From
Scrutiny Hooligans (source links available there):
How are things going in the New Iraq? According to Donald 'fallen from grace' Rumsfeld, we can win! This is a relief, because there have been so many voices telling us just the opposite... wait... no there haven't. Donald 'taking the heat so the President won't have to' Rumsfeld's 'army we have' comment has given the Bush administration a great new justification for asking for $80,000,000,000 in additional Iraq spending - It's for armor! Cool. Now that we've taken care of that whole 'rushed to war with no exit strategy, I mean, with no armor' meme, it's time to help the Iraqis learn how we do things in a budding democracy.
First, all your oils are belong to us: "The United States is helping the interim Iraqi government continue to make major economic changes, including cuts to social subsidies, full access for U.S. companies to the nation's oil reserves and reconsideration of oil deals that the previous regime signed with France and Russia.
During a visit here this week, officials of the U.S.-backed administration detailed some of the economic moves planned for Iraq, many of them appearing to give U.S. corporations greater reach into the occupied nation's economy.
For example, the current leadership is looking at privatizing the Iraqi National Oil Company, said Finance Minister Adil Abdel Mahdi.
The government, which is supposed to be replaced after elections scheduled for January, will also pass a new law that will further open Iraq's huge oil reserves to foreign companies. U.S. firms are expected to gain the lion's share of access in a process estimated to be worth billions of dollars."
Cuban leader Fidel 'Outlived seven U.S. presidents' Castro, obviously unaware of the advantages of handing over his nation's oil to private U.S. oil conglomerates thinks he's struck oil - known by Bushes as 'Texas Tea': "a crude oil deposit has been discovered off Cuba containing up to 100 million barrels, good news for a country that imports about half the petroleum it needs."
But I digress. With support for the Iraq war at an all-time low, news that Powell urged additional troops, food shortages across the embattled nation, and aid agencies calling for U.S. withdrawal - it's good to know that we are willing to be there for the long haul.
If only that nasty Mr. Bush weren't busy fueling the insurgency:
"The coalition's persistent inability to deliver a popular political message, its failures to use economic aid effectively, have continued to aid the insurgents,'' Anthony Cordesman, a security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former senior Defense Department official, wrote in a report this week on Iraq's insurgency."
[...]
"He [Marine Colonel Thomas Hammes] says history shows that most insurgencies, whether the Vietnamese against the French and later the US, or the Afghans against the Soviets, last from 10 to 30 years. He says he sees no reason why Iraq is any different, but worries the American public was ill-prepared for this by the rosy Administration pronouncements for most of the war."
[...]
"The original notion that Iraq was going to be a model for the region, of open government, of a liberal, free-market economy, isn't an achievable goal anymore."
Bush hopes to declare victory after the Iraqi election and move the American attention to radical domestic policy while gearing up for the next war. Judging from the mealy-mouthed democratic leadership, he'll get to do just that. But let's not pretend that the Iraq invasion has been successful in any way other than jailing one bearded megalomaniac at the expense of creating hundreds of thousands of disciples of another bearded megalomaniac.
I hold George W. Bush personally responsible for the death of every Iraqi civilian killed since the invasion began, the death of every American military person, and the loss of the trust of the world. The killers behind terrorism across the world could never have acheived their current prominent status as warriors without Bush's aid and comfort.