Pure, Unadulterated Insanity

The Surge Speech

(This is my initial knee jerk reaction to the dumbfounding speech that George W. Boosh delivered to the nation tonight, albeit done in a hurry)

I hate to say I told you so, but I did. I am going to briefly touch on a few things that Boosh said about the specifics of Iraq tonight, then I will move to what I told you a short time ago was the real reason for the so-called "surge" of troops into that debacle. First, on Iraq. (I do not have a transcript of this speech in front of me so most of these quotes will be paraphrased)

"We have made some mistakes, and I am responsible for them." A rather startling revelation from a mistake free man, I must give him that. But oh so far from the truth. The truth is that this adventure has been a botched abortion from the start, and the American people will not buy this desperate attempt at contrition. Suddenly becoming humble, from a man who has less credibility than your average serial killer will not sell.

"On September 11, 2001 we saw what giving extremists a place to work out of can do to America..." Yeah, that's pretty much what I said from the day this operation began. I told you that this would accomplish nothing more than to give an entire country, much bigger and better than Afghanistan, to work out of and would allow the jihadists to multiply in numbers. But hey, what the hell do I know? I'm simply an average, thinking American citizen who can see past tomorrow morning.

"Al-Maliki knows that he has to now stand up..." This message was delivered by a Democrat, nonetheless to the leader of Iraq yesterday. "I have received assurances from the Prime Minister that he won't tolerate the death squads anymore.....this is not an open ended plan." Just who is this man we are expecting to stand up to members of his own country? Only a man who stated publicly less than a month ago that not only does he not want to serve a second term as the leader of the New Democratic Iraq, but doesn't even want to finish his current run. He wants out now and has said so! It makes one have a great amount of faith in his ability to quash the insurgency.

What Does 20,000 Additional Troops Really Mean?

In reality, it means nothing. In fact, we have had more troops there before, precisely one year ago. At that time we had more than 160,000 troops in country, a larger number than we will have once the 20,000 additional troops arrive.

As an aside, Boosh said that 4,000 troops will be sent to Anbar province, outside of the Baghdad arena. This is after he stated that the key to the lock is in the capital itself. Amazing.

Boosh said, "Why will this work now when it wouldn't work before? Because before, we would clear out an area, move on and the insurgents would come back in after they left. Now, with these additional troops, we will be able to hold the areas after we clear them." Oh really? Let's look at these numbers a little closer. You see, 20,000 troops is really not 20,000 troops fighting at the same time. Why? Because these people have to sleep, as do the troops that are already there. So, when you say 20,000, in reality you must divide that number by four to get to the actual number of troops acively fighting at any given time. So, using real numbers, we have an additional 5,000 troops fighting in the entire country of Iraq.
Considering that New York City has over 40,000 police officers on the street at all times, 20,000 additional troops with targets on their backs will do little more than make the insurgents think that soldier "deer season" has opened. Yet again.

That is enough on Iraq for now. Let's move to the real reason these troops are headed to Iraq, something that I mentioned a little while back. What is startling about this is that Boosh as much as said so, out loud, on television to the entire nation, and that is this.

We are headed to Iran

George W. Boosh stated that we knew that Iran was supporting the insurgents, funding them, and allowing them to use their country as a portal to enter and exit Iraq. He also mentioned Syria, and said that we would stop this activity. This, coming from the most incompetent administration in our history my friends, is insanity. Though he did his best to look somber tonight, the cowboy is back, alive and well....sick.

Boosh knows that the current debacle in Iraq is a lost cause, knows that the "surge" means nothing, and knows that the current elected "democratic" government has no chance to stand. So he puts Iran and Syria on notice. He stated that we have sent a warship within range of the Iranian border. This mind boggling statement proves that this man has learned nothing during his 6 years in office, has learned nothing from the Iraq war, and is determined to lead us into WWIII, polls and public opinion be damned. He is clearly still dipping into the neocon Kool-Aid, even going so far as to mention a free and democratic "region." You have absolutely got to be kidding me. We can't democratize Iraq, have already proven that this won't work. And he's still talking about forcing our way of life on the entire region?

Boosh was given a life line, a thing called the Iraq Study Group. He ignored them. He has stated repeatedly since this war began that he listened solely to the Generals on the ground when determining troop numbers. When the Generals told them that 20,000 more troops would not help, would be nothing more than targets, he responded by firing them and shopping for Generals who would go along with his delusions. When the American people delivered him a message in the November election, he told them to jam it.

I know that you all are probably tired of hearing me say these things, but I will say them until someone stops him. George W. Boosh has gone mad, mad in the clinical sense. He is on an island, with no one left who will listen to him. NO ONE really believes that this "new way forward" will work except for Boosh, and I think he hopes it won't. Nor does anyone believe that it is really a "new way forward." It is stay the course with 5,000 more troops per shift, nothing more and nothing less. The Iraq experiment will fail, and he will then move his little war game to Iran.

Unless, that is, our own duly elected Democratic government stops him. It is really that simple. We are soon to find out whether politics trumps lives, whether fantasy trumps reality, whether there are a majority of elected politicians in this country that care more about our very existence than they do about the next election. If they do, they will find the delicate balance necessary to de-fund our role in this civil war and bring our troops home in the fastest and safest manner possible. Despite what Joe Biden says, there is a way to do it. If they don't, we will be lobbing bombs into Iran within 6 months, asking brigades of men and women who are on their 4th or 5th tours of duty to shift their focus next door. What they will find there is very different than what we found in Iraq. Our war weary soldiers and war weary nation will find an enemy that WILL fight back, and the bloodbath will have begun in earnest. This country is about to find out, once and for all, exactly where the rubber meets the road. And this country should be very afraid of the answer it might get.

