Shocked, Shocked

Notice: I made the following up. The real warning: that doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, and General Dempsey, head of the American military.

Obama, shaking his head, "Can you believe that Taliban, launching a coordinated offensive across Southern Afghanistan?"

Dempsey and Kerry, shaking their heads, "We're shocked, shocked."

Obama continuing: "And the Afghan army we trained so long and hard, barely holding on -- why they're afraid to leave their bases!"

Dempsey: "And we haven't even left Afghanistan yet!"

All three men shake their heads in unison, "We're shocked, shocked."

Kerry: "At least that's better than Iraq."

Obama: "How so?"

Kerry: "Well the army threw down their weapons and stripped down to their civies, but we've been gone for a couple of years there, at least."

Dempsey: "Still, who knew ISIS could just march into Mosul and take the city in hours?"

Obama and Kerry, nodding their heads: "We're shocked, shocked."

Obama: "And now they're marching onto Baghdad from two directions. . ."

Kerry: "And they took that oil refinery in Baiji . . ."

Dempsey: "And they look like they're going to capture Haditha Dam and cause massive flooding!"

Kerry: "Who could have figured that?"

All three men shake their heads: "We're shocked, shocked."

Obama: "General, didn't the military -- the generals in the field -- say we had trained the Iraqi military to a fare-the-well, and the Afghannis too?"

Dempsey: "That's what they told me!"

All three: "We're shocked, shocked."

Obama, "Oh well, at least the U.S. soccer team is better than the Germans."

Kerry (finally looking alarmed): "Well, not exactly. . . ."

The above meeting is fictitious. I think.

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Stanton Peele has been empowering people around addiction since writing, with Archie Brodsky, Love and Addiction in 1975. He has developed the on-line Life Process Program. His new book (written with Ilse Thompson) is Recover! Stop Thinking Like an Addict with The PERFECT Program.