Today in Iraq

War News for August 31, 2003 Iraqi anger against Americans continues to build. Another pipeline blows. US troops arrest tribal chief for failing to protect pipelines. US talks with Iraqi exiles about forming “militia.” Haven't we bought enough snake oil from these assholes? Tens of thousands march in Baghdad to mourn al-Hakim. 300,000 Iraqis join funereal march from Baghdad to Najaf. ``’Saddam and Bush will not humiliate us,’ read another banner.” ”Saddam and Bush.” That banner is the complete summary of the neo-conservative post-war failure to administer Iraq. Language creep: L. Paul Bremer caught fibbing. At least Bremer’s CPA now has the correct organizational title on their homepage. They finally changed “Coalition Provincial Authority” to “Coalition Provisional Authority,” but they still need to work on their HTML skills. And can anybody tell if those organizational charts extend below the executive level? Pretzel Logic: McCain on Iraq. “Iraq must be important to us because it is so important to our enemies. That's why they are opposing us so fiercely, and why we must win.” Op/Ed: American-only policy in Iraq is a failure. “The American military presence in Iraq has, for the most part, become a ‘Fort Apache’-type environment, with soldiers barricading themselves in heavily fortified garrisons, emerging in heavily armed convoys to conduct their operations, only to return to the safety of their bases at mission's end.“ Neo-conservative ideology fails miserably, but Bushies continue to pursue failed policy. More Bush campaign donors cash in on Iraq War. Law firm lands privatization contract. Even Republicans are getting sick of Bush’s incompetence and lying. Local story: Colorado soldier, 41, killed in Iraq leaves two children 1 and 4. Local story: North Carolina Guardsmen do not yet know when they will come home. Names, brief bio of Guardsmen, Reservists killed in Iraq since March 1st. John McCain’s Pretzel Logic Senator, I’m disappointed in you. We did not fight “a just war in Iraq to end the threat posed by a dictator with a record of aggression against his people and his neighbors and a proven willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against both.” We invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein because President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, and many others in the Bush administration told us and the entire world that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to our security because he had biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, and he would soon have nuclear weapons. The same officials told us Saddam Hussein was intimately linked to the terrorists who attacked us on September 11th 2001. We did not “go to war to liberate Iraq.” “Liberation” was the sweetener used to sell the war, not the justification. The Bushies promised a cakewalk, and told us the Iraqi people would greet American soldiers “with flowers and music.” They lied. You cannot ask Americans to make a "generational commitment" of American blood and treasure based on more deceit. So let’s start with some straight talk. We fought a war based on lies. The Iraqis did not want to be liberated. Republicans control the executive branch and the legislature. Iraq is out of control, the Bushies are out of ideas, out of options and out of touch with reality. If we are to avoid defeat we must find a realistic definition of victory. Iraq's transformation into a progressive Arab state would be a positive outcome, but the Bushies are incapable of achieving that objective. Don’t believe me? Check out Afghanistan. So far, the only “tangible benefits of occupation” the Iraqi “silent majority” has experienced are social chaos, economic collapse and political suppression. The CPA has not only failed to improve daily life, Iraqis now live with daily death from gunfire in the streets, bomb explosions and accidental shootings from jittery American soldiers. The Iraqi “silent majority” already believes our sole purpose is to steal their oil. We don’t have time to spare. The Bushies have already allowed many windows of opportunity to slam shut through their ineptness, while they have deliberately slammed others shut through ideological beliefs or plain spite. The Bushies’ actions and failures to act have already produced an irreversible loss of Iraqi confidence and reinforced the efforts of extremists who seek our defeat. In fact, the only opportunities the Bushies have successfully exploited were the opportunites to enrich themselves, their families and their friends. Your own complaints demonstrate that the Bushies are incapable of providing sound leadership. The “insufficient sense of urgency in Washington,” lack of political commitment, and a deliberately under-resourced reconstruction effort coupled with their glib efforts to stonewall the obvious need for more troops (troops we do not have) while gladhanding the public with rosy numbers of “allied” troops of inferior quality all prove the Bushies are out of their depth. Why should we avoid a debate over who “lost” Iraq? I say bring ‘em on. We need to examine in detail how the Bush administration failed to “transform our military success into political victory.” We need to understand how we arrived at this sorry juncture. We need healthy debate, so I can’t imagine why you’d want to avoid it – unless you and your Party have something to hide, of course. If you and your Republican colleagues wish to help extricate ourselves from the Bush quagmire, start by offering less Party discipline and more honesty. And John - can I call you John? – lay off the pretzels.