DIGGING DEEPER
By Ivan G. Goldman
Critics of the White House’s Iraq policy contend a civil war is already in progress over there. Bush and his handlers say not so fast, cowardly pessimists. It’s just a “young” democracy ironing out a few wrinkles. That's the latest talking point put together by the Bushelbubs, following other detours around inconvenient truths such as “stay the course,” “central front in the war on terror,” and “cut and run Democrats." Once they decide on a specific phrase, they follow the rhetorical steps as precisely as members of a Vegas chorus line.
But for once the kleptocratic androids chosen to mouth these Cheney-vetted absurdities are correct. That’s not a civil war in Iraq, but a series of two-way slaughters – a kind of slow-motion Auschwitz that’s simultaneously manned by opposing sides.
A civil war involves things like battles, firefights, soldiers fighting soldiers -- something we rarely see among Iraqis. A typical scenario goes more like this:
Shiite murderers get the drop on a group of Sunni civilians waiting for a bus, abduct, torture, kill them, and dump the bodies someplace they’ll be easily found. They like to let others see their handiwork. Then the Sunnis retaliate by convincing a teen-ager to leave this world for the pleasure of 72 virgins by blowing up a mosque. And so on. An actual civil war would be ugly enough, but these guys make civil war look like a tulip festival.
We all know what we’re seeing. The question is what to do about it. How's this? Call a taxi and go home. The longer we stay, the worse it gets. The presence of our troops, as British General Richard Dannett recently pointed out, only exacerbates the slaughter. His reference was confined to British troops because he’s in charge of the British army. It’s up to America to recognize that Dannett’s astute interpretation of reality is a tailored suit that fits our situation exactly.
Yes, America set the fire, and it’s a damn, dirty shame. Maybe next time we’ll elect better leaders. In the meantime, we just have to let the Iraqis work it out for themselves, and no, that won’t be pretty. The Downing Street Memo informed us that the chicken hawks who run U.S. policy fixed the facts and intelligence around their bizarre blitzkrieg. Tony Blair couldn't refute the memo because there were too many witnesses in the room. Its revelations dwarf a long string of evidence that the Bushmen were already planning to invade Iraq when they took office. Among witnesses to step forward were the Administration's first Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill -- not exactly a Bolshevik. He ratted them out before the '04 election, but most of the electorate just didn't care.
When their Iraq policy collapsed on them, the Bushoramusses had no backup strategy so they just kept on doing the same thing. And they'll keep on doing it until we cut the cord on these vicious imbeciles.
We have troops in Iraq only because our criminally inept Administration refuses to admit making the worst foreign policy error in our history. It’s killing people for nothing, including our own sons and daughters. We can send for them now or wait ten years and many thousands of lives later. The result will be the same.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Sunday, October 01, 2006
RATS IN THE HOUSE
DIGGING DEEPER
By Ivan G. Goldman
Republicans in Congress have no energy policy, won't surrender to science on global warming, they undermine worker safety, poison our air and water, blow holes in the budget, and have no plan for Iraq or the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan beyond simplistic, meaningless slogans. They refuse to accept the Geneva Convention, and don't even make a peep about our disgraceful health care non-system.
But they do have a moral policy. Yes, and thousands of pastors agree that their Democratic opponents are immoral trash who, at the quickly approaching End of Times, will roast in everlasting patriotic fire that’s delicious to contemplate. Oddly enough, those same pastors will still agree that a vote for the GOP is a vote for virtue even after they’ve been informed that House Republicans covered up sexual crimes for years, staying a course that could have been designed by the North American Man Boy Love Association.
Rep. Foley’s explicit instant messaging is on its very face a felony. Even if he didn’t consummate the deal with the objects of his desire, attempted seduction of minors is a criminal offense. If a dirty old man cruises a schoolyard, tries to entice kids into his vehicle and then is scared off before he can reel one in, the law does not let him off. In fact, various police departments around the country have assigned detectives to pose as minors on the Internet, then arrested and convicted men for precisely the same pedophiliac practices that Foley left as evidence. And there’s no more Johnny Cochran to turn to.
