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How do you ask someone to be among the last 4000 people to die for a mistake? Or a lie?

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 19, 2006 - 8:49am.
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So much for the Iraq Study Group. So much for the will of the voters. As Dick Cheney helpfully spelled out just before the election, "full speed ahead."

At least the Decider is consistent. From the start his administration's approach to this botched war has been to sort through all the tactical alternatives and pick the most counterproductive -- send too few troops, disband the Iraqi army, stand by while looters destroy critical infrastructure and the social order, allow sectarian militias to fill the power vacuum, make reconstruction an afterthought, and put know-nothings in charge of it.

A 'Surge' in Wasted Sacrifice
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, December 19, 2006; A29

 

Here's an idea: Let's send more U.S. troops to Iraq. The generals say it's way too late to even think about resurrecting Colin Powell's "overwhelming force" doctrine, so let's send over a modest "surge" in troop strength that has almost no chance of making any difference -- except in the casualty count. Oh, and let's not give these soldiers and Marines any sort of well-defined mission. Let's just send them out into the bloody chaos of Baghdad and the deadly badlands of Anbar province with orders not to come back until they "get the job done."

I don't know about you, but that strikes me as a terrible idea, arguably the worst imaginable "way forward" in Iraq. So of course this seems to be where George W. Bush is headed.

 

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Say What You Want
Submitted by qusan on December 19, 2006 - 11:33am.
How do you ask someone to be among the last 4000 people to die for a mistake? Or a lie? No matter what folks say about John Kerry, I think that speech to the Senate was remarkable. At this point, Bushco is just out to save face. I cannot believe how bad this has gone but I was working at the Department of Defense when they blew up the UN folks and I knew then that it was not going to go well. That was three years ago. It's really over in Iraq as far as what we can do. More soldiers/getting out isn't really going to do it because the damage is already done. I don't think that there is anyone who has the answers because there is really nothing we can do to fix the damage that is already done. How can you fix the gates of hell being busted wide open?
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This seemingly Rovian
Submitted by keto on December 19, 2006 - 2:53pm.
This seemingly Rovian strategy (play the contrarian) is more and more criminal by the day. Every day I think the immorality and inhumanity can't get anyworse, and more often than not, these fools surprise me.
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don't forget the 655,000 iraqi dead....,
Submitted by cnulan on December 19, 2006 - 3:01pm.
How can you fix the gates of hell being busted wide open?

By obtaining long-term exclusive leases on developing that sweet, light, Iraqi crude. Once those are on lock, then you have a legitimate figleaf (and that's ALL these busters need is the figleaf) to cover the pending genuine total war in defence of legitimately agreed upon rights to those resources.

The failure comes if those lease agreements are not obtained and the U.S. becomes a rogue state under international law..., until then, victory can be snatched from the jaws of what appears to be defeat.

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clarification of "legitimately agreed upon"
Submitted by cnulan on December 19, 2006 - 3:07pm.

has nothing whatsoever to do with objectively fair or valid, rather, I use it in the strictly westphalian sense of sovereign legitimacy, the little maliki straw govt can still confer these "rights" to U.S. oil companies.  At that point, you're talking about between 112 Billion (already proven) and 240 Billion (thought to be there) barrels of erl so close to the surface you only have to poke a straw in the sand to get at it.  

Isn't that worth fighting for, isn't that worth dying for?  (imagine that in the best laurence fishburne as Morpheus tone of voice).  Well, folks can't say as much in good conscience, but as long as the popular and legal cover stories can be kept intact, then what's a little industrial mass murder between friends, particularly if it preserves the American way of life for another 30 years or so?

that's the American story and both political parties will do their level-best to stand by it.

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Almost there, almost there....,
Submitted by cnulan on January 7, 2007 - 9:51am.

G-Dub's legacy fast approaching the point of being assured.

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

 

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