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Bush's Defining Moments
DAVE LINDORFF
Counterpunch
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Bush may not be the greatest of wordsmiths, but he
certainly nailed it when he said that the battle in Basra, in
which the puppet governent of Nuri al-Maliki and the Iraqi military
were attacking the entrenched Mahdi Brigades of cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr for control of Iraq's crucial port city, was a "defining
moment" in the five-years-and-running Iraq conflict.
That battle, which saw al-Maliki fly down to the presidential
palace in the country's second largest city to direct the army's
fight, only to be spirited away by an American air rescue team
when he was in danger of being captured or killed, is indeed a
defining moment. (It might even have been a trial run for the
eventual rescue of the US ambassador and the American commander
in Iraq from the Green Zone at some future date.)
It defines the utter failure of the Bush/Cheney administration's
year-long "surge" scam, which was supposed to "give
the Iraqi government time" to get on its feet, pass a law
on sharing the country's oil wealth among the various regions
and tribes, and resolve the issues of power sharing between Sunnis,
Shias and Kurds.
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A year, a thousand American deaths, uncounted tens of thousands
of Iraqi deaths, $150 billion in US taxpayer money and countless
repetitions of the phrase "the surge is working" by
administration hacks and by Republican presidential candidate
John McCain later, it's clear that the extra 30,000 troops the
US shipped over or held over in Iraq accomplished nothing.
The country is still a basket case.
The battle of Basra ended-at least for now--with Moqtada al-Sadr
stronger than ever, his fighters still armed and in control of
the city, and of their stronghold in the slums of Sadr City, Baghdad.
It concluded with a cease-fire agreement-negotiated by Iraqi governmet
offials who, embarrassingly, had to go hat in hand to meet al-Sadr
in his headquarters in Iran--under which the Iraqi army and police
must stop attacking al-Sadr's forces, as they have been doing
for months, and must release members of his forces currently being
held captive.
As a "defining moment," this battle, in which US forces
played a significant role in directing Iraqi military actions,
provided air support, and injected special forces, was the definition
of a defeat.
As in 2004, the last time al-Sadr frontally attacked US forces,
his Mahdi Brigades showed that they are committed, fearless, and
able, despite being outgunned, to outfight even the world's mightiest
army on their home turf.
If anyone wanted a sign that it was time for the US to pack it
up and go home, this was it.
Had the US not plucked al-Maliki from his embattled fortress
in Basra, he would not be being paraded through the streets of
Basra with a plaque on his chest saying "American puppet"
(that's if he were lucky). Instead, he has survived to serve his
American masters another day. (And let's give Maliki his due:
at least he had the guts to go lead his troops. It's hard to picture
Bush or Cheney directiing American forces from a bunker in Baghdad...or
anywhere remotely unsafe.)
John McCain has to be privately ruing the day he decided to hitch
his star to the "surge" and to General David Petraeus,
it's author and defender.
As defining moments go, the battles in Basra and Sadr City should
also serve as fair warning to those advocating a war against Iran
that things might not go so well for American forces. The Mahdi
forces, after all, have gotten their inspiration and some training
from Iranian forces, and are showing themselves to be skilled
urban fighters. US forces, even stretched as thinly as they are
in Iraq, might be able to handle a conventional attack by Iranian
forces on open desert terrain in Iraq, but they would be up against
something entirely different were they to enter Iranian terroritory,
and try to conquer Iranian cities.
The real lesson to be taken from this latest fiasco in the running
disaster that is Bush's and Cheney's war in Iraq is that it is
time for it to end.
Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton are both still playing it cautious,
afraid to say what really needs to be said-that the US needs to
get its troops out not over the course of a year or nine months,
but yesterday.
They should pack up and go, blow up what military equipment they
can't bring with them, and leave the porta-potties and dining
halls for the locals to enjoy.
They should take heart from another defining moment that occurred
yesterday. That was when President Bush went out on the field
in RFK Stadium to throw the opening pitch for the first game of
the season for the Nationals. As he walked out onto the field,
loud booing could be heard from the stands. It subsided until
he threw his pitch to the Nationals' manager (it was way high).
Then it became a roar again when Bush waved a last time to the
crowd before disappearing from the field.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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