The Iraq Disgrace and the Coming Spin
I didn't vote for Bush. Twice.
Yet when the Iraq occupation began, I had naively thought that it might be a good thing. Not so much for the USA but rather for the Iraqi people and the Mid-East in general. I thought that if a Secular Democracy arose it would provide a positive example in that religiously insane region. I also believed and still do that Nuclear Proliferation is an immense long-term threat to our planet that must be taken with the greatest seriousness. I think many people don't fathom the implications of nuclear technology post Cold War. I fear the Cold War was just a mild sampling of what is to come.
But let me get back to Bush. I always recoiled when I heard him speak. It is important that the most powerful person in the world be incredibly intelligent and, just as importantly, incredibly rational. Bush is neither. He's rich and connected. That's all. Unfortunately, by invoking the Jesus word, he was able to hypnotize the conservative Christian element in this country into believing he would not only be Commander in Chief but also Minister in Chief. But as others have so rightly pointed out, conservative Christians seem to be easily manipulated and intoxicated by power and authority.
Quickly it became apparent that Bush and his minions were incompetent and arrogant. It became apparent that many Americans have a childish view of the world and an overly mythologized view of our military. Mainstream corporate media seems to have only encouraged this broadly speaking, especially the popular Fox News Channel which can easily be described as nothing less than a Republican Propaganda Machine. Scary.
And so, every week, I read and watch and shake my head as the Pentagon releases the names of another dozen or so young men and women blown to smithereens or horrifically maimed. Simply shameful, despicable, immoral. Denials and wishful thinking aside, most have died for nothing. Nothing.
And yet, the ridiculous excuse making continues. We hear some saying things like "fight them there so we don't fight them here" or "send more troops" or "freedom isn't free" or "the media only shows the bad" or "defeatists".
While Iraq has become a great gift to Al-Qaeda's worldwide recruiting efforts, it is well known that most of the violence in Iraq is committed by Iraqis unaffiliated with Jihad. As Iraq is in chaos, beyond Civil War, sending more troops can only suppress the conflicts in that country. And more troops will only give the Insurgents/Resistance more targets for sniping. We are, after all, foreigners occupying their country.
As for freedom, Iraqis created a constitution and voted. They, like other countries in the Mid-East, are electing people who are at odds with American interests. Hmmmm. So Democracy isn't always the answer to complicated conflicts between warring religiously hysterical irrational ethnic groups unleashed by a power vacuum resulting from a lack of planning and leadership on the part of the Bush Administration and the silenced, fired or cowed military leaders under Rumsfeld.
Furthermore, the death of American soldiers in Iraq does not secure my freedom or yours one iota. And at this point, it's not securing that of the Iraqis. Ironically, the death of so many American soldiers likely has only made it more difficult for Bush and the NeoCons to stop the madness. How can they live with themselves if they can't spin this failed pre-emptive war as a success on some level? And until they figure out how to spin a success out of what is obviously not, they will continue to allow the young soldiers to die of yet more IED's, snipers and inadequate armor.
Rick Santorum ended his arrogant Senate career by lambasting the media for reporting that people die in war and for choosing to make horrific mass suicide bombings more newsworthy than a few schools getting new desks or a fresh coat of paint. Give me a break. Only the Rush Limbaugh set buy into that kind of irresponsible thinking. The job of journalism is to report the truth, to report what the government will not report, to expose reality. Sadly, many people prefer childlike simplistic world views which make no room for reality or facts. The truth is, the suffering and dying in Iraq is likely underreported.
And to all those who call my assessment defeatist, I can only counter that anything less than full admission of defeat and failure in Iraq when assessing the way forward is deluded irresponsible insanity. It is a kind of insane denial like that of a father who insists his family not flee from their home as it's being fully engulfed in flames but rather remain and fight it. There comes a point when the flames are too hot, too close, a point when to remain would be irresponsible, insane.
Our government with the consent of a large portion of its citizenry, consented to invade Iraq. In essence, like Colin Powell warned: we broke it; it's our mess to clean up. But that is too simple. What we have unleashed or uncovered or allowed to spiral out of control is now so bad that we are seemingly powerless bystanders. Unfortunately, most of those bystanders are American soldiers truly literally caught in the cross fire. What Bush has ignited in the Mid-East may be unstoppable now. He may have opened Pandora's Box there so to speak. And if it proves true, as it seems to be, that we are no longer able to affect any sort of positive change over there including containing a wider regional conflict, we must remove ourselves and let that region explode.
Not a single additional soldier should die for what has become and has been frequently described as one of the most catastrophic blunders in the history of American foreign policy. To all those who voted for Bush and especially to those who voted for Bush twice the word fool clearly comes to mind.
So, we await the coming "victory" spin that Bush and the NeoCons are now frantically testing out on Fox. They will have their "victory" of course but it will be even less meaningful than was their "mission accomplished".
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