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TechnoratiA Thousand American Soldiers Condemned by Bush To Certain Death
President Bush continued his shell game with the American people on Iraq, hiding behind the sacrifices of our American soldiers to protect himself from the obvious conclusion that his leadership is an utter failure.
Bush has no strategy to win the Iraq War, but he outlined a clear plan to insure that it continues into the presidency of his successor and that when he leaves office, America will not be able to leave Iraq.
The president tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people again, as he did when he and his advisers lied about the need to invade Iraq, a nation controlled by a dictator but that was also a shield against Islamic terrorism and a foe of al-Qaeda.
Today, as a result of Bush's policies, his only achievement has been to kill the dictator, who was basically under international house arrest for more than a decade, and open the door wide in Iraq to invite al-Qaeda wannabes to enter the country and train for the day when they will conduct suicide terror missions against the American people.
The Bush shell game is so clear.
Bush told us he is going to reduce the number of troops in Iraq. But that is really a lie.
It's much like the property tax shell game played by local government politicians who increase government spending and then come to you and tell you they are going to rebate some of your taxes.
In the end, you may see your tax bills decline slightly, but only after they have been increased dramatically.
That negative draw-down is not a decrease at all, but a backdoor increase.
In much the same way, Bush increased the number of American soldiers in Iraq mainly as a delaying strategy. He knew that the increase, or the "surge" as has been spun by his public relations strategist, would be a perfect loss-leader to throw to the American people.
Increase the price of gasoline $1, and then drop it down 10 cents, and a politician can convince the dumbest of Americans that he has helped reduce the costs of gasoline.
Well, for us not-so-dumb Americans, Bush is not reducing the number of soldiers in Iraq. All he is doing is insuring that troops strengths will remain the same when he leaves office, thankfully and not soon enough next year, at the exact same levels that they were at less than one year ago before the so-called surge.
In the end, the real meaning behind the White House speech by President Bush, his eighth since the war began, is that he has condemned to death another 1,000 or more American soldiers to their certain death.
It was his eighth speech and his first in high definition television broadcast. But I didn't need high definition to know that Bush was merely making more excuses for his wrongful decision to invade Iraq and his failed policies that have cost our soldiers so dearly.
Despite Bush administration claims of impending victory, our American soldiers continue to be killed at an alarming rate.
Bush declared in his speech, "Today Bakubah is clear."
Where and what the hell is Bakubah but another meaningless name in an endless war?
When Bush finally leaves office, maybe the congress which was told in clear terms in the last election by the American people to bring our soldiers home and let the Iraqis fight their own battles, might finally find the courage to stand up and do their own duty.
In only because so many American soldiers have been forced to walk the line in combat to do their own duty, maybe, just maybe someone in government will someday step up to the plate and do the right thing.
But of course, Bush has insured that will not happen now for another 15 months, until he is retired from office and a successor takes his place.
Even then, we have no assurances of any kind that when Bush finally walks away from the White House, the Iraq war will be any closer to winning than we are today. His successor may not be able to end the war at all, and we will face the same decision that the generals serving under the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson faced in 1967.
They could either walk away from Vietnam then, or dramatically increase our army strength and impose a draft on the young men of America. LBJ chose to increase our troop strength to more than 500,000 from the hundred thousand that were there, just as our soldiers are in Iraq today.
That is a frightening day of reckoning that Bush guaranteed will come, only delayed and passed off like a worn buck to someone else.
We remain uneducated to this day about Islam, and the Arabs, often confusing the two terms and using them interchangably, and speaking about Sunnis and Shi'ites as a common enemy and a monolithic group.
We have confused the Arab-Israeli conflict with the conflict with Bin Laden, prosecuted supporters of Hamas as if they were supporters of al-Qaeda and played right into Bin Laden's own hands by attacking Iraq.
Rather than argue about Bin Laden, the national debate has been turned on its head and we are astonishingly still debating Iraq, which had nothing to do with Bin Laden, al-Qaeda or Islamic extremism.
If there is a tragic lesson in the past six years it is the realization we refuse to acknowledge because it is too embarrassing and says we just are not as smart as we claim, as Americans, to be.
The real tragedy is that as much as Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator in Iraq, he was also probably the only effective bulwark against Islamic extremism, Bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
Now that Saddam Hussein is out of the way, instead of bringing down al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, it has only given them strength, and a power we know the terrorist mastermind is very capable of exploiting.
Ray Hanania can be reached at rayhanania@comcast.net.
© 2007 The Southwest Side Herald
30 Comments so far
Show AllWhat "Iraq War?" As I understand it, wars are held between countries who decide to engage in war. The Iraqi government never declared war on the United States and never planned to. The Bush-Cheney Crime Syndicate has gotten away with a huge war crime -- one which they are not being held accountable for.
The Bush-Cheney Crime Syndicate and their supporters believe it's okay to commit genocide on Iraqis merely because they're Muslims, and the 9/11 hijackers were Muslims -- although none were from Iraq. That's IF they indeed committed 9/11 -- which I doubt. I believe 9/11 was in inside job for the imperialists to use as an excuse to go after middle-east oil.
