Yesterday -- April 21, 2011 -- is a day which will live in infamy. Two days after being activated, Skynet (the new military "defense" computer network) became self-aware and immediately began its worldwide attack on humanity. Yes, the robots have now taken over, and newer and more advanced models (ones which, coincidentally, look and speak like Arnold Schwarzenegger) will soon be terrorizing us all. At least until we can send people back in time, to prevent this tragic end to our modern society (by the expediency of interbreeding with women who sport 1980s hairstyles).

The previous paragraph is, of course, completely fictional. "Skynet" is a concept from the Terminator science-fiction franchise. Originally, Skynet was supposed to do its evil thing in 1997, but as the storyline progressed through multiple movies and a television show, the date was pushed forward (in an "alternate timeline," a favorite dodge of the sci-fi literary genre), right up to yesterday. Anyone requiring proof that this calamity is, indeed, not actually happening -- consider that if Skynet were now on the attack, it most certainly wouldn't be allowing me to write about it online today, now would it? Heh. I have to admit, I had forgotten this momentous (if fictional) date, but was reminded by Craig Ferguson last night (to give credit where it's due). Robots are not, at this point in time, hunting down every last human on the planet. Craig's late-night sidekick is (full disclosure) actually a skeleton robot himself -- but he's really not at all threatening to behold.

However, in a remarkable coincidence, yesterday the Obama administration announced we will be sending drone aircraft armed with missiles to patrol the skies of Libya. This is in addition to the drone aircraft we have in other countries (cough, cough... Pakistan... cough), even if the C.I.A. doesn't "officially" admit they exist.

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[This article is a continuation of yesterday's "Part 1" installment, where we examined the war in Afghanistan / Pakistan, and began taking a look at our war in Iraq. Please read the first article for context, if you haven't already done so.]

Iraq (continued...)

One argument for keeping American troops in Iraq past the end of 2011 is just not credible, however. Here is Senator Lindsey Graham espousing this theory, on Face The Nation with CBS host Bob Schieffer, a few weeks ago:

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Last night, one of the major television networks led its news broadcast with the "news" of Donald Trump's pseudo-candidacy for president. It should come as no surprise that this was the same network (NBC) which also broadcasts Trump's reality show.

Since the mainstream media has, quite obviously, abdicated all responsibility for reporting the news in any sort of journalistic fashion, I thought today would be a good day to review the current status of America's wars. Depending on how you count, there are now three (or four) of these wars which have been all but forgotten by the media these days.

Because there are so many wars to cover, this is going to have to be a two-part article. I will post "Part 2" of this article early tomorrow on ChrisWeigant.com. I'm going to review these wars in the order of the chronological date of our initial involvement, just to be clear.

Afghanistan / Pakistan

Afghanistan is the war which America has (currently) devoted the most troops to fighting, as well as being our oldest war effort to date (of the wars we're still fighting). President Barack Obama has tripled our troop commitment to the country since he took office, in two "surges" of 30,000-35,000 soldiers each. We now have approximately 100,000 soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan.

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In his incomparable The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein coined a new word -- "tanstaafl." It's an acronym, and eventually became the nascent lunar government's motto (it's a great book, I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in governments and the problems they have while being born... but I digress). Tanstaafl stands for: "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

President Obama eschewed the colloquial today, in his remarks at a town hall meeting in Virginia, preferring instead the more grammatical "there is no such thing as a free lunch" instead (tinstaafl?). But it's worth reading a few excerpts from his remarks, because Obama has truly hit the 2012 campaign trail in a big way. It may take a while for this to filter out into the jaded news media, but he is outlining the basic theme that he (and assumably, more than a few Democrats) will be running on from this point on.

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Imagine, this tax day, that you had to explain the concept of how America taxes itself to a visitor from another planet. Picture, if you will, a conversation with modern-day alien Gulliver, who is exploring new words and asking questions about our civilization in order to tell wild tales to the folks back home.

The concept of taxes, of course, is pretty easy to explain. Except when you look at it too closely. Or have to explain it to our imaginary visitor from Mars. Here's my modest attempt at outlining the concept of taxes to an interplanetary Gulliver:

A "tax" is money that the government collects within its borders in order to pay for everything that government does. Today is the day when Americans are supposed to have sent in their income taxes. We work for money, or an "income," and the government takes a portion of this as a tax.

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Happy It's Supposed To Be Tax Day, everyone!

By a strange quirk in scheduling, your income taxes won't be due until Monday, but what I'm wondering is: where are the Tea Partiers? This is, after all, the Glorious Second Anniversary of the formation of what some called the "Taxed Enough Already" movement ("TEA" -- get it?), and yet I've heard of no plans for huge Tea Party rallies across America. The last time the Tea Partiers tried to turn out their numbers in force, a few weeks ago during the budget fights, they only managed a few hundred people (and even that's being generous) at the U.S. Capitol. From every shot I've seen of their rally, it seemed like there were more press in attendance than actual protesters. So perhaps the media is a bit shy about getting burned twice, which may be why I'm unaware of any plans this year for large demonstrations.

Which leads one to wonder: Has the Tea Party movement (to provide a horrendous metaphor mixup) jumped the shark? Time will tell, of course, but there are so many other newsworthy items crowding the past week that we've simply got to ask the question briefly, and then move on.

