esrosedotblog

ANOTHER GOAL MET

This week the United States officially ended its combat mission in Iraq, leaving 50,000 troops — down from 140,000 a year before — to train and support Iraqi security forces.

I felt as though Iraq would never be over. Now we wait for Afghanistan.

This is real, on the ground evidence, that the war commitment is easing.

After Iraq, Troops Fill Base Towns--A Sea of Green

You can just tick off the goals that have been met in spite of the inherited economy and the other unforeseen events since Obama has been in office.

Now we see the wind down and, I feel confident, we will see the Afghanistans do the same.

With all the bitching and the lowering polls, it is doubtless that events like this, on the ground, will revive the national malaise and half empty thinking.

But you never know. People are pretty fucking stupid when it comes to reacting to the facts instead of the feelings.

What goes down must go up.

You know, I watch the teevee at the gym in the morning.

Well, I watch the "hearing impaired" script go by.

There is none of this news there. CNN has features on the near tabloid problems that have always been with us (drugs, teens, oldsters) and Fox lies.

Where do people get news these days?

They are not all tuned to NPR.

I guess the networks do OK and there is the internet.

But news on the net is similar. AP is OK if a bit slanted. The blogs are partisan. Both sides.

I think the problem is that a lot of people aren't paying but scant attention to any of it.

Those are my morning thoughts on the state of the nation.