Pangs of Despised Love

When the Dixie Chicks openly diss GW Bush and simultaneously drive their latest DVD to the top in sales, the President has problems -- if he is branded as a screw-up in pop art circles, there is no hope, when even those with musical notes on the brain, come to a thumbs down verdict on the guy.

Bush's Army of the Mesopotamia is slowly being blown apart -- his pretext to war to establish democracy has been also blown apart by US forces at Abu Gahrib, Fallujah, Haditha, along with countless smaller incidents stemming from lack of fire discipline. Even his Iraqi puppets are now becoming part of the anti-occupation, Yankee Go Home mob -- the new Iraqi leadership is not behaving like a puppet when it calls for US FORCES TO STOP THE KILLING AND BRUTALIZATION OF IRAQI CIVILIANS -- guess that is democracy. The Iraqi are now going to run their own investigations on civilian deaths in combat. This will add still another level of confusion and tension to an already anarchical situation.....

Administration officials are flummoxed. After all those bribes distributed to their Iraqi chosen, how can they so quickly snap back and bite them? As far as Americans dying for Iraqi freedom, that was always absurd, a pile of steaming horse shit, and those who believed it were fools.

If you want to really understand how the Iraqi and Iranian mind works, suggest the following exercise -- go out and buy a genuine, antique, hand knotted oriental rug from one -- you have to go through the routine of vicious haggling and insults, painted wear spots, dry rot, hideous patches, added borders lines, and threats and pleas for sympathy. Once you finally conclude the sale, go elsewhere and try to sell the same rug to a different group of rug dealers.

The new rug dealer will measure the rug -- and you will find that it was shorter than you thought -- he will lay out the rug, jump on it and kick it. He will then find soiled spots, alleged mending, snaps of dry rot; finally he will roll up the rug and offer you less than half of what you paid -- and that becomes the opening offer. In the end, if you cannot agree on price, he will try to trade you a rag and some money for your rug or ask for it on consignment; and, if there is no deal, there is a good chance you will get cursed.

I asked a Turkish rug dealer why the Iraqi and Iranian rug dealers are such swine -- he said that they are mostly Shiite and that they believe anyone else is subhuman and you can therefore, when involved, lie and cheat as much as you wish. Maybe Condoleezza should go buy and sell an oriental rug before she develops her next steps in her diplomatic fan dance with Iran.

GWB's elective war in Iraq was "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war". Innocent people always die in war --whether they are killed with a bullet in the back of the head or pulverized by 500 pound bombs dropped on them -- atrocities are a disgusting aspect of war especially when, inept politicians pull the trigger and send men to war; when things go haywire, the military is blamed. Those Marines at Haditha were not there on vacation -- they were sent there by the Bush Administration -- the fact they killed the wrong people, demonstrates the fragility of taking mama's boy and training him into a killer -- core value training is not a substitute for leadership and discipline. And that is where the Marines broke down -- at My Lai, after an exhaustive investigation, LT Calley was convicted and put in house arrest -- Nixon pardoned him later and this was a recognition of the politicians' responsibilities in war.

Too many inhibitions on the fighting forces' rules of engagement risk turning it into a flaccid organization like the Puerto Rican national police -- in the last riot over a month ago, the police had the hell kicked of it. Asked why it permitted the rioters to thrash them, the police officials said they were afraid of law suits -- they requested that in future riots the government provide lawyers on the scene. Tickets should be sold for next riot event.

The English condemned Breaker Morant to death by firing squad for following orders in ruthlessly suppressing the Boer insurgency in the South African Boer War -- Morant, an Australian Cavalry officer was a hero by most standards until the war ended -- much to the Boers' dissatisfaction, he is still heralded by Australians, "When they speak of heros of men who look for action, who chose between honor and revenge, they tell the story of Breaker Morant ".

History in the end recognizes only winners -- how they won is not important -- In Iraq who is left standing determines the outcome -- anything else is baloney. Let GW Bush explain why Americans perished and bled...

Receiving pathetic emails now, urging me to pray for GW Bush -- will comply -- but will pray he does not inflict more damage on the US before he leaves office. Robert E Bartos Colonel USA Ret