Ignoring the Past

Bush's war on Iraq, it seems to me, might never have happened had someone in the Bush administration cracked open a book and bothered to look at the last hundred years or so of Iraqi history. The parallels between Bush's war and the British occupation after WWI are striking. They were there for the oil, and so are we. They ignored thousands of years of history and culture, and so did we. They cared little for the Iraqi people, and neither do we. The British failed to recognize that Iraqis had learned, over millennia, that occupying forces are never benign and will not be accepted. Did BushCo fail to learn from Britain's abysmal failures in Iraq, or did they just not care?

Incoherent foreign policy, driven belatedly by politics, is a hallmark characteristic of the Bush administration. So what are we to make of recent indications that the U.S. is planning to reduce its military forces in Iraq? Is this a sign of a thought-out policy decision, or is it politics as usual? Hmm, well, who stands to gain by beginning a draw-down by mid-2006? Hey, aren't there some midterm elections that year? Must be a coincidence.

Right.

The 2006 midterm elections are crucial to maintaining the administration's death-grip on America. Losing just a few seats in congress opens the door for real investigations, and dare I say it, impeachment proceedings, and at the very least ensures two years of serious lame-duck status for the boy king.

Note to Bush: those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

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