Bush Plan for Iraq Requests More Troops and More Jobs
We let them do it: New Congress must be forced to end Iraq nightmare
The president of the United States does not have the sense God gave a duck - so it’s up to us. You and me, Bubba. I don’t know why Bush is just standing there like a frozen rabbit, but it’s time we found out. The fact is WE have to do something about it. This country is being torn apart by an evil and unnecessary war, and it has to be stopped NOW. This war is being prosecuted in our names, with our money, with our blood, against our will. Polls consistently show that less than 30 percent of the people want to maintain current troop levels. It is obscene and wrong for the president to go against the people in this fashion. And it’s doubly wrong for him to send 20,0000 more soldiers into this hellhole, as he reportedly will announce next week.
Of course, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader hasn’t officially announced his plan for “The Way Forward” © in Iraq. Given that nothing comes out of this White House that isn’t stage-managed (and thoroughly propagandized for our protection) to the nth degree, it would seem we already have a pretty good idea of what to expect. If the strategically-placed leaks/trial balloons floated from “unnamed senior Administration officials” are to be believed, it looks as if we’re headed towards an escalation of the clusterf—k war in Iraq.
The numbers, the time frame, and the details involved remain to be disclosed, but what I object to immediately is the intellectual dishonesty inherent in referring to an increase in troop levels in Iraq as a “surge”. Of course, no one in the Administration or on the right is going to call this exactly what it is- an escalation of our military involvement in Iraq. What guarantee do we have that this so-called “temporary surge” in troop levels will not be converted by events on the ground into a long-term involvement of greater numbers of our sons and daughters? Yet more lives will be senselessly sacrficed so that Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader can maintain the status quo just long enough to hand the clusterf—k war over to his successor.
It’s all about legacy-building, eh?
What happened to the nation that never tortured? The nation that wasn’t supposed to start wars of choice? The nation that respected human rights and life? A nation that from the beginning was against tyranny? Where have we gone? How did we let these people take us there? How did we let them fool us?
It’s a monstrous idea to put people in prison and keep them there. Since 1215, civil authorities have been obligated to tell people with what they are charged if they’re arrested. This administration has done away with rights first enshrined in the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago, and we’ve let them do it.
We’ve allowed our government to incarcerate American citizens indefinitely and without access to counsel (see Padilla, Jose). Yep, all you have to do is to attach the “terrorist” label, and Voila!!, instant denial of all Constitutional rights, habeas corpus, the right to a speedy trial, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and just about anything else that is the hallmark of the rule of law in this country. And this is only referring to American citizens. One need look no farther than Guantanamo Bay to see just what is being done to foreign nationals in the name of Homeland Security. This is something to be proud of?
[L]et’s take a step back and note, for example, that before the war one of the architects of the entire policy, Paul Wolfowitz, testified to Congress that Iraq had no history of ethnic strife. Sectarian and ethnic strife is a part of the region. And the region is full of examples of Western colonial powers trying to occupy countries, take their resources and take over the administration of their people - and failing.
The sectarian bloodbath we see daily completely refutes Wolfowitz. And now Bush has given him the World Bank to run. Wonder what he’ll do there.
One shudders to think of the possibilities. Wolfowitz was one of the neoCon thugs willing to ignore objective reality in the effort to prosecute the war in Iraq. Wolfowitz wanted to remake the Middle East, and he was convinced that the aftermath of the war would take care of itself once Iraqis were freed from the yoke of Saddam Hussein and able to make their own decisions. To Wolfowitz’ way of thinking, once freed, Iraqis would be so grateful for the opportunity to chart their own course that they’d break the world land speed record in establishing representative, American-style democracy and open markets.
Right…so how’s that democracy thing working out for you??
And let’s keep in mind that when the Army arrived in Baghdad, we, the television viewers, watched footage of a bunch of enraged and joyous Iraqis pulling down the statue of Saddam Hussein, their repulsive dictator, in Firdos Square. Only one thing was wrong. The event was staged. Taking down the statue was instigated by a Marine colonel, and a PSYOP (psychological operations) unit made it appear to be a spontaneous show of Iraqi joy.
When we later saw the whole square where the statue was located, only 30 to 40 people were there (U.S. soldiers, press and some Iraqis — and one of several U.S. tanks present pulled the statue down with a cable). We, the television viewers, saw the square being presented as though the people of Iraq had gone into a frenzy, mobbed the square and spontaneously pulled down the statue. Fake images and claims have been a part of this fiasco from the beginning.
There’s little about the clusterf—k war in Iraq that is as it was sold to the American sheeple. From Day One, it’s been about propaganda and talking points- witness the constant, ever-evolving search for a new catchphrase- “WMDs”, “staying the course”, etc. At no point has Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader (or anyone else in this Administration) had the balls to be honest with us, to tell us what’s actually happening in Iraq. An incurious observer might think that Iraq was just one big freedom-lovin’, terrorist-killin’, Our-Way-of-Life-protectin’ cakewalk.
And we’ve allowed it to happen….
STILL GLAD YOU VOTED REPUBLICAN??
