St. GW Bush and His Dragons

St. George slaying a dragon is just a too tempting metaphor to pass up when it comes to our President GW Bush. The dragon personifies evil and, born again George is frantically trying to slaughter it. For GW Bush, evil comes in reappearing, vaporizing forms: alcohol, liberals, Bin Laden, Saddam, terrorists, bird flu and Beelzebub. His task never can be completed - so much evil - so little time...

Why the president has this obvious quirk - continuously to fight all demons everywhere - is better left to psychoanalysts who study the patient's childhood. With Mr. Bush in the White house, his messianic conduct to rid the world of evil becomes every American's affair, as the president dumps the US treasure and blood in hot pursuit of his fixation.

There seems to be no brake on his foolishness - Republican redstaters worship him... Most of his public meetings turn into some half-baked evangelist tent ceremony without the snake handlers. With very few exceptions, the Democrats roll over. Most voted for the Iraq war and do not have the guts to admit they were deceived or stupid. Like the Republican majority, the Democrats sit in the lap of the Israel Lobby - and that gang wants wants the war to go on endlessly. Insecurity is an Israeli passion turned into a disease. If the war does not continue, the Israeli fall back position is to station US troops in Iraqi permanently, as some sort of amorphous barrier to an Arab onslaught.

A few days ago Mr. Bush announced that the US intends to station troops in Iraq permanently. That most certainly will make the Israelis happy for awhile, but it will make the Jihadists absolutely euphoric. A similar basing move was already tried in Saudi Arabia and it blew up in our faces - remember Kobart Towers? One thing that came out of the 9/11 investigation was that Bin Laden galvanized recruits for his 9/11 attacks based on the fact US infidels squatted on sacred Islamic soil - how Bush could consent to such a dopey strategic move again with this historical precedent is as mystifying as the invasion of Iraq. Maybe his old personality defect overwhelmed him again. One thing for certain is that an American base on Arab land presents a staked goat for the Jihadists and will put more wind in the anti-American Islamic sails...

Some other shoes that Bush dropped at his recent press conference is that he will leave the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to next American president. Is that so? Also he will leave repayment of deficit to the next president too... Is that so? If all this is so, why in the hell do American people need GW Bush to strap hang on the American bus that he is paid to drive?

Bush's conduct in this case is reprehensible - it is a denial of his responsibility as President for fixing damaging events he fostered. He took us to war - spent the dollars and blood, and now wants to walk away - have someone else clean up his mess. He has a history of not finishing his job and this is just another example. The American people should be enraged at his behavior.

Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned sour. Blaming the media for his dilemma, he recites platitudes on democracy as a solution. And he does not really know what to do. As his polls seriously plummet, the American people show declining confidence in his judgement. He has a failed presidency and it is still has about three years to go. Like the Dubai port fiasco, from now on, the congressional check and balance should be applied very strictly to his conduct... he is certainly now a desperate man, and even when he was not, always recklessly unpredictable.

St. George set out to slay the evil dragon, but the dragon ate him instead... Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret

GW Bush's Blue Ribbon Panel on Iraq

Save your money Mr. President. Forget the smoke screen Blue Ribbon panel composed of has beens to make recommendations on how to save your skin in Iraq. Here are my modest recommendations at no charge.

--Reassign top General officers in Iraq and CENTCOM to desk jobs or encourage them to retire. Assign military leadership that can fight insurgent wars without killing civilians, and eschews large scale search and destroy operations that stir up the territory, infuriate the populations and impart a false sense of progress in the press.

--No more Fallujahs.

--No More Abu Gharibs

--No more "Bring Em on" misguided, moronic, presidential incitement of the insurgency.

Control security contractors paid by US firms with US appropriated money or ban them from Iraqi operations--no more cowboys running loose that cause problems for the command.

--Rescind the Medal of Freedom to screwups like Gen Franks, Slam Dunk Tenet, and hapless Bremer... Stop rewarding incompetence.

--Pull national security clearances on all neo conservatives Suggest they take work as ball boys or sit on milk crates to check passes at industrial complexes.

--Insist Mr Wolfowitz surrender his American citizenship--and just satisfy himself as an Israeli citizen.

-- Fire Rumsfeld -- Fire Rumsfeld -- Fire Rumsfeld. If you fail to do this, expect more military disasters.

