This Is The Week When Nothing Will Happen

"Watershed"? "Pivotal"? "D-Day for Iraq Policy"? Oh, puhleez. President Bush's prime time stay-the-course speech has already been written. Public opinion has already concluded that the Petraeus report will sugarcoat the statistics, that the Crocker report will move the goalposts, and that "victory" in Iraq will be no less absurd an American mission at the end of the week than at the beginning. Magical September will make Republicans no less likely to wag their lapdog tails at the White House, or to rattle their cut-and-run sabers at the Democrats, than will Magical March, the probable next location of the turning-point mirage. Democrats, for their part, will seize on the possible January withdrawal of one brigade of the surge as a bipartisan triumph, and their fear of being branded anti-troop and pro-terrorist by a bunch of chickenhawk demagogues will lead them to hail a non-binding non-deadline nonconditional footnote to the next defense appropriation as though they had drawn some heroic line in the sand.

This doesn't mean there will be any lack of yammering this week. The media will cover it with all the fanfare and ersatz sobriety that they afford to other pseudo-events, like State of the Union addresses. We will be told over and over how Very Serious these reports are, just as we were told how Terribly Important the report of the Iraq Study Group was. Experts and editorialists will announce how very crucial The Next Six Months -- the blogosphere's beloved Friedman Unit -- will be, despite the abundant, Googleable carcasses of previous and equally useless Next Six Months punditry stretching back to Mission Accomplished. There may even be some chatter about the virtues of our system of separation of powers, as though these hearings actually constitute Congressional oversight, as though they were not simply a stage show whose outcome is as foregone as any performance of kabuki.

Sometime during this week, the president is likely to nominate a new attorney general. Chances are, he will choose someone just as willing to sign on to the Cheney doctrine of the unitary (i.e., unconstitutional) executive, and just as amenable to politicizing justice and subverting elections, as Alberto Gonzales. And chances are, despite an insulting in-your-face nomination, Senate Democrats will settle for a little show trial as the only price of confirming the president's choice, as though tough questioning will make David Addington think twice before issuing a fresh round of thuggish directives to the pliant new AG.

Sometime during this week, the bomb-Iran cabal in the White House will take one unnoticed step closer to its target. It will be a couple of years before we learn the inside dope on what looms as the crowning fiasco of the Bush administration; it will take a few inside dopes covering their asses to Bob Woodward before we discover, too late for it to do any good to the nation, how relentless was the runup to the widening of the war. For the neocons charged with ensuring that a Democratic president will have no choice but to inherit the whirlwind, the Petraeus/Crocker hearings are merely a caesura in their poem to war. Or who knows: maybe the lack of Congressional consequences for the administration's failure to state and stick to a clear, cogent and achievable mission in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East will be retroactively cited as just the legislative cover that the White House needed to chase Al Qaeda in Iraq into Iran.

This week is also, of course, the anniversary of 9/11. Republican presidential candidates can be counted on for a splendid dick-size tourney, which will be as consequential as any of the pious huffing and puffing we'll hear from the Hill. None of the candidates will brag of a wide stance, but several, no doubt, will boast of an admirably strong stream. Sensible Americans, except for the 20 percent or so who still constitute the Republican base, and except for the media who confuse covering the opinion of an extreme right-wing fringe with covering the issues of a presidential election, will sensibly ignore the adolescent tape-measure antics of the GOP field, just as they have already discounted the Frat-Boy-in-Chief's we're-kicking-ass-in-Iraq delusions.

Will terrorists try something terrible this week? It's possible. It's always possible. And if tragedy strikes, God forbid, it won't be a pseudo-event. But whether it happens or not should be no reason to conclude that the White House deserves unchallenged power and unchecked authority. A bazillion words will be spilled this week about war and terror. But none of them will matter as much as the real blood being spilled in pursuit of a delusional policy which has criminally diverted our urgent attention from a world-wide war with violent Islamic extremists that no outcome in Iraq is going to end.

Follow Marty Kaplan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/martykaplan

Comments

[frank67]

History always bites you in the ass. Where did Kuwait come from? Kuwait was "created" by the British out of Iraq! Where did Iraq come from? "Created" out of a piece of the Ottoman Empire by the British. Just take a look at the borders of Iraq - notice the mostly straight lines?

[deedrdo]

i agree, marty. getting out of iraq is not in the bush 'plan'. the long term strategy is to hand it over to the dem's in '08, watch things get much worse than they are now and hedged their bets that in '12 they'll be poised for another takeover of the hill. it's not at all about the 'war' but it is about their long term political strategy.

that being said, am i the only one who increasingly is becoming less and less interested in this thing? i've been screaming my head off in opposition since before this war became a war. i make weekly phone calls to my representatives and have written hundred and hundreds of letters and emails encouraging them to act to end this war. i've attended countless rallies. i've even approached my representatives when i see them out in the street to engage them in a discussion. to no avail. what has it gotten me/us? nada. my voice is hoarse from chanting, my fingers are tired from writing and my complete and utter frustration is on the verge of obsession.

maybe this is what they want... to wear us down so much for so long that we either grow tired and fatigued or become so frustrated with the lack of action that we throw up our hands, grab a bag of chips and turn on the TV.

i am weary. i think i'll go watch the simpsons.

[Gussmith]

Mr. Kaplan hits the entire tragic charade right on the head. Every word is true, every outcome predicted. What sad commentary on the democratic process that lunacy can run a country.

