Saturday, August 20, 2005
Iraq clusterfuck: Yeah, you heard me. Clusterfuck
A tip of the Ol' Corrente Hat to the man in the grey turtleneck for mainstreaming the word "clusterfuck" when applied to Bush's war of choice in Iraq.
Aside from being a fine example of the vivid and concrete language that Corrente, as part of its programme to bring American discourse to the next level of civility, promotes, the noun "clusterfuck" really is the term of art for our Iraqi predicament. The term originated in (where else) VietNam:
Clearly, Bush's war of choice in Iraq is "all screwed up"; that makes it a clusterfuck by definition. However, the term is even more a propos.
Tactically, Bush's war of choice in Iraq is a clusterfuck. The analogy to "Marines close enough together to be wounded by the same incoming round" is clear. In Vietnam, "in the open" meant being exposed in the rice paddies or jungles. In Iraq, "in the open" means (1) urban warfare where (2) troops (and contractors) must be supplied by trucks which (3) are not armored thereby making them vulnerable to (4)the "income rounds" of IEDs placed along the roadside. Nice work, Inerrant Boy. (And the resonance to the words of Matthew 18:19, "wherever two or three are gathered together," is heartbreaking.)
Strategically, Iraq is a clusterfuck, too. Look again at the definition: "close enough together to be wounded by the same incoming round." Well, if the "incoming round" is a loose nuke in a shipping container (back) Bush will have managed to clusterfuck not just 2000 soldiers in Iraq, not just tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, but one or another Blue major ports. (Not that such an object lesson of the unquenchable fire from heaven (back) purging the country of gays, non-Christians, ESLers, and Democrats would make our theocrat rulers anything but joyful.)
Paranoid scenario, you say? Tinfoil hat time? Seriously, does anyone think that a progression from small IEDs, to large IEDs, to missiles fired against ships in Jordan is going to stop there? Bush's war of choice has made Iraq a training ground (back) for these guys, worse than Afghanistan ever was (and OBL—remember him?—was blowback from Afghanistan).
That asshole has put all of us in the crosshairs...
Aside from being a fine example of the vivid and concrete language that Corrente, as part of its programme to bring American discourse to the next level of civility, promotes, the noun "clusterfuck" really is the term of art for our Iraqi predicament. The term originated in (where else) VietNam:
Marine slang -- A clusterfuck was any group of Marines big enough to draw enemy fire, or several Marines close enough together to be wounded by the same incoming round. More generically, a clusterfuck was something that was all screwed up, i.e. "That blocking operation was a giant clusterfuck!" Whenever three or more CAP Marines gathered in the open, talking or working on something, somebody was sure to call out "clusterfuck!" and one or more guys would walk away.
(Capmarine.com)
Clearly, Bush's war of choice in Iraq is "all screwed up"; that makes it a clusterfuck by definition. However, the term is even more a propos.
Tactically, Bush's war of choice in Iraq is a clusterfuck. The analogy to "Marines close enough together to be wounded by the same incoming round" is clear. In Vietnam, "in the open" meant being exposed in the rice paddies or jungles. In Iraq, "in the open" means (1) urban warfare where (2) troops (and contractors) must be supplied by trucks which (3) are not armored thereby making them vulnerable to (4)the "income rounds" of IEDs placed along the roadside. Nice work, Inerrant Boy. (And the resonance to the words of Matthew 18:19, "wherever two or three are gathered together," is heartbreaking.)
Strategically, Iraq is a clusterfuck, too. Look again at the definition: "close enough together to be wounded by the same incoming round." Well, if the "incoming round" is a loose nuke in a shipping container (back) Bush will have managed to clusterfuck not just 2000 soldiers in Iraq, not just tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, but one or another Blue major ports. (Not that such an object lesson of the unquenchable fire from heaven (back) purging the country of gays, non-Christians, ESLers, and Democrats would make our theocrat rulers anything but joyful.)
Paranoid scenario, you say? Tinfoil hat time? Seriously, does anyone think that a progression from small IEDs, to large IEDs, to missiles fired against ships in Jordan is going to stop there? Bush's war of choice has made Iraq a training ground (back) for these guys, worse than Afghanistan ever was (and OBL—remember him?—was blowback from Afghanistan).
That asshole has put all of us in the crosshairs...
