I used to work in politics for a while and I became very jaded. I've seen how it all works and the process leaves a lot to be desired. Time has only made me more cynical, so my usual political commentary comes down to "I hate them all." Democrats. Republicans. I hate all of them. George W. Bush has a very special place in my heart, though. I thought I'd never hate anyone as much as I hated Richard Nixon, but W. wins hands down. How surprising to find out that my capacity for contempt is even greater than I ever thought, but to anyone who knows me, this is old news by now.
The Iraq Study Group is really what's on my mind today. I'm deeply puzzled as to why anyone thinks this presents an alternative plan. Behind all of the hoopla , there's just another paper tiger. If I remember correctly, for about a year now we've supposedly been training the Iraqis to take care of their own internal security. We've been training, training, training, according to the Bush administration. Of course, this is exactly what the Study Group has courageously stepped up to the plate and advised us to do.
I don't think we even have new benchmarks from the Study Group. It's all well and good to tell people that they need to step up and take care of their own killing, but what happens if they don't? It's the carrot and the stick strategy. Pretty basic, but you have to set some timetables for that happening or guess what? It never will. I don't understand what is supposed to motivate these guys to adopt the broader view, step outside of their religious beliefs and be willing to get killed to establish order. Oh yeah, order and democracy, with which no one in that country has even a passing familiarity.
Frankly, it feels like just another scam perpetrated on the American public. These guys get trotted out and remind us that, even though this is probably the stupidest military endeavor we've ever been engaged in, we have to stay. Even though the money is draining out of our economy like we just severed a major artery and we're bleeding to death. Democracy? I sincerely doubt that will happen in my lifetime. The Bush administration chose to ignore history and is trying to ram democracy down their throats. Saddam was the only person who was ever able to establish and maintain order in that country. He accomplished this goal by institutionalized terror. There are an awful lot of Saddams in this world, unfortunately. What makes Iraq so special? Oh wait. I forgot. W. has God on his side, just like the terrorists. Destroying the country was just part of God's larger plan to foment democracy and spread Christianity throughout the world.
Sooner or later, the country will be just one big battleground, whether or not we stay. We've opened the door to Iran's religious sectarians and allowed them to come right on it, kick their shoes off and stay a while, along with every other extremist in the region. Saddam was scary enough to keep all of that in check, but Iran has nothing to fear from Iraq now. That's deeply troubling, even to the Bush administration, I think. Maybe not to W. and Dick Cheney, but certainly to anyone in their right minds.
I guess the big news from all of this is that a 10-member, bi-partisan panel has all agreed that W. has really fucked up in every conceivable way. Big deal. Most of the American public embraced that understanding some time ago. It's just official now. Wow. That makes me breathe a sigh of relief. It doesn't seem to me that the report has been persuasive to W. at all. There was nothing to indicate his mind had been changed about anything. Not that it matters. Stay or go, we can't win here. We can't win, in part, because the premises upon which the invasion was based were false. Having been unable to come up with the dreaded weapons of mass destruction or to establish any link whatsoever between Sadaam and Bin Laden/Al Qaeda, we've been scrambling to define success ever since. If you can't define it, you can't achieve it. Pretty simple, right?
As for the Democrats, they haven't got a plan either. That's because there is no plan that will get us out of Iraq despite massive amounts of money being dumped there and a whole lot of American lives being lost. They're going to hold hearings. We all know how successful hearings have been in solving anything. It's just an opportunity for Democrats (and Republicans at this point) to get some face time on television and pontificate about what a bad idea all of this was. Meanwhile, the Democrats knew just like anyone who wished to know that the assertions upon which the invasion was based were lies. They were intimidated into doing something they knew was wrong. I have absolutely no interest in watching any of them harangue Administration officials for a month or two. If just beating up on them would make the situation better, believe me, I'd be the first to support it.
I think that was one (note I said one) of the problems Kerry was unable to overcome. He supported the war and, when it became inconvenient to his potential Presidency, he had to find a way to backtrack. That's tough to do when you're unwilling to speak the truth. During the time leading up to the invasion, Bush and his croneys were busy convincing some of us that the very viability of our country's future rested in invading Iraq. No question about it, Al Qaeda was working hand in hand with a person they would consider to be an infidel. Patriotism became defined by your willingness to agree to that proposition. Though there was considerable evidence to indicate that wasn't true, the Democrats didn't wish to be thought of as soft on Al Qaeda. They tucked their tails between their legs and cast their votes and their political futures with W. Now it's time to reap the consequences. However much they like to feign outrage over the Administration's duplicity, they knew. Intellectual dishonesty. Ethical dishonesty.
So here we are and here we'll stay. Our grandchildren will suffer the consequences of this grave error in judgment. Maybe even our great grandchildren. There's a whole generation or two of Iraqis who will remember that we plunged their country into darkness and were unable to help them find their way back out. Let's get another study group going and see if they can figure out what that will mean to the future of our country.
Maybe I've gotten this off my chest now and I won't have to veer off into political diatribe again. I'll just be seething silently.
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