussein was convinced that having WMD had saved him on two occasions. The appearance of having WMD was a factor in his downfall.

Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub brought a bit of Internet nonsense to our attention recently. It seems that someone posted a picture of BHO with lighter skin ( the Micheal Jackson effect) and a really bad haircut. The caption read “Do You Like Him Any Better Now? No?? Then You’re Not A Racist.”
There was a comment to this episode, which was the part posted by MFB. There was a series of 14 statements, that all started with “you didn’t get mad when”. Each of the 14 was something that happened in the last few years. The end was when you DID get mad because of health care reform.
PG sees himself as a thinking independent. He has been seeing things that anger him for a long time. After a while, he sees that nothing is going to change because of his anger…the powers that be are going to do what their bosses pay them to do. He also sees that some people are manipulated by others who exploit this unfairness, and stir up anger. Often these people do not have the best of motives.
In broad brushstroke polemic, there is also the question of who “you” is. It is possible to imagine a person who this list describes. It is also possible that there are people who were angry about things on that list, but who are resigned to the fate of living in a flawed society.
In the spirit of independent thought, lets take a look at this list. The original list will be in blue. The Chamblee54 commentary will be in green.
You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President. No, but we didn’t know how bad W would be. Al Gore was not an inspiring alternative. With the electoral college, people in Red Georgia don’t get a vote in Presidential elections anyway.
You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy. This happened behind closed doors. Most did not know it was happening until too late. We have known since 1973 that we need to end our dependence on oil, and the carbon industry has kept us addicted, using a combination of PR, lobbying, and outright thuggery.
You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed. In the late seventies, a few CIA operatives were exposed. ( Out as a verb was a few years in the future.) At the time, the Repubs were furious. This latest episode of CIA agent trashing was convenient to the powers that be. Since the CIA is an instrument of oppression, incompetently executed, this bit of  nonsense does not generate anger.
You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed. A few people were upset at this. They were also upset at the citizen rights that were lost during the War on Drugs except alcohol.
You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us. A lot of people were angry about the war in Babylon. They were ignored.
You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war. A lot of people were angry about the war in Babylon. They were ignored.
You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq. Just 10 billion?
You didn’t get mad when you saw the Abu Grahib photos. This was not surprising. PG’s reaction was amazement that our own soldiers were putting out pictures like that.
You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people. A lot of people were mad. Not everyone believes the ticking time bomb scenario. When you torture people you get a lot of bad information. But, people want to show how bad they are.
You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans. Which war are we talking about? This went on during Vietnam, and the war on drugs.
You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden. Catching Bin Laden wouldn’t stop the anger that drives the insurgencies in Babylon. Also, if we caught Bin Laden, there would be no need to maintain this profitable war machine.
You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed. Yes we were. But what good would it do? The war machine does not care.
You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city drown. This is the item that will draw the lengthiest response. As for Katrina, the government was incompetent.
The issue here is Atlanta, which has the opposite problem of New Orleans. Over the last forty years, there has been a development binge here. And none of the developers have any clue where the water is going to come from.
Atlanta gets its water from the Chattahoochee River. The river is an overgrown trout stream, whose water must be shared with Alabama and Florida. ( There is a nuclear power plant on the river in Alabama, which is the largest user of water on this river. ) The developers have gone crazy, bought politicians, and built a metro area of five million people on the smallest watershed in Georgia.
In 2007 there was a drought. The fishwrapper was printing charts every day, showing how many days of water we had left until Lake Lanier ran dry. Finally, the rain came, and disaster averted. One day, we may not be so lucky. The development has slowed, but that is a function of the overall economy rather than ethical concern about supplying their communities with water.
There is a personal angle, which may explain some of the muted anger over these other issues. PG worked for many years printing building plans. He profited from this rape of the land. When you work for the emperor’s taylor, you admire his fashion sense.
You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark. During the Reagan years, the overall national debt went over a trillion dollars for the first time. A few nay sayers complained, but many were just happy to have a job.
You finally got mad when.. when… wait for it… when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all ok with you but helping other Americans… well f*ck that. That about right? You know it is. Health care reform could have been a lot better. A public option insurance company would have lower premiums than the private companies. If the repubs had cooperated with BHO on this issue, instead of fighting him every step of the way, we would have a much better plan.