--Keep Condoleezza out of contact with Islamic people. She is part of the problem. At NSC, up to her eye balls in deceit, she acted as a midwife for the invasion of Iraq. She badly muddled the affairs in Gaza. Recently in Islamabad, she hectored our besieged Pakistani pal Musarraf on democracy -- the lady has to be qualified for something -- it is just not national security policy formulation or diplomacy...

--Arrest Chalibi. Issue oneway tickets to the exiled Iraqis from London, to return. These US sponsored carpet baggers, despised by Iraqis, create more turmoil than stability as they grab for power to enrich themselves and families.

--President GW Bush, please do not travel outside the US borders. You will just complicate things even more.

--Have IRS investigate the Dubai Carlyle Group and Halliburton--no more government contracts to Halliburton or its subsidiaries.

--Have VEEP Cheney retire for medical reasons -- he has lost his groove and aim.

--No more funds especially appropriated to Department of Defense without accountability.

-- US foreign aid to Arabs and Israel to be balanced -- no weapons or funds to Israel unless it returns to 1967 borders

--Priorities in Iraq -- stability, Law and Order, functioning water and power systems, fuel, roads and airfields -- forget about the democracy. The only Iraqis who salute the concept are the sycophant carpet baggers from London.

Appoint Representative Murtha to draft troop withdrawal plan for immediate US troop redeployment from Iraq and implement it.

Give up the idea of permanent US bases in Iraq -- Stop pouring cement in US Iraqi bases. Order Gen Abizaid to announce this intention loud and clear -- there is good old Kuwait for such mindless basing -- it should stay loyal to US until the dollar collapses or its guest workers take over.

Make oil deals with tribes or militias in Iraq -- forget about the inept, shattered, US created central government..... the latest figure for development of Iraqi oil fields is 30 billion dollars of which 10 billion realistically should be earmarked for bribes.

There is no doubt GW Bush will ignore my blue ribbon recommendations for Iraq -- His blue ribbon panel will make ambiguous recommendations, compromises forged by political haggling to protect various political and economic interests like the 9/11 commission before it, and it too will be ignored as GW Bush tries to hold Iraq by his finger nails to avoid official defeat during his presidential term. Colonel RE Bartos USA Ret

Wheel of Fortune Spins Against GW Bush

Wheel of fortune turns for GW Bush. As it spins, the American people are taken for the ride - that ride right now is plummeting downward.

Pictured Tarot card, the wheel of fortune, projects two figures - a devil on the left and the Egyptian god dog Anubis the right - the figure on the right presages good fortune as the devil on the left represents the opposite ... and with the devil is where unfortunately the USA finds itself today.

Apologists for "Bring em on GW Bush" argue he is a victim of uncontrollable events. This is of course BALONEY- if they believe that why not accept the ancient Chinese concept of the RIGHT OF HEAVEN, i.e., when the nation is beset by war, famine, drought, fire, floods, or bird flu, just remove the emperor, because the gods regard him with contempt.

President Bush has spun his own rope on which he is hanging. He cannot even blame his Republican congress for his present stew. As a matter of fact, it helped him make the rope and followed him into the abyss..

Deleterious relations with the Chinese were set when GWB's knees buckled as the Chinese forced down and looted a US recon aircraft early in his administration. He was caught flatfooted by al - Queda 9/11. He inflicted a mortal wound on himself with his foolish invasion of Iraq. Blew his opportunity to kill Taliban Omar and Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Missed an opportunity to unseat the Venezuelan Chavez in 2002. Welcomed the Mexican Fox to violate US borders to the tune of 12 million illegal aliens. Permitted the peace process to flounder in Palestine/Israeli conflict. North Korea is having a good time firing up graded missiles that one day will carry nuclear warheads. Meanwhile, economically, deficits for the US are out of control...with Balance of payments enormously favor overseas countries. As a result, foreigners are buying US infrastructure at bargain prices with cheap money. Bush's ineptitude to come to grips with the Katrina disaster haunts him even today

It is not as if things cannot get worse. VEEP Cheney tossed raw meat before the Israeli lobby recently indicating the US will not permit Iran to have nuclear weapons, though Israel may possess them. The Iranian UN representative, undismayed, responded with "let the ball roll ".--- A few days later Representative Murtha scoffed at Cheney, stating that that US military forces are broken and can barely handle what is on their plate today--equipment worn out, recruitment down, military hospitals full of wounded, and desertion rates up.

