The Worst War in the World - a Sure Flop

[arendt]

The Worst War in the World - a Sure Flop
by arendt

..."Step 1: We find the worst play in the world -- a sure flop.
....Step 2: I raise a million dollars -- there's a lot of little old ladies in this world.
....Step 3: You go back to work on the books. Phoney lists of backers - one for the
................government, one for us.
....Step 4: We open on Broadway and, before you can say 'Step 5', we close on Broadway.
....Step 6: We take our million dollars and fly to Rio de Janiero.

....Ah, Rio, Rio by the sea-o, me-o, my-o, me-o ..."

........- Max Bialystock in "The Producers", by Mel Brooks

The occupation of Iraq is low comedy rewritten as high tragedy. In the forty years since "The Producers" debuted, Americans have gone from being intelligent cynics, who laughed knowingly at the con games of Max and Leo, to gullible morons, who are fleeced as easily as the little old ladies in the movie.

We don't yet have the definitive list of the sociopaths who set in motion "the worst war in the world" (somebody green-lighted Cheney to be VP), but they sure did follow Max Bialystock's plan. They got their detached-from-reality war script from a bunch of militaristic fruitcakes (PNAC - Paul Wolfowitz, et. al). They got the most incompetent "director" available for their war (Donald Rumsfeld). Finally, they got some drugged-out moron to play the role of a lovable leader (George W. Bush).

Even Poppy Bush walked away from the script for invading and occupying the political house of cards that was Iraq under Saddam. He knew the place was a sectarian powder keg held together only by the brutality of Saddam - after all, he was vice-president when Rumsfeld sold all the WMDs to Saddam.

Nevertheless, at this time, the plan is working just fine! The "little old ladies" (a.k.a., the American middle class taxpayers) have forked over $300 Billion; and brave American soldiers have signed up to be clay targets, sitting blindly in the middle of a civil war with inferior armor and thoroughly compromised tactical intelligence. Our "leaders" are in the process of agreeing to a "surge" that will waste more lives and money.

Meanwhile, the criminal looting and war profiteering has yet to even be investigated. Haliburton continues to get billions of dollars of heavily padded, no-bid contracts in spite of a long list of corrupt dealings and outright non-deliveries. We hear horror stories of vehicles with light damage being abandoned rather than salvaged, because Haliburton gets cost-plus on every new vehicle.

But "Max and Leo" (whoever they are) know their investors. After four years, the American people still refuse to admit they have been had - hook, line, and sinker - by the most treasonous scum to ever run the United States. The investors continue to pour in more cash to keep this turkey of a play running for a few more weeks in hopes that it "catches on" (i.e., the surge). Meanwhile, the Bush family is buying land just down the street from Rio, in Argentina. (You can't make up stuff like this!) The complicit corporate media remains in a state of denial about the fact that the Iraq War is the biggest, bloodiest scam of all time, that the United States has been looted, that its army and the entire country Iraq have been ruined - all to benefit a handful of war criminals and a handful of defense contractors.

When all the bills come in, a trillion US dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives will have been flushed in order for these crooks and traitors to pocket, maybe, one hundred billion dollars. (The oil price run-up has been worth tens of billions. We know that $9 billion just "vanished" in the "chaos" of the first six months in-country. No need to investigate, of course - just smear anyone who calls for an investigation, and fire and gag any whistle blowers.) Maybe that's why the die-hard supporters of this war, like Joe Lieberman and the war-lovers in the media, are so in denial. If the American public gets the slightest idea that this trainwreck of a war was a deliberate, for-profit, criminal enterprise, "Max and Leo" and anyone anywhere near them will die slow and painful deaths.

In closing, I feel the same way as Jon Stewart: "How can anyone satirize these shameless, barefaced liars?" Well, currently, I'm working on some lyrics for "Springtime for Ahmedinejad". One, two, three, kick, turn. One, two, three, kick, turn.

[indepat]

1. Suspect two or three hundred billion dollars would be more like it

[arendt]

2. Please clarify - is that the loot or the total cost? Cites? n/t

[indepat]

8. The amount of US dollars looted, stolen, misappropriated, doled out in overly-generous no-bid,

unlimited cost-overrun contracts to cronies and the amount of oil and artifacts el al stolen from Iraq. This does not include the incalculable wanton damage inflicted to the infrastructure and environment, the Iraqi economy and the human suffering. And tens of millions of idolatrous true-believers were chanting in unison 27 months ago: four more years, four more years! :crazy:

[flordehinojos]

3. arendt, when poppy bush says, "i support my son with all my being" ...

you really have to hear that as contrary to a lot of pundits who say he opposes his son.

i hear it as the old man being in support of the son .

which means the man supports the insanity.

the man supports the killings.

the man cries for the failure of the bush name to be recognized as great patricians or world leaders.

the man ... however, supports his son.

[arendt]

4. I wouldn't trust Poppy Bush if I had a gun to his head...

the man is a consummate manipulator and liar. He has dodged around his CIA
past for his entire career. He shills for Sun Myung Moon, gets paid around a half
million bucks for it, and nobody calls him on it.

What makes you believe that the bullshit he spouts in public about his son means
anything real? I doubt the man ever told the truth in public his whole life. (See:
Read my lips. No new taxes.)

However, that is not to say that Carlyle group does not support getting rich from
junior's misbeggoten war. They have, as the CIA calls it, "plausible deniability".

