December 25, 2006
Gambling to Save Face on Iraq
"Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but it is
always a simple matter to drag the people along. All you have to do is to tell
them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism
and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
Hermann Goering (1893-1946), SS Nazi
leader
“Americans
will speak of the battles like Fallujah. with the same awe and reverence that
we now give to Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.”
President
George W. Bush, November 10, 2006
“You can always count
on Americans to do the right thing but only after they've exhausted every other
possibility.”
Winston Churchill(1874-1965), former Prime Minister of England
Sometimes, when a snake tries to swallow a porcupine, it gets stuck in its
throat and the predator has no choice but to spew it out. The neoconservative
Bush-Cheney administration, under the pro-Israel Lobby's
influence, thought that Iraq would be an easy meal, to be savored while
doing an easy "cakewalk",
in the words of neocon Ken Adelman: "I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and
liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk." Now, the Bush-Cheney
administration will spend the next two years it has left attempting to
extricate itself from the morass they have brought upon Iraq and upon the
United States.
According to departing U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan,
the
U.S. is 'Trapped in Iraq', and faces a no-win
situation. This is reminiscent of what former Secretary of State Colin
Powel is reputed have said to George W. Bush before the military invasion of
Iraq: "If you break it; you own it!" How long and after how
many more deaths will this Iraq quagmire last? The
geopolitical consequences of having a country like the United States trapped in
Iraq are enormous. The Iraqi conflict is turning into another Vietnam war-like
fiasco. Already, the Iraq war costs more in nominal terms than the Vietnam war and 58 percent of Americans now believe that George W. Bush led them into a new Vietnam-like mess.
Even though the 10-wise-persons Baker-Hamilton Commission has
unanimously recommended that the U.S. terminate its open-ended presence in Iraq
and begin its disengagement and “redeployment” from the country,
and even
though fewer than 30 percent of Americans approve Bush's policies in Iraq, you can bet the house that George W. Bush will not follow
the recommendation of his father's advisors. Instead of beginning an orderly
troop withdrawal in 2007, as recommended by the Baker-Hamilton Commission, G.
W. Bush will rather gamble and raise the ante, and will risk turning Iraq into
an even bigger mess than it is today. It's like Bush's SUV has got no reverse
gear!
In a last attempt to salvage a losing and misguided
enterprise, and deep in his continuous state of denial, Bush will throw good
money after bad and will send thousands of additional American troops to
"secure Baghdad" and give the impression of some stability in Iraq.
In reality, Bush's "new approach" for Iraq may well
have the consequence of enlarging the conflict, possibly bringing Iran, Syria,
Turkey and Saudi Arabia into the inferno. In other words, the Neocon inspired
Bush-Cheney team will do exactly the reverse of what the Baker-Hamilton
Commission has recommended. No wonder former president George H. Bush is
crying aloud in public.
The
Bush-Cheney administration invaded a foreign country illegally and now thinks
that its presence there has become indispensable. —That takes some gall.
Trying to save face with "a last big push" to
give the impression of “salvaging” the situation is not a
real policy for solving the Iraqi mess. This will only perpetuate the on-going
civil war in that country and pile up more deaths on the already high mountain
of deaths. It is a cop-out, but sadly in line with what one would expect from a
dysfunctional administration.
_______________________________________
Rodrigue Tremblay
lives in Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com
Also visit his blog
site at www.thenewamericanempire.com/blog.
Author's Website:
www.thenewamericanempire.com
_______________________________________________
Posted,
December 25, 2006, at 5:30 am
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