Anybody Home? No, Bush Wanders in the Desert

In the midst of all the mayhem, can you believe that the Iraqi parliament intends to take two months off this summer? It is as if someone mysteriously writes new negative imponderables for GW Bush's Iraq faster than he and our goofy congress devise solutions to the old ones. Can the US forces go on rest and recuperation for two months while the Iraqi politicians go fishing in the Tigris and Euphrates? Never thought of Mars, God of War, as a deadly humorist until GW Bush went to war in Iraq. The administration lost grip on the situation the day it invaded while congress never had one. When the anguish and rage fade in the future, Bush's pathetically tragicomic Iraq war will serve as a libretto in a light opera.

Given the rates of US killed in action in Iraq, the two months the Iraq parliament is off, 175 Americans will die in combat. Gotta be Bush's worst nightmare as this horribly, pointless sacrificial waste sinks into the outraged American public.

Even more unbelievable for the Neocon and pro-war Republican spinners is that the Iraqi parliament, before it goes fishing for two months, intends to pass a resolution with a time schedule for the US to get out of Iraq. Now what is Mr. Bush going to do to justify his continued occupation? Sure, he will find some Kurdish supporters like President Talabani who, along with other pro US supporters in country, will likely have their throats cut by insurgent tribes after the US departs. Bush's messianic rationale for a democratic Iraq has bit him in the ass badly, So, why do we remain there if we are told democratically to go home? Oil and Israel security reasons – for which neither is worth dying. Oil revenues are tangled and producers are involved in deep, deep corruption. If necessary, let Israelis die for Israel, but not Americans. These events, the vacation by the Iraqi parliament and its intended get-out resolution, undercut any proposals on the books by the congress or the president except: GET OUT SOONEST.....

Splurge on the surge appears more misguided by the day as Baghdad continues to bleed badly and US forces are killed at an alarming rate. Pro war creeps in the US are already begging off the September moment of truth as unrealistic; they have ordered more troops into the inferno for after September. Our National Guard now facing widespread tornados, fires and floods in the US, must live with the reality that over half its equipment is stuck in the sands of Iraq, and their members are returning to Iraq for more tours of combat. Even loyal love-the-war Republicans are beginning to feel their flesh creep as the reality of the colossal incompetence of the Bush administration and military leadership become stunningly more despairing. The Democrats, however, also are contributing to the disarray as fast as they can in Washington as they wring their hands, amending the war instead of ending it by boldly cutting funds. The Iraqi parliament and a majority of American people agree, ironically, on GET OUT.

US Major General Mixon is requesting more troops to be sent to Diyala province as he is losing military control – this province borders on Iran. Sixty US troops have been lost there while General Petraeus unsuccessfully focuses security operations on Baghdad. Mixon also complained about the ineffective Iraqi troops and that the Iraqi central government fails to come to his rescue – these points were made at an official Pentagon press conference, so the situation must be approaching grave as the general openly asks for aid and has a sharply different set of talking points than Bush. Meanwhile the Bush band mindlessly plays on.

VEEP Cheney is on the road to put his finger into the bursting dike. Went to Baghdad and visited an aircraft carrier in the Gulf, where he promptly popped off. You would think that the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED Bush administration had enough of aircraft carrier public relations props. At least our Pickwickean, rotund VEEP spared the US the sight of his skin-tight, flight-suit fashion statement. With rockets and mortars going off on his visits to Baghdad and recently at Khandahar, Cheney has finally come under enemy fire after all his determined deferments during the Vietnam era. His comments on the aircraft carrier warned Iran about acquiring a nuc bomb and closing the Persian Gulf, neither of which Iran has threatened or proclaimed, but does have the eventual capabilities. What Cheney refuses to face is that there are already Islamic nucs in Pakistan where the US influence seems to diminish each day as Musharraf faces more internal turmoil.

Bush's Iraq has reached a surrealistic phase. Nothing he proclaims seems to bear on reality. He has no credibility. Even his favorite scare tactic they will come here if we do not stop them there was eroded by reality as Sunni Sheiks are banding together to fight al Qaeda; so some Sunnis now at least hate the Jihadists as much as they do us – that is warped progress – the Saudis are paying the sheiks to kill al Qaeda Jihadists. Wish I could believe the CIA had a hand in it, but that is too much to expect from the old Tenet team. By now the US should have figured out the Sunnis are potential allies – not the Shiites for whom we have been killing Sunnis – it is long past time to get smart. Smart is not a word associated with GW Bush and his hair brained, pro Israeli neocons.

General Petraeus must understand that he is being set up by Bush as the September deadline approaches when he is publicly to evaluate the security and political situation in Iraq. If it is a rosy scenario, the war will rage on with a final US defeat and he will be blamed. If he paints a grim situation, he will be branded incompetent and a defeatist, because his surge failed. In the end in either case, he will be forced politically by the Administration to jump into a sacrificial volcano. But when he makes the leap, he should lock arms with Generals Franks, Abizaid, Sanchez and Casey, all of whom contributed to the US military debacle. It may be touching gesture as they plunge into the bubbling lava, if they all execute a smart salute and shout, YES SIR, MR. PRESIDENT. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA RET

Photograph: Etching by Francisco de Goya