See the conquering hero comes;
Sound the trumpet, beat the drums.
- Thomas Morrell, Joshua
Iraq is a sovereign and free country. That means it gets to decide whom to invite for dinner and sleepovers. It was made free by George W. Bush. That means he gets to decide who can invade Iraq. He made the first decision before Iraq was a free and sovereign country and that decision is what turned it into a free and sovereign country. That was back in 2003.
Having nothing much else to do in 2003, Mr. Bush decided an invasion of Iraq would be one way of creating the kind of legacy every president is searching for. A good war seemed like an insurance policy for his reputation. Accordingly he fabricated some facts that, if believed by others he believed, would justify an invasion of Iraq. He presented them to the legislative bodies that needed to approve war and, the approval in hand, he proudly sent his armies to conquer Iraq and install a government that would be to his liking.
The war did not turn out exactly as he had hoped although he kept telling his people that it was going really well and that democracy was being installed in a country that had been subject to the whims of another ruthless ruler, Saddam Hussein. The war is still going on and no one knows how it will end but its ending is not what concerns Mr. Bush who is only concerned about his reputation. What is important to him, as to a small child pretending to be a great warrior, is that he be remembered as the president who led the country in a time of war even though it was one he had created.
With Mr. Bush’s invasion of Iraq completed, Mr. Bush approved an invasion of that country by another foreign power, even though Iraq in fact has its very own leaders who probably thought that since they were in charge, they would get to decide when, if ever, another power would be given permission to invade.
The Kurdish Workers Party or PKK that lives in the northern part of Iraq has long been an annoyance to the Turkish government since it keeps crossing the border of Iraq to enter Turkey and engage in combat with Turkish troops. Since the Iraqis have been unable to halt the incursions, Turkey undertook to do that on its own.
Crossing the border with troops into a foreign country would under normal circumstances be defined as an invasion of that country even if the invaders said they had only a limited purpose. In this case it was not an invasion. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan personally told George Bush of his plans to invade before the invasion took place. Mr. Bush did not object. Mr. Erdogan also let Mr. al-Maliki know. Mr. al-Maliki was less understanding. According to his spokesman he telephoned Mr. Erdogan and informed him of the “need to respect Iraq sovereign authority.” Mr. al-Maliki may have forgotten that George Bush said the invasion was OK. Scott Stanzel, White House spokesman said that: “We were notified and we urged the Turkish government to limit their operations to precise targeting of the PKK to limit the scope and duration of their operations . . . .”
The Iraqis may be surprised that Mr. Bush is the one who gets to give another country permission to invade Iraq. They shouldn’t be. As was explained by one high-ranking U.S. official to the reporter in a CNN broadcast in August 2007, “any country with 160,000 foreigners fighting for it sacrifices some sovereignty.” He got that right. The Iraqis still have some rights although they’re not quite as good as deciding who gets to invade it. They get to decide who gets to come on state visits aside from Americans and that’s how they happened to invite Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to pay them a visit. Mr. Ahmadinejad was able to freely travel around. He got to drive from the airport to the green zone unlike George Bush who, being a bit of a fraidy cat notwithstanding his bravado, always goes in by helicopter. It is rumored that Mr. Ahmadinejad will be bringing $1 billion in loans to Iraq to enable it to rebuild its infrastructure, something Mr. Bush has been trying unsuccessfully to do for many years.
Not everyone in the U.S. administration was happy with the visit. One senior Bush administration official told Reuters the U.S. was concerned Iraq could cozy up too much to Iran. This official said: “There is still significant evidence of Iran’s illicit meddling in Iraq. . . This has to stop.” Nonetheless, said the same official: “[I] is important to remember that this is a sovereign Iraqi decision and we have faith that the Iraqis will be able to deal with his visit.” They were. They would probably have preferred to have the power to deal with the visit from the Turkish army. They didn’t.
Christopher Brauchli
brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu
For political commentary see my web page http://humanraceandothersports.com
No “legacy” will ever be the same, or
will ever be all it could have been;
not even the word itself. It won’t be what
George Bush thinks it will be (if he thinks).
And he’s pretty well screwed up “the legacy,” for everyone else as well.
By the current interpretation, I’ld have to
say “legacy,” has alot to do with Satan,
as I recall the theater marque horror
flick title a few years back, and by that I mean, “legacy” is not recently or now a
“good thing.”
Lying about….everything, starting unnecessary wars, violation of Consti-tutional authority, surveillance without warrant, false flag terror attacks,
torturing captive prisoners, ….on and on.
