BLOGSWARM 031908 - Part 6

Before concluding this day--when, frankly, I have been expressing at least a small part of the anger and outrage that has been compounded over the past five years--I was going to write one last post. I had thought to look at Bush's speech today.

Ugh. I am too tired and it is too full of crap. I will take a stab at it nonetheless, vile mass of putrefaction that it is.

His ability to project is amazing, placing all the evil on his purported foe (Saddam or al Qaeda, and really, who could tell them apart when he kept mentioning them together... and denying it) and seeing himself as the champion of all that is good. Those who have written of his manichaean traits have diagnosed him quite accurately. So very black and white, and there is no question in what passes for his mind that he is wearing the "white hat."

For someone who flouts the Geneva Conventions, fabricated and executed a doctrine of preemptive war, and refuses to be bound even by our own Army Field Manual, he has little room to speak of "death squads acting on the orders of Saddam Hussein that obeyed neither the conventions of war nor the dictates of conscience." He speaks of the horrors of "torture chambers, and rape rooms" without any hint that he knows we have practiced torture and rape ourselves. (Can we all say Abu Ghraib, children? I knew we could.) He speaks of the "mass graves of thousands executed by the regime" with no acknowledgment of the thousands killed by our actions.

All evildoers are lumped together, of course, without a hint of distinction, so that those who are fighting to rid their land of occupiers would, given the chance, rush over here to attack us. [Yes, he really said that: "The terrorists who murder the innocent in the streets of Baghdad want to murder the innocent in the streets of America."] I don't think he realizes that those who want to attack us here can still do it and don't have to wait for the conflict there to end.

You know, I cannot imagine W playing checkers, much less chess. I can picture him blowing up those frogs with firecrackers, though. He still gets hard blowing stuff up, twisted SOB.

He said, quite baldly, that "The surge is working." Never mind that what it was meant to accomplish has not happened. We all know that militarily it did help create a breathing space but that breathing space was not used for its intended purpose. The Iraqis have not gotten their shit together (and why should they when they can play us endlessly?). Oh, and one of the goals was the oil-sharing agreement, which anyone with half a brain knows is about allowing foreign investors to get their slice of the pie (can we say Texas oil men, Cheney and Bush? Yes!).

"In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his murderous network." Bush appears not to grasp that bin Laden and his network have very little to do with the al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) crowd and even when various Iraqi factions join to oust AQI it does NOT mean a large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden. What a fucktard.

"More than 4,400 men and women have given their lives in the war on terror. We'll pray for their families. We'll always honor their memory.

"The best way we can honor them is by making sure that their sacrifice was not in vain."

I think the worst way to honor them is wasting more lives in a war that has never had a clear and HONEST rationale, a clear and concrete measurable mission, and a plan to conclude. Those who lost their lives, or had their lives trashed in horrific injuries and disfigurement, have acted honorably and their service is not to be called into question. We DFH types honor them and are usually the ones fighting for their care and benefits, unlike the obstructionist Republican legislators who mouth platitudes and never come through. But their leaders--the ones who sent them on this screwed-up mission to play oil markets, enrich cronies, and establish theoretical hegemony--have not acted honorably. Bush and his ilk have dishonored our nation and its ideals, ignored and broken its laws, and betrayed our troops, our people, and the trust placed in them.

Impeach the motherf**kers, convict them, remove them from office, and haul them to the Hague to be tried as the war criminals they are.

And that's the nicest thing I intend to say about Bush and Cheney today or any day.
--the BB

BLOGSWARM 031908 - Part 5

--the BB

Bizarro by Dan Piraro

"Oh, when will they ever learn?"
--Where have all the flowers gone



Oh, sweet Jesus, I am weeping and the day is yet young. Hold your loved ones today.

God save us all.

--the BB

BLOGSWARM 031908 - Part 4

Meteor Blades at Daily Kos has a reminder of something I intend never to forget:

But we will never know the names of more than a handful of the Iraqis who have died because of the invasion. Dead because of a war whose rationale was concocted by the liars who still occupy the highest positions of power in our government: unimpeached and untried, still lying just as they have done without stopping since the events of September 11 gave them the excuse they so avidly hoped for before President George W. Bush was a gleam in Dick Cheney’s eye.

and

No good statistics exist. Depending on which source you trust, the ratio of Americans who have lost their lives to Iraqis who have lost theirs is anywhere from 1:37 to 1:300 – 150,000 to 1.2 million dead. There's no point to arguing over the accuracy. Any way you count, the numbers are awful.

On this St Joseph's day I think of the Iraqi fathers (and mothers) holding their dead children. Of children losing their fathers (and mothers). This is a graphic I put together around last Christmas (hence the Christmas tree in the upper left corner).


The United States made it a policy not to track the numbers of Iraqi dead. Estimates vary widely but the official policy seems to be: "they don't count."