Civil war in Iraq is alive and well and intensifying despite the fact Rumsfeld denies it - by now the American people should catch on---Whatever Rumsfeld says, the truth is opposite. Perhaps Rumsfeld is waiting for the sides in Iraq to don blue and gray uniforms before he recognizes a civil war there.

Our SecState Rice dutifully chimed in a few days after Cheney to announce that Iran is the worlds biggest terrorist -Condoleeezza, what happened to Bin Laden? Did he vanish into Aladdin's lamp? It is this kind of pandering to the Israeli lobby that makes US foreign policy almost farcical.

There is one ray of hope... The congress has forced GW Bush to cancel the sale of six east coast US ports to rich Arab sheiks--apparently the sheiks could buy many leading Republicans and Democrats, but not all of congress--about 70% of the Americans were against the sale - and many congressman are up for election soon, so this public outcry was sobering for them, and they reluctantly turned against those who regularly buy them lunch.

Generals Franks, Pace, and Abizaid were formed into a high kicking chorus line by the Bush administration to support the sale to the Dubai sheiks - I am not certain what the generals know about commercial US port security, but their unabashed public approval of the sale was over the top - that United Emirate ports are important strategically to US operations in the Gulf is unquestionable, but they were not in jeopardy - what is questionable is that the Generals appeared to sell themselves to the company store in what turned out clearly to be a political issue -to make matters worse while the generals were dancing to the Administration's tune, GWB pulled the rug out, surprisingly cut a deal to cancel the sale, making them look foolish.

Generals are political animals, or they would not be generals . Normally, their politics are confined to the Department of Defense grids. In this case, they stepped out of the boundaries and rolled in the tar pit with elected officials, soiling their uniforms.

Congress took the ball away from the president and cleaned the Dubai mess up - some fat cats lost money, had a stick poked in their wheel. But the US should be a little safer. As a result the wheel of fortune moved an inch in favor of the US--Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret .

Texas Traveler GW Bush

When GW Bush journeys outside the US borders, he usually provides an unintended spectacle that either makes you cringe, cry or laugh--like some wines, the man does not travel well.

It may be that his affected, hick, Texas style, which projects him so well in the red states, has the opposite effect when he is in rich cultural European or exotic Asian settings. Remember, one time at a press conference with the Frenchman Chirac, after bungling a question badly, GWB explained, apropos of nothing, that he was from Texas-- as if anyone cared--

For the record, there are masses of sophisticated, erudite Texans who can hold their own anywhere in the world with panache. GW Bush is not one of them.. It is, however, a sad fact that the Texans who end up in the White House are not in this aggregate--recall LBJ and his gall bladder scar, who dangled his pet beagle by the ears? Outside the US, GW Bush always appears uncomfortable--like a cow with a saddle.

As with Texan LBJ, who was suffocated by the Vietnam War, GW Bush is dying politically, strangled by his Iraq War.

For a US president to visit Afghanistan, Pakistan and India at this moment in history was like riding a rocket into Hell. His presence in Pakistan triggered the death of one US diplomat and over 140 killed on the Pakistan- Afghan border. In India there were riots, but less than a dozen were killed. You have to ask yourself if this trip was really necessary. GW Bush got a momentary respite from his Dubai port scandal; the Indians got some vague nuclear power technology transfers; and the Pakistanis were told to be more democratic----hopefully Bush promised Musharraf a "get out jail free pass'' (a la Otto Skorzeny rescue) and a secluded place on the Maryland shore for retirement. As for our Poppy King Karzai in Afghanistan, uncertain what was accomplished-some hand holding. One thing for certain, Karzai blamed Musharraf for his troubles, and that certainly upset the Pakistani hetman who afterwards went on CNN to complain about the Afghan leader--a diplomatic net minus for the US during the trip. Condoleezza seems always looking for love in all the wrong places.

It is inconceivable that Bush publicly harangued the Pakistani chieftain on democracy... Even the dumbest White House staffer knows that the Pakistanis would elect Bin Laden president, if they were democratically allowed-it was as if the Administration was blind to the disastrous, democratic results of elections in the Palestine Authority and Iraq.