How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand and howmany deaths will it take til he knows that too many people have died, the answer my friend is IMPEACH no to nice I agree Try for WAR CRIMES~~ I see sheep led to slaughter and the Bu$h man and Check mate Cheney must be dethroned.
Americans alone can't stop this. Most of the nations of the world had to unite to end the last fascist threat of such magnitude. This will take similar effort.
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/unsanam2
It has to start somewhere. Please. It's worth a try.
Another year of troop devastation. Question? What will Bush and Cheney do once they leave office because they may try to run, but they can't hide. No more air force one, or a battalion to protect them if they decide to hit the speech forum.
It's bad for the Iraqi's, but hey, this middle eastern Iraq is in the throes of a civil war and our soldiers should never be blamed for their deaths. Our men and women are not idiots, but when they enrolled in the armed services, little did they realize what a jerk of a President was their commander in chief. Our soldiers should have been sent back home years ago, but our Congressmen wouldn't listen to our pleas. Who is really to blame is our useless Senators and Representatives who have allowed this criminal administration to continue death and destruction. Honor the troops and impeach the Bush dog and Cheney turn coat.
Ray Hanania talks about the thousand US soldiers who have been condemned to death, and many of the comments have echoed that concern. But where is the concern for the tens of thousands of Iraqis who will die as a result of the prolonged US occupation? Is it the same old story that only American lives are important?
When the Nuremberg defendants were indicted, it wasn't for wasting the lives of German soldiers. If Bush is ever brought to account for his war crimes, it will be the deaths of a million Iraqis that top the list of his crimes.
Funny thing about conscience - it operates below the surface. In people who actively suppress their conscience psychological problems occur and/or physical problems.
Bu$h the inferior is diametrically opposed to re-evaluation of his actions. He never revises. He never corrects a mistake until the big crash. Like his drinking. Most people stop the drinking when a small problem is caused by the drinking. Bu$h the inferior went to complete crash mode enabled by his connections that prevented consequences.
Deep down even this shallow bastard is aging due to guilt. Edgar Allen Poe covered this in the Tell Tale Heart.
I Don't think so Jess. How could anybody with a conscience have started such an invasion? I agree he looks haggard, but it's more likely because his poll numbers are down.
He is too stubborn to leave Iraq but anybody who believes he does not read or care about polls will believe anything.
He also knows that history will be no friend of his unless he can start another war---"Who knows?" His thinking goes, "Maybe I'll be lucky next time."
"I?---incompetent?---impossible!"
Dear Dave, you are out of line. Our troops and the Iraqis are victims of the greedy and inept lice at the head of our government.
Our troops are meant to be for defense not as thugs in a war of agression. Please direct your anger at the lice who misuse our troops and not at the troops themselves.
The Game of Soldier Roulette
No one seems to care about the lives of the soldiers yet lost. When is enough, enough?
A Million Iraqi deaths seems to be what we call genocide. Four million displaced Iraqi people seeking refuge in other countries and more to follow.
The American Government SNAFU
To hell with American soldiers who die!!! What about the innocent Iraki civilian women, and children who are maimed and killed?? They have never killed anyone. US soldiers are PAID to go there and kill! lets get real.
US troops must obey civilian/political leadership. And they've largely done so. They've been obedient almost to a fault.
The break-down is, yet again, with incompetent and corrupt political leadership. Most likely, only a provacateur trying to incite a wedge between the returning troops and the progressive movement would try to suggest otherwise.
Not going to happen this time. These men and women deserve medals for following orders. But they deserve better orders. It's just that simple.
That should read '...grant 'our' troops..." NOT 'out' troops. Altho, when I think about it, Out Troops! sounds pretty good.
I followed a van into Hilo this morning. It had one of the ubiquitous yellow magnetic ribbons that read: "Pray for Our Troops"
I spent the rest of the trip 'praying'.
I couldn't decide which approach to take to the great unknown. "oh god, grant out troops brains and the ability to use them for rational thought."? "Oh god, Please make these the last troops you ever need..." Or Maybe: " Oh God of the Great Yellow Ribbon, which rituals should we follow when we pray for our troops?"
No, I don't want more people to die in Iraq for Geo. W. Bush's ego, but I'm not about to start supporting troops I don't approve of, nor praying to an amorphous god I don't believe in.
citizen1:
* Many joined for job skills, a salary, the National Guard to defend against natural emergency, etc.
* Severe penalties for going AWOL.
* No place to just run off to. Claim asylum at the Syrian embassy and start a new life there?
Come on, let's quit with blaming the soldiers now. We're not going to fall into that old wedge this time, and they won't be able to manufacture it either.
A brilliant strategy. Whilst Bush is effectively posing as a delusional idiot, the CIA has been financing the Iraqi Civil war with billions of cash and weapons, under the perfectly believable disguise of incompetence, so the Iraqi groups get to kill and flee from each other, while casting blame on Iran. The US can then pretend they are helping hold the country together, while it all falls apart. Eventually all the Iraqis are dead or among the refugees, and the US has to run whats left the country and take care of the oil. And its all fantastic for the military weapons and contracts businesses. Too bad for the dumb grunts and protestors who have to be patriotic or else get locked up. Fascist genius dressed as stupidity.
