There comes a time when deceit and defiance must be seen for what they are. - Dick Cheney
We need a common enemy to unite us. - Condi Rice
Sigh. Some things just don't get better with age.
1885 - Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
1991 - South Africa repeals its racial separation and discrimination laws.
COINCIDENCE? I think NOT! Although it took SA a little too long.
From the Church of Ineffable Stupidity:
It was like a ballet, choreographed, organized, and plotted with obvious care. Starting on Saturday, and reaching a crescendo on Sunday, all of the plotters, designers, and architects of America's worst foreign policy fiasco since . . . well, forever, went on a full court press, pushing their hideous IraqNam agenda for a Round Three.
Round One, caused in part by Papa Bush and his choice of ambassadress to IraqNam, would have been a more popular and correct decision, but for the fact that Saddam honestly assumed that he had been given the green light to invade Kuwait by Papa Bush's staff. Proving how miscommunications can lead to dire results, we essentially instigated a war on Iraq and patrolled its skies for years to come in the aftermath. Worse yet, our apparent broken promises to the Kurds led to even more bloodshed and permanent unrest. Worst of all, the adverse impact here and abroad continued into the early part of the new century. That Little IraqNami Invasion told the Kurds up north, that we were not worthy of their trust, it told Iran that we were a viper ready to attack countries for reasons that made no logical sense (See Israel's behind the scenes pushing of Congress, generally), AND, it allowed local neo conservative and warmongering assholes in the US & A (Neocon, PNAC, and other traitorous, treasonous, evil war profiteering bullies) to argue that, "We HAVE to finish the job we started!"
Even George Bush the Wth, with his unfortunate decision to leave the White House VP choice to some snake name Cheney, eventually said that God told him to invade IraqNam. I personally think that it was Cheney, who probably installed secret speakers behind the president's desk, and claimed that he was God, whispering to Bush privately.
Round Two was predicted to be a failure by several in the military, in the Pentagon, in State, and in the Intelligence industry. Each and every person with any dissent or uncomfortable view (meaning they did not automatically lay down, roll over, obey, and fetch on command) was sat upon, shat upon, and eventually pushed out of the way.
The State's nifty and extremely accurate Intel service (which caught things that NSA and CIA missed) was unceremoniously shut down. NSA was bribed and pushed, and suddenly found itself with great new toys, including domestic surveillance without warrants. Every call, every email, every website visit.
CIA saw the politicization of its activities, eventually leading to a war-mongering political whore named Porter Goss (2004-2006) to take over and drive the CIA into the mud, and quite possibly into unimaginable war crimes.
Essentially, Cheney managed to control what and how made it out into America's psyche from the intel side. It no longer mattered who voted, nor Stalin's "Who Counts the votes." No, this was even worse, this was an unheard of, unimaginable and unforgivable propaganda-like attack on the news and information that people got. It did not stop with intel.
Round Two also resulted in a concerted, sustained, and exceptionally successful attack on the media. It wasn't just a paid stenographer like Judy Miller (who was leaked stories by Cheney's staff, and who reported them almost verbatim, leading to Cheney's staff to use her reports as justification that their policies were the only ones we could follow) or other puppets in too many newspapers, TV outlets, and magazines to count here. It wasn't just the attacks, sometimes overt on news folks who did not toe the company line. It was even more far-reaching and devious, including an "Embed" program that kept total control over the US media and kept the far more dire and bloody realities in IraqNam and Afghanistan from ever reaching US eyes and ears. By controlling all aspects of news coming out of two war zones, America was largely immunized from the battle results. Even corpses coming back from war were hidden from view, and photographers who tried to publish their arrival back home were prosecuted and punished.
- - - -
All in all, our forays into the Muddle East have mostly been failures from the start. But unlike Daddums' quick victory over specific, yet limited areas on the northern and southern portions of IraqNam (And deliberately avoiding any invasion of Baghdad) Boy W, Rumsfeld and Cheney screwed up royally with Round Two. First, they removed needed troops from Afghanistan, leading to a complete disaster (and Osama's escape) in that poor war torn country. Next, they invaded IraqNam with so few troops that it caused far more death and destruction than had we used the numbers initially recommended by the Pentagon. It also led to turmoil, growing resistance, mob actions (see generally, Iraq's formerly wonderful museum), violence between different groups of Muslims, and worse.
But those moves weren't bad enough. Cheney Bush had to make it worse. And they did. They destroyed and shut down the IraqNam military, causing hundreds of thousands of armed, unfed, unpaid, and angry men to suddenly lose their jobs and careers. They destroyed the Baath party, the only functioning political organization in the country. They threw out every professional with the slightest tie to Saddam (Which meant everyone because Saddam had created ties with every field and profession) and they forced unworkable political solutions on a country with no history or knowledge of how such solutions were to work. So they failed.
All in all, IraqNam was a failure from the start, and our policies actually made a really bad situation worse.
- - - -
So why the headline for this diary? Because of the difference in how America is responding to the proposed Round Three by the very PNAC and Neocons that caused so much trouble in Round Two.
Slate, Salon, WaPo, NYT, Chi-Trib, Chi-Suntimes, and a whole slew of moderate and liberal blogs responded to the PNAC offensive with aplomb and disdain. Instead of a cowered, shivering, yellow-bellied, fearful acquiescence to the Cheney-Bush war plans, even democrats are standing up and saying no.
I wasn't sure we would ever see such sanity on America's political stage. (I still shudder when I think back on Dick Durbin, who learning of FBI, CIA, and US military torture of prisoners in the Muddle East, stood up in the Senate to demand, "How can we, AMERICA, be doing this? This is stuff that Nazis did. We cannot act like this." The responses were horrific. He was told to resign, he was insulted, castigated, verbally assaulted, and attacked until he withdrew his comments and apologized for them. It was disgusting how the body politic, especially the GOP and the White House reacted)
Yet, even CNN got into the act, with Erin Burnett reading the proverbial riot act to one of the architects of Round Two's disasters. Hell, it isn't just the regular media, it is the regular people - in fact a majority are looking the the PNACers and saying, "Are you EFFING kidding me?"
My only fear is that the NeoCons and PNAC still have some sway with the current White House, and that their demands for mobilization and re-invasion are met by Obama. And I do fear a general disaster throughout the Muddle East, which would lead to an Israeli strike against Iran. But, I am glad to see that rationality, not nationality, bias, hatred, fear, religion, lies, deception, greed, war-mongering, are at the basis of America's most recent stance on IraqNam.
Then again, I may yet be unpleasantly surprised. After all, today's GOP went after a general for telling the truth. Then, when he begged for more money to help cover the medical needs of our vets, they said no. Afterwards, once the lack of money and investment caused massive delays, even deaths of our vets, they blamed the general. With logic like that, their performances (especially Graham and McCain) were to be expected. I just hope that their busted arguments are busted again.