Joke of the Day

Joke of the Day

Fools Paradise

The President of the United States, in what the White House has dubbed a "major speech" on Iraq, has once again put the blame on the American people if his vision of Iraq is not met.

In his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Mr. Bush compared the War in Iraq to past wars the U.S. has been involved in while wondering if this current generation would have the “will” to see this conflict through to victory.

This is hubris beyond compare. Here we have the one person solely responsible for the invasion and all the catastrophic errors that followed blaming the one group that has been asked to contribute nothing to the war efforts in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Oh don’t get me wrong, there has been a great investment of blood and treasure, but that has been born by the U.S. military, not the greater U.S. population as a whole. There have been roughly one million U.S. personnel in and out of Iraq, out of a population of 200 million, which is less than 1 percent of the U.S. That’s astounding. Though in all fairness, the President has noticed the toll it has taken on our television viewing, noting that we make sacrifices by having to see unsettling images on our television screens. That is when the news is actually covering the war.

So the President thinks it will be our fault, not his fault, not his leadership, not the militaries fault. No, apparently it will be the American people, who have been asked to bear no burdens, make no sacrifices, and indeed contribute almost nothing to the war effort that will have lost the war in Iraq.

I am personally insulted by his comments, not only for blaming me for losing a war I have nothing to do with, but also because before whenever people criticized the way he was waging a war he never should have started, he would send out the patriotism police to shout down any dissent. And now, after all his terrible decisions that have cost the lives of 3700 Americans and untold tens of thousands of Iraqis, he blames you and me for the failures of his Iraq policy.

Does Mr. Bush take the American people to be fools?

He stumbles this great nation, a nation people actually looked to for moral guidance, into a war half a world away on dubious claims of WMD, then proceeds to inadequately provide enough troops, to deny there is an insurgency, to fail to properly armor the men and machines of war leading to added needless loss of life, while creating the political situation which is on the verge of collapse, he blames you and me for the potential failure in Iraq.

Throughout the speech this quote from the great Hunkpapa Sioux Chief Sitting Bull resounded in my head:

"They tell you I murdered Custer. It is a lie! I am not a War Chief. I was not in the battle that day. His eyes were blinded, so he could not see. He was a fool and rode to his death. He made the fight, not I."

I think the President is a fool.

The Bush Administration is again touting successes and progress in Iraq, and they are selling this over used expression by pointing to the western section of the country, Anbar Province.

There can be no doubt that there has been a turn around in places like the provincial capital of Ramadi, as well as the restive Fallujah. But these gains, if you can call them that, have been made at he expense of the central government in Baghdad. This is because the United States in paying off the tribal sheiks in Anbar with cash and weapons, and ultimately power.

The plan is the U.S. pays off these Sunni tribal leaders, who up to months ago were killing Americans, so they will turn their weapons on al-Qaida.

The problem with this plan is that the Iraqi central government of Nouri Kamal al-Maliki is opposed to the arming of Sunni militias. Now the U.S. claims these Sunni militia members will have to take an oath not to harm Americans, as well as claiming these men will eventually be mustered into the Iraqi Security Forces. Indeed, many of these militia members have already enrolled in the Iraq Police Force, though it is clear their loyalties are to the tribe or sect first, and Iraq second. After all, this is all about power.

What is so frustrating is that this plan flies in the face of attempting to help create a unified Iraq. If that is the plan, it seems the U.S. is setting up the conditions for the real war for power in Iraq. Arming a group, indeed giving legitimacy by entering them in the rolls of the security forces, that has been killing Americans for the past 4 years in hopes of defeating another group that has been killing Americans for the past 4 years, seems like a recipe for disaster.

The point is the U.S. is not winning the hearts and minds of these Sunni insurgent groups with visions of democracy and freedom, but with cold cash and even free guns. What could be more American than that?

How can the United States ever intervene in a genocide if we abandon a genocide of our own making?

No End in Sight

New movie about the occupation of Iraq. I read one review that called it an excellent campanion piece to "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Click on title to link to theaters the film is playing at