Iraq learns Bush tactics

The promise or perhaps stated goal of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq was to instill our way of life, particularly democracy. I'm not at all sure how that is going. But it's clear that the Iraqi leadership has learned our primary method for getting controversial legislation through. The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki wants to get the Status of Forces Agreement (which allows U.S. forces to remain in the country) through the Parliament. Not surprising since without U.S. forces al-Maliki would probably be out of a job. On Sunday the NYT reported that Iraqi's "top security officials"

raise[ed] the specters of a reborn insurgency, foreign attack and even piracy if a security agreement with the United States is not finalized.

Doesn't that Chicken Little strategy sound familiar. You remember: "the sky is falling" so you have to pass this bill (in 2003) to give the president the authority to invade Iraq. Or "the sky is falling" so you have to give the Sec'y of the Treasury the power to hand your money over to Wall Street (bailout?) and you have to do it right away.

Well as I said I'm not sure how they are coming on the democracy front, but they are quickly learning the Cheney/Bush tactics.

Bush's Iraq fantasy

This morning while thousands of Americans were protesting the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq the president of the United States spoke the following words:

Five years ago tonight, I promised the American people that in the struggle ahead "we will accept no outcome but victory." Today, standing before men and women [at the Pentagon] who helped liberate a nation, I reaffirm the commitment. The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in victory. God bless.

He was wrong in 2003 on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln (see photo above) and he's still wrong.

But perhaps the most frightening aspect of this is that I think he believes these words despite all the evidence to the contrary. It seems as if the neo-con demons (who are neither neo, nor con, but old-fashioned warmongers) have taken control of his mind and he sees the world only through their eyes.

Unfortunately John McSame, who is the putative Republican candidate for president, clearly believes the same mythology.

It seems hard to imagine that a sane person could actually claim that the invasion of a sovereign nation that had done nothing to us is "noble," "necessary" or "just."

As usual, Pete seeger best sums up the situation in Iraq five years in:

Waist deep! Neck deep!
Soon even a Tall man'll be over his head, we're
Waist deep in the Big Muddy!
[We're actually already over our heads]
And the big fool says to push on!

It seems time for both the "big fool" and his latest disciple the "little fool" John McCain to regain their sanity and realize to "push on" means only more death and destruction in Iraq. Although for them it may be too late. They have simply too much invested in this fiasco.