One of the most remarkable aspects of the Iraq invasion and occupation has been the administration's -- and mainly the president's -- predictably awful and irresponsible habit of placing the burden of the success or failure of this thing squarely on the shoulders of an already overburdened military. Specifically, President Bush and all of his apologists have scapegoated or are preemptively scapegoating the troops and the "commanders on the ground."
It's a strategy that could only come from a group of cowardly old bastards who, for the most part, deliberately avoided military service themselves.
By way of a random sampling of mistakes and atrocities:
Like I said. Just a sampling. Naturally, no one is suggesting the military is without blame. But if the president is so curled up and comfy inside of his jingoistic Chimpy McFlightsuit commander-in-chief role, then he ought to man-up and accept the blame for all of it. But he hasn't and he won't. And why should he? He's been bailed out his entire life. Why change now?
And then there's the preemptive scapegoating. When it all came down to the president's ridiculous plan for escalating the war last year, the president constructed yet another buffer for himself. To paraphrase Willi Cicci from The Godfather Part II, "The president has lots of buffers." Rather than offering himself up as the spokesman for his cleverly marketed "surge," the president created a buffer -- a lightning rod in the form of General Petraeus who would become the whipping boy for the plan. The White House kicked their Nerf ball into the bloody goddamn prickers, and General Petraeus would, as a man bound by duty, be the latest in a line of whipping boys who be shoved into the thorns after the ball. Even opponents of the war famously shifted focus onto General Petraus and so, in a way, the lightning rod worked. No one denies that the president's only success has been his ability to dodge accountability for his endless syllabus of failures.
All along, President Bush and his regime have repeated the familiar preemptive scapegoating refrain: We listen to the commanders on the ground. We do what the commanders recommend. "I'm the commander guy."
"Troop levels will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington, D.C." -President Bush, July 11, 2007
"I reminded our people that the best decisions are made when you listen to the commanders. And our commanders have got good, specific advice as to how to achieve our objectives, which I believe we'll achieve." -President Bush, May 17, 2007"These elections are important, and we will respond... to requests of our commanders on the ground. And I have yet to hear from our commanders on the ground that they need more troops." -President Bush, November 4, 2004 (the day after the 2004 election--arg!)
"I believe strongly that politicians in Washington shouldn't be telling generals how to do their job." -President Bush, November 4, 2004
"The question is, who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? I'm the commander guy." -President Bush, May 2, 2007 (Incidentally, the official White House transcript has been scrubbed and the "the" has been changed to an "a.")
"Decisions about conditions for a draw down of our forces in Iraq are best based on the recommendations of the commanders in the field and the recommendations of the gentleman sitting beside me." -Donald Rumsfeld, August 3, 2006
And because things don't ever change, here's Rumsfeld's replacement two years later:
"The question is about the pacing of the drawdown of troops. And that's where we will look for the recommendation of the commanders in the field and the president's other senior military advisers." -Robert Gates, February 28, 2008
It's actually quite clever, albeit cowardly. When history is written, the president and his administration will be on record as saying that it was the military commanders who set the policies for the occupation--it was never the president's incompetence or intransigence; it was those goddamn generals and troops who didn't come up with the good ideas. It was the troops who therefore undermined the process in Iraq. And President Bush, as with his entire life, avoids accountability and walks away to grow fat and old on his phony Texas estate, while other sons of bitches are forced to deal with his gigantic world of shit.
Bob Cesca's Goddamn Awesome Blog! GO!
Read more HuffPost coverage and reaction to the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq
Consider that while there was credible evidence of an impending attack (months prior to 9/11) that were ignored. Our own FBI field offices sent memos warning of the suspicious activities of the 9/11 hijackers that were dismissed. Foreign intelligence agencies, including the Mosad, MI6, and others warned that an attack on American soil was immenent, yet thosewithin the administration scoffed. Our own intelligence offices overseas had laid out the case, consisting of communications intercepts and other top-secret intelligence showing the increasing likelihood that al-Qaeda would soon attack the United States. When Tenet and others in the foreign intelligence community approached Rice (then at NSA), she brushed them off. President Bush had said he "didn't want to swat at flies." It was a lost opportunity to prevent or disrupt the Sept. 11 attacks.
