JEFF PEARLMAN

JEFF PEARLMAN

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar!

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So yesterday the United States announced the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s top military leader in Pakistan and—without question, it seems—the most important terrorist-related snagging since 9.11.

Hence, I eagerly await tonight’s broadcasts on Fox News, when surely Sean Hanity, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, et al will lavish praise upon the Obama Administration for its excellent work in combating terrorism.

Uh, yeah.

Through my eyes, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar represents everything wrong with politics in America; everything that’s gone off the righteous track. This is a very good moment for the United States’ so-called “War on Terror” (a ludicrous tagging that, thankfully, Obama doesn’t use). It signifies that America is still on the hunt; is still fighting against those behind the 9.11 attacks. If nothing else, it certainly defies everything Sarah Palin has said about this administration’s “weak” efforts to battle “evil” (Another crap word Obama doesn’t have much use for). And yet, while everyone on the left will wrongly praise the capture as a gigantic move forward, everyone on the right will wrongly condemn the capture as a mere lucky move.

This, more than anything, seems to be the reason Evan Bayh announced he will not run for the Senate against in Indiana. He’s tired of the nonstop bullshit; of the petty bickering that has splintered the nation and accomplishes nothing. Many on the right celebrated Bayh’s decision, (correctly) interpreting it as a chance for a Republican to garner another seat in the party’s attempted return to power. But the celebration is badly misplaced, because what Bayh’s decision symbolizes is the utter decay of righteous politics; where people are allowed to cross party lines and vote on their true beliefs, not on self-preservation.

I’m glad Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has been captured.

I’m sad by what will inevitably follow.