by Hazel Burke, Unknown News November 9, 2007
I happened to catch a few minutes of "Lou Dobbs Tonight", which featured as (repeat) guest, Lt. David Grainger. The big "news" is that just as public opposition to the Iraq War has reached a new low of 68%, the U.S. is starting to do remarkably well. Wow! Good news, eh?Not. The only metric provided was that U.S. troop deaths have fallen sharply in recent months. That is how our success is being measured. And according to the Lt. Grainger, if we were to withdraw our troops the situation would deteriorate."We must reinforce success," he asserted. So that means that because our troops are not dying as fast as they were, they have to stay in Iraq! Wow! That's not good -- especially because this debacle is costing $200 billion a year and the U.S. public national debt just hit $9 trillion, up from $5.6 trillion at the start of the Bush "presidency" (presiding over a series of failures is the actuality).
We have seen casualty reductions before. They resulted from a shift in tactics from offense to defense ("force protection missions".) In fact, there have been reports that some troops are writing fake action reports, just going out to a safe place and waiting for the end of their shift to roll around. Those troops are probably in the tiny majority, but undoubtedly U.S. commanders have been ordered to reduce troop deaths for political reasons.There have also been reports of a major escalation in the air war, something which receives little coverage in Der Homeland. So, a shift from ground offensives to aerial bombardment can easily account for a temporary reduction in ground-combat troop deaths.The (near) completion of ethnic cleansing may account for some reduction in violence. As may the reports of armloads of cash handed out to former "insurgents" in an attempt to buy loyalty from those who previously fought against and killed American soldiers.All in all, not even counting Abu Ghraib, there is not a bit of glory in this war, and there is no victory in sight. We cannot leave because we are succeeding they say, and our success is measured by how few American soldiers are dying each month.According to the pro-war crowd we must continue to spend $200 billion a year to support what can at best be deemed a long term stalemate. In fact, a long term U.S. presence in Iraq amounts to a defeat for America. That is the truth about guerrilla war. The invaders are bled dry and eventually they leave. The guerrillas have nowhere to go and are motivated for reasons other than money. Strategically too, a long term occupation of Iraq is a total disaster because it destabilizes the Middle East and encourages people to hate America and all that it stands for.
Right now what America stands for is threatening and invading countries with oil, the use of internationally banned torture techniques and secret prisons where people disappear permanently, and an inability to manage its economy and finances (America has earned a reputation for gigantic financial frauds, and for rarely prosecuting rich white executives.)In the end the Iraqis don't need to defeat our soldiers, they just need to wait for the oil sheiks and the Asian exporters to cut off our financing. When the U.S. is no longer deemed creditworthy (any minute now), our global military empire will disband and disappear.Even worse for BushCo, did you hear about the Nazi war criminal that is still being sought? Sixty years after
the end of WWII and the people of Israel are still rounding these guys up and trying them! That ought to give the leaders of any soon-to-be ex-superpowers something to think about!I have long advocated turning over the American leadership to the International Criminal Court for trial as part of the Middle East peace process. We don't have enough money to pay reparations, but we could put on a helluva show with these blowhards on TV in orange jumpsuits and manacles!
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