[khristmaskathy]

If Al Gore were in office or John Kerry, we would not be in this terrible mess.

Has anybody checked Bush's body for the tattooed number 666?

God help us all.

[Yukon Jack]

Also, there would be a crescent moon over the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and St.Patrick Cathedral in New York.

The "GOD' whose help you seek would be ALLAH.

GOOD LUCK!

[zjr909]

Several comments back, JLXN says to give the Democrats a break, that they're trying but lack the numbers, etc, etc, etc. Were it not for the FISA vote, I might buy into that nonsense. But that vote was such a blatant slap in the face of the voters who gave them their majority that nothing further is needed to prove they have no earthly intention of curbing any of the powers Bush has stolen. The FISA court is already the merest sliver of judicial review of presidential power; but even that virtual rubber stamp was too much restraint for Bush. And the Dems agreed. I rest my case. Maybe impeachment is off the table because the Dems in Congress are every bit as guilty as the president. The only reason I can even imagine for voting Democratic is their apparent commitment to Social Security. But once the country is bankrupt (like, after the next war) keeping Social Security will be a moot point anyway. Don't vote Democrat: that'll be their reward for betraying the voters. Tit for tat.

[LizDexic]

You wrote: the Frat-Boy-in-Chief's we're-kicking-ass-in-Iran delusions.

I think his kicking ass delusions were in response to someone asking how we're really doing in Iraq...not Iran.

[poppycock]

The short-term Neocon objective is to get the USA pregnant again - this time in Iran.

There's no real imperative to take care of the offspring(s)

[jaygirl]

Kaplan's blog, filled with well deserved sarcasm and rebuke, tells a sad and horrific tale of lawless aggression and wimpy platitudes. It also reflects the betrayal by Democrats of the voters who were responsible for the sweeping congressional victory. I, for one, feel completely used and ignored. I spent my money, time, and effort on their behalf because I "believed" the Democrats would stand together and put a stop to the political atrocities. Practically the first words from the Speaker of the House was: "impeachment is off the table". With this, our constitutional right to remove the perpetrators for high treason and misdemeanors was abruptly taken away. The illegal acts that the administration has done and will do continues. Private corporations are reaping the harvest of billions of dollars of taxpayers money. The killing escalates while the Administration finalizes its plans to bomb Iran.
THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN STOPPING THE "WAR" IN IRAQ (AND IRAN)!

[dgdavidgreene]

On 5/24 Jack Murtha wrote a post called "September Will Be Key"

I made the following comment:
And in September, December will be key.
And in December, March will be key.
And in ...

I was wrong. We're going to skip December.

[ScapeGoat]

Senator Lautenberg has a petition to stop the bush propaganda and bring the troups home.  Click here to read what Senator Lautenberg has to say about the War and sign the petition he's sending to the White House:

http://www.democratsenators.org/o/19/t/70/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=71

[Janelynne]

I was just watching the so-called Patreaus testimony. Droning on about Anwar Province, using "very inside" metaphors based on previously produced propaganda, if the questions asked are all softball, then the answers are all badminton with long handles. There is nothing coming out of this stage production. When Petreaus was asked how long the war might go on if he "were to have Crocker's crystal ball", Petraeus replied, "I don't have the luxury of that crystal ball". In other words: War as far as the eye can see. The questioners even asked about Iran, the next stop on the "Farewell to Civilization Tour." Unwatchable.

[susanlno]

Wow, you really had me going--right up to the end, when you started spouting "war on terror" cant.

Wake up: The so-called "war" on "terror" (are we fighting Godzilla?) is, and always has been, nothing more than another excuse to expand presidential powers. It was never about fighting terrorism--which is a crime, not an act of war, and had been much more effectively fought as a crime, rather than by invading and destroying the weakest oil-rich country we can find.

[Horsefeather]

Lately I've been reading Noam Chomsky, Howard Zin, and Chalmers Johnson. What they say America was, is, and is becoming cannot be honestly denied. The 2 party political systems are manipulated by the same power brokers, and voting is a right of no consequence. We're on the yellow brick road to empire and collapse. My ideas of democracy and freedom have been steadily deteriorating from the acid reign of reality. Too many Americans are enraptured by conflict and victory. Not unlike a people some 2,000 years ago who thought their Messiah would defeat the powers that be in battle. Peace invisible before self-righteous notions of justice. Evolution will be universal peace or chaos, with the latter in a commanding lead at the moment. The idea that democrats will deliver us from the current state of affairs won’t happen, or it would have by now.

[deminmo]

Today MENAFN had an article that the Iraqi minister wants to raise oil production by the end of 2009 and that a pipeline supplying oil and natural gas will be constructed to both Iran and Syria. Well, he did say he had other friends in the area. And if the President goes ahead with air strikes against Iran, he will be
hitting its allies. Interesting, in light of the Iraqi Report.

[jlxn]

Well, I don't feel any frustration with the Democrats. What do you really expect? The Democrats to be able to ride into town and resolve six years of Republican corruption and mismanagement in six months?

I'm sure the Democrats are talented, but they are not miracle workers. Give them a break.

When it comes to the Iraq war, support for establishing a timetable has been scant and polls I've seen from early August had no where near a majority in favor of establishing a timetable. The fact is, the Democrats hold on the majority is minimal and the resulting power, is not all that great so they really have no means of forcing a timetable here.

It's time to stop bashing the Democrats and if you want a change, get behind them. When the Republicans start chanting Surrendercrats, shout them down for a change rather than joining in. You might be surprised.