Leaving Baghdad ( Part One)

There may be tears in Baghdad, definitely some in many homes in the U.S. as our troops leave Iraq- a season of homecoming joy hopefully awaits thousands of brave men and women in uniformed service.  I expect there are deep doubts and fears that spur tears that will fall and stay in Baghdad, to the extent that a feeling of safety was connected to the U.S. military presence, it too will be leaving.
There were some moments in this road to and from Baghdad that are remarkable - that stand out in memory.  For me, like the tips of undersea volcanoes that breach the waters- stepping stones to the eye, but in deeper reveal- they are great mountains.  The first was the incredible silence over my City the day after the terror attacks in New York City, the raw feeling in my eyes, and the silence as air traffic and commerce seemed stilled.  How we talked in hushed tones.  Then the revelation that our government had been asleep at the switch, National Security Advisor  specialist in defeating the Soviet Union, might not even have known what Al Qaeda was.  How they featured then dropped the pursuit of Bin Laden.  Then how Bin Laden appeared in Republican reelection campaign ads, the Boogie Man.  No one said hey wait--dint you promise to bring him in?  We paid Pakistan to help hunt him down; turned out he was living large in Pakistan.  A spectacle:  Presidential candidate saying - My opponent would not even have gone to war...ahh, the humanities!

We turned on the war machine as a TV event, shock and awe on Friday night special.  We sent our soldiers on a blind alley rush to Baghdad with reporters looking goofy in military garb- flinching at every remote blast. Sandstorms grounded air support- oh, if there had been an army there to oppose us--such poor, poor leadership.  The glory was vain, Saddam was hanged but it was a big lie that he brought down the Towers--a lie many Americans still believed.
Eight years of war and my country seemed stranger each passing day, a government taught us to fear, the American spirit, crushed underfoot like a spent cigarette because leaders failed and wished us to believe nothing greater was in us.  I remember a disabled war veteran, taking off his artificial leg to pass an airport screening. We spent billions annoying citizens, reinforcing the big scare.
Teaching fear and limitation, but it was merely the first of many such waves-- later we were too broke to make jobs here -the new jobs that fuel the economy and make even more jobs; debt has made us unable to grow--I guess they forget or some never knew- America is tougher than words of doubt.  It was tough enough to fight poverty in the 60's, fly to the moon in the 70's, meet cold war communists in the 80's- somehow, a pile of loans does not seem to equate to nuclear missiles in Cuba.
Again the teacher brings a message of fear, to a creature of hope and determination.  In the animus of our nation, as if the body politic were a human body, the  national skin reacts to the irritations of those repeated doses of fear... a burning sensation.

Iraq Is Not Vietnam

Iraq is not Vietnam...Iraq is a nation with a huge amount of a critical resource..its role in international commerce will not be overstated rather it emerges as the world turns to more and deeper energy needs. Iran -its dominant neighbor- is energy starved and seemingly bent on regional domination - so Iraq is not Vietnam it is far more critical to world peace. The U.S. invasion of Iraq has been a success. It appears the primary goals have been met: It was a foundation for the reelection of Bush, it provided tens of billions in profits to firms linked or closely linked to the Republican party; it still as the potential to deliver scores of billions in the future to businesses and individuals with ties to the Party and to enhance its fundraising apparatus. The destruction of Saddam was an incidental benefit fitting in with the theory that he or his government was responsible for the terror attacks on 9/11... a belief still held by millions of Americans. There have been economic benefits to the economy as a whole from the spending of an additional 3-400 Billion for the war. The conditions in Iraq were ultimately intended to be the bragging points for the 2008 election based on U.S. military dominance...this seems in doubt at this time but there is still time for change. The war of course crowds out domestic spending especially in States and cities with effective Democratic voting bases. The problem for the Republican Party may be in getting out of Iraq on a schedule consistent with the 2008 elections and the next generation of conflicts which might appear to be useful in the future. Iraq it appears has been far more useful than Vietnam in the context of domestic politics.

Iraq has Solutions- but not useful ones

Iraq and the US campaign there have been historic in the contemporary sense--events that could influence over a two year period or until the next election cycle. Yes, even history has been shrunk down to Republican Party dimensions-- so dominant have been the "politics only" style of running the US government. It was a Republican political success -the entire Iraq campaign from the business planning, to the fund raising, to the feeding of contracts to Republican friendly contractors, to the huge war profits pumped into the economy, to the mindless escalation of energy prices--a Party success of unparalleled proportions. Everyone knew that the build up to the invasion was a big lie--most ignored reality and supported the war. It is hypocritical now that so many more condemn the war--but mercifully war has that effect even when the coffins of our soldiers are carefully hidden from view. The military performed well but has provided excellent cover for the political operations that have flourished under the guise of the liberation of Iraq--for as the undeniable facts show-the liberation of Iraq is a mirage and the ethnic warfare for control over the vast wealth of the country has just begun. The future of Iraq is uncertain but there are many , many workable solutions but none have a sufficient relationship to the Republican Party position in the elections of 2008 and that is the problem. The business of the next war may be more important to the elections in 2008 and Iraq may be left to drift unless the Democrats stumble into taking over policy developments -which when done from the Congress-- only portends that things would be even worse in Iraq while the Iraq majority with guns and bullets do the work we hoped they would do with ideas and ballots.

Putting the Pub back in Republican

I think there was some small degree of soul searching in DC last night but a whole lot more heavy drinking among the rePUBlican establishment-- a particularly bitter defeat because of the arrogance of the defeated party--they thought they could just Rove the Democrats again.
The Democrats for their part have the high ground now because they do not have to defend the misCONDUCT of the war in Iraq-- they don't have to come up with answers about how to do it better- beca-a-ause it was their idea not to do it at all. And certainly it was their idea not to do it alone, and it was their idea not to do it so that we could accommodate the fund raising for the 2004 re-election of President Bush. So the Republican "spin artists" that want to put the burden of resolving the war on the House and Senate Democrats will be disappointed--the people already know who started this mess and who has made it even worse.
The Democrats will look into the things that led up to the invasion and they will be harsh as they should be when a leader misuses information to set off a war. More important though the Democrats will begin to find a voice to resonate with the public on things that are much more important than Iraq-- economic opportunity, jobs/careers; energy independence, and the almost completely ignored topic of the effects of industrial/commercial activities on the environment-- that story about the disappearing fish has some importance--what kind of world will we leave to our children's children.