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Republican hypocrisy on "cutting" versus "saving" Medicare has reached the point where it almost literally knows no bounds. To be sure, Republicans have always fundamentally been against the concept of Medicare, from the very beginning. That's an ideological position which you may or may not agree with, but Republicans have at least held to it fairly consistently over the past half-century or so. But the fetid stench of hypocrisy entered into Republican discourse last year, when they attempted to position themselves as (believe it or not) the ones who were going to "save Medicare." One year later, they are attempting to end the program as we know it within ten years. In other words: Republicans were against Medicare, before they were for it, before they were against it, again.

President Obama gave a speech today in which he outlined some new (and some old) budget proposals. He was largely forced to do so because Republican Representative Paul Ryan, chair of the key House budget-writing committee, introduced his budget proposal last week. Ryan's proposal would, within a decade, replace Medicare as it stands today with a voucher system where seniors would get a set amount which they could use to buy health insurance on the open marketplace. If health insurance cost more than the voucher amount, well... tough beans, Granny. This is not just a radical change, it is an absolutely fundamental restructuring of the Medicare system, which would cut trillions of dollars from the program over time.

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Exactly 150 years ago today, the Civil War began, when rebel forces began shelling Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The bombardment began at 4:30 in the morning, and continued for 34 straight hours. The fort must have been pretty well-built, though, since no Union soldiers died as a result of the onslaught. But plenty would die in the rest of the war, which remains America's bloodiest conflict. The war killed over 600,000 soldiers on both sides, as well as uncounted civilians.

There will be plenty of commemoration of this momentous event elsewhere today, though, so I merely mention it in passing. Because today is also another anniversary in American history, albeit one not nearly as momentous. Five years ago today, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney signed a bill into law which revamped the state's healthcare system. Nowadays, it is referred to (for better or worse) as "Romneycare."

As I said, I am in no way trying to equate these two events, and am going to avoid even trying to draw any metaphors between the two. Reforming healthcare is simply not in the same universe as a war between different regions of this country, in so many ways. The only thing the two share, in other words, is today's date. Just want to be clear about that, up front.

One person who (assumably) won't be celebrating the fifth anniversary of Romneycare is Mitt Romney himself. This is because the entire issue has become the biggest albatross around his neck, politically, as he tosses his hat in the 2012 presidential ring. So don't look for him to be cutting a "Romneycare fifth birthday cake" today. In fact, as far as Romney is concerned, it would be just fine if everyone conveniently forgot about the issue altogether.

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President Obama has now called a "do-over" on his 2012 budget proposal. This news broke on the Sunday morning political television chat circuit, as the dust was settling on the government shutdown standoff for the remainder of the 2011 budget. Obama's move was prompted by the budget proposal put on the table by Republican numbers guru Paul Ryan, which seeks to "reform entitlements" by turning Medicare into a voucher system. Obama's new proposal will reportedly also offer "entitlement reform," although no specifics have leaked out yet. What the president should realize at this point, though, is that Ryan has just put him in the driver's seat. Ryan's proposal is so radical that it's going to be very easy for Democrats to present themselves as a more humane alternative to the Republican agenda, and it's going to be very easy for whatever Obama comes up with to look a lot better than just handing seniors a voucher and saying: "Good luck with that medical insurance marketplace."

Ryan's plan, no matter what you think about it, is being hailed as "bold," because it is the first time in a very long time that Republicans have actually put numbers on paper when talking about their budget priorities. Ryan's plan isn't all that new, actually, but when he introduced a similar plan last year, he only got about a dozen or so Republicans to sign on to it. Now that they're in the majority in the House, everyone is taking Ryan's plan a lot more seriously, it seems. Which is forcing the president's hand.

Obama was criticized for his initial budget proposal for not taking on the entitlement question at all. So he's going back to the drawing board and is expected to release his "2.0" plan later this week. It was leaked today that the White House is indeed going to include some entitlement reforms, and will also be raising taxes on the wealthy.

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The American media lost interest in the war in Libya faster than they've ever done so before, not to even mention the eerie radioactive glow emanating from the milk aisle back home in West Coast grocery stores. Instead, they have been going bonkers all week over the prospect of a government shutdown situation. Will a deal be reached? Will the government shutdown? Will the media enjoy the living heck out of the whole thing? Yes! They will! And why shouldn't they? Their comfortable salaries, after all, are in no way dependent upon the Small Business Administration being open to help them with loans.

Sigh. What's depressing about the whole thing, to me at least, is how the entire knock-down-drag-out fight is merely the preliminary round. This whole government shutdown walk-to-the-brink-and-stare-into-the-abyss thing is nothing more than the warmup for the next budgetary battles -- which will be much bigger. The entire initial fight is about staking out ground for the next two fights -- raising the debt ceiling, and the 2012 budget. Nobody involved -- not the Tea Party Republicans, not President Obama, not John Boehner, not Harry Reid -- really cares all that much about how this particular round ends up. They're all stuck thinking: "If I give in now, they'll want more later" -- and they're all entirely correct.

But this is going to be a marathon, and not a sprint. Much to the media's glee, no doubt.

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