Walpurgis Night

Halloween 2006 has passed, but GW Bush's hair is still on fire. Have you seen him cavorting on the campaign trail? He is leaping and jumping excitedly, urging the American people to die for Iraq, even when the Iraqi security forces rather not. Europeans have another holiday called Walpurgis night – maybe that celebration could be transmutated from May to November 7th 2006 when all the Democratic witches gather on the mountain top with a huge bonfire to burn the evil of the past year.

Big Casino in American national politics occurs when a political party wins both houses of Congress, the presidency, and has a better than even chance to control the Supreme Court. All these factors have been aligned for GW Bush and his Republican Party for most of the past six years, yet the man cannot govern successfully; there is no one to blame except GW Bush and the foolish Americans who elected him and his inept stooges to power.

GW Bush and his sometimes demented sidekick VEEP Cheney, lost their backbones through different ruses; they refused to go war during the the Vietnam War, and now urge others to risk their lives in Iraq for what has become strategic goals that have gone aglimmering. If there was ever a chance for victory or conquest, it melted away rapidly in the hands of flakey GW Bush, his incompetent Secretary of Defense, and his career minded general officers. Old school Americans want victory or at a minimum, kick out those who caused defeat – that would be GW Bush who is leader of the band. But America is woefully stuck with Mr. Bush for a couple more years. His power can be curbed if the American people elect sufficient members of the opposition party to both houses of Congress in the Midterm Election.

When Abe Lincoln was unable to defeat the Confederacy after the failed marches of his selected incompetent Union generals, he chose General US Grant. This choice was opposed by many because Grant’s reputation was as a whiskey soaked drunk and not suitable to pad around effete Washington salons. Grant brutally won the war; his incompetence was only later illuminated when he served as President, but who said he could govern a democratic country?

Bush in Iraq has presided over a created and growing insurgency; an insurgency fueled by incompetent strategy that called for the imposition of democracy with the support of a theocratic dominated Shiite government majority – a fools errand – but that was the onerous advice he accepted from pro-Israeli neocons who figured once they got the US to put troops in the Middle East, they would stay to protect Israel. So far it has worked as Congress does not challenge a policy that is not in the US national interest.

As far as the US generals who are staffing and commanding the Iraq war, they are failures and should be relieved. You can explain their brave resumes and impressive academic credentials ad nauseam, but you can not accept their failures: 1. Failure to secure Saddam’s ammo dumps until after two years into war; 2. Miscalculation on the impact of the ruthless destruction of Fallujah; 3. Lack of command and control at Abu Gahrib, and other military atrocities; 4. Inability to comprehend that standing up Iraqi security forces was creating anti American sectarian forces; 5. Failure to plan for enough troops to prevent looting of hospitals, museums and government offices; 6. Inability to provide security for reconstruction; and most recently, 7. Failure to register weapons and account for the disposition of weapons to the security forces, that instead, ended up in the hands of the insurgency. Maybe the service academies should teach Corruption 101 to bring sense to the military leadership. Although mission, tactics and strategy are in major flux in Iraq, one thing for certain in these times of troubles, is that Bush's creepy congress has appropriated 20 million dollars to celebrate the victory in Iraq. Now that is the power of positive thinking.

Except for the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld Siamese triplets, who are inoperably fused at their skulls, most believe Iraq is slipping fast into chaos – i.e. 105 KIA and 6-7 times that in US casualties in October – we have seen our pre war generals transformed from Doberman Pinchers to into GW Bush Chihuahuas. Case in point was the recently forced lifting of American control check points that isolated Sadr City, a tough Shiite section in Baghdad run by Shiite militias. Al Maliki, the elected Shiite Iraq premier, demanded they be lifted immediately and they were; the Shiite militia celebrated the victory. The American Chihuahuas with stars on their shoulders did not even bark or whimper. Guess they figured it was better to be a well fed chihuahua, comforted warmly inside the tent than a starving Doberman barking outside the tent in the cold. Some kind of military leadership! Let us hope our military command in Iraq is not presently taking operational orders from Iraqi politicians. If that is the case, our generals may as well pack up their perfumed asses and get out of Iraq soonest...

In the Caribbean, I recently asked the uncomplicated lady who raises and sells me exotic, tropical flowers each week, what she did for Halloween. Said she went to a party dressed in black with a veil over her face. When I asked why the costume, she replied: to morn the death of American democracy. Despite Russ Limbo's and Ann Coulter’s relentless, frenetic attacks on liberals, they keep popping up in the damnedest places. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA RET