The fun lovers at obsidian wings had a special edition yesterday. All of the commenters (regular and constipated) were invited to introduce themselves. PG did not see this until late in the afternoon, when fifty people were already on record. He started to read the intros, and kept a running list of points to mention for himself.
It is tough to put something like this together. There is so much you could mention. Many people are mongrels, both in the family/ethnic sense and the intellectual sense. The labels used to describe groups of people become ridiculous when you get to an individual who thinks.
In keeping with point 7 on the list below, here is the introduction for Chamblee54. In an ironic twist, I received a sharply worded letter from Obsidian Wings. They do not approve of commenters inserting links into comments. The comment was posted, in an all black font, with the links taken out.
1- I was directed here by Andrew Sullivan. Whatever his flaws, his staff reads a lot of stuff, and will point you in some good directions.
2- I write my own blog… https://chamblee54.wordpress.com. This blog is usually written in third person, and does not use the word “I”. Chamblee54 features multi colored fonts, and lots of pictures. The pictures often have nothing to do with the text.
The slogan is “pretty pictures and ugly opinions.” The slogan used to be a quote by Hunter S. Thompson, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro“. I used this for a while until someone pointed out that I was misspelling weird. Talk about nit picky…I was quoting Hunter S. Thompson about weird! However , I learned my lesson…you can’t have weird without we.
3-I come to ObWi looking for ideas to write about. I always give credit. ObWi has lots of links.
4- Chamblee54 is a pseudonym, which is different from anonymous. I was born in 1954, and live just outside Chamblee, GA. This is off Peachtree Road 2 miles outside the Atlanta city limits. If you look at the pictures on my bio page, you get more clues to my “real” name. If you see me on facebook, you see this drivers license identity.
5- I am a native Georgian. My mother grew up in Atlanta, my father was from North Carolina. Both families have been in the United States long enough to lose all claim to ethnic identity. I am Caucasian, single, college educated, and looking for a job.
6- I started Chamblee54 in 2005. It was on blogspot at first, then something happened, and I could not access google. By this time I was posting lots of photo shopped pictures, and writing in fonts other than black. In February of 2008 I moved to WordPress, which is a superior product to blogspot/google. I toy with the idea of getting my own domain, but am too slack to make much progress in that direction.
7- I recycle material shamelessly. This will probably be a post, and maybe a page later. I haven’t decided what pictures to put up with it, but it will have nothing to do with me.
8- One of my hobbies is photo editing, using an open source program called GIMP.(Thank you Scent) I have three main sources…my own photographs, “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” and The Library of Congress. If I live to be 100, and work full time at photo doobering, I could not exhaust these resources. (This is an ongoing process, with changes all the time. I just added the word “The” to the link for the GSU archives.)
9- Politically, I am skeptical of all moving lips. My religion is none of your business. The Wars in Babylon and Stan land are total disasters. These Wars are part of a triple whammy…the other parts are the banking meltdown, and the deepwater horizon…from which America may never fully recover.
10- I am a retired drunk. I decided in 1988 that it was the easiest way to live. That just might be the reason I am alive today. I detoxed from reefer in 2005, and don’t miss it that. I resent the laws against the benign weed. The war on drugs, except alcohol, is one of the core problems with America today. As for pills and powders, I never did develop a taste for them. This is due as much to social retardation, and cheapness, as virtue, but it has the same effect.
11- It was once said that if a man is not liberal when he is twenty, he does not have a heart. If he is not conservative by forty, then he does not have a brain. That was said a while back, before the meanings of the L and C words got to be so distorted. Maybe I don’t have a brain or a heart, but I do have a gut. When a skinny man gains weight in mid life, that is where the pounds go.
Photo Notes The first two are, from left to right, Helen LaFlaur (my aunt), Mattie Vance Moffat (my grandmother), and Jean Dunaway McKinnon (my mother). These pictures were taken in the back yard of our house on Wimberly Road, probably by Chuck LaFlaur. What Gran said is not known. The third picture is Jean Mckinnon. The last picture is Luther McKinnon, Sr. and Jr. Other pictures are from The Library of Congress