First, the majority of U.S. military commanders were opposed to the Iraq invasion, mainly because they wanted to focus on Afghanistan, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and capturing Bin-Laden. They were overruled. The US and UK government fabricated information to justify their military strike on Iraq: false information was circulated concerning weapons of mass destruction. There has been little public disclosure of discussion, planning and agreement among American policy planners even regarding a vision for a post-war Iraq, so without clear military or political goals, one can wonder WHY it was so important to begin this venture, while legitimate threats to national security far more serious than those from Iraq – namely, from North Korea and Al Qaeda – were moved to the back burner.
The impact of our preemptive war doctrine on 50 years of progress in the international law of dispute resolution provides a precedent for any country to attack another. (Ironically, the U.S. will be doing in 2003 exactly what Saddam did in 1990: invading another country without provocation.) Thus, our action in Iraq can and will make us far more vulnerable when we go before the U.N. to argue against other nations waging war, without first employing diplomacy and garnering international support. The doctine of torture ("enhanced interrogation techniques"), indefinite detentions and other measures employed by our government are contrary to international law, human rights, and our own Constitution to which the administration, legislators and others serving the government swore to protect and preserve.
Once the operation began, the military commanders requested 50,000 additional troups, knowing they would be needed. Rumsfeld and the administration disagreed, and overruled the wisdom and judgements of the ground commanders. We went into war without enough troops to handle the job, and many of those were not adequately trained, coming from the ranks of National Guard (not trained for foreign combat).
Military commanders requested fully armored vehicles and body armor, better equipment for their operations, they did not get what they needed, as PREFERRED (ie those with direct finacial ties to the administration) private contractors could not manufacture them, no one else (who could have provided these needs) was selected to adequately supply and armor our troops. In many instances, the private no-bid contractors have impeded military operations in Iraq. Private contrators in Iraq have committed atrocities (rape, murder, torture), yet are quickly, quietly immunized, and can only be addressed by grievances or arbitration.
That the justification for this war was a hoax (lies and skewed "intelligence"), by neo-con groups: PNAC, AIPAC, and others whose agenda is to serve their own economic interests, and promote the interests of Israel are insane and criminal.
That the benchmarks for success: democracy, coalition government, oil revenues paying the costs of the war, etc. have not yet been met, and are routinely downgraded, diluted, and becoming more obscure daily, while nearly 4,000 Americans have died, 30,000 are wounded, another 23,000 with diseases, illnesses directly attributable to their service in Iraq, is an irony that seems to have escaped most.
The moronic justification of the Iraq war is to perpetuate it, not to expell terrorists from Iraq, or to improve our security at home. The real culprits of 9/11 are Al-Qaeda, headed by Bin-Laden, who remain at large, refortify, recruit, and strengthn daily, due to our obsession and preoccupation with Iraq, the cooperation of warlords in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
There are 900,000 Americans on so-called "terrorist-watch" lists, who are under scrutiny, based upon lists that are far outdated (3 years or more), and real terrorists still at large, obtaining visas to Europe and America.
TERRORISM is the act of instilling fear, coersion, threats, or intimidation. "The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing people, societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons." By this definition, the rule of this current administration (regime) is a terrorist organization, just as much as Bin-Laden. We've been ruled by fear, threat, intimidation, suppression of the media, suppression of legal, civil and human rights for nothing more than political expediency, NOT for our safety, security or to promote democracy.
Bin-Laden took responsibility for the attack on 9/11, but Georgie has yet to take responsibility for preventing or disrupting it. Hitler openly pronounced his program dubbed the Final Solution, which brought upon him world condemnation, yet Georgie won't admit his ill-conceived war in Iraq has destroyed two nations: Iraq and America.
