Like some, I'm pretty damned frustrated by the overall response to Bush's ridiculous "strategy adjustment." The pundit class certainly has slammed his proposal for all the right reasons and Teddy Kennedy's threat to de-fund the manic at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is exactly the right thing to do.
What's frustrating is that the media and Congress are still validating Bush's terms of engagement. That Iraq is the central front on the war on terrorism. That Iraq represents something more consequential than the West's insistence that warring tribes set aside 1000-year old differences and join the world of civilized nations. Regional chaos may be the revenge of unintended geopolitical consequences. But I don't think it's the source of Bush's sociopathic recalcitrance to make a meaningful course adjustment and get the hell out of Baghdad. Bigger and more mundane forces are in play.
Let me make it clear: Iraq is the central front in the fleecing of America. Iraq represents the most tangible evidence of a multi-trillion dollar wealth transfer from our treasury into the hands of a 100-year old ruling class that sees the end of the line. Tom Friedman, who has been the most vexing writer on this subject, hits this tangentially in today's column:
"Make them fight all of us, Mr. President, or don’t do it at all! If we made ourselves energy independent, we would bring down global oil prices, which would not only shrink the resources for mischief by our enemies and limit Saudi Arabia’s ability to transform Islam all over the world into its most intolerant Wahhabi form, but also, more important, would force the Arab world to reform. It would force Arab leaders, including Iraqis, to organize their societies in ways that would tap their people, not just their oil wells — whether our troops were there or not. Also, if the rest of the world saw all of us sacrificing to win this war, we might actually be able to enlist them to help a little.
More troops alone will not suffice. The only tiny hope left of transforming Iraq is if its leaders have to pay the full retail price of their passions and we have to pay the full retail price of our oil. And if even that won’t work, then setting a date and setting an oil price will extract us from this disaster and make us less vulnerable to the madness we leave behind."
Friedman's exactly right for a change. And that's never going to happen so long as people named Bush, Cheney and Rice control this country. So we're left with Congressional investigations. I, for one, pretty much know how we were lied into the war and who the culprits were. If Congress spends time and money to retrace those steps, one of two things are happening, neither of them good. First is that the Dems are afraid to really rock the boat, or second, that they're have their snouts in the same trough as the Pugs. If, however, Congress digs into the linkage between Cheney's energy meetings and Iraq, produces the maps that show Iraqi oil fields gerrymandered by oil company that Greg Palast and others insist exist, now I'm in. And hopeful. Unless the terms of engagement are transferred from Jihad and Holy War to bare knuckles greed and petrol economics, we'll never get to the bottom of this tragedy. And we'll continue to lost American lives.
Ramblin' Guys
Jerry Bowles
J.A. Bartlett
Culture Warriors
Groom Lake
Blackdogred
Political Pundocrity
John McCreery
Josh Hammond
Michael Scott
Leftcoast
Krugies
A Bipartisan Approach, Indeed
This One, Over All
This One, Over All
A preview of things to come?
A Not So Modest Proposal
The Osama Network
Proud.
The Dems Found Their Voice
The Defining Moment. Again.
To add to Blackdogred's post...
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