Since it began, I've wondered whether or not the continual stream of disasters out of bush II's Iraq has been either the result of a) sheer incompetence and collosal stupidity, or b) a cynical, callous desire to keep a nation of 25 million people off-balance and divided to more easily further Cheney's control of their oil.
Obviously, and as I've said numerous times in the past, george w. bush is a sputtering idiot. [the phrase "a stumbling, demented child king" seems apropos!] Furthermore, Rumsfeld and Cheney are both no-talent losers (Rumsfeld genuinely believed that the 1970s Soviet Union had moved far ahead of the United States in military might, and as bush II's secretary of war he stupidly imagined that Iraq could be pacified by the same number of troops it would take to topple Iraq's dictatorship. Cheney's biggest claim to fame is his failure to do due diligence when as C.E.O. of Haliburton he bought Dresser Industries when it was already the target of ongoing asbestos-related lawsuits. As a result of Dick "free markets" Cheney, Haliburton stock plunged by 70 percent and was only saved by Cheney's recourse to his old stand-by of blatant pulling of government strings to get bailed-out.) The less said about the brain-dead John Ashcroft, Condoleeza Rice and Alberto Gonzales, the better.
The point is, they're all morons. But I always wondered if there was some sort of deliberate calculation in Iraq, something within Cheney's talent for manipulating the sheer preponderance of power of the US political system, that was directed towards a consciously desired end.
When the Repugnicans took that severe drubbing in the 2006 Congressional elections, I started to lean towards thinking that they were simply incompetents. Bloody-fisted, smashing incompetents. That the situation in Iraq was out of their control. That they actually believed in Chalabi's lies, that Rumsfeld actually thought he could run the country with less than 200,000 troops and some brutal mercenaries. That the Occupation Authority and the bush II regime genuinely thought that you could simultaneously provide employment opportunities for college-aged airhead Repugnican Party supporters, super-corrupt contractors, AND develop a war-torn country and win hearts and minds.
To this day, I still believe that the US and the British actively worked to foment sectarian, ethnic and civil violence, but now I believe that their brains were so internally divided that they never imagined this would hurt the "Iraqi people" on the whole. (I've used scare quotes because it's obvious that for the bush II regime, the "Iraqi people" are this wholly inert lump of living matter that can supposedly passively acquiesce to whatever it is the US government does for them, and that this passivity counts for political loyalty, regardless of the politics.)
Nowadays I'm even more convinced that this disaster is really just the product of a bunch of useless shitheads. That's due to Iraqi Prime Minister/US puppet al-Maliki's attack on his Shiite political rival Moqtada al-Sadr. Evidently, there's going to be some fall elections and Maliki expects his party to get creamed by Sadr's party. So, rather than change policies or anything, Maliki decided to physically wipe-out his rival's power-base, the Mehdi Army militia based in Basra and across Shiite Iraq. A "conservative" commentor at this blog described this as all part of a rational, confident move on the part of Maliki and the Americans. Taking out a rival with Iranian loyalties, etc., etc. And I was momentarily alarmed that the US would successfully take-out an Iranian loyalist in Iraq, neutralizing any ability of Iran to retaliate for a bush II regime attack on them. In other words: the violence was a deliberate, calculated plan of the Americans, and their sheer power would allow them to succeed.
Unfortunately for Maliki and the bush II regime, the attack turned out to be a ghastly failure. A monumental failure. A failure of staggering proportions. Representing once and for all, that this nightmare, these one million dead, these million homeless, these millions maimed and wounded, this holocaust, has all been the result of greedy stupid disgusting people with far too much power and far too little brains.
My first source for describing the disaster was David Lindorff from CounterPunch:
The battle of Basra ended-at least for now--with Moqtada al-Sadr stronger than ever, his fighters still armed and in control of the city, and of their stronghold in the slums of Sadr City, Baghdad. It concluded with a cease-fire agreement-negotiated by Iraqi governmet offials who, embarrassingly, had to go hat in hand to meet al-Sadr in his headquarters in Iran--under which the Iraqi army and police must stop attacking al-Sadr's forces, as they have been doing for months, and must release members of his forces currently being held captive.
...
Had the US not plucked al-Maliki from his embattled fortress in Basra, he would not be being paraded through the streets of Basra with a plaque on his chest saying "American puppet" (that's if
he were lucky). Instead, he has survived to serve his American masters another day. (And let's give Maliki his due: at least he had the guts to go lead his troops. It's hard to picture Bush or Cheney directiing American forces from a bunker in Baghdad...or anywhere remotely unsafe.)
While I trust CounterPunch and David Lindorff, I thought that a debacle of that extent must surely have been reported elsewhere. I needed confirmation. I found it:
Yesterday, McCain outdid even himself. First, he expressed surprise that the al-Maliki government launched its offensive against the Shia militia in Basra, despite having been with al-Maliki the prior day. [n.b. the British had reduced their forces from 40,000 in the city to 4000 at the airport (a "de-surge"), leaving Basra under the control of competing Shia militias but relatively non-violent]. Now, there's a potential president we can depend upon to get good information -- can't wait, can you?
But, even more foreboding, McCain then asserted that al-Maliki had "won" the battle with al-Sadr. Why? Well, said McCain, the side that sues for a ceasefire is usually not winning. Yet, it was al-Maliki who asked the Iranian government to intercede with al-Sadr to ask al-Sadr for a ceasefire. As Keith Olbermann said, by McCain's own metric, al-Sadr was the winner. Or, as a President McCain is likely to tell us, "Mission Accomplished."
And today, what do we find? This AP report is moronically and crudely "even-handed" (in giving equal credence to the claims of Maliki and Sadr, when only a few days ago, Maliki had been vowing the annihilation of Sadr's forces and Sadr had been calling for peace), but the writing is on the wall, so to speak.
The graffiti on the walls speak of the defiance of al-Sadr's followers.
"No, no to occupation," says one.
"We will never be humiliated," reads another.
More recent graffiti reflects some of the nuances of Shiite politics.
"This is Badr headquarters," is a phrase inscribed on many of Sadr City's green trash bins. It refers to the Mahdi Army's archenemy, the Badr Brigade militia of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shiite party that competes with the Sadrists for influence.
Al-Maliki, who returned to Baghdad on Tuesday after a week in Basra running his ill-fated security
crackdown, is the subject of some of the more scathing graffiti.
"Down with al-Maliki," declares one. "Al-Maliki is treasonous," charges another.
So, to the bush II regime, and each and every shit-head who continue to support them, ... you have been so consistently, horribly wrong, for so long, to such an extent, that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that you say from here on in deserves to be listened to with even a modicum of civility. You can shut-up now and forever. And this has been said before, at greater length. But it's official with me. That's all. Like Paul Abrams says in his huffingtonpost article says:
[This] is the sad, tragic truth of this entire debacle. People who have no idea what they are talking about making policy. People with such a vested interest in proving their idiotic theories correct holding the reins of power. A media so pathetic that they carry the stories fed them by the White House and now an eager White House aspirant.
This is my blog. If anyone ever wonders why I'm predisposed to insults and derision and disregarding the claims of whatever calls itself "right-wing" or "conservative" or whatever stupid filth votes for bush II's party, or the bush II loving Conservative Party of Canada, this post is the reason. You can't be this tragically stupid, this dangerously deluded, on such a vast scale, and expect to be treated seriously on anything.
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