Fool’s Errand

The banality of GW Bush’s recent second visit to Iraq was the act of a desperate man — he said his visit was to look the new Iraqi leadership in the eye — yah, like he looked Russian Putin in the eye, who now regards the American President as an enemy of the Russian people — more importantly, what did the Iraqi leadership see in Bush's eyes — guesses, a Bible or maybe, an oil pipe line.

This time Bush made it to the GREEN ZONE — none of that Halliburton plastic turkey routine at the Baghdad airport like during his last visit — his spin doctors tried to give his helicopter assault on one of Saddam's old palaces in the Green Zone some sort of heroic implications — what do you expect from a guy with his sometime record in the Texas and Alabama national air guard units? Those helicopter flights in the Green Zone are routine for daily MEDEVAC flights — so Mr. President, give us a break on the bullshit front. Your airplane ride to Bagdad was a cynical stunt.

Now if Bush really wanted to make a big macho splash, he could have dangled himself from an Apache helicopter at palm tree top level over Fallujah — bullhorn in hand, hectoring the Wahabi Sunnis, crouched in their bombed out huts with — REPENT NOW — THE SAVIOR IS COMING! — this makes about as much sense as to send his SECSTATE Condoleeezza to speak at a Southern Baptist convention, which she did recently — onward Christian soldiers.

Uncertain of what Bush was doing in Baghdad a second time — he certainly was not boosting the morale of the Iraqis — except for collecting their checks and saving their skin, the fewer Americans they are associated with the better. As for visiting the US troops — anybody who was in the services knows that VIP visits are a pain in the ass — especially in Iraq where security is always a headache. According to one poll in Iraq, 74% of US troops want out of Iraq in a year. Apparently SECDEF Rumsfeld is getting shell shocked from his public hammering, so he stayed home. My best guess was that Bush was clueless and bored, so he got to sleep on Air Force ONE for 22 hours without being hen pecked by his wife. As far as fooling the US press corps on his intentions — What's new? That is one thing he does well. Bush still does not understand that his theatrics have a 6-day shelf life. Remember Shock and Awe — Fall of Baghdad — Death of Saddam’s sons — Capture of Saddam — and all that crap over elections. Impact but no victory in Iraq — Bush still has the Iraqi tiger by the tail and he cannot let go.

It seems to me that Bush has put a lot of chips on the new Iraqi premier, al-Maliki, who has been around in the big time only since the end of this April. He was a forced compromise candidate by the US to replace the interim premier al-Jarafari.

Al Maliki has called for separate investigations by Iraqi authorities over American killing of Iraqi civilians as well as amnesty and release of detainees who have killed Americans. He is hard on al Qaeda but seems easy on the anti-American insurgency; his national call is, IRAQ FOR IRAQIS. That is not what GWB has in mind, but for al-Maliki to remain alive, he has to end the occupation or his feverish Shiite pals will cut his throat. Right now the US holds over 14,000 detainees most of whom are Iraqis — the so called Iraqi government holds an unaccounted number more in Shiite militia controlled prisons. Release from both groups will measure the independence of al-Maliki.

Bush in Iraq has no goodwill left with the Sunnis and Shiites; he would have none except for the Kurds. He does have self delusions about democracy which he forces on an access driven, uncritical US press corps, but he may have inadvertently stumbled into an exit strategy.

His latest reason to occupy Iraq is to fight al Qaeda — all the other reasons for his colonial war have blown up in his face. There is an outside chance the insurgents and al Malaki can control al Qaeda in Iraq — Zarqawi’s death appears more and more to be an inside job. Who got the reward money of 25 million USD?

Think about al Maliki declaring victory over Al Qaeda in Iraq, and then demanding that GW Bush and his troops go home... This is Bush’s and Israel’s worst nightmare, but best for Iraq and certainly the USA. Robert E Bartos, Colonel USA