Are They Insane or Just Liars?

The American electorate voted overwhelmingly in November to express their dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq. An AP poll released Thursday, January 11, 2 months after the election, shows that only 35% believe the invasion was correct; 60% believe hopes for a stable Iraq are forlorn; 70% oppose sending more troops. Yet Bush is going to send more troops. Many recall, though few mention, how Bush had said that he would take military advice from the generals in charge but when those generals opposed sending more troops he replaced them with more compliant generals. 'Wyatt Earp' Dubya is in charge, being not only the "decider" but seemingly the "knower" as well. For the worriers among us the additional troops are less the concern than the extra naval battle group being sent to the area and the raid against the Iranian consulate in northern Iraq. Some of us fear that Bush-Cheney's response to failure in Iraq is to expand the conflict into war with Iran. For our rulers' eyes are on their prize and that is not freedom and democracy (and certainly not peace) but power and domination.

Bush says explicitly that the Iraqi government is on the clock and that clock is ticking down. Dubya makes it sound as though we were invited into Iraq, that we are there to do the Iraqis a favor. Bush sold us a war premised on lies: that Iraq had WMD and implying Iraqi support for Al Qaeda. These were not only untrue, the junta knew they were untrue. Bush, Cheney, et al, have committed felonies (violations of Title 18 USC), international war crimes (war of aggression, changing laws of occupied country, etc), and many impeachable offenses (NSA spying,etc). Bush and his legion don't believe in government by the people (democracy?) either in the US or Iraq. "We" are there to lock up control over the earth's energy supplies and funnel profits to the energy sector and the weapons makers and investors. (No general has ever met a weapon system he didn't like.) The peoples of the Middle East are grist for our profiteering hegemony; the American people exist only to buy enough products to prop up corporate profits. Peace, harmony, jobs and joy are not in the Bush lexicon. He and his cronies will kill us all rather than cede control. And they may very well succeed.

Even among Bush supporters it's hard to find any who think another 20,000 troops will make a substantive difference. The goal will obviously be to pacify Baghdad and that, realistically, will mean killing many thousands more Iraqis. And that will only further inflame anti-American feelings and behaviors in both Iraq and the wider region. And other than the handful of Congress who would and have voted against the regime most representatives basically support Bush's goals; they simply can't stand the incompetence. If bombing of Iran occurs the internal state within the US will have moved along in a sort of psychedelic way: the covert made overt. It will become next to impossible for politicians to hide behind generalities of supporting "democratic transition" in the Arab world: the boldness and baldness of domination and suppression and mass murder will be manifest to all.

As written before the importance of removing the current junta is not merely payback or justice for past crimes but to prevent future crimes. If Bush widens the war into Iran or Syria more seriously overt anti-war action will occur in the US and that will lead to unleashing the forces of repression at home. At that point sides will be chosen and the war will be much more than just dinner table conversation in the US. Notwithstanding 9/11, the US has thrown its violent weight around for decades with little repercussion at home. Expanding the war wlll incite more "radicals" to attack the US homeland. And most Americans will be torn between supporting the regime because of these attacks (just as in 2001) and opposing the regime because they will have "caused" these attacks. It would behoove Americans to think these things through before such horrid consequences of Bush's policies come home to roost. In 1939, the Hitler regime staged a phony attack on German positions by Polish forces to justify the Blitzkreig against Poland. This fact doesn't make it into too many history books. Five years ago Americans and their elected officials fell for the jingoism of war. It would be best for all if we were better prepared for more sober reactions in the next round, and the clock is ticking down to that next round more quickly than we may like.