Friday, September 14, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Some Thoughts on the Bush Administration
Our sinister Svengali vice president, Mr. Richard Bruce Cheney, promised us some time ago that “. . . the Iraqi dead-enders are in their last throes” . He has been faithfully adhering to his legendary MO: Lying to us big time! In an interview in Tokyo on February 21, 2007, he made the following startling statement in response to the planned pullout of British and Danish contingents from the coalition forces in Iraq: “. . . this is an affirmation of the fact that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well.”
The same ludicrous and mendacious spin and doublespeak were propagated all over the world by others in the Administration, such as Condi Rice; national security adviser Stephen Hadley; and various other White House aides. It got world-wide coverage and attention. especially since a number of these officials have been on foreign travel (Cheney around the world; Rice in Berlin; and Hadley in Brussels) and have been spouting off their mouths to journalists.
Cheney’s lie implies two false claims: (1) that the British have successfully pacified this region in Iraq and could, accordingly, go home; and (2) things in and around Basra are just hunky-dory and can be left to the devices of the Iraqis.
In point of fact, behind the secret curtain of the “upbeat good-news” spin on the drawdown of British troops, the White House considered it actually as a major blow to their interests because it will imply the need for additional U.S. forces beyond the current urge to surge 21,000 additional soldiers - a near fait accompli.
Since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam, British troops have been responsible chiefly for Iraq's four southernmost provinces, which are mainly Shi'ite and have been comparatively quieter than the mixed or mostly Sunni areas patrolled by our troops.
However, on closer examination, the British plan to withdraw turns out to be a plain ROUT rather than any iota of success. Despite their gallant efforts. the British have been unable to impose any order on this place. Actually, Mr. Blair was pressured by his field commanders to implement an immediate withdrawal of the British contingent from Iraq. Their exit has now been slowed as a result of the frenzied pleas from the Bush Administration.
What is actually going on in this region? Well, the four ungovernable Iraqi militias and the various defiant tribal leaders of Iraq's South have made the situation for the British untenable and intolerable. They realized their dire predicament some time ago. For example, they had to move the British Consulate General to the airport because they simply could not protect it in Basra. Every night, they have been pounded by deadly mortar and rocket fire at their bases.
They encountered some shocking situations there. For example, when militias blew up several British tanks in Basra, some hateful Iraqis poured gasoline on the desperate British tank crew members scrambling to escape from their burning vehicles – a horror scene straight out of Dante’s hell.
On Sunday, March 4, 2007 the news came from Basra that Iraqi special forces and British troops stormed the offices of an Iraqi government intelligence center in the southern city of Basra. British officials stated that they discovered about 30 prisoners there who had been tortured. What did the Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki, a conservative Shiite, have to say about this?
He condemned the raid as illegal and asked for a thorough investigation of the culprits. In his mind, the culprits were not regarded as the people who tortured the prisoners but the group who discovered them. Later on, it transpired that the jailers actuually were members of a Shi’ite death squad. Folks, al-Maliki is supposed to be our bosom buddy!
Later on, it turned out that the government-affiliated captors were members of a Shi’ite death squad! That’s probably why Maliki was so angry!
The British have tried reining in the depredation and chaos by raiding the core facilities of the militias. But this tactic failed miserably. The pugnacious militias and corrupt “government” police forces there are fighting murderous turf battles with each other as well as with the Iraqi government over oil smuggling and oil selling privileges and practices..
But even though the British contingent could not stem the internal chaos, they have, nonetheless, been playing a very significant strategic rôle there.
They have been providing reasonably good security escort services along the primary transit routes for vital truck supply convoys (fuel, ammunition, and food) traveling from Kuwait to the U.S. forward operating bases in the center and north of the country (especially in and around Baghdad and the dreadful Anbar province).
As the British are leaving us now, these transit routes will be exposed to the full capricious vengeance of Shi’ite militias, while our boys are sitting ducks in the Sunni Arab regions which, on any day, amounts to playing Russian-roulette.
In order for our troops to get the requisite provisions, the emerging security vacuum in the south must be promptly and effectively filled. And that means, of course, additional U.S. troops will need to be deployed there since the “Coalition of the Willing” is rapidly dwindling down to zero and the Iraqi forces are a feckless and unreliable crowd despite the training by our soldiers. In a million years, they will never stand up so that we can stand down.
