After the laughable and predictable testimony by Gen. David Pretraeus and Iraqi ambassador Ray Crocker before Congress last week, is anyone still in doubt as to the true nature of the Bush/White House game plan? Can it be any clearer, in lieu of admitting to the worst foreign policy disaster in US history that they're actually willing to run out the clock using our kid's lives and treasure just so they can pass off this mess to Bush's successor? Their objective is so transparent the game should be called on account of it. With apologies to Moveon.org, this Be tray Us is a Crock. I mean, even youngsters like Hansel and Gretel could follow this trail without bread crumbs.
Starting with the WMD lies to the current give the surge a chance BS, the goal posts have changed so often that the playing field is now more goal post holes than field. The only thing that stays the same is the need for six more months, the so-called FU's or Friedman units in reference to the New York Times Thomas Friedman who has been scribing give it six more months since 2003. After nine or so FU's, when does one finally say, "fool me once shame on you, but fool me nine times, okay, so I'm a fucking idiot and was born to be fooled."
Remember last January when Bush pleaded to give his surge six months, and when that predictably didn't pan out, asked that we wait until September, so that his top general, Petraeus, could give a report to Congress? Regardless of who actually wrote the report, the White House or the good general himself, the result was always going to be predictable, give us six more months. Folks, come on already.
This gambit has worked so successfully so often, that Patraeus actually had the cojones to ask for ten months this time, suggesting possibly, no promises mind you, that he might be able to reduce our troop exposure to pre-surge levels by July '08. Isn't that just lovely? We can move all the way forward to square one five and a half years later. By what measure can anyone call that a success?
Just turn the Tee Vee to any channel.
No one can predict how this debate is likely to play out over the next few weeks, but we here at coach's korner can serve up a likely scenario: the dems will rant and rave rating the surge a failure and call upon their repub counterparts to join them in sending a bill to Bush to start a drawdown of troops. The repubs, in spite of claiming their patience for this war would end if there was no progress this summer, and then giving an extension to September, will announce another extension until March '08, at which time they will again offer an extension as instructed by the White House. The dems will cry foul but fall short of denying funding for fear of being accused of not supporting the troops and being weak on terrorism.
Sorry if we gave away the end of the movie, but you've all seen it anyway. Several times.
This brings us to July '08 when we'll be thick and heavy into the presidential election. Bush will only need to ride out a few more months before handing his unflushed toilet over to the next president. Meanwhile, the dem and repub nominees will be fighting all over themselves as to how to get out of Iraq.
Bush will have rendered himself irrelevant in the whole mess even though he started it, like the guy who started the fight before fading into the background when the real fisticuffs broke out. The only variable we haven't factored in is if Cheney tricks Bush into attacking Iran which can only make a bad situation worse.
The hard fact, the one the Bush administration has not faced, is that the Sunnis and Shiites have been fighting each other for thirteen hundred years, over who was the direct descendant from prophet Mohammed. And then there's the Kurds who got thrown into the mix after WW II to create Iraq from Mesopotamia. Like incurious George, the guy who takes pride in not reading books or newspapers, the guy who revels in not being world traveled and would prefer to cut shit on his ranch and ride bikes knows better than all the experts who've been doing this for years. How ridiculous is it to think, even for a second, that we could possibly change any of this.
If you want to know how we got here, five people on the US Supreme Court changed the course of history and predicated this disaster via Bush vs Gore. If you’re taking names it’s Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy and O’Connor. These are the people who should be impeached of course, although Rehnquist is deceased and O’Connor is retired. Basically they ruled the end to the counting of votes in Florida, overruling a 9-0 Florida supreme court ruling to count all votes, giving Bush the presidency in a twisted sense of jurisprudence that even denied using the decision for future precedent.
As a consequence we now have what we have, a totally fucked up country at home and abroad. Enjoy your fucked up day.
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