DETROIT -- President George W. Bush's contempt for the American and Iraqi people is boundless. He insists on sending more American troops and Iraqi civilians to their deaths in his futile war waged only to stroke his megalomania and try to control Iraq's oil reserves.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki now says flat-out that his army is capable of handling security in his shattered nation when U.S. troops withdraw "any time they want."
The prime minister welcomed the U.S. forces to leave two days after a news conference where Bush ranted like an automaton on speed, defending the indefensible and demanding that he alone should decide what is the proper course in Iraq, rejecting any role for Congress.
Only the great "decider," the "commander guy," the "bring 'em on" boy knows how to extricate America from the fiasco in Iraq his arrogance, incompetence and intransigence have created. Be patient and wait, he demands -- a command only soldiers who have no choice and fools will obey.
Now, with the Iraqi leader giving the OK for a U.S. withdrawal and growing evidence that the surge in U.S. troops is simply repositioning insurgent violence, the only justification for American military presence in Iraq is Bush's unspoken agenda, the real reasons for the disastrous invasion and occupation in the first place.
Bush wants the Iraqi parliament to pass an oil revenue-sharing law, clearing the way for American and British companies to start pumping crude and grabbing claims to vast, untapped Iraqi oil resources.
Bush and the neocon nuts he listens to want permanent American military bases in Iraq to protect the oil, to become the entrenched regional bully, strategically positioned to launch attacks on other nations in the neighborhood, notably Iran and Syria.
Bush's incessant claim that we cannot "quit Iraq before the job is done" has nothing whatsoever to do with the protection and security of the Iraqi people. It's all about what is under the ground these suffering people walk on. In a speech before the West Virginia Air National Guard on the Fourth of July, Bush made a brief but telling mention of the war- for-oil strategy. But first he had to tell the military volunteers how much he appreciated their repeated deployments to Iraq.
Bush -- whose own Air National Guard record includes an entire year AWOL and his failure to take a mandatory flight physical and undergo drug testing -- apparently saw no irony in being there to honor those "who in the face of danger wear the uniform of the United States of America and step forward in freedom's defense."
Bush's Air National Guard service was distinguished by his successful quest not to wear his uniform, to duck danger and step back from even casual duty. Real danger is not required for the pampered children of the powerful and the privileged.
Mark my words: No relative of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, supporters of the war in Congress, College Young Republicans or right-wing pundits who sold the aggression will die in Iraq.
Bush said sacrifice in Iraq is imperative to confront the terrorists, because if we don't, "they would follow us here." And with a foothold in Iraq, "they would control a nation with massive oil reserves."
That brief lapse of truth was the most honest utterance Bush has made. American troops and Iraqi civilians must die indefinitely because "we," not "they," must control "massive oil reserves."
The Australians are among the few left in the "coalition" occupying Iraq. Although they only have 1,500 soldiers there, the largely symbolic contribution is sure to pay off in oil. At least that's why they are there.
The same day Bush spit out the oily truth, Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson offered a candid explanation for continuing the bloodshed. Nelson told the Australian Broadcasting Company, "Energy security is extremely important to all nations throughout the world, and of course, in protecting and securing Australia's interests."
And from deep down under, Nelson blurted out the only real reason for this horrible war: "Obviously the Middle East itself, not only Iraq, but the entire region is an important supplier of energy, oil in particular, to the rest of the world. Australians and all of us need to think what would happen if there were a premature withdrawal from Iraq."
At least the Aussies are acknowledging the self-evident truth. Bush is incapable of admitting why we are waging what he himself now calls "an ugly war." He is desperately trying to replay the old al-Qaeda tune, and many in the echo chamber of the mainstream media dutifully plug the recording.
At last week's news conference, Bush mentioned al-Qaeda in Iraq 30 times. In a shameless lie, absurd rewriting of history and deliberate distortion of the timeline of the carnage in Iraq, Bush boldly claimed, "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on Sept. 11, and that's why what happens in Iraq matters to the security here at home."
Leave it to the intrepid Helen Thomas, the gutsiest member of the White House press corps, to prick Bush's bubble of deceit. "Mr. President, you started this war, this war of your choosing, and you can end it alone today, at this point," she said with righteous indignation for Bush's transparent lie.
Then Thomas threw a bucket of cold truth on a man who bathes in lies, with the crunch question: "Don't you accept, don't you understand we brought al-Qaeda to Iraq?"
The smirking, befuddled Bush reached for the only arrow in his quiver -- a lie. He blamed Saddam Hussein. Saddam "chose the course," Bush claimed, and the United States was compelled to invade Iraq because Saddam was ignoring United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Bush's writers twisted the U.N. position into an oft-repeated, cutesy phrase he brought out of retirement to try to fend off Thomas. Saddam had been warned, Bush reminded us, to "disclose, disarm or face serious consequences" Saddam had nothing to disclose or disarm. Bush was simply hell-bent to use the "serious consequences" part of his pat line. In his delusional world, Bush now wants us to believe Saddam is responsible for al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Even U.S. military intelligence pegs al-Qaeda as representing at most 15 percent of the forces carrying out violent assaults in Iraq. Overwhelmingly, Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias, not al-Qaeda, foster the still largely sectarian, indigenous violence.
Yes, al-Qaeda is dangerous in Iraq, but Bush is inflating its role there and again conflating his war of choice with Sept. 11. The New York Times came up with a couple of crisp declarative sentences capturing the essence of Bush's distortion: "Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia did not exist before the Sept. 11 attacks. The Sunni group thrived as a magnet for recruiting and a force for violence largely because of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, which brought an American occupying force of more than 100,000 troops to the heart of the Middle East and led to a Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad."
This week, the Senate will take up another measure aimed at changing the U.S. role in Iraq. Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., are looking for bipartisan support for a proposal to require the president to develop a plan by October that would significantly narrow the U.S. mission in Iraq.
Other bipartisan plans call for putting into law the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, a report Bush has thoroughly rejected. In fact, in many key areas he has done just the opposite of the strategy outlined by the panel.
Even with pressure from Congress, Bush will do as he pleases.
He will not hesitate to defy the law, if lawmakers ever do pass a veto-proof bill with a timetable for withdrawal. Bush is a war president, anointed by God to transform the Middle East and protect oil.
The American and Iraqi people want U.S. troops out of Iraq. Bush doesn't give a damn. It's his war and his oil.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | July 17 2007 |