More delusion on Iraq

Bush, Blair disconnect from reality


Bush ``learned'' from ``misinterpreted'' tough talk and Abu Ghraib

Tragi-comedy continued today at the White House as the lame ducks, President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, deluded themselves and the country with another installment of their endless recitation that, ``The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was right.''

The families of over 2500 dead Americans and Britons, plus those of tens of thousands of dead Iraqis would probably dispute the notion that attack, invasion, conquest, and occupation by Bush--a tyrant vastly more powerful and deadly than his quarry ever could be--was the ``right'' way for Saddam to be removed from power.

I would laugh, if it was not so very tragic, every time Bush says something about how the ``enemy'' in Iraq kills the innocent, or how the current situation is ``a far sight from the days of a tyrant who killed hundreds of thousands''. The American invasion has brought killing of innocents to Iraq on an outrageous scale that soon will eclipse the toll of the entire 35-yr Saddam era. The killing, the detention, the torture that Bush and Blair continue day after day is direct war on the Iraqi people. The ``unconventional enemy'' in Iraq Bush & his poodle attack overwhelmingly consists of the Iraqi people themselves.

Bush himself admitted last year to killing 30,000 Iraqi civilians with his war. The actual body count is much higher, as American military brass finds itself defending against the notion that it is conducting a reign of terror and Iraqi militias allied to the government, hence the Americans, engage in ethnic cleansing.

Patrick Cockburn is one of the best reporters from Iraq. He describes a country with little correspondence to the picture of progress painted by Bush and Blair.

While dear leaders want to point to the so-called Iraqi ``unity'' government--recently installed with heavy guidance of the American proconsul--Cockburn writes this week that the US military has failed, and its most important failure is political:

The US and British armies in Iraq have both failed--though they could argue that the root of the failure is political rather than military. Three years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein they control extraordinarily little territory in the country. Watching American forces in Baghdad since 2003 it always seemed to me that they floated above the Iraqi population like a film of oil on water...

Cockburn goes on to comment about suggestions of possible American and British withdrawl``sooner than planned'' because the ``White House and Downing Street never took on board the sheer unpopularity of the occupation and the extent to which it tainted the Iraqi government, soldiers and police in the eyes of ordinary Iraqis''.

In and earlier piece on Blair's recent swing through rose-colored Iraq, Cockburn wrote,

[T]he worse the situation becomes, the easier it is for Tony Blair or George Bush to pretend it is improving. That is because as Baghdad and Iraq, aside from the three Kurdish provinces, become the stalking ground for death squads and assassins, it is impossible to report the collapse of security without being killed doing so.

Meanwhile, Bush tells us now that we're at another ``new beginning for Iraq and a new beginning for the relationship between Iraq and our coalition'', like so many other times he has said Iraq is at a ``turning point'':

There have been setbacks and missteps -- like Abu Ghraib -- that were felt immediately and have been difficult to overcome. Yet we have now reached a turning point in the struggle between freedom and terror. [Chicago, May 22, 2006]

And, finally, they [Rice & Rumsfeld after dropping by Iraq] talked about the need to make sure that all Iraqis share in the benefits of this new democracy. A new Iraqi government represents a strategic opportunity for America -- and the whole world, for that matter. This nation of ours and our coalition partners are going to work with the new leadership to strengthen our mutual efforts to achieve success, a victory in this war on terror. This is a -- we believe this is a turning point for the Iraqi citizens, and it's a new chapter in our partnership. [May 1, 2006]

Tomorrow the world will witness a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom, and a crucial advance in the war on terror. The Iraqi people will make their way to polling centers across their nation... [Jan.29.2005]

We're helping Iraqis take responsibility for their own security. We're continuing to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, and we're helping Iraq move to free elections. A turning point will come two weeks from today. On June the 30th, governing authority will be transferred to a fully sovereign interim government, the Coalition Provisional Authority will cease to exist, an American embassy will open in Baghdad. [Tampa, FL, Jun.16.2004]

Spare me. Bush says, ``It is the heart of our strategy remains the same: to support the emergence of a free Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself''. Yeah, while US elites run the oil show.