We've been given so many "reasons" by the Bush administration for the War in Iraq, that there just doesn't seem to be any rational explaination left. Weapons of Mass Destruction, "They attacked us on 9/11", "spreading democracy", they've all turned out to be fakes to create fear and keep the drumbeat for war going. Even as the world was against it and America came to its senses and eventually came to opposed the war, Bush and company ceaselessly continue to "catapult the propaganda".Earlier this week I stumbled upon a theory that postulated that the real reason for the war was to give 4/5 of the oil in Iraq to Exxon/Mobil. Via the state "profit sharing" provisions in the provisional funding bills passed by the House and Senate, the President's pen will finalize the greatest mineral rights scam in the history of the world. That little theory postulates that all of the President's bluster about a veto is just a smokescreen. Bush really wants to pass these bills, to permanently gain control of this massive natural resource. As Borat would say "Veeeaaarrreee Naaaaiiizzzz!"
Conspiracies don't sit well with me. While I have no reason to doubt the limitless greed of the Bush Administration and its corporate-con backers, my gut tells me there's got to be more. It can't JUST be for the money, can it?
So, I started digging around a bit and I uncovered an incredible quote from 1999 made by candidate George W. Bush in which he essentially begs for provocation to invade Iraq, under the pretense that as a War President, he could have a "successful presidency", and get his full agenda crammed through congress.
Two Years Before 9/11, Candidate Bush was Already Talking Privately About Attacking Iraq, According to His Former Ghost Writer
by Russ BakerHOUSTON -- Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade-+.if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."
Remember how George W. Bush went in front of the country after the 2004 election, and as his supporters heralded a permanent conservative majority, the President used that same concept of "Political Capital" to describe the future direction of his presidency.
Well, he said he'd spend that capital, but instead he's squandered it. As with everything else this president touches, it's always best the day it happens, and then gets worse from there. If the real reason for Iraq was to win re-election it worked. It may also have cemented his position as the single worst president in history, and potentially, the downfall of both American Conservatism and the Republican party.
So, in true Bush style, he can claim "Mission Accomplished", and let the casualties pile up.
Notice how McCain is walking freely? Look at how close the copters are.
The next ones are of kids injured in a blast in Kirkuk that killed eight of their classmates. These were the lucky ones.
How come we never see pictures like this in the Washington Post? Is the editorial board afraid to offend its readers' sensibilities?
"This bizarre circumstance is the end-game of the brilliant, ever-deceitful maneuvering by the Bush Administration..."
...unless "brilliant" = unintentional and "maneuvering" = bumbling that is.
I will accept "ever deceitful" as on the mark, however.
There are many dangerous people in the Administration. Bush is the most dangerous because he is simultaneously the most powerful and most incompetent member of it.
Ron Suskind in his book "One Percent Doctrine" on page 215 describes how Dubya in college basketball games describes how Bush slugged an opponent on the floor, and knocked another player down with a slap to the back of the knees, throwing the other player off his game thereafter in a deliberate foul to gain a psychological advantage... showing a personality which would do anything mean to win or spook an opponent, no matter how minor the situation. It would seem that he may have developed this characteristic in an effort to overcome Jeb's advantages because Suskind goes on to say that, when asked about such behavior, Jeb admitted "It wasn't easy being his brother."
In truthout on Thursday 18 January 2007 two professionals, John P. Briggs, MD and his son J. P. Briggs II, PhD provide an analysis in "Bush and the Psychology of Incompetent Decisions." I am not into pop psychology gossip, but this is done by professionals, and among other things they say "President George W. Bush prides himself on "making tough decisions. But many are sensing something seriously troubling, even psychologically unbalanced... They are right. Because of a psychological dynamic swirling around deeply hidden feelings of inadequacy, the President has been driven to make increasingly incompetent and risky decisions." There follows a carefully detailed analysis.
Whatever the rationale, we know Dubya is a risk taker, always seeming to choose a stunning, shocking sneak attack to unsettle an opponent and seize an advantage, hoping Lady Luck will rescue him with some sort of deus ex machina if it doesn't work out (historically, it was usually his father or friends who came in to resuce the risk-taker when his gambles failed, as in Harken Oil, or draft-dodging during Vietnam). When this risk-taking is combined with an alcoholic frat boy charm plus a seething demand for absolute personal loyalty from all associates, there is no one around him (or no one who is allowed around him) who can act as a balance wheel, a governor to moderate George W's risk-taking. As his decisions result increasing disasters, the Briggs team says " This dynamic makes the psychological stakes for him now unimaginably high. The words 'success' and 'failure' have seized his rhetoric like metaphors for his psyche's survival."
In other words, Bush is gambling his country and the lives and treasure of all America in a "game" to overcome his inner demons. Just exactly as kings and war leaders of history, you and I, America and the World are pawns in royalty's plays.
So, yes, Iraq and all is a war of choice, but n ot only for Oil but for Ego.
The "Straight Talk Express" made a quick in-and-out of Baghdad, as we know.
John Aravosis had a nice write up. http://americablog.b... For those who are in a hurry, here are a few good quotes:
Jaafar Moussa Thamir, a 42-year-old who sells electrical appliances at the Shorja market***said: "They were just making fun of us and paid this visit just for their own interests," he said. "Do they think that when they come and speak few Arabic words in a very bad manner it will make us love them? This country and its society have been destroyed because of them and I hope that they realized that during this visit. "I didn't care about him, I even turned my eyes away," ***"We are being killed by the dozens everyday because of them. What were they trying to tell us? They are just pretenders."Karim Abdullah, a 37-year-old textile merchant, said the congressmen were kept under tight security and accompanied by dozens of U.S. troops. "They were laughing and talking to people as if there was nothing going on in this country or at least they were pretending that they were tourists and were visiting the city's old market and buying souvenirs," he said. "To achieve this, they sealed off the area, put themselves in flak jackets and walked in the middle of tens of armed American soldiers."
Well worth reading.
Thanks for the reference to truthout, which I had somehow misplaced. The entire article is well worth reading, and it is not long but os nonetheless very very enlightening. It basically confirms professionally what many of us in some way had already suspected.
Another suspicion I have had is that Dubya is also a sociopath, i.e., cannot relate to another person's pain or situation, and simply regards other human beings as objects to be manipulated for his own pleasure and satisfaction, regardless of consequences to that other person or, even, to himself. The joy of the manipulation game is compensation enough for whatever he chooses to do.
The story (with some pictures) of the 1953 runaway train into Union Station can be found here. http://www.steamloco... The engineer was a real hero.
When the Nimitz arrives, it will pack a third carrier strike force into the Gulf area, along with the Eisenhower and Stennis strike forces.
That's a lot of firepower.
And the Boys in the Bunker generally don't see much point in having something at their disposal unless they make use of it.