Irony on the rocks with a twist...

In a nationally televised address to the American people, President George W. Bush proved beyond a shadow of a doubt the sheer depth of his ineptitude by announcing plans to send a “force surge” of 20,000 more troops to Iraq. This completely predictable decision not only defies logic, but Bush’s own military advisors don’t support it; most troops already on the ground in Iraq don’t support it, the democrats do not support it, even members of his own party are divided over it. If this wasn’t enough to give the President pause for consideration, perhaps the fact that he doesn’t even have the support of the majority of the American People, for whom he supposedly “serves.” Alas, never to be the one who caves into advice, nor political pressures, not even the demands of the people he serves, nothing shall deter Bush from his self-anointed role as: “The Decider.” Had all those mindless drones who voted for him (many twice) bothered to check his credentials before 2000, they would probably be puking from the irony that W’s only true talent in life lies in his absolute inability to make an intelligent, well-reasoned, and cohesive, decision on his own, (although he does seem to show skill in the area of running up debts and getting people killed).

The U.S. invasion Iraq was a complete failure even before it began. It does not bode well for politicians to base an unprovoked military invasion of a sovereign nation upon a series of ethical blunders predicated by a deep seeded obsession to morph the invasion and occupation of Iraq into the greater “War on Terror,” such as: “cooking prewar intelligence,” telling a complete pack of lies, and the absolute failure to properly plan for the inevitable chaos that occurs when one topples a government. These vast failures have gotten Americans and Iraqis killed folks. Bush’s justifications for the Iraq incursion was focused solely upon spinning a relentless succession of phantom fears and menaces, and the American people bought it. We have nothing to show for our dead, and the Iraqis have at least as many graves to dig as they did before we invaded.

It should be noted that basic military strategy dictates that an invading military and occupation force must do everything in its power to win the hearts and minds of the people in the country they invade, otherwise, all they are doing is inviting partisans, counter-insurgents, and anyone else in the neighborhood that may have a grudge, to start attacking them by any and all means necessary (note the striking similarities between this scenario and what’s been happening in Iraq). A failure to win the hearts and minds of the people isn’t going to be corrected by adding troops; it’s only going to make the enemy that much more determined to make remaining in place unbearable for the troops on the ground, and the families at home watching them on TV. Thanks to the policies of President Bush, not only is our nation less safe than it was six years ago, but the world at large is far less safe. When a leader makes poor decisions that affect the lives of millions of people and nobody , it is bad enough, when that leader continues to make poor decisions after just about everyone around him has advised against it, that’s downright dangerous.

For far too long, it seems, Bush has surrounded himself with “yes-men,” who have told him only what he wanted to hear and did not bother him with any “troublesome facts.” People who voiced dissent, or wouldn’t “play ball,” were ever-so-quietly shown the door. Objecting or voicing opinions concerning policy decisions seems to be frowned upon in the Bush Administration. Bush himself admitted he didn’t bother watching the news, or reading the newspaper, because his staff told him all he needed to know. This is the beginning of the kind self-deceptive denial that can cause even great men to become megalomaniacs, imagine what this does to a not-even mediocre man, whose only claim to fame is having been born into a prosperous, powerful, and influential family with a checkered past? It is not difficult to see that not only was Bush the wrong person for the job seven years ago, but he has demonstrated a serious lack of leadership, class, and style, since then. Bush has permitted Iraq to become his “Political albatross,” and he seems determined to hang himself with it. So be it.

In essence, Bush’s failure in Iraq is part of a much larger historical misconception that has plagued U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East for nearly 50 years: political expediency and military strategy are totally incompatible with one another. In order to successfully invade another nation, one must “Win the hearts and minds of the people.” This is impossible when the politicians in charge don’t take into account the consequences of cultural, tribal, and religious differences in the battle plan before they order the invasion. Most troubling is the fact that most of our elected officials haven’t troubled themselves to discover the difference between a Sunni and Shiite. It also doesn’t take any sort of military genius to figure out that occupying another nation is bound to breed the kind of insurgency we’re experiencing in Iraq; if nothing else, the insurgency our troops faced in Vietnam should have taught us this lesson (oops, I forgot, Bush “skipped” that war).

The more I consider just how stark and dismal Bush’s failures have been, the more his willingness to buck everyone who believes more troops can’t solve this problem troubles me. The situation in Iraq started out bad and has never gotten better. Giving our enemy more targets to shoot at and blow up seems ludicrous to any right-thinking human being. My greatest fear is that this asshole may just be willing to sacrifice more American lives in a vain attempt to stave off the inevitable withdrawal from Iraq until 2008, so he can dump the problems he created on his predecessor. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was not only illegal, but his justifications were pure fabrications. Our subsequent occupation of Iraq has degenerated into a civil war with our troops caught in the crossfire. Bush’s latest strategy in Iraq has little chance of doing anything but getting more of our people killed. It is time to pull our troops out of harm’s way and let the Iraqi people settle their differences the way they’ve been doing it for thousands of years. It is time for Congress to stand up and remind George W. Bush that being President does not give him unlimited powers, that he is answerable to the other branches of government, and ultimately, the American people, for his continued poor judgment in Iraq.

TANSTAAFL!