Where does this international fraud and mur-
derous felony end?
I saw a subtitle above about Bush vetoing
the anti-torture bill, additionally part of
“the legacy.”
“We” don’t torture, true, but butterfly wing pluckin,’pretzel chokin,’ non-recovered drug addicted, pseudo presidential, imbeciles and war criminals apparently do.
All of this BS is sick man, sick.
I’d put $1000 on a credit card to implement
“yearlight savings time.”
Moving the clock ahead tonight one year, just
to get this over with one way or another. I’m figuratively dying to know what coming, maybe literally too?
Does War Prethithent Dumya have the authority under the “unitary executive”
to veto yearlight savings time for the legacy?
Fun emotions are these.
IT IS NOT A WAR!!!!!
Congress hasn’t declared war in 50 years.
I understand that many think this doesn’t matter, but they are wrong, when we let our language be controlled, we let our minds be controlled.
ILLEGAL AGGRESSION AND OCCUPATION! ILLEGAL AGGRESSION AND OCCUPATION! ILLEGAL AGGRESSION AND OCCUPATION!
I’m sorry but we seem to need to drill this into people’s heads to counter-act the Propaganda.
———————————-
Remember the U.N.? Little group we set up after the last real “war”?
I wonder if they could help in all this?
Oh, that’s right, they’re kind of “iffy” on helping the U.S. in Iraq after their Envoy got blown up by…”al qaeda”?…”baathists”?… it was Somebody Bad, the TV said so.
Blew up the building where he was headquartered with a massive truck bomb if I remember right.
Those “insurgents” must have used half their high-explosives in stuffing that dumptruck, they must have really hated the U.N., huh?
—————————————
I understand that most everyone has lost their minds, but there was a while when I thought that maybe this one “place”, this one tiny corner of the Internets was still sane,…
Now I’m supposed to care that the “president” of the Islamic Republic of Iran visited Iraq in order to shore up his political power now that the mullahs are growing weary of him?
Why is CommonDreams.org falling into this “enemy of my enemy” “Iran vs U.S in Iraq” bullshit?
This site has gone WAY down hill since this “election year” began.
Oh well,
-matti
This morning I heard the NPR Sunday host describe the eminent 18 March invasion anniversary as marking “the 5th year of the American presence in Iraq”, almost as if we were invited. Even if we had been “guests”, I bet Ms. Manners wouldn’t have approved of our inviting a friend.
matti you are correct: WE ARE NOT AT WAR. The Congress did not declare war, there was no internationally recognized provocation for the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
I also agree with your assessment of this site. Both editorialists and commentors are becoming increasingly incoherent. Perhaps they are choking on their overwhelming frustration. This piece by the normally coherent and precise Mr. Brauchli is an example. The first few paragraphs are so bizarre that I wondered if some hacker had submitted in Chris’ name.
Professor Brauchli if you have not done so acquire a copy of the position paper prepared by the Project For The New American Century (PNAC) entitled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses.” After carefully reading that document you will see that the motives or rationales you suggested to the Shrub for beginning this illegal action don’t make much sense.
Here is the truth: The United States, during the administration of George W. Bush began what will be known in the future as The Petroleum Wars Of The Twenty-First Century (also to be known as WWIII.) There is nothing new here; this escalating conflict, like other major conflicts of human history is about resources and economic dominance. Period. This is what we are, and this is what we are doing. Our entire economy depends on cheap energy and a collapse is imminent if this shaky house of cards is threatened.
Oops - too late. All those conditions which led Germany of the 1930’s to embrace the ideology of Hiler are now firmly in place here. A collapsing economy, a sense of injured nationalist pride, a strong history of militarism and violence, and an easily identifiable ideological/religious/racial “enemy.”
I shudder at what is about to befall humanity and I am so very sorry that I brought children into this world.
You know what Christopher? If you wrote that article as a fictional novel, it would never be published, because it doesn’t make any sense at all. __ NONE! __ I know Burrough’s Tarzan books were best sellers, but damn, Tarzan was fanasty. This is the real world and what Bush had done is unbelieveable.
Of course sadly, it actually happened.
But isn’t this whole article IRONY?
Yep, it is. But if it were the basis for a fictionl novel, it would gather dust on a shelf. Here it’s very appropriate and very well written.
It is also an anology
Eye to steely eye
Ironic to irony
You ask me,
What are you mixing
Your metals for?
Lacking explosively
Feelings used, abused
Pissed but amused,
And because I’m bored.
Marat