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I got sat next to a CIDA worker at a wedding. She talked about her duties ensuring that a Canadian agency head was provided with adequate and hygienic toilets i

I got sat next to a CIDA worker at a wedding. She talked about her duties ensuring that a Canadian agency head was provided with adequate and hygienic toilets in Haiti. Reports included trips to various places and pictures of each possible crapper along the way. Tax dollars at work... Can you imagine being the lead team on that? The existential ennui alone about the pointlessness of it all. edit:forgot to mention that it was Haiti, acronym is CIDA, not CANAID

ethbro 11y ago
The late Michael Hastings' The Operators was a good read if you find the sausage making process interesting. He has a strong viewpoint, but stories of Gen McChrystal throwing out ISAF functionaries from plush offices and closing officer bars at the Kabul ISAF headquarters were fairly humorous. There were overriding politics between superiors, but the irony is that McChrystal, any infeasible strategy aside, got thrown out for showing distain for the same wasteful, corrupt system that everyone else gripes about.
- hackuser 11y ago
  > McChrystal ... got thrown out for showing distain for the same wasteful, corrupt system that everyone else gripes about. OT: IIRC he resigned after he and his staff openly mocked to a journalist the President, VP and others in the chain of command, and their comments were published in Rolling Stone. That's not an effort to end corruption, it's insubordination, apparently widespread in his staff under his leadership, which itself is a form of corruption. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236
  - ethbro 11y ago
    From the article (which is partially reproduced and fleshed out with additional chapters in the book) a lot of the mocking seemed to concern involvement: "Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn't go much better. 'It was a 10-minute photo op,' says an adviser to McChrystal. 'Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss [McChrystal] was pretty disappointed.'" And for what it's worth, when you're dealing with things like this: "In February, the day before the doomed offensive in Marja, McChrystal even drove over to the president's palace to get him to sign off on what would be the largest military operation of the year. Karzai's staff, however, insisted that the president was sleeping off a cold and could not be disturbed. After several hours of haggling, McChrystal finally enlisted the aid of Afghanistan's defense minister, who persuaded Karzai's people to wake the president from his nap." Then I'd probably be in a less than charitable mood concerning the entire enterprise. To repeat, they had to argue with the staff of the president of the country whose insurgency we were fighting that being involved in starting a long-planned and massive offensive was more important than a nap. (And that's not getting into the comments about drug use) Biden was exactly right, the entire thing was a cluster%^@# and a terrible idea to invest more in. But in the absence of a resolute US president who tells the military "No, you can't send in more troops"? Well, the military's going to do what it does: fight. And press for more fighting. PS: The amount of backstabbing between different military cliques, Congress, different cliques in the State Department, and the Executive staff was also mind boggling.
    - hackuser 11y ago
      > I'd probably be in a less than charitable mood concerning the entire enterprise. I don't blame him for his mood but I do for his actions. He's a general running a major operation; millions of lives and the welfare of nations depend on him; those are the responsibilities and stakes. He can't undermine the enterprise because he feels like complaining to a reporter.
greggman 11y ago
I assume you think that's a bad thing? If I had someone planning where I was going to stay I would tell them, put me anywhere that has a quiet comfortable bed and a clean private comfortable toilet. Maybe there's more to this story?
- orbitingpluto 11y ago
  Careful, your privilege is showing. edit: Seriously on the downvotes? If your job is to travel to another country to render aid because of conditions caused by your own country sending troops to facilitate a coup, and then you send your underlings to make sure you have golden toilets on your visit, then something is messed up. If you can't see that and you're downvoting me for it, congrats, you are the problem.
  - leroy_masochist 11y ago
    > If your job is to travel to another country to render aid because of conditions caused by your own country sending troops to facilitate a coup... One of these days we'll hold the Canadians accountable for their wanton coup-facilitation and unreasonable toilet-related demands.

ethbro 11y ago

The late Michael Hastings' The Operators was a good read if you find the sausage making process interesting. He has a strong viewpoint, but stories of Gen McChrystal throwing out ISAF functionaries from plush offices and closing officer bars at the Kabul ISAF headquarters were fairly humorous. There were overriding politics between superiors, but the irony is that McChrystal, any infeasible strategy aside, got thrown out for showing distain for the same wasteful, corrupt system that everyone else gripes about.

hackuser 11y ago
> McChrystal ... got thrown out for showing distain for the same wasteful, corrupt system that everyone else gripes about. OT: IIRC he resigned after he and his staff openly mocked to a journalist the President, VP and others in the chain of command, and their comments were published in Rolling Stone. That's not an effort to end corruption, it's insubordination, apparently widespread in his staff under his leadership, which itself is a form of corruption. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236
- ethbro 11y ago
  From the article (which is partially reproduced and fleshed out with additional chapters in the book) a lot of the mocking seemed to concern involvement: "Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn't go much better. 'It was a 10-minute photo op,' says an adviser to McChrystal. 'Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss [McChrystal] was pretty disappointed.'" And for what it's worth, when you're dealing with things like this: "In February, the day before the doomed offensive in Marja, McChrystal even drove over to the president's palace to get him to sign off on what would be the largest military operation of the year. Karzai's staff, however, insisted that the president was sleeping off a cold and could not be disturbed. After several hours of haggling, McChrystal finally enlisted the aid of Afghanistan's defense minister, who persuaded Karzai's people to wake the president from his nap." Then I'd probably be in a less than charitable mood concerning the entire enterprise. To repeat, they had to argue with the staff of the president of the country whose insurgency we were fighting that being involved in starting a long-planned and massive offensive was more important than a nap. (And that's not getting into the comments about drug use) Biden was exactly right, the entire thing was a cluster%^@# and a terrible idea to invest more in. But in the absence of a resolute US president who tells the military "No, you can't send in more troops"? Well, the military's going to do what it does: fight. And press for more fighting. PS: The amount of backstabbing between different military cliques, Congress, different cliques in the State Department, and the Executive staff was also mind boggling.
  - hackuser 11y ago
    > I'd probably be in a less than charitable mood concerning the entire enterprise. I don't blame him for his mood but I do for his actions. He's a general running a major operation; millions of lives and the welfare of nations depend on him; those are the responsibilities and stakes. He can't undermine the enterprise because he feels like complaining to a reporter.

greggman 11y ago

I assume you think that's a bad thing? If I had someone planning where I was going to stay I would tell them, put me anywhere that has a quiet comfortable bed and a clean private comfortable toilet. Maybe there's more to this story?

orbitingpluto 11y ago
Careful, your privilege is showing. edit: Seriously on the downvotes? If your job is to travel to another country to render aid because of conditions caused by your own country sending troops to facilitate a coup, and then you send your underlings to make sure you have golden toilets on your visit, then something is messed up. If you can't see that and you're downvoting me for it, congrats, you are the problem.
- leroy_masochist 11y ago
  > If your job is to travel to another country to render aid because of conditions caused by your own country sending troops to facilitate a coup... One of these days we'll hold the Canadians accountable for their wanton coup-facilitation and unreasonable toilet-related demands.