Cyclone

An Execution By A Sovereign Government? Think Again

There have been so many things happen in the last week that I must admit I am a bit befuddled about where to go next. I am working on something regarding Boosh and the economy, Boosh and the new Congress, and the utter madness that he increasingly displays every day. Today he wants to demand bipartisanship? Amazing. Organizing it all is another matter entirely, so please bear with me just a little longer. I want to scream for help, but my room is soundproof so it wouldn't do any good. Until such time as I can figure out what is most important to do next, here is a short piece that is admittedly a little late in coming.

I can guarantee you that you won't find this angle on the Hussein execution anywhere in the mainstream media.

The Execution of Saddam Hussein By The American Government

If you listened to the latest version from the Boosh spin machine regarding the recent execution of Saddam Hussein, and chose to believe what you heard, it would go something like this. It took only 52 days from the conviction of Saddam Hussein for the murder of 148 Shiite men and boys in Dujail until he was hanged. This includes the completion of the appelate process. He was executed very close to the beginning of Eid, a religious holy period of sacrifice. Some say that the execution was illegal, including Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, a Kurd, who said the following. "No verdict should (be) implemented during the official holidays or religious festivals." The US government now states that this was the sole doings of the new, sovereign Iraqi government, and that all decisions were made by them. We merely held Saddam until minutes before he was executed, then took custody of his body immediately after and flew him to Tikrit so he could be buried in a dignified manner. (As one who has witnessed an execution along with the aftermath, I can tell you that there is nothing "dignified" about the way the US conducts executions, but that is an entirely different matter) "We would have done it differently," says US military spokesman Major William Caldwell. Oh really? Let's take a look at that.

Although Saddam Hussein refused to wear the customary hood during his hanging, those around him did not. You will have a hard time convincing me that there was no one present who was not an agent for the American government, either hooded or not. If no one was there, how would we have even known that the execution was carried out? How would we have known that Saddam was executed and not scurried away in the early morning hours? Answer, we wouldn't have.

Secondly, does one really believe that justice was done in this case, at least by American standards? Hardly. In our system, it is not unusual for a person to have multiple death sentences, often from different states, though obviously a person can only be killed once. Our need for revenge and supposed "closure" is so great that there is no way that we would have killed this evil tyrant before he at a minimum answered for the many thousands of Kurdish deaths that he was allegedly responsible for. Sounds like that supports the American version of events, right? Think again.

The fingerprints of George W. Boosh and the American government are all over this execution. Had the Iraqi's truly handled this matter on their own, there is no way that they would have broken Islamic law and carried it out so near the beginning of Eid. They would have known the furor that it would create. Sure, the execution would have been done soon, likely on Thursday or Friday of this week. But, no way it would have happened when it did. The al Maliki government is fighting for its very survival, is desperately trying to create peace and avoid things such as this that are obviously going to create chaos and further divide the Iraqi people. The reality was that the masters spoke, and the Iraqi government had no choice but to do what they were told. Oh, the effect was good, I'll give Booshco some credit for that. Somebody smuggles in a cell phone and videotapes the event, then it is leaked to the underground and picked up all over the world. Several people yell offensive things at Saddam throughout, all great drama designed to make one believe that in fact the Iraqi's were in charge. The problem is, it just doesn't wash.

There are many very compelling reasons that the US government wanted Saddam Hussein dead and out of the way BEFORE being tried on the charge of murdering the Kurds many years ago. I'll just mention a couple. Keep in mind, the Dujail murders happened in 1982, years before the Kurdish atrocities. It just so happens that one year later in 1983, Donald Rumsfeld, then working for Ronald Reagan, visited Saddam Hussein in one of his palaces. It was no secret at the time, there are pictures of the two shaking hands that are circulating today. But, Booshco does not want those pictures plastered all over our television sets for the duration of what would undoubtedly be a long trial. Out of sight, out of mind.

Nor do they want to revisit the reasons why Rumsfeld was visiting this brutal dictator at the time. Not that it was a big deal, he was just there to finalize the deal to deliver the very chemical and biological weapons that Saddam would later use on his own people. Of course we didn't intend for them to be used in that fashion, instead expected them to be used on the Iranians. But, when you go to bed with the devil, there is no guarantee who you might wake up with the next morning. Turns out that works both ways, as Saddam found out.

Isn't it ironic how things eventually come full circle? Warning: The following is a mouthful. First, we essentially create Saddam Hussein by supporting him during the Iraq/Iran war, give him weapons of mass destruction, he uses them against the Kurds, we then go to war in the 1990's against him for invading Kuwait, eventually send in inspectors who find and destroy the weapons that we gave him. Later we invade again, lying by claiming that he has the very weapons that we originally provided him yet knew all along that they had been destroyed, saying he is planning to use them on us, we then use the same type of weapons on the Iraqi people we are allegedly "liberating" in Fallujah, depose him, dig him out of a spyder hole, convict and finally execute him.

It's a strange world we live in.

Cyclone