And this one's on me

I know what you're thinking, two blogs this close together? What's TCH doing over there...isn't he supposed to be writing a dissertation and the rest of his time spent lecturing? To that I say, pah.

In that vein, I went out with my ole' buddy Jim this evenin' and saw a new flick, "New York, I Love You." Now, for those of you movie critic types (yes this would include any of you indie/townie-wannabes that we encountered before the film discussing the cinematic delights of God only knows what and the intricacy of plot and depth of character assignments, blah de blah blah blah) this film was decent. If you've seen "Paris, Je T'Aime," think of that only in NYC. But this is not a film review. Somehow I'm not yet full enough of, well, myself to become a film, food, or literary critic. Rather, its the impact the film had on me during my drive back to the flat.

After dropping Jim off, I starting wondering how it is that such a wonderfully diverse city like NYC and the tragic attacks it suffered on 9.11 have become so distorted by the neo-cons and military industrial complex and now, apparently, much of the so-called "left" that an escalation in a war on the other side of the globe seems necessary and prudent.

And then I got to rememberin'. True, Oby said he would quickly draw down troops and end the war in Iraq. So far, this seems to be the plan. And yet, when individuals like Barbara Boxer and myself had serious questions about why someone like "Give em' HellGates" would be left at Defense when we had all voted for change, Mr. Oby's line was quite pointed: Afghanistan was different and he trusted the Gates crew on defense policy. Afghanistan was not Iraq, so said (yes, past tense) he. See the following pieces for the predictions that the recently announced escalation was intended way back in the summer of 2008: salon and cnn .

The moral: we got what we voted for. There's no surprise here. Don't act shocked and awed. After all, what's one war traded in for another?

TCH