Sunday, March 19, 2006
Third Year Anniversary of Iraqi Invasion
Today marks the third year anniversary of the Bush War in Iraq; and if one closely reads the tea leaves, one is witnessing Cheney and neocon policies finally being discarded.
The shock and awe we felt when we watched America march to war as if it were a Fourth of July procession with spectacular fireworks as a backdrop set off of a deadly series of events still unfolding today.
Like everything about this administration, the latest news out of the White House about Iraq is disjoined. One minute the US is on the march with Operation Swarm, and Ken Mehlman is scolding Democratic leaders who would cut and run; and in the next breath, the administration is blessing a 10-member panel headed by the Bush family consigliere, James Baker, "to take a fresh look" to see how the US can extricate itself from Iraq.
You almost feel sorry for the sacrificial administration mouthpiece, such as Gen. George Casey on "Meet the Press," when sent on a mission that may have been dumped with old talking points; par for the course, send a soldier to war without proper armor.
Only this morning Casey bravely continued to spout about the "great progress" the US is making in Iraq; but make no mistake about it, something is going on inside the White House. Cheney and Rumsfeld have fallen from grace, the question is how far was their fall.
The big boys are back in town; like days of old, Bush needs daddy and his friends to bail him out; and truth to the dope is back in vogue. Or as in the words of the consummate diplomat Baker, to render the administration “an honest assessment of where we are and how we go forward..."
Even the folks at Fox know when Bush calls the big boys back to town, it's Katy-bar-the-door. And with no exit strategy, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., on the same program would have none of the happy stale talk.
Murtha rightfully referred to the war as Bush's War; and waved off Tim Russert's attempt to rattle his purpose by calling attention to administration efforts to sway public opinion by slandering war critics and referring to them as as partisan hacks.
Murtha said, "You can’t win this with rhetoric...This should not be political. When I go by the graveyard over there at Arlington, it doesn’t say Democrat or Republican, it says American. When I look at the graveyards, the veterans graveyards all over the world, it doesn’t say Democrat or Republican, it says American."
Murtha exposed how the administration parses data to project progress; the devil is in the details. So when Bush and his cronies brag about how Iraqi government controls over 75 percent of Iraq, here's what Murtha has to say on the subject:
But did W. wait too long to call on his father to rescue his failed presidency?[O]ne of the commanders said 75 percent of the country is going to be under control of the Iraqis and 75 percent of it is desert? I mean, give me a break. That’s part of the problem.
[...]
[T]hey said not long we’re going to have 75 percent of the country controlled by Iraqis. Well, I, I flew for an hour and 15 minutes over desert, wasn’t a soul—and that’s, that’s the territory I guess they’re talking about because in the Sunni Triangle, which is 40 percent of, of the country, the incidents have increased, unemployment’s 60 percent; in Anbar Province, the province that I visited, unemployment is 90 percent. So I don’t see the progress that they’re portraying and I don’t understand how they can continue to say that and the American public understands that and we understand it.
Personally, I hope not; we need someone with political gravitas to tell Bush to sit down, quit throwing out orders and let the real thinking-men figure a way out of the quagmire.
Too late for the fall elections; but hopefully not too late for our soldiers in Iraq.