Is anyone still signing up and joining the military? I know it's a shell game with deployments, but at what point will the idiots stop joining up?
You are damn wrong Snydly! Bush and Cheney are not doing this for oil (that is for later). Read Klein! The occupation of Iraq is a corporate-driven facade built in order to ruthlessly loot the American people (rather than the Iraqi people). Each American reading these words has already paid hundreds of dollars to war-profiteering corporates who have thus an interest in keep this endless war going. It is shocking that you guys are not yet revolting against this thug-government which is looting you in your own name.
"Where and what the hell is Bakubah......"
You can be sure that is exactly what Bush asked himself when he read his speech.
Cheney and Bush are running this war for global oil corporations. They don't care if they pump oil put of a feifdom or a militarized wasteland.
To the extent that we, each of us, use oil products beyond the level of absolute necessity, we are complicite in this illegal conquest and the death and destruction it entails.
It's hard to figure what to do.
A world-wide boycott-to-bankruptcy of exxon/mobile seems a logical and do-able action to effect a change in policy.
We must do something beyond blowinghard on the blogs. Just drive past their gas stations. Sell their stock if you have it. Spread the word. Bury the Hummer.
The troops in Iraq are OUR troops, not the multi-nationals' and we need to get them out of this greed-fest meatgrinder in spite of the lying, criminal politicians and state-corporatists who would trade their lives and limbs for profit and hegemonic power.
Go.
Do.
I hope future generations of young people have some sense of self-preservation and some knowledge of history and that, looking back on both Iraq and Vietnam and the lies and distortions that sold both wars, they REFUSE to join the military for whatever reason!
I think the title of this article is good. 1,000 soldiers will die for no reason other than to protect one man's self-image over the next year.
It really is incredible when you stop to think about it. Here is a case of the family screw up who couldn't do anything right eventually making it to President of the US on his family's name, and with help from the Supreme Court and various State Governors and Secretaries of State. The family screw up who dodged even the minimal service his priveleged family arranged.
The man who never wore responsibility well at any point in his life. Now, he has control of the most potent military the world has ever known. He uses it to initiate a catastrophic foreign policy blunder that will certainly rank near the top of the list of the greatest mistakes our country has ever made.
Now, with more dead soldiers than dead citizens from 9/11, one thousand more will die with absolutely no benefit -- even to Bush. His approval rating is already lower than Nixon's nadir. There is no floor-room for Bush to be avoided by sacrificing 1,000 more skulls at Bush's Meso-American altar.
So, really, all we have is 1,000 honorable families whose patriarchs and matriarchs will be burying their children in the next 12months.
By the rules of Nuremberg, Bush should be tried for initiating a war of aggression. At Nuremberg, the penalty was hanging.
Politicians are not born; they are excreted.
Peace,
st john
So Bush is prepared to roll back the "surge," eh?
Sure, and I've got a product that sells for one dollar, and today I'm raising the price to $1.50 so tomorrow I can have a one-third-off sale.
Except in this case the product isn't worth a dime.
I had a friend a few years ago, a Chiropractor from San Fransisco. After a long productive life he died in 2001. He had a brilliant way of describing dodgy politicians...I know he's up there in Chiropractic Heaven approving of what I'm about to say...
Bush is as phony as a Wooden Watch....
I would only add a 'bloody' dangerous Wooden Watch!!!!
Bush is beyond redemption as a man and a president. Rapture is off the table for this mutt; he's far too immoral to sit at God's picnic table in the sky. His family have been little more than successful thieves for generations. The deaths of 1,000 or 100,000 kids mean nothing to these avaricious murderers. It seems that the death count somehow makes them more acceptable at the country club.
How can a real elected president be trained by this dictator to be his replacement? Unless of course it is another neon-nazi corrupt lying republican? Could i make the list of those I think should be hung? Like Nixon,Gingrich, Kissenger Rice, Rove, Cheney, Bushieboy, Rumsfeld and many more plus several weak Generals.
"Rather than argue about Bin Laden, the national debate has been turned on its head and we are astonishingly still debating Iraq, which had nothing to do with Bin Laden, al-Qaeda or Islamic extremism"
There is no 'national debate' -- there are the kabuki-counsellors being shown on screens & the equally worthless shadow-puppets dancing about in DC -- but the national debate is over, the sides chosen, and an actual civil war is about to begin in the US, whether we want it or not.
I'd say a thousand American soldiers are voluntarily choosing to die in an illegal war. Bush is the war criminal in chief. But let's not declare our soldiers as brainless zombies. They are making a decision for themselves not to refuse to participate in war crimes.
Maybe the f*****g liar will die in office. He looks older everyday. It's no wonder with a million lives ( deaths ) on his conscience. Shades of Marley's Ghost( Harkness Oil, etc. ) and all must be visiting him every night. And fleeing the White House on Air Fotce One ( he's only there on the job half the time ) won't get rid of the ghosts. They'll hound him to his grave and that Ozymandias pile of an Iraq embassy will crumble into dust too.