What did these Missions Accomplish: New Orleans, Iraq and Lebanon, subtitled, “Why George W. Bush Needs More Vacation Time”

We’re coming up to the first “anniversary” of the devastation of New Orleans. Unfortunately, for the people of New Orleans, a very destructive Hurricane Katrina was met by the incompetent US Army Corp of Engineers with their deficient levies, and extraordinarily incompetent levels of government, which ranged from the local right up to the Federal. All of these groups bungled the rescue and cleanup and rebuilding operations.

Yet, there were nuggets of gold to be found in desperate New Orleans. And they were in none other than the floating bodies, some unpicked up for days, that was shown on America’s television screens, by a press that was not “embedded” because the government was to incompetent to even get there, when it was really needed. Remember, Cheney wanted to ban the showing of bodies, the way they have of dead American soldiers in Iraq? But the press finally showed some courage, and stayed filming, in New Orleans. (If the man whom Cheney filled with birdshot, had died from the heart attack that followed the birdshot, I wonder if the press would have shown the body?? Remember, Cheney managed to not take a breathalyzer test for a day after the shooting? )

But I digress. Three years into George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, with the consent of a todying Congress to whom he lied, and misled, the situation on the ground grows ever more unstable. At the Press Conference today (8-21-06) , he spoke about the “possibility of Civil War in Iraq.” Anyone who’s read or heard about it, knows it is already happening. It just one more thing with which the administration cannot deal. Bush declares that American troops will remain at least through the end of his administration and they will be sure to protect the oil fields “from the terrorists” (I guess he means al-Qaeda and not the Americans, though this is not self-evident to most of the world).

Bush doesn’t want to lose “face” and admit that his war and its aftermath were a failure, and further, opened the US to much more dire threats than Saddam Hussein ever was, before he was overthrown. Iran has was definitely been emboldened by the gift of this incredibly bungled American invasion, to continue to defy UN Security Council warnings not to refine uranium for its own war machine, and to pursue a more aggressive political agenda internationally.

An emboldened Iran continues to help Hezbollah in Lebanon. The other extremist player in Lebanon is Israel, who took key pages from the “How To Lose A War” playbook by the USA, by attacking Hezbollah after two of its soldiers in Lebanon were “kidnapped”. I honesty can’t feel sorry for any soldier on active patrol, who is “kidnapped.” If the Israeli security detail was overcome, then in any way, it needed to have better defensive capabilities. That’s all the Israelis needed to do – better defend their soldiers on active patrol, not launch a war against the Lebanese population and infrastructure.

The US lost a guerilla war in Vietnam and has probably already lost one in Iraq. Israel made the same mistake, assuming it could win against an insurgency integrated with the people, with a mostly air war. So, what did the Israelis do? They displaced hundreds of thousand of people and destroyed much of the infrastructure of Lebanon. What will the effect of this by on the Lebanonese people? To radically them further, and move them toward Hezbollah. How could it not do otherwise?

You know, I hold Bush’s influence responsible to some degree, for Israeli’s self-destructive August 2006 invasion of Lebanon – Bush’s grandiosity seemed to stimulate Israeli grandiosity, especially that of a new Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, who didn’t have a military background. Perhaps, like Bush, he heard only what he wanted to hear about how overwhelming Israeli air superiority would destroy or severely disable Hezbollah.

What should be done in the Middle East? I have a simple plan. Let Bush declare again, “Mission accomplished” and then withdraw the US troops, or put a small garrison in the Kurdish controlled of Iraq. Why not? The Israelis declared a unilateral victory in their recent Lebanon invasion and then said they would accept a UN peace force. If Bush declares “Mission accomplished” in Iraq, and then withdraws US troops, he will preserve face, in his mind, and maybe Iraq will slip into the structure ratified by the new Iraqi Constitution. This document institutionalizes decentralized Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish states, as I understand it. The US should also use its considerable influence on the Kurds to keep them from calling for an independent Kurdistan, for that would destabilize Turkey. As a result of the Bush invasion, there would now be two Shiite states, Iran and Shiite Iraq. One could only hope that the larger Arab states as Saudi Arabia would not get involved in sponsoring the Sunni in Iraq, for then the war could widen.

I have a second suggestion for President George W. Bush. I’ve already suggested that he declare “Mission accomplished” again, and withdraw the US forces from Iraq, except for a small garrison in the Kurdish area. President Bush has also taken about a year’s worth of vacation time in his six years (has it been that long?) in office. That’s more vacation time than any other American President, I believe. Nonetheless, on behalf of the American people, I declare, “You need more rest, Mr. President. Declare Victory everywhere, in everything, and retire to your ranch, for the rest of your term. And oh, don’t forget to take your Vice President, he needs extra rest, for he carries around a lot of mechanical parts in his body, especially in his heart and near his wallet.”
Poetpaul