So, I say "watch what Poppy and his crime family do, not what they say." And, what
they have done is to send James (The Consiglieri) Baker to rein him (and Cheney) in.

arendt

[flordehinojos]

5. arendt, that is exactly my point, or my question, that i failed to make,

so, as you say, " "watch what Poppy and his crime family do, not what they say." And, what
they have done is to send James (The Consiglieri) Baker to rein him (and Cheney) in."

but for me, the question is, have they sent squeaky voice Baker to rein in Junior, or, to give the appearance that poppy is reining him in ... so as to give the bush name some further varnish which it never really had?

p.s. i always like to read your writings.

[arendt]

6. You are correct. I just can't think that convolutedly...

of course, the whole thing can be a farcical play to keep the Iraq money machine
going for Carlyle. And the distance between Poppy and Caligula can just be
"plausible deniability" as junior does things that Poppy wants to happen but doesn't
want to be associated with.

But, do you think that Carlyle is crazy enough to start something with Iran? Aren't
they happy enough to sell to both sides of the regional Sunni-Shia dust-up that
Negroponte manufactured in Iraq with his death squads?

Thanks for reminding me that I am not paranoid enough.

arendt

P.S. This essay was just something that crossed my mind. Clearly, the major focus
of DU right now is the incoming Congress and (unfortunately) the way premature
ejaculation about the 2008 presidential race. Given that my last two posts sank without
a ripple, its nice to know that some people still read them.

[flordehinojos]

9. arendt, dorothy walker taught her progeny, of which poppy was one, to always play to win but to

pretend not to want to win. hence the impetus for my previous question or doubt about poppy's intent and the iraq study group...

and, i do believe that sonny is doing things bush wants to have happen but does not want to be associated with. essentially, sonny is living out bush's "shadow". it sounds crazy, or paranoid but from a family who speaks schizophrenogenically, i doubt absolutely nothing.

as for Iran ... i don't know ... and as for the premature ejaculation of the 2008 presidential race:

"There is a lull. A certain empty hole, a something that brings no anodyne to mind when I think about how the propaganda media, the empty talking heads, are sweeping 2007 under the rug and fast forwarding the year to the end of 2008 when a new president is supposed to be elected. And yet, has the propaganda media been paying attention? It is Paul Levy who has said, "Bush has no intention of voluntarily leaving Iraq." Does anyone believe he has any intention of vacating the oval office?

The Bushes want power. They want power so bad they are willing to send 3,000 young men and women to their death without batting and eyelash. They are also willing to hang Saddam Hussein for crimes in which Hussein was their paid for accomplice. They want power so bad that the elder Bush has said that if Hillary runs he will beat the hell out of her if she runs.

There is so much to be settled in 2007 and to be made clear and yet, so many are already sweeping it under the rug. Treating it as an inconvenient comma, an inconvenient parenthesis wedged between 2006-a year for which we Americans have much to atone for-and 2008, a year of good expectations but only if we play our cards right.

I, unlike the bird chirping outside my window, start the new 2007 year, not with hope, but with a question in my heart.

Why is the propaganda media, and why are the talking heads, hiding 2007 away, locking it in some dungeon, away from light and away from life?"

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_teresa_s_070101_there_is_a_bird_chir.htm

[arendt]

11. Well, you've answered my question (who green-lighted Cheney for VP)...

>i do believe that sonny is doing things bush wants to have happen but does not want to be associated with.
> essentially, sonny is living out bush's "shadow". it sounds crazy, or paranoid but from a family who speaks
> schizophrenogenically, i doubt absolutely nothing.

> as for Iran ... i don't know

I really had thought that Poppy had finally "retired". I mean, the man is 80+ years old. How much more
does he want from the world?

But, he is playing for his progeny - hellspawn that they are. (I really like that story about Babs being the
illegitimate daughter of Allistair Crowley - and the amazing facial similarity!)

So, by your answer, the real "Max and Leo" is Poppy Bush. And, its just a coincidence that Caligula is
playing the lead role in this farce. Poppy is a total sociopath, who must get a kick out of tormenting
his own son, even as he uses him to accomplish his despciable goals.

What a nightmare.

arendt

[genie_weenie]

7. I like your analogy but

this play as been running non-stop since 1946. Sure the numbers seem staggering today compared to back then but much of that is due to devaluation of the Dollar.

IMO, Iraq is latest tour stop of the Military Industrial Complex theft of Trillions which has benefited from such worldwide stops as:

Greece 1946
Korea 1950
Guatemala 1954
Lebanon 1958
Dominican Republic 1965
Cuba
Vietnam
Grenada 1982
Panama 1989
Iraq 16 years and counting!!

And these are only the highlights. It's sad that many Americans don't realize that they need Husband and Wife to work full time jobs as well as part time in many cases in order to support the Masters of War.

[arendt]

10. Point taken (you left out Yugoslavia 1995-99); but...

Have you ever seen the level of utter INCOMPETENCE in execution of military/political operations
acheived by the BCFF?

I mean, usually, it is our intention to beat the enemy. But in Iraq, Rummy the Dummy deliberately
ignored the recommended force requirements. Bremer de-Baathified and disbanded the army
against all sane advice. Rummy couldn't even increase the production of body armor and well-armored
HUMVs.

This isn't your father's MIC!

These guys are either absolutely delusional, or crazy enough to use nukes (and hence, totally
unconcerned about any retaliation from the Middle East countries). Either way, to them, American
grunts are so much cannon fodder.

Therefore, I submit that, while the MIC is making some money on Iraq (and, not all that much,
BTW - the high-tech part of the MIC is getting screwed as all the money goes to beans and bullets),
it (the MIC) is not in control. The Neocon crazies seem to be in control. And that is why it has been
"Springtime for Saddam".

arendt