Weapons of Mass Deception – GW Bush's Surge In Iraq

Masters of Deception is the name with which GW Bush Inc. has been forever tagged. To refresh your memory on the Iraq invasion, think about Yellow Cake, Cake Walk, WMDs and Saddam/Al-Qaeda links. All this was baloney, cynically developed to provide reasons for invasion. This last fall, Bush was faced with two devastating choices in Iraq; to accept defeat now or later. He chose later and developed the Surge policy that amounted to a reinforcement of Iraq; this delayed the final debacle. He proceeded to peddle this policy in Congress and the many suckers bought into it. GW Bush's Iraq surge so far equals five additional national guard units returned to combat for the second time and extension of duty for soldiers in Iraq from 12 to 15 months. This is in addition to about 25,000 active duty personnel who will return to Iraq for the second and third time. How the surge was to be implemented was carefully guarded during its promotion by the Pentagon and White House. It was the usual deceptive old game to sell the policy, but hide the pain of implementation.

The Red States, furnishing most of the guard units, ironically now can reconsider their votes for Bush in 2004 that sent their men to war again on an obscure mission. If they wish the idiotic policy to continue, they can vote for Senator McCain in 2008 who wants the war to continue forever or to victory, which ever is sooner. With McCain you will get Hopeless Henry Kissinger, General Al, I am in Charge, Haig and Larry, The Kissinger Clone, Eagleburger. This hoary triplet has jumped on the McCain bandwagon and are coiled around his permanent war national security policy like sclerotic serpents.

As disgusting as things are for the Republicans, to vote Democratic may still be a harder choice. Even the dimmest of them has figured out by now, that Bush Inc. has carelessly wasted life and treasury on Iraq, stupidly failed to guard the borders, and permitted libertine corporations to destroy the US economy in the name of globalization. On the other hand, to vote for the Democrats from their standpoint has its hazards. This was brought to the forefront by Black Caucus Democrats indulging in loud, sanctimonious victimhood in the recent Imus scandal. Hypocrites Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as standard bearers for the Democratic black minority whose hubris will keep the border states and South firmly in the Red state columns. Hillary's calculated short-sighted visit to Rutgers to commiserate with the female basketball team will drive the stake deeper into the Democratic heart on the race issue. Imus, who supported Harold Ford Jr, a Black candidate for Senate in Tennessee in 2006, advocated him heart and soul on his show, got no helping hand from him as he sank into the quicksand. If there is black unity, expect blow-back, white Republican unity as opposition. As of this writing, no Democratic congressional leadership has stepped into the Imus fray – for good reason. No Republicans, who shoot first and ask questions later, can fix the national security crises; only the Democrats have the will – too bad if they lose the 2008 elections over guns, gays, abortion and inflammatory race issues fanned by themselves. The Imus Affair has played into Republican hands, unless the racial vituperation of Gangsta Rap, Hip Hop and black comedians can be curbed by those same people who screamed for Imus' head.

Despite rosy reports by McCain, the President, and General Petraeus, the surge so far is a big flop. Even Democratic Senator Biden has challenged General Petraeus on his overly optimistic assessments. The Green Zone, the so called protected area, the only piece of terrain the Iraqi government controls in the country, is beginning to take on the look of Battlefield Marne. Under sporadic bombardment, its parliament building was attacked recently by a suicide bomber. A major bridge across the Tigris, linking sections of Baghdad was dropped into the river by the insurgents. US casualty rates continue to rise averaging over 80 KIA a month. And Iraqi dead continue to pile up at an alarming rate.

As the US and mainly Kurdish forces continue to attack Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad, the Shiite militia organized massive demonstrations where al-Sadr called on the Shiites to kill only Americans and coalition forces and stop targeting Sunnis. Al-Sadr, who takes his orders from Iran, also said he would not accept permanent US bases in Iraq. Unbelievably, the US command in Baghdad tried to defuse the bad news by saying that the the Iraqis are just exercising the right of free speech under a democratically elected regime. Whoever writes the military press releases should be relieved for putting out such agonizingly stupid press announcements that undermine US credibility – as if there is much left. Al-Sadr also raised tensions by withdrawing six ministers from the Iraqi government, because the Iraqi leadership would not set a withdrawal date for US troops. The simmering issue of the 5 Iranian agents detained by US in Erbil, Kurdistan also continues to pollute chances for any kind of modus vivendi between al-Sadr and US occupation forces.

Politicians traditionally pretend to fix problems by investigating them or calling hearings. GW Bush has perfected a grander ploy: create bigger bureaucracy. He had a problem with intelligence on 9/11 and over Iraq, therefore, he created an Intelligence Czar. His first Czar, Negroponte, fled to the state department. Negroponte's last national estimate was old wine in a new bottle; the usual pile of gibberish that meant all things to all people. Bush had a problem with first responders during 9/11, so he created the Department of Homeland Security that fell flat on its face during Katrina. Now Bush wants to create a War Czar to cover his ass on his defeat in Iraq. So far no takers among the retired general officers. He should ask I am in Charge General Al Haig who is vainglorious and foolish enough to accept. What is one more incompetent Czar? Why Bush's NSC staffer Hadley cannot handle the coordination and policy, with Gates at Defense focused on the execution of the war, is beyond me. If they are incompetent, fire them. There is only one president commander-in-chief and Bush apparently is even trying to escape that role. Only a moron would want to extend and complicate the chain of command in wartime. By the way, what ever happened to our Drug Czars?

It is clear Bush does not want the Iraq defeat on his watch and he is cynically prepared to extend the war to prevent it. What kind of exhibit would that be in his presidential library? Understand he found a remote spot in Yellow Cake, Texas for his library. It was a hard baked desolate place, filled with rabid prairie dogs, scorpions, gila monsters, poisonous spiders, and rattlesnakes – no one has ever populated the area, given its environmental hostility. He desperately needed a place where Cindy Sheehan would not set up a camp at the entrance to his library. This first choice fell apart; something about septic fields. His second choice is in Fallujah, Iraq. It would be combination of a reality show and diorama, under continuous attack by enraged Jihadists. The GW Bush Presidential Library would be built in the heart of the ruined city, surrounded by a 35’ high, 10’ thick reinforced concrete wall, built by Halliburton. Visited by helicopter only, there would be search lights and interlocking fields of fire on each corner. Cindy Sheehan would not camp out there either... It would be guarded by recently purged neocons and squalid Paul Wolfowitz Pentagon's architect of the Iraq War, would be the curator – that is, if Wolfowitz is not tarred and feathered by World Bank employees first, for his second fiasco there. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA, RET

*Photograph: Etching Los Chinchillas by Francisco de Goya