This need to safeguard the supply routes from Kuwait to Baghdad via Basra is also extremely important for the Iraqi economy and government. Basra which, in prewar times, used to be an attractive and romantic city (home of Sinbad, the Sailor) is now a stronghold of Islamic fanaticism.
During last month, Al-Basrah Port exported roughly 1.6 million barrels of crude oil per day (some of it is now in our gas pumps in Oregon). This export constitutes the main revenue for the Iraqi government although a good part of the oil is siphoned off by militias and criminals, and sold on the black market (about $2 billion last year).
Not much revenue is being generated from the rich northern Iraqi oil fields at present because the pipeline throughput from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey, is being sabotaged almost every day. Therefore, the central government in Baghdad relies mainly on the revenue from Basra. It would clearly go bankrupt if Basra would descend into a state of complete anarchy.
The points of the above analysis evince more fundamental issues and questions:
· Why have we not yet chased out of office those witless, arrogant and moronic poltroons, Messrs Bush and Cheney, who by their very outrageous behavior and actions have abundantly earned the needed qualifications for impeachment under Article 2, Sec. 4, of our Constitution? Isn’t it quite clear to every American that they have committed high crimes and misdemeanors when they told monstrous lies to the American people and Congress in order to drag our nation into a gratuitous war. It brings any sensible and empathetic person to tears when he/she contemplates that the dry hot desert sands of Iraq have soaked up so much blood of our young and brave soldiers as well as that of innocent Iraqis. And it’s bound to soak up even more; and, like Cindy Sheehan rhetorically asks: “For what noble cause?’
· Why aren’t we horrified at BushCheney’s remarkable gift of the “inverse Midas touch” in everything they undertake, probably because their decisions are made on “gut feelings”, rather than reality-based thinking? And we surely know what’s in everyone’s gut!
· What on God’s earth are we still doing in the meat grinder Iraq for nearly as long as in WW II?
· Why is Mr. Bush allowed to spend our tax monies like a drunken sailor, mainly for war and war-mongering?
· Why is Mr Bush allowed to pile up such an incredibly enormous national debt – giving our main creditor, China, a most potent leverage at manipulating our economy as we saw it so clearly in our recent stock market plunge?
· Why isn’t the Bush administration attempting to restore our prestige in the world, rather than consistenly destroying our good reputation globally by acts which clearly violate all criteria of the comity of nations?
· Why does the administration ask us to “support our troops” when, as they do come home seriously maimed, the same rah-rah pseudopatriots cynically deprive them of proper care and sanitary hospitals? Is it not shameful that we expose these wounded GIs to substandard and squalid treatment facilities (contaminated with black mold) and appoint privatized, for-profit outfits to take care of them.
· Why is Mr. Bush so pathologically obsessed anyhow with privatization for health care and Social Security whereas most countries in Europe have been peacefully enjoying universal health care for years (Germany since 1882) without corporate greed being involved?
· Why are we cutting funds for health care; Medicaid; education; poverty alleviation; and other beneficial and worthwhile projects (even 4-H) and instead pouring zillions of dollars into making more advanced nuclear bombs, more lethal cluster munitions, and better concealed land mines;
· Why does the Bush/Cheney crowd, in their deluded mindset and grandiose hubris still seriously consider a war with Iran ( . . .all options are on the table!)? Remember when, on May 1, 2003 Mr. Bush was prancing around in a flyerboy’s suit on the deck of the aircraft carrier “USS Abraham Lincoln” declaring cockily “Mission Accomplished"; and when, on July 2, 2003, he swaggeringly swung this cowboy-syntax gauntlet at the Iraqi resistance: "There are some who, uh, feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: “Bring 'em on! We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation. “
· Why is it that no one seems to be stopping this madman from provoking another war, whose consequences would foreseeably lead to a cataclysm on a scale drastically more catastrophic than the Iraq war?
· Why don’t people ask what danger this administartion has still up its sleeve for our country?
· Why are we disturbed over Iran’s uranium enrichment program when we deliver to India humongous amounts of enriched nuclear-grade fissile materials?
· Why do we let Israel do whatever they want to in their secret nuclear program? Israel has been happily enriching uranium since the 1960’s and has more than 400 thermonuclear and/or fission bombs in its current arsenal without IAE supervision, without a whisper of protest from the U.S and our media? We are actually looking away delberately from Dimona (the place where the Israelis enrich uranium?
· Why do we support an Iraqi government which works hand in glove with the mullahs in Iran and takes advice and monies from them?
