None Dare Call It Treason

With over 70% of Americans fed up and angry with the deadly Bush Iraq war, the congress of the US fails to end the war by curtailing funding. The poor things do not even want to discuss that funding issue. Ask yourself why? If you stop funding, you hurt the troops! This is a big juicy red herring waved by those who want the war to proceed for other reasons. Same goes for the surge reinforcement of over 21,000 troops – if you fail, it hurts troop morale – just more baloney by permanent war advocates who want the war to go on and on. Even General Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stepped back from this jingoism. Worst thing for troop morale is extended duty once promised a hard departure date from a dangerous combat theater. The surge does just that... When you stop the war, it keeps troops alive. Had congress failed to act on the Vietnam war, diehard Nixonites still would be still hanging in there pursuing the light at the end of tunnel over troop corpses, using the same tired mawkish slogans used today. Remember the old threat of falling dominoes that never fell? One thing is for certain: the longer the US remains in Iraq, the stronger the Jihadists become...

Nearly all the congressmen legally take money privately and publicly as campaign contributions – these donations form the life blood of their candidacies. It has now reached such astounding proportions that the success in polls and projections to win office are based on the size of the campaign war chests. No politician will go against his self interest to fix this de facto bribe scheme by breaking the link. They speciously hide behind the First Amendment right of free speech. Further, no self interest group will stop the donation bribes, because that is the most effective way to control congressmen and presidents. Take that American voter! The irony is that the less money the candidate has, the better the chance he will act in the voters' interest rather than those of special interests who now own his loyalty big time.

So under these circumstances, let us speculate on who or what keeps congress from ending the war. There are an estimated 75,000 private contractors working in Iraq. The war makes profits for those who supply equipment, ammunition, food, clothing, security, communications and transportation. For example, although our troops are fighting in the land of fresh water from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, they enjoy the luxury of bottled water – sometimes even ice is trucked into the hazard filled battle zone from Kuwait. So, right there is just one very small example of a deep supply constituency for sustaining the war permanently. Representative Waxman, bless his soul, is now pursuing the spoor of waste and abuse in Iraq to the tune of 12 billion in untraceable greenbacks. You cannot depend on mercantile morality to end the war. Although short sighted, those greedy interests just want to make money. As a result, they keep the situation that way with hefty contributions to congressmen. With the widespread corruption in Iraq, the crooks also do not want the war to end. Kinda like that endless war on drugs.....

Apart from those overt economic supporters of the war, there are the covert interests that quest for oil. These factors operate in Iraq where oil reserves are among the largest in the world, and in Afghanistan where secure oil pipeline routes from Central Asia to the Bay of Bengal are sought. In Iraq there is also the hopeless Henry Kissinger/Israeli dream of pipelines for fresh water and oil from Iraq to Haifa, Israel. Bush has decided to fight for these natural resources rather than to buy them. In a moment, when the president briefly escaped his White House handlers, he declared that the Iraqi war is needed to protect oil from terrorists. Not even his dog Barney believes him on that one. Colonial wars are always bloody, dirty, expensive and, at least in the 20th century, lost. Have yet to find a big oil company who is not prepared to do business with Beelzebub if the price is right...

In addition to the overt and covert economic reasons to continue the wars, there are political/military reasons. Like Willy Sutton, who robbed banks because that was where the money was, GWB picked Iraq; he attacked a place where the US can straddle a geographic area that is a heartland that abuts oil rich Iran and Saudi Arabia. Though this presence does not intimidate crazy, suicidal Jihadists, it does frighten and make the legitimate Iranian and Saudi governments nervous – the US has projected its ground forces right on their borders as well as a mighty navy and air force that have recently deployed closer.

The other reason the US appears to be in Iraq is that Israel wants it there to provide a national security shield for them. By now it is crystal clear that pro Israel neocons made up intelligence to promote the war. Ex-Deputy Sec Def Wolfowitz brought the creepy neocons into the Pentagon under Rumsfeld and Cheney. The Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, even made "Wolfy" Man Of The Year.

Last week, Defense Department reports were sent to congress that documented ex Pentagon neocon assistant undersecretary Douglas Feith's nefarious role in providing disinformation on the Iraqi war; information that Team Bush too eagerly bought without Intelligence Community confirmation. Senator Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pointed out that the report indicated that nothing unauthorized or illegal transpired. Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, unlike Levin, declared he is uncertain that no laws were broken. One thing for certain is that Feith's corrupt, cooked intelligence was intentionally used by Bush to justify the war. The squalid Iranian agent Chalibi was also hatched and paid for by Feith's office – the corrosive policies for disbanding the Iraqi Army and police were formulated in Feith's office. Let us hope Senator Rockefeller is not as forgiving as Senator Levin. The contemptible Feith simply promoted the war for Bush like a cheap New York second-hand clothing salesman. TURN ON THE GREEN LIGHT; THE MAN WANTS TO BUY A GREEN SUIT...

Behind closed doors this foreign Israeli influence permeated the debate on the run up to the invasion of Iraq. The two Israeli spies in jail, and two more under indictment for espionage against the US, makes the one-sided US support of Israel hollow and scary. There is little open criticism of Israel, because of the political/economic power of the foreign Israeli lobby which appears to be perfectly legal until laws are passed to curb it. No lawmaker has this on his agenda. The Israeli lobby is unchecked because it is a major influence to both US major political parties, stemming from generous political contributions and over friendly coverage by an uncritical and therefore complicit media.

So there are a combination of diverse interests that want the war in Iraq to be one without end. And those influences appear stronger than the American voters' desire to end the war. At least that is the way it is reflected in congress today.

French itinerant intellectual aristocrat Alexis de Torqueville, who travelled throughout USA in the 19th century, wrote and pontificated on a whole range of social and political subjects based on his first hand observations of America. His works often are cited copiously by scholars who are always tempted to use him as an oracle to describe past, present and future events in our America. In this, I also plead guilty. His sad observation that the United States will destroy itself through greed, and competing self interests stuck with me as most of his other ideas faded from my memories. And without any doubt, that self destructive phenomenon appears to have descended now into the life of America. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA RET

*Photograph: Se repulen by Francisco de Goya (Translation of title: They get polished)