Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Whaddya know, the Iraqis really don't want us infesting - ah, I mean, liberating - their country indefinitely:

It’s likely that the White House and the McCain campaign will call this a transcription error, or insist that Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari didn’t really mean what he said, or perhaps even parse the meaning of the word “timeline,” but for the rest of us, we now have yet another top Iraqi official demanding a “very clear” timeline for U.S. withdrawal. (thanks to S.W. for the tip)

The United States must provide a “very clear timeline” to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement allowing them to stay beyond this year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday.

It was the strongest public assertion yet that Iraq is demanding a timeline. U.S. President George W. Bush has long resisted setting a firm schedule for pulling troops out of Iraq, although last month the White House began speaking of a general “time horizon” and “aspirational goals” to withdraw. […]

In an interview with Reuters, Zebari said the agreement, including the timeline, was “very close” and would probably be presented to the Iraqi parliament in early September.

Asked if Iraq would accept a document that did not include dates for a withdrawal, Zebari said: “No, no. Definitely there has to be a very clear timeline.”

And what might that timeline be? Iraqi officials have talked recently of an October 2010 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops — which would, of course, be fairly close to the timeline articulated by Barack Obama — but Zebari said to wait and see.

For those keeping score at home, we now have Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq, Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesperson for the Iraqi government, and Hoshiyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, all publicly endorsing a withdrawal timeline.

That sound you hear is John McCain losing his favorite campaign issue.

Not that he won't continue pummelling the dead equine - remember, St. John sez he knows the Iraqis' minds better than they do, so if he says they don't want a timeline, well, in his world, they don't. Wait for this to be yet another thing he continues to lie endlessly about.

Speaking of wars, the Republic of Georgia's somehow got the mistaken impression the U.S. hasn't been an abject failure in every fucking conflict in the last eight years:

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is urging the United States to use its diplomatic clout to help bring about an end to conflict and bloodshed in the breakaway region of South Ossetia. VOA's Michael Bowman reports from Washington, the Georgian leader spoke on U.S. television as his government offered to begin talks with Russia on ending hostilities.

President Saakashvili says he believes the United States could play an important role in quelling an escalating military conflict between his nation and its giant neighbor, Russia.

"The United States and the world community should stop [the] intervention and invasion of my sovereign country," said Mikhail Saakashvili. "I think the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world. I think the U.S. has lots of leverage, and I think there are lots of diplomatic means that it could be done through. This is not about Georgia anymore. This is about basic values of humanity."

I'm sorry, my dear Mikhail, but the U.S. doesn't do "basic values of humanity" anymore. Didn't you get the memo?

As for "the most powerful country in the world," "leverage," and "diplomatic means," you're thinking of the Clinton administration. That was over eight years ago. Alas, the U.S. is only pretending to be a world playah now - it's reputation and effectiveness are completely down the toilet with all but the most desperate of small countries about to get the snot kicked out of them by large ones. I'm afraid we can't help you, love. Try again when Obama's elected.

And we don't talk about wars, either. Not when there's John Edwards and his famous wandering dick to kick around:

Media interest in John Edwards’ adultery controversy is probably inevitable. He’s not a sitting lawmaker or candidate for anything anymore, but he’s a well-known political figure caught up in a sex scandal. News outlets are going to cover this; it’s unavoidable.

But some reporters want to keep the story in perspective, and want cable news networks to cover the war between Russia and Georgia with at least as much intensity as an extramarital affair between a retired senator and a woman who was largely anonymous up until fairly recently.

Take this hilarious Fox News segment that Satyam at ThinkProgress found, during which Bonnie Erbe of PBS and U.S. News tried to expand the Edwards discussion, and faced resistance from FNC’s Gregg Jarrett.

[snip]

After noting why the Edwards affair will probably have no bearing on the presidential race, Erbe said, “On the other hand, we have these huge stories going on like the one you’re reporting in Georgia, where you have both candidates, McCain and Obama, taking positions that the American public wants to know more about.”

Jarrett ignores Erbe’s response, and starts bashing Edwards again, asking Erbe to note whether Edwards might still be lying about the circumstances of his affair. Ebre said it was possible, and suggested Edwards could go on Maury Povich’s trashy daytime talk show to talk about it. “The American public have told pollsters, this political season they want substance,” Erbe insisted. “Both these candidates have expressed support for allowing Georgia into NATO, for example. We are bound by treaty to attack anybody who attacks a NATO member. We could have been on the verge of nuclear war. Those are the kinds of the things that the American public wants to see discussed.”

At that point, Fox News’ Jarrett responded, “Right. You know, but getting back to Edwards..."

This, in a nutshell, is America today. It has the attention span of a brain-damaged magpie and the political leadership of a sitcom. I'm afraid it's going to be a very long time before we can be counted on to do anything right.