Think what the mass media would do if, say, Democrat Nancy Pelosi had joined a sexual-crime conspiracy and then continued passing around campaign funds connected to its principal offender. The Republican leaders will suffer a more limited media assault by comparison, but it’s difficult to see how Hastert and Company can slither away. Individuals aware of an ongoing crime who refuse to report it can be brought to justice as part of a conspiracy. Their best hope is that they are being investigated by the already-compromised FBI, a vassal of torture-happy Attorney General Gonzalez.
Meanwhile, the White House is cracking apart – one revelation after another. It’s like turning on the light and seeing a billion cockroaches running off in different directions. Recently we discovered, for example, that the White House threw a billion dollars in tax money at golf buddies to put together a national reading program for children based on disproved crackpot ravings. It this was an Administration of grown-ups, the story would get play. But reporters faced with this corrupt gang of lying, maniacal bullies are stymied. Where to begin? Nobody asks the Hell's Angels how they handle their dues. Besides, when someone's burning up $6 billion a year in the pointlessness of Iraq, it feels small to look at details. People are dying, empires falling, and we just wriggled out of the Geneva Convention to provide cover for the war crimes of Prince George and his civilian baronets.
This time the Republicans may not be able to steal enough votes, and if they can’t, look out for investigations, subpoenas, indictments, and cornered criminals lining up to squeal on each other. Because after all, ratting each other out is the moral thing to do.
By Ivan G. Goldman
Republicans in Congress have no energy policy, won't surrender to science on global warming, they undermine worker safety, poison our air and water, blow holes in the budget, and have no plan for Iraq or the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan beyond simplistic, meaningless slogans. They refuse to accept the Geneva Convention, and don't even make a peep about our disgraceful health care non-system.
But they do have a moral policy. Yes, and thousands of pastors agree that their Democratic opponents are immoral trash who, at the quickly approaching End of Times, will roast in everlasting patriotic fire that’s delicious to contemplate. Oddly enough, those same pastors will still agree that a vote for the GOP is a vote for virtue even after they’ve been informed that House Republicans covered up sexual crimes for years, staying a course that could have been designed by the North American Man Boy Love Association.
Rep. Foley’s explicit instant messaging is on its very face a felony. Even if he didn’t consummate the deal with the objects of his desire, attempted seduction of minors is a criminal offense. If a dirty old man cruises a schoolyard, tries to entice kids into his vehicle and then is scared off before he can reel one in, the law does not let him off. In fact, various police departments around the country have assigned detectives to pose as minors on the Internet, then arrested and convicted men for precisely the same pedophiliac practices that Foley left as evidence. And there’s no more Johnny Cochran to turn to.
Think what the mass media would do if, say, Democrat Nancy Pelosi had joined a sexual-crime conspiracy and then continued passing around campaign funds connected to its principal offender. The Republican leaders will suffer a more limited media assault by comparison, but it’s difficult to see how Hastert and Company can slither away. Individuals aware of an ongoing crime who refuse to report it can be brought to justice as part of a conspiracy. Their best hope is that they are being investigated by the already-compromised FBI, a vassal of torture-happy Attorney General Gonzalez.
Meanwhile, the White House is cracking apart – one revelation after another. It’s like turning on the light and seeing a billion cockroaches running off in different directions. Recently we discovered, for example, that the White House threw a billion dollars in tax money at golf buddies to put together a national reading program for children based on disproved crackpot ravings. It this was an Administration of grown-ups, the story would get play. But reporters faced with this corrupt gang of lying, maniacal bullies are stymied. Where to begin? Nobody asks the Hell's Angels how they handle their dues. Besides, when someone's burning up $6 billion a year in the pointlessness of Iraq, it feels small to look at details. People are dying, empires falling, and we just wriggled out of the Geneva Convention to provide cover for the war crimes of Prince George and his civilian baronets.
This time the Republicans may not be able to steal enough votes, and if they can’t, look out for investigations, subpoenas, indictments, and cornered criminals lining up to squeal on each other. Because after all, ratting each other out is the moral thing to do.
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