When zero-tolerance Petraeus heard his troops were abusing detainees, he disbanded the whole brigade and was summarily sent by Cheney for a stateside time out at Leavenworth.
Also, it's been alleged that CBS News had the whole Abu Ghraib story first and purposely sat on it because of a call from the White House asking them to keep it on the DL. The story eventually broke thanks only to Australian media. Let's ask Sumner Redstone and Les Moonves in sworn testimony to answer whether this is true or not!
Don't back down, ever. Your words echo those of veterans groups like VoteVets and IAVA, organizations that are attempting to overcome all the damage the current White House Administration has inflicted on our soldiers and citizenry.
I've felt for the last 7 years that the true enemy resides among us, not somewhere overseas.
Keep up the insightful, incisive writing -- you've got lots of friends who support you, me included.
~Kristine
"It's a strategy that could only come from a group of cowardly old bastards who, for the most part, deliberately avoided military service themselves."
Bush - Draft-dodger & possibly AWOL-er: Part of his current job description is "Commander in Chief".
In the end Mr. Georgie (permanent Chimp-smirk) Bush - the success or failure of our Armed Forces in serving this country is all in your lap.
If Iraq ends up being an abject failure - the failure falls squarely on your simian head. Suck on that and like it Chimpie.
obama '08
Bush actually proclaimed himself "The Decider" a few months earlier on April 18th saying "I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as secretary of defense"
Ah! The Decider. It is said that he had been reading a bit and perhaps at the time he was reading of ancient Rome and the self-appellations and proclamations of some Roman emperors.
Chimpy McFlightsuit had me off my chair. I remember a puppet show from a long time ago. It was early television and the name of the show was "Cecil the Seasick Serpent." I was probably a too old to be watching it but I enjoyed it. One of the characters, they were puppets, was named Pinhead. As I remember, Pinhead was a bit of a dope; ergo, I think of Bush, the Decider, as a modern day Pinhead. I rue that I'm probably fouling the memory of a harmless old puppet.
Shortened up here a little, I wrote the following a few months ago; it conforms with your assessment of Chimpy McFlightsuit, AKA: Pinhead, "The Decider," etc.
THE DECIDER
Decider, decider, the facts, the facts, what shall we do?
Why bury them, hide them, they get in the way!
Decider, decider, these laws, these laws, what shall we do?
Why bury them, ignore them, for my law prevails!
Decider, Decider, the fallen, the fallen, what shall we do?
Why this you should know! You're becoming a pest!
No pictures in Dover and you know the rest.
Decider, decider, which do we kiss, the ring on your finger or your royal ass?
What shall we do? Oh, what shall we do?
Why can't you decide anything for yourself? Damn, now I've lost the beat here!
Anyway forget it. Someone might document this. I'll take a pass. Hey pass rhymes with ass! Yup!
You sound like a Slick Barry Obama fan. Pull the troops, even if they think we should stay. It will make my hippie friends happy.
By the way, you don't know the definition of the word hack. People like you disgust me.
The really sad part is how many jingoistic Americans approve of this kind of irresponsible behavior...lying about reasons to invade a country that did nothing to us and calling the resulting civilian casualties "collateral damage."
The hidden costs of the Iraq war
10:02 PM CDT on Wednesday, March 19, 2008
By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV
Russell Blair, a civilian driver from Dallas, makes $40,000 more a year than a staff sergeant. His bodyguard can cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $445,000 a year.
He lived in an air-conditioned trailer with one roommate, a bathroom and a refrigerator.
But enlisted Marines in the field live in spaces so small there is little room to move and rancid air to breathe.
The family of a soldier or Marine killed in combat gets $500,000 from the government. The family of a civilian killed may get as much as $7 million.
There are now 154,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. For every one of them, there is one civilian contractor. Twenty-seven-thousand of those contractors are highly-paid Americans. It costs $2 billion a day to keep them there.
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080319_mo_hiddencosts.80fc418.html
Like our desire to invade, our continued presence is something that is much desired by those who perpetrated this 'war'.