Swift Boats Are Back

The Republicans have a new anti-Obama attack group, the Special Operations Opsec Education Fund, according to Reuters and the New York Times.  This is basically the same idea as the Swift Boat campaign waged by George W. Bush against Sen. John Kerry during his Presidential campaign.  The Swift Boat campaign vilified all Vietnam veterans by vilifying Kerry's military service, while the new Opsec campaign is aimed more specifically at Obama as Commander-in-Chief because he managed to kill Osama bin Laden, which the incompetent, cowardly Republicans had failed to do while George W. Bush was Commander-in-Chief. 

If the Republicans wanted to make sure that I, a Vietnam veteran, do not support Romney (or any other Republican) this is the way to do it.  It's probably coincidental, but both groups are primarily Navy veterans, the Swift boat veterans from Vietnam, and now the Navy seals from the bin Laden attack.  It makes me inclined to think that Navy officers are less patriotic than officers from other services, although that is probably not justified on the basis of the political actions of a handful of Navy personnel.  However, Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall set the standard during World War II and the years following it when he served as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, when he would not vote for any candidate because it might make it more difficult for him to serve the man he had not supported if he was elected.  Certainly soldiers should be allowed to vote, and retired officers should be allowed to campaign, but I think it is questionable when they attack the leadership of the country for being unpatriotic.  I think that makes them unpatriotic.  It's okay to attack the policies, but not to attack the Commander-in-Chief for disloyalty.  Do they want to try him for treason? 

The Republicans pursued two disastrous wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, during which they failed to capture or kill bin Laden.  Now they try to turn Obama's success in doing what they failed to do, against him.  Go back and look at what George W. Bush said and did when we found Saddam Hussein, who was not nearly as important an enemy of the United States as Osama bin Laden.  Republicans can brag, too.  What about "Mission Accomplished" blazoned across an aircraft carrier when the real Iraq war was just starting.  Was George W. Bush a traitor?  I think not; he was trying his best, but as a cowardly Vietnam draft dodger, he just didn't have it in him to fight a war well. 

Sorry for Fareed

I am so sorry that Fareed Zakaria plagiarized something from the New Yorker, according to Politico, and then got caught by the NRA.  The NRA is an unscrupulous, mean-spirited organization that lords itself over our political establishment.  That they got an intelligent liberal like Fareed will scare the less brave liberals in government.  It's like Parade Magazine's report of Grover Norquist fighting with a good man like George H.W. Bush because he went back on his pledge to not raise taxes. 

I hope that Fareed will continue to fight the good fight against the NRA and for intelligent, liberal policies to be pursued by the US Government. 

After comparing what is supposed to be plagiarized, I'm less concerned about Fareed.  Technically they got him, but in fact he gave credit to the real source of the information, a book by Adam Winkler.  The New York Times has a comparison of the texts.  He pretty much copied Ms. Lepore's summary of Winkler's book, but he didn't really copy any of her original ideas.  He could have read the book and come up with more or less the same summary.  This is sort of like "plagiarism lite," but it will be a stain on Fareed's reputation, and the NRA will be happy about that. 

In any case I will miss him in Time and on CNN. 

Did Jews Fight in Iraq?

In my opinion, the Iraq war was largely started by American and Israeli Jews who wanted to kill Saddam Hussein.  Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz led the charge aided by many Jewish colleagues at Defense and other parts of the foreign policy and defense establishment, such as Doug Feith, and Dov Zakheim. Senator Joe Leiberman was a big supporter.  Of course, President Bush II was interested in showing up or avenging his father, Bush I, and played into their hands.  Dick Cheney just wanted a war to throw some money to his defense industry buddies, but he had his own influential Jew to help him, Scooter Libby.  

So, Iraq was at least in part a war for Jews and Israel.  My question is, "Did Jews fight in it?"  I think not, although my evidence is not very scientific.  I looked up a list of the names of those buried in Section 60 of Arlington Cemetery, who were killed in Iraq.  I hoped there would be some listing of how many tombstones have stars of David on them, but I could not find out.  Looking at the names, it's hard to tell.  There are a lot of Polish and other Slavic names that could be Jewish, or could be Christians of Eastern European ancestry.  However, when I searched the list for "gold" or "stein," which appear in many Jewish names, I found no hits.  If it were an Asian war started by a Christian, e.g., Korea or Vietnam, I could understand, but this was a war in the Middle East pushed strongly by Jews.  

ObamaCare Should Have Been Single Payer

To control health care costs, we need single, public payer system.  The HCA takeover of Denver non-profit hospitals shows how profitable health care is.  Republicans kept it that way by blocking single payer and leaving insurance companies, huge medical companies, and doctors are in control.  Many doctors are working for hospitals or corporations rather than private practice because of the financial incentives.  

The obvious solution to the health care problem was Medicare for everybody, and then cost controls on what Medicare funds.  Obvious problems are the last six months of life for older people who incur huge costs that don't produce better quality of life, just longer life, as well as younger people with hugely expensive diseases, and of course the multiple unnecessary tests.