BLUMENTHAL: "a Situation Room of the mind" (MUST read!)

[nostamj]

Clinging to happy talk
Bush says elections will bring democracy to Iraq, but that is as unrealistic as all his other now-disproved rosy scenarios.

By Sidney Blumenthal

<snip>
President Bush clings to good news and happy talk, such as the number of school openings in Iraq. Those with gloomy assessments are not permitted to appear before him. The president is spared agonizing. He orders no meetings on options based on worst-case scenarios. The senior military strategists and officers are systematically ignored. Suppression of contrary "metrics" is done in his name and spirit. Bush makes his decisions from a self-imposed bunker, a Situation Room of the mind, where ideological fantasies substitute for reality.

"I think elections will be such an incredibly hopeful experience for the Iraqi people ... And I look at the elections as a -- as a -- you know, as a -- as -- as a historical marker for our Iraq policy," Bush proclaimed last week. His statement was prompted by remarks made last week by Brent Scowcroft, his father's national security advisor and alter ego. Summarily fired as chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Scowcroft went public with his views at a lunch sponsored by a Washington think tank. The Iraq election, he said, has "deep potential for deepening the conflict," acting as an impetus to civil war. He reflected sadly that being a "realist" has become a "pejorative." "A road map is helpful if you know where you are," he said.

Scowcroft was joined by Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security advisor, who spelled out the minimal metrics for winning the Iraq war -- 500,000 troops, $500 billion, a military draft and a wartime tax -- and added that it would take at least 10 years. Unwillingness to pay this essential price while continuing on the current path would be a sign of "decadence."

Bush speaks of the Iraq election as though it will be the climax of democracy. But by failing to provide for Sunni presence in the new government -- proportional representation would easily have accomplished this -- it is as ill-conceived a blunder as invading with a light force, disbanding the Iraqi army, attacking Fallujah, halting the attack and finally destroying the city in order to save it, Vietnam style. The British had proposed local elections, beginning in southern Iraq, but Bush's Coalition Provisional Authority rejected the idea. According to disillusioned former CPA official Larry Diamond, "One British official lamented to me, the 'CPA didn't want anything to happen that they didn't control.'"

Bush, meanwhile, works on his second inaugural address to be delivered next week....

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[Nothing Without Hope]

1. Bush's Bubble is not new. The question is what to do about it

We tried to get him out of office. Election is no longer required for selection of B* cartel candidates. So impeachment has to be sought.

In the meantime, the Repubs currently control all three branches of govt. Their ranks include some reasonably intelligent and not wholly corrupt people. So why can't they see that B* is heading merrily along the road to total destruction of the country? Surely that's against their interests? And if they do see, how long before their fear of reprisal from the cartel can be overcome by their fear of the increasingly disastrous damage to the US and the world by these bubble-based policies? They aren't ALL believers that the End of the World is a good thing because it means Jesus will come back and escort them personally to heaven while the rest of us suffer in torment forever.

I mean, this Emperor has NEVER had clothes and now no one with any brains at all can even IMAGINE he has clothes. Because the consequences of his behavior are so grave, what will it take for key people in the administration to turn back to reality?

[DELUSIONAL]

2. The moderate Republicans appear to be kept in line

by the hard right wingers.

Witness Sen. Sphincter who wanted to avoid the abortion litmus test for Judges -- he had to back down and toe the hard right line in order to keep in chairmanship of the committee.

bush would have to have a complete MAJOR break with reality -- in public in prime time before the moderates would be able to pull together and scream that bushie is stark raving naked.

[Nothing Without Hope]

3. One alternative: B* & his policies become so unpopular...

...that the congressional members would begin to fear a voters' backlash. Election fraud can only stretch so far, and voter suppression isn't going to be as easy next time. Powerful committee chairmanships and political favors don't mean squat if you lose your seat.

So we keep coming back to getting the word out about what is really going on, building support for resistance to these horrible policies and to the corrupted election process.

[nostamj]

4. tooo good to fall off sooo sooon

[nostamj]

5. .