First things first: I'm a pacifist. For various reasons that aren't anyone's else's business, I don't do violence. No, I don't know what I'd do in Ridiculously Outlandish Situation X; but I do know that, between getting in fights in bars and going off to war, I'm out of the equation.
That doesn't mean I can't handle things in a strictly analytical manner. I used to be cadet, would have made a damn fine Armor officer for the US Army. Had a West Point appointment that I turned down. I know my military stuff, know more military people in Iraq than I wish I did. I know strategy. I know the philosophies of a commander.
And, as such, I managed to run a full gamut of emotions, from confused to livid, at W. Bush's gall this past week.
Months of pressure finally reached their crescendo last week, when John Murtha's call for a withdrawal plan from Iraq met sufficient public and Republican support made the Congressional chickenhawks squawk, as they always do, about patriotism and "supporting the troops" and whatever. Bush was in a bind. He had to say something. So, he decided to outline his plan to the American people.
The trouble, shockingly, is that the plan is not a plan. Bush's speech was basically a re-hash of the same ludicrous falsehoods we've heard since 2002, i.e. Iraq-Al Qaeda, freedom, Domino Theory II, WMD, etc. Instead of offering a way to make a change in what has been a general disaster so far, Bush patted himself on the back, lauding the Iraq disaster as an unmitigated success.
Why? Most Americans, and more every day, know this war was the wrong idea. Quite a few of us (ahem!) knew it from the beginning. Over a thousand US service members are dead, thousands more injured or disfigured. The number of Iraqi troop deaths is largely unknown. Untold thousands of civilians have seen their homes destroyed, their infrastructure fracture, their relatives die. We now use the word "torture," not as something to fear in a foreign land, but as something ordered and condoned from our own government. The political situation in a country we allegedly saved could disintegrate sooner than coalesce. Even a leading pro-American politician, Ayad Allawi, wants the foreigners off his country's soil.
This is a very bad war. But Bush and his cabal refuse to see the reality of the situation. Too much of their life-long political capital depends on the success of the Iraq mission. They will not cave to the other party, Cindy Sheehan, John Murtha, John McCain, Colin Powell, or anyone. That would be admitting a mistake.
It doesn't matter that this war is lost, has been lost since its inception because, as history proves yet again, you simply cannot make a foreign population, particularly one as foreign as this, succumb to your ends. People do what they want to do and naturally resist pressure. Such a task, although nearly impossible, would likely have been far less daunting for those doing their best to perform it if proper supply and support, including a proper number of soldiers, had been included in either the original plan or any subsequent review; apparently, BushCo didn't care much for planning then, either.
No, many more must die for Bush's politics. The only exit strategy is to clap louder, strut looser, talk tougher. |
