Iraq course bound to end badly

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel19.html

Every time our smirking, swaggering, stubborn, dishonest president promises "to stay the course" in Iraq I feel sick, especially when, dressed in a sport shirt and standing comfortably under the blue Texas sky, he comments on the deaths in Iraq. Young men and women are dying, being maimed, suffering psychological trauma which will haunt them for the rest of their lives. All the president can do is mouth cliches.

What does "stay the course" mean? At one time it meant "regime change." Then it came to mean "weapons of mass destruction," then it meant "war on terror." Now apparently it means an Iraq that is "democratic and free." Even for someone of the president's limited knowledge of history, that is nonsense. How many Arab countries are currently both free and democratic -- from Mauritania to Saudi Arabia? Not a one. Does that not suggest that it would be impossible for the United States to impose on Arab culture what we mean by freedom and democracy? In fact, how many Muslim countries can boast of Western-style civil society and democracy? Turkey, maybe, at least up to a point. Iran? Pakistan? Bangladesh? Indonesia? Does that suggest that in its present form Islamic culture is not conducive to what we mean by democracy?

Have Karl Rove and Condoleezza Rice told that to the president?

In Iraq even as the president babbles about "staying the course," the Shiite majority is struggling to create an Islamic republic on the Iranian model, more moderate, perhaps, but still a theocratic state in which the mullahs have supreme power -- and women have almost no rights at all. Indeed "staying the course" seems to mean fighting Iran's war against Iraq with Chinese money (which pays for the part of the national debt the war is piling up through the purchase of American treasury notes).

[whistle]

1. What does "stay the course" mean? Well, as I see it...

- U.S troops remain as an occupation force of 135,000 plus of minus as required;

- Forced draft on the volunteer force already assigned to Iraq/Afghanistan;

- Staying in the area until the conflict accelerates and new invasions of other territories can be justified;

- Loosing at least 3 or 4 American soldiers daily;

- Grieving mothers and families and relatives and friends who have lost loved ones in this conflict and who are given no comfort from the President Bush;

- Thousands of disabled veterans returning home with no compensation or help from this administration for their sacrifice;

- Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens being killed and maimed by our occupation forces through retaliation attacks, torture and the U.S. military policy of ignoring the Geneva War Conventions;

- Official propaganda, free press censorship and reporter assassinations to prevent Americans from knowing what is really happening in Iraq;

- Spending $500,000,000.00 daily to maintain the course with an unlimited open line of credit to spend any amount the administration wants without accountability;

- Building permanent military installations (fortresses) in Iraq as strategic bases for controlling the region and invading other countries;

- Allowing and awarding military contractors (i.e. Halliburton) non-competitive bids without accountability;

- Installing a puppet government to do the bidding of the U.S in Iraq and calling the country free;

- Maintaining death squads to eliminate all political opposition to the U.S. occupation.

That's just some of the things that go through my mind when I hear rethuglicans say "stay the course".

[mmonk]

2. Democracy is just a word

for the party's cult base and it's controlled media. We cannot expect to win politically until we return to as
free and uncoerced press for the mainstream. We cannot expect to win until things go too badly for them to hide. Unfortunately, that is where we are. It's very difficult to steer this situation into a positive ending without the truth being exposed now.