· Everything Bush&Cheney have been doing is to concentrate power in their own hands irrespective of Constitutional Constraints. Bush has joked three times about how much he'd rather be a dictator than a president. But In actual fact, these "I-is-king" statements actually capture the spirit of the man.
The same ludicrous and mendacious spin and doublespeak were propagated all over the world by others in the Administration, such as Condi Rice; national security adviser Stephen Hadley; and various other White House aides. It got world-wide coverage and attention. especially since a number of these officials have been on foreign travel (Cheney around the world; Rice in Berlin; and Hadley in Brussels) and have been spouting off their mouths to journalists.
Cheney’s lie implies two false claims: (1) that the British have successfully pacified this region in Iraq and could, accordingly, go home; and (2) things in and around Basra are just hunky-dory and can be left to the devices of the Iraqis.
In point of fact, behind the secret curtain of the “upbeat good-news” spin on the drawdown of British troops, the White House considered it actually as a major blow to their interests because it will imply the need for additional U.S. forces beyond the current urge to surge 21,000 additional soldiers - a near fait accompli.
Since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam, British troops have been responsible chiefly for Iraq's four southernmost provinces, which are mainly Shi'ite and have been comparatively quieter than the mixed or mostly Sunni areas patrolled by our troops.
However, on closer examination, the British plan to withdraw turns out to be a plain ROUT rather than any iota of success. Despite their gallant efforts. the British have been unable to impose any order on this place. Actually, Mr. Blair was pressured by his field commanders to implement an immediate withdrawal of the British contingent from Iraq. Their exit has now been slowed as a result of the frenzied pleas from the Bush Administration.
What is actually going on in this region? Well, the four ungovernable Iraqi militias and the various defiant tribal leaders of Iraq's South have made the situation for the British untenable and intolerable. They realized their dire predicament some time ago. For example, they had to move the British Consulate General to the airport because they simply could not protect it in Basra. Every night, they have been pounded by deadly mortar and rocket fire at their bases.
They encountered some shocking situations there. For example, when militias blew up several British tanks in Basra, some hateful Iraqis poured gasoline on the desperate British tank crew members scrambling to escape from their burning vehicles – a horror scene straight out of Dante’s hell.
On Sunday, March 4, 2007 the news came from Basra that Iraqi special forces and British troops stormed the offices of an Iraqi government intelligence center in the southern city of Basra. British officials stated that they discovered about 30 prisoners there who had been tortured. What did the Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki, a conservative Shiite, have to say about this?
He condemned the raid as illegal and asked for a thorough investigation of the culprits. In his mind, the culprits were not regarded as the people who tortured the prisoners but the group who discovered them. Later on, it transpired that the jailers actuually were members of a Shi’ite death squad. Folks, al-Maliki is supposed to be our bosom buddy!
Later on, it turned out that the government-affiliated captors were members of a Shi’ite death squad! That’s probably why Maliki was so angry!
The British have tried reining in the depredation and chaos by raiding the core facilities of the militias. But this tactic failed miserably. The pugnacious militias and corrupt “government” police forces there are fighting murderous turf battles with each other as well as with the Iraqi government over oil smuggling and oil selling privileges and practices..
But even though the British contingent could not stem the internal chaos, they have, nonetheless, been playing a very significant strategic rôle there.
They have been providing reasonably good security escort services along the primary transit routes for vital truck supply convoys (fuel, ammunition, and food) traveling from Kuwait to the U.S. forward operating bases in the center and north of the country (especially in and around Baghdad and the dreadful Anbar province).
As the British are leaving us now, these transit routes will be exposed to the full capricious vengeance of Shi’ite militias, while our boys are sitting ducks in the Sunni Arab regions which, on any day, amounts to playing Russian-roulette.
In order for our troops to get the requisite provisions, the emerging security vacuum in the south must be promptly and effectively filled. And that means, of course, additional U.S. troops will need to be deployed there since the “Coalition of the Willing” is rapidly dwindling down to zero and the Iraqi forces are a feckless and unreliable crowd despite the training by our soldiers. In a million years, they will never stand up so that we can stand down.
This need to safeguard the supply routes from Kuwait to Baghdad via Basra is also extremely important for the Iraqi economy and government. Basra which, in prewar times, used to be an attractive and romantic city (home of Sinbad, the Sailor) is now a stronghold of Islamic fanaticism.
