"THE SURGE" DELAYS THE INEVITABLE
It is time to get things straight about Iraq. In the longer historical sweep of things there is no nation of "Iraq." It was cobbled together by European colonialists to accommodate and make convenient some way to carve out the former colonial enterprises into some semblance of nationhood for the people in the area. It is not an Arab nation, because the Kurds in the north are not of the same racial-ethnic stock as the Arabs. It is not a Sunni state or a Shiite state because those two branches of Islam do not get along anywhere and for 13 or 14 centuries they have been fighting each other for territory and other things.
In sweeps George W. Bush, a man who knows as much about history as a third grade student, and makes some broad decisions about what he thinks [or Dick Cheney thinks] is good for the people living within the boundaries of the cobbled-together nation of Iraq. Oh, by the way, this plan in Iraq will bring billions and billions of dollars into the coffers of Halliburton Corp., where Dick Cheney had served as CEO before becoming the puppeteer to puppet George W. Bush. Oh, by the way, breaking Saddam's back is exactly what Saudi Arabia tells Bush it desires, and keeping the Saudi family happy and its trillion-dollar hold on the Arabian Peninsula's oil has been a Bush family mantra since Grandfather Prescott Bush illegally traded with Hitler's Germany and made the Bush family fortune in Saudi oil. George W. Bush's father today sits on the board of Saudi business enterprises. Oh, by the way, ascending to the White House allows George W. Bush to hand out more favorrs to his family's buddies in many corporate enterprises, including health care, pharmaceuticals, energy, ad infinitum.
Bush is the worst president in American history, that can be taken for granted, but his powerful executive decision-making has just about destroyed the American economy, cost the lives of over 4200 American military men and women, has allowed Halliburton and Blackwater and others to reap a windfall bonanza that is hard to imagine, has allowed pharmceutical corporations to rape the prescription drug needs of millions of people who are not managing to pay for their medications, has dealt in secrecy more than any president in history [especially with corporate friends], established torture programs, established prisons outside the territorial U.S. that would not be tolerated in the U.S., held people for 7 years without ever charging them, ignored moving FORWARD on North Korea and Israel-Palestine and Sudan-Darfur, snooped secretly on innocent American citizens, etc. And to think of what he has done to millions of Iraqi people is difficult to conceive; and the Iraqi populace want us OUT of Iraq NOW.
On January 20, 2009, a new president will be sworn in. He holds out hope for some sanity, intelligence and honesty in American government actions, nationally and internationally. Will he be up to it? Who knows? But we are at a crossroads in American history. George W. Bush and his gang have led us to to edge of catastrophe. There are many things we need to do in support of Barack Obama, but we must also hold his feet to the fire so he delivers on his progressive, sane, and humane promises. Excuses should not be tolerated. It will take time, certainly, but there must be evidence of moving in the right direction. Getting out of Iraq ASAP is a start, and the break-up of that so-called "nation" is going to happen in some fashion or other.. Out of the coming dilemma, perhaps the territory now called Iraq may re-boot and forge something new, something free of colonialism from Europe or America.
