I recall Anthony Lewis in his NY Times column during the Nixon years saying that he finds himself wishing the North Vietnamese would inflict a defeat on HIS country. The issue for him was moral outrage. But I think it really was disappointment because he could not believe that this United States of America, his homeland that he cherished, would ever stoop so low in its war with Communism in the SE Asian front to wantonly kill civilians with abandon. Well, I cannot wish for an American defeat for I want our soldiers home out of harm's way and the killing in Iraq to stop-- that's not defeat. But I am hoping for a defeat that will cost us a lot. I want the original oil imperialism that brought the oil companies, Rumsfeld, Cheney and the neocons together to push Bush into a war on Iraq, one that, according to the Democrat Sen. Bob Graham, head of the Senate Committee, would cannibalize the search for binLaden, bringing him back "dead of alive," in the words of GW Bush, and destroy alQaeda; instead of "mission accomplished" in Afghanistan, we would be sending men and supplies to Iraq. Gen. Franks confessed it to him, insisting that our army was made to conquer territory, not catch fugitives.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/18/AR2005111802397_pf.htmlWell, it was then when I realized that the Afghan expedition was a ruse to fool Congress into funding a war on terror to get alQaeda but then cannibalize it in order to present Congress with a fait accompli in Iraq so that it had to fund our troops already there and couldn't be left defenseless. Then I realized what a corrupt and criminal regime runs this country at this critical post-9/11 time of crisis (one I supported body and soul in the 2000 election). I became a through for all sorts of information from people who knew but couldn't tell-- all bonified Republican conservatives who had supported Bush. What I didn't know is that Bush said "NO" to Rumsfeld when the latter asked to attack Iraq at Camp David in 2001. However, as I often pointed out, Rumsfeld possesses the "missing" Pentagon copies of Bush's Texas National Guard file-- a file that just might make his 2004 re-election improbable. That explained why whenever SecState Powell got Bush to agree with his military/diplomatic expert advise in the afternoon, SecDef Rumsfeld would visit the White House later in the evening and by the next day Bush the "decider's" mind was changed. The rest was easy: Rumsfeld would present Bush with a fait accompli and Bush simply had to "decide" that "yes, do what you want and I'll present Congress with a fait accompli." And that's how our UNdecider President allowed, not decided, us to go to war in Iraq.
So, we missed binLaden at Tora Bora because something MORE IMPORTANT took precedence, Iraq; and we kept missing Zarqawi on several occasions when the military had him in 2002 because Cheney called it off.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4431601In fact, Rumsfeld needed a war to become President in 2004, when that "putz" Bush would find the Presidency too stressful and would surely quit, insisted the neocons; the Zarqawi TERROR LINK was all they had to make their "regime change" in Iraq case.
But there was more, much more. There was that fountain of oil that was so "sweet" (high energy) and costs 1/10 of what it cost elsewhere to extract. As one expert said: "all you have to do is stick a straw in the ground there and it gushes out." So whenever the "decider" lost his spine, Rummy put fear of exposure into him and Cheney stiffened him with fatherly advice (sic): "get Saddam, end terror, bring democracy...Oh, and by the way, CHEAP OIL for our people's SUVs to make you a hero!"
What we're doing in Iraq was well described by the ASIA TIMES, making the case that Iraq is not South Korea because it's not defense, it's protecting "our" cheap oil:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JF20Ak03.htmlThere's a catch: NO Iraqis want another imperial occupation. So if they fought us out of insult these last six years, imagine how they'll fight us for oil. Even Maliki now insists no SOFA deal for permanent US bases:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061003415_pf.htmlOf course, a greedy cat never takes serious the protests of a mouse of whose tail his paw has a firm grasp; and so it is that the oil companies that gouge us today are sure they can rape Iraq tomorrow. So it is that in they go making "deals that you can't refuse" with the Iraqis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/world/middleeast/19iraq.html?ref=middleeast&pagewanted=printhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/19/AR2008061903232_pf.htmlHow is that Bush expects to win so much, so close to the end of his presidency? The answer if simple if he gets a THIRD TERM. And that's exactly what he will get in this land of thirsty SUVs if John McCain, a dying man with melanoma, gets elected for one term. But so bad is McCain's performance and so discredited are the Republicans that one can only wonder how?
The answer is by trying again. When Olmert came to Bush in March 2006 begging for an extra $10 billion because Israel's economy was sinking, Bush asked Olmert to do him a favor: attack Lebanon-->Syria--> Iran, knowing that Israel would be swamped by the time it hits Iran. Then, to save our dearest ally in the Mideast, Bush would go to war against Iran, once again presenting Congress with a fait accompli and letting AIPAC do the rest with the Democrat Congressmen it had bought-- all they need is a fait accompli so they don't suffer responsibility for decision making.
Olmert saw, when he got step in step #1, that he was in over his head and was man enough to pull back. But now, disgraced, about to be a convicted felon and facing disgraced loss of immunity, like Sharon before him when in a similar situation, he figures that there's nothing like a war to dissuade a Knesset vote of no confidence. And so, now no longer a "mensch" as in 2006, Olmert may well put all his eggs in the Bush basket, and, possibly attacking Iran:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/washington/20iran.html?hp=&pagewanted=printAmerica is on the edge of a cliff and no one will save it, so it must save itself. The citizens must say: NO, DEMOCRACY IS MORE DEAR THAN OIL!
It wasn't America Lewis wanted defeated in his wish, it was the Nixon machine that did get exposed for its evil side. Now is the time for Congress to act and defeat the evil men around the UNdecider that bows to the oil men because he is so spineless and so without any principles. That would not be an American defeat, it would be a American victory.