Three months into the Final Escalation: we are done.

[Warren Stupidity]

There should be no doubt even among the neoclown dead-enders and bushist holdouts that their decision to ignore the lifeline thrown to them by Bush-daddy's Iraq Study Group, their decision to escalate rather than negotiate, their decision to stay the course again, has failed.

Once again.

And that failure is not because our troops were poorly trained, although they are as they are now being rushed into Iraq without proper preparation. That failure is not because our troops are still inadequately equipped: four years into the war, the regular army of the richest nation on the planet still doesn't have the equipment it is supposed to have. That failure is not because of the vast corruption engaged in by the bushists with their merc army funneling billions back to the corporate backers of the regime while maintaining the fiction that the private sector is delivering better service.

The failure is and always has been a foregone conclusion. The failure of the worst foreign policy blunder in our lifetimes was cast in concrete with the decision to topple the Iraqi regime back in 2002 (or was it 1998?) That decision was based on a fatally flawed analysis and world view, a view of American Triumphalism that saw the end of the Cold War as the golden opportunity to accomplish the dream of madmen that has plagued our civilization since Alexander.

The neoclown cabal sought to conquer the world and the world once again is going to pay a horrible price for the same tired foolish dream.

The final escalation has failed. We are done. Again. How many times now has the plan failed? What mode of the excuse will they trot out this time?

We are done, but what we have done is not finished. Yes indeed our failure in Iraq will have terrible consequences. The dying really has just gotten started.

[JeffR]

1. A powerful post

though I suspect this escalation will be anything but final as long as Preznit Miscreant continues to squat in the Oval Office. He'll do this again, given the chance.

[cliss]

8. Oh, you got that right.

I've read the PNAC Manifesto. They have SO many plans for the rest of us. Iraq was only bus stop #35 on the way to Global Military Supremacy. They would spare NOTHING to achieve that goal - nothing. What's a few million lives?

The plan was to "remake" the entire Middle East so it would be completely subjugated. If we "owned" the ME, we would rule the world by proxy because the world runs on Oil. We would effectively rule China & India because that is the Black, beating heart which the entire world runs on.

Or so they thought.

[Double T]

2. Where have all the billions and billions of dollars gone spent on this.......

'war'. Sure was not spent on arming and providing protective gear and equipment for our troops. Sure wasn't spent on rebuilding Iraq. So where did it all go??? bush has maintained a perfect record as an absolute failure. bush and cheney and their henchmen alone are to blame for the destruction of Iraq and the ultimate destruction of the USA. And still they are allowed to govern, it is unbelievable.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. Get thee to the greatest

Excellent post.

[TahitiNut]

4. A corrupt policy invented by those who've only ridden in parades ..

... and never ridden into battle - people who shoot off their mouths and never had to shoot back to survive, people who've only taken their own 10% instead of a buddy's 6. It's as easy for these people to spend other people's lives as it is for them to spend money other people earned.

[Gregorian]

5. Check, please!

Oh, I don't know how I'm going to pay for this one.


It's all wrong on so many levels, as you point out.

A war to shift the balance of wealth. A shift within our country, and withing the international community. One that we actually paid for ourselves. How circular is that?


I think circular is the word for this administration. Right on down to the upcoming circular firing squad.

Oh Henry. Waxman that is.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Bring the troops home and send in the lawyers

Because we are going to need them. Lots of lawyers.

Don

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. Isn't the propaganda saying that we still need a lot more time?

It's officially an open ended commitment according to jr.

[Lasher]

9. Yes, they're saying the 'surge', AKA escallation, will be extended

Just like the neocons initially sold us a bill of goods with an illusion of a brief involvement, it doesn't seem like the latest buildup will be as 'temporary' as advertised.

They painted a rosy picture to get us into this war, and once they got their war they immediately switched their rhetoric to predictions of a long hard slog. You would think they would at least come up with a new pack of lies.

From 2003:

* Feb. 7, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to U.S. troops in Aviano, Italy: "It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

* March 4, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a breakfast with reporters: "What you'd like to do is have it be a short, short conflict. . . . Iraq is much weaker than they were back in the '90s," when its forces were routed from Kuwait.

* March 11, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars: "The Iraqi people understand what this crisis is about. Like the people of France in the 1940s, they view us as their hoped-for liberator."

* March 16, Vice President Cheney, on NBC's Meet the Press: "I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators....I think it will go relatively quickly,...(in) weeks rather than months." He predicted that regular Iraqi soldiers would not "put up such a struggle" and that even "significant elements of the Republican Guard...are likely to step aside."

http://www.usatoday.com/educate/war28-article.htm

[radfringe]

10. What mode of the excuse will they trot out this time?

Not so much as an Excuse, but rather a Game of Pin the Blame

--bush says he listens to the Generals on the ground, so it's their fault

-Since the Dems are calling for accountability, re-deployment, and have been accused of holding up funds - it will be their fault

The gist of what's happening now is a ploy of running out the clock. the Loyal Bushies feel if we withdraw from Iraq it would signal a defeat for "bush, the war president". Things have to be dragged out long enough to dump the problem on the next president and then it becomes his/her fault we "lost the war in Iraq"

If we are out of Iraq and should/when another terror attack hits us here at home during the next presidency - the GOPer cry will be "SEE!!! THEY FOLLOWED US HOME"

[EFerrari]

11. The Democrats are doing a good job of repeating

the point that "the American people want a new direction". I've been impressed with how clearly and consistently they are putting out this message. It's harder to blame Democrats if they are doing the will of the voters.