I have not been able to reconcile GW Bush's willingness to transfer nuclear technology and materials to India, a country that has not signed the nuclear proliferation treaty, but resists the transfers to Iran, a country that signed the treaty. If this is an example of realpolitik, let's start using it across the board. India has never been a friend of the US--at best it has been Third World --neutral . During the Cold War, India was a KGB darling and bent to the Soviet Union. You can bet some of those connections still exist . As far as providing technology to India, it may provide short term advantages to US business, but it is long term economic suicide, as this technology will be reproduced, using cheap labor and marketed worldwide.

President Bush, please stay home. And by the way, Mr. Bush, Karzai does not raise poppies for poppy seeds to make cakes. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret

Reaping His Harvest of Incompetence-GW Bush

There is a scandal a week for GW Bush. By this time even his Red Staters have to fret with chagrin. It is not that the President is out of touch. He pops up every day on TV painfully trying to explain his rolling incompetence. His omnipresence in the face of serial disasters simply enforces the reality that he can not do the job.

There is a reasonable expectation by the American people that The President, given the enormous resources at hand, should stay on top of the game. He does not. He is down to a 34% approval rate by the American people. If he keeps slipping, about the only place he will be able to place his presidential library will be in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.

Economically, he has the largest deficit in the country's history . His record 750 billion balance of payments with other nations greatly favors foreign countries, and the gap grows yearly. He does not stand in the way of out sourcing US industries. The US auto industry is shot. No serious textile and shoe industries now exist in the US. Steel is in jeopardy as it can not compete with foreign subsidized steel industries. The Chinese refuse to revalue their currency, flooding the US market with artificially cheap goods. GWBush apparently loves to sell US infrastructure industries to foreign countries. His latest effort to sell the operational control of six US ports to an Arab corporation woke America up with a gasp.

Bush's lame excuse that failure to sell the facilities to a fat cat Arab Sheikdom is that, it would send the wrong signals to the Arab street. If he wants to send the right message, try withdrawing troops from Iraq or put the unbalanced US support of Israel in a proper perspective. As far as the United Arab Emirates, he has just picked up another flabby, unpopular, tribal country to defend along with Israel in the Middle East.

About turning over US ports to the Arabs to control, remember that United Arab Emirates is surrounded by countries that produce radical Islamists--the temptation will always be to do business with them as the Emirates have done in the past--the country may have modern facilities, but its religion remains rooted in that old time Islam. Apart from the Administration, the frightening thing is that Jimmy Carter, Madeline Albright, and Viagra Bob Dole approve the sale. To make it even scarier, JCS General Pace and former CENTCOM Commander General Franks support the deal--these two generals have never been right about the Middle East-- thy are two mindless rubber stamps for the Bush Administration and bear responsibility for the current chaos in Iraq--under no circumstances trust civilian and military US elites on this one. Evidence already exists the issue is soaked with lobbyists money.

Bush's foreign policy borders on insanity. His response to 9/11 involved him in an elective war in Iraq that he is badly losing. His focus on Iraq dulled his strike on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Bin Laden has again slowly strengthened his hold on the region. His policy with Latin America is in shambles--the Mexican border is unprotected, because Bush believes it is a good source of stoop labor--Chavez, Castro and Morales have developed into the Three Musketeers sticking it to to Bush and have become champions with resources of the Leftists all over Latin America. Bush's China policy is an open door to subversion and economic ruin for America. Hamas control of Gaza was another example of an American and Israeli promoted disaster--Iran has offered to pick up the pieces by financing the newly elected Hamas government.

Recent events in Iraq have made it clear that the civil war has escalated seriously. Thirteen hundred Iraqis have been killed in the last week.. In addition to the major Shiite mosque at Samara, hundreds of other mosques in Iraq have been attacked . Slaughter of Iraqis continues as the US hopelessly pleads for a government of unity. Incredibly, Bush has threatened to withdraw US troops if unity is not achieved by the Iraqis. Some threat! This should have the opposite effect, and increase the intensity of the civil war. . . And American troop KIAs and WIAs rise steadily. Still no US realistic exit strategy

GW Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and now Rice are the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse--Rice recently joined the the fearsome foursome, rewarded with a burning tire around her neck for her inept role in Gaza.

There are still three and a half years of GW Bush Inc. for America to endure and survive--in a parliamentary system, this gang of fumblers would been long gone.

I am getting mixed up - was it Katrina or/and Arab port sale or that Cheney shoots a lawyer that Bush first learned about them on TV? Colonel Robert E Bartos Colonel US Army Ret