During last month, Al-Basrah Port exported roughly 1.6 million barrels of crude oil per day (some of it is now in our gas pumps in Oregon). This export constitutes the main revenue for the Iraqi government although a good part of the oil is siphoned off by militias and criminals, and sold on the black market (about $2 billion last year).
Not much revenue is being generated from the rich northern Iraqi oil fields at present because the pipeline throughput from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey, is being sabotaged almost every day. Therefore, the central government in Baghdad relies mainly on the revenue from Basra. It would clearly go bankrupt if Basra would descend into a state of complete anarchy.
The points of the above analysis evince more fundamental issues and questions:
· Why have we not yet chased out of office those witless, arrogant and moronic poltroons, Messrs Bush and Cheney, who by their very outrageous behavior and actions have abundantly earned the needed qualifications for impeachment under Article 2, Sec. 4, of our Constitution? Isn’t it quite clear to every American that they have committed high crimes and misdemeanors when they told monstrous lies to the American people and Congress in order to drag our nation into a gratuitous war. It brings any sensible and empathetic person to tears when he/she contemplates that the dry hot desert sands of Iraq have soaked up so much blood of our young and brave soldiers as well as that of innocent Iraqis. And it’s bound to soak up even more; and, like Cindy Sheehan rhetorically asks: “For what noble cause?’
· Why aren’t we horrified at BushCheney’s remarkable gift of the “inverse Midas touch” in everything they undertake, probably because their decisions are made on “gut feelings”, rather than reality-based thinking? And we surely know what’s in everyone’s gut!
· What on God’s earth are we still doing in the meat grinder Iraq for nearly as long as in WW II?
· Why is Mr. Bush allowed to spend our tax monies like a drunken sailor, mainly for war and war-mongering?
· Why is Mr Bush allowed to pile up such an incredibly enormous national debt – giving our main creditor, China, a most potent leverage at manipulating our economy as we saw it so clearly in our recent stock market plunge?
· Why isn’t the Bush administration attempting to restore our prestige in the world, rather than consistenly destroying our good reputation globally by acts which clearly violate all criteria of the comity of nations?
· Why does the administration ask us to “support our troops” when, as they do come home seriously maimed, the same rah-rah pseudopatriots cynically deprive them of proper care and sanitary hospitals? Is it not shameful that we expose these wounded GIs to substandard and squalid treatment facilities (contaminated with black mold) and appoint privatized, for-profit outfits to take care of them.
· Why is Mr. Bush so pathologically obsessed anyhow with privatization for health care and Social Security whereas most countries in Europe have been peacefully enjoying universal health care for years (Germany since 1882) without corporate greed being involved?
· Why are we cutting funds for health care; Medicaid; education; poverty alleviation; and other beneficial and worthwhile projects (even 4-H) and instead pouring zillions of dollars into making more advanced nuclear bombs, more lethal cluster munitions, and better concealed land mines;
· Why does the Bush/Cheney crowd, in their deluded mindset and grandiose hubris still seriously consider a war with Iran ( . . .all options are on the table!)? Remember when, on May 1, 2003 Mr. Bush was prancing around in a flyerboy’s suit on the deck of the aircraft carrier “USS Abraham Lincoln” declaring cockily “Mission Accomplished"; and when, on July 2, 2003, he swaggeringly swung this cowboy-syntax gauntlet at the Iraqi resistance: "There are some who, uh, feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: “Bring 'em on! We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation. “
· Why is it that no one seems to be stopping this madman from provoking another war, whose consequences would foreseeably lead to a cataclysm on a scale drastically more catastrophic than the Iraq war?
· Why don’t people ask what danger this administartion has still up its sleeve for our country?
· Why are we disturbed over Iran’s uranium enrichment program when we deliver to India humongous amounts of enriched nuclear-grade fissile materials?
· Why do we let Israel do whatever they want to in their secret nuclear program? Israel has been happily enriching uranium since the 1960’s and has more than 400 thermonuclear and/or fission bombs in its current arsenal without IAE supervision, without a whisper of protest from the U.S and our media? We are actually looking away delberately from Dimona (the place where the Israelis enrich uranium?
· Why do we support an Iraqi government which works hand in glove with the mullahs in Iran and takes advice and monies from them?
· Everything Bush&Cheney have been doing is to concentrate power in their own hands irrespective of Constitutional Constraints. Bush has joked three times about how much he'd rather be a dictator than a president. But In actual fact, these "I-is-king" statements actually capture the spirit of the man.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)