Precious in the sight of the LORD *
is the death of his servants.
--Psalm 116

How lonely sits the city
that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
has become a vassal.

She weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,
they have become her enemies.
--Lamentations 1:1-2

I am one who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’s * wrath;
he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
against me alone he turns his hand,
again and again, all day long.

He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,
and broken my bones;
he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
he has made me sit in darkness
like the dead of long ago.

He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has put heavy chains on me;
though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,
he has made my paths crooked.

He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
he bent his bow and set me
as a mark for his arrow.

He shot into my vitals
the arrows of his quiver;
I have become the laughing-stock of all my people,
the object of their taunt-songs all day long.
He has filled me with bitterness,
he has glutted me with wormwood.

He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
so I say, ‘Gone is my glory,
and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.’

--Lamentations 3:1-18

I honor, support, and pray for our troops. [More on them in a while]

I abhor, reject, and renounce our leaders responsible for this war.

BLOGSWARM 031908 - Part 3

From georgia10 at Daily Kos:

We are witnessing today the same misdirection and manipulation that led up to that invasion in March of 2003. The lie that is being sold to the American people today however is not that Iraq is a direct threat to the United States, but that our continued presence in Iraq does not threaten our security.

That is why John McCain and others never mention that terrorism has increased ever year since the invasion. Tht is why they never remind the American people that our gains in Afghanistan have been nearly reversed as the Taliban reconstitutes itself and thrives in the region. That is why they never mention that last year was the deadliest year for American troops in that county.

We will never hear them refer to the fact that five years of war have resulted in just three of eighteen benchmarks of progress being met. We will never see them acknowledge that, as Congress continues to appropriate blank checks, untold billions have been stolen or lost in Iraq. No, we will never hear these facts escape the lips of McCain and company.

[Emphasis mine]
--the BB

BLOGSWARM 031908 - Part 2

From Barack Obama's foreign policy speech "The World Beyond Iraq " today:

Five years have gone by since that fateful decision. This war has now lasted longer than World War I, World War II, or the Civil War. Nearly four thousand Americans have given their lives. Thousands more have been wounded. Even under the best case scenarios, this war will cost American taxpayers well over a trillion dollars. And where are we for all of this sacrifice? We are less safe and less able to shape events abroad. We are divided at home, and our alliances around the world have been strained. The threats of a new century have roiled the waters of peace and stability, and yet America remains anchored in Iraq.

History will catalog the reasons why we waged a war that didn't need to be fought, but two stand out. In 2002, when the fateful decisions about Iraq were made, there was a President for whom ideology overrode pragmatism, and there were too many politicians in Washington who spent too little time reading the intelligence reports, and too much time reading public opinion. The lesson of Iraq is that when we are making decisions about matters as grave as war, we need a policy rooted in reason and facts, not ideology and politics.

...

The war in Iraq has emboldened Iran, which poses the greatest challenge to American interests in the Middle East in a generation, continuing its nuclear program and threatening our ally, Israel. Instead of the new Middle East we were promised, Hamas runs Gaza, Hizbollah flags fly from the rooftops in Sadr City, and Iran is handing out money left and right in southern Lebanon.

The war in Iraq has emboldened North Korea, which built new nuclear weapons and even tested one before the Administration finally went against its own rhetoric, and pursued diplomacy.

The war in Iraq has emboldened the Taliban, which has rebuilt its strength since we took our eye off of Afghanistan.

Above all, the war in Iraq has emboldened al Qaeda, whose recruitment has jumped and whose leadership enjoys a safe-haven in Pakistan – a thousand miles from Iraq.
The central front in the war against terror is not Iraq, and it never was. What more could America's enemies ask for than an endless war where they recruit new followers and try out new tactics on a battlefield so far from their base of operations? That is why my presidency will shift our focus. Rather than fight a war that does not need to be fought, we need to start fighting the battles that need to be won on the central front of the war against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

--the BB

BLOGSWARM 031908 - Part 1

Today is the Feast of St Joseph, the day the swallows come back to Capistrano.

Because I was vicar of St Cuthbert's, Oakland, it remains, for me, the Eve of the Feast of St Cuthbert. Since it always falls during Lent, we celebrated our patronal feast on a Sunday near his Translation in September. For March 20, we had a midweek potluck and played "Cuthbert Jeopardy" a game modeled on the Jeopardy show that was good for a giggle and competition in categories such as The Bible, The Hymnal, The Book of Common Prayer, Saints (in general), Celtic Christianity, Cuthbert. Amid such "godly" categories there would arise fierce competition. You never know your fellow parishioners until you compete with them, eh? It was lots of fun.

But five years ago this evening our mood was somber. We had listened for weeks to George W. Bush rattle his saber, mock protesting that he hoped for diplomacy while lying his way into war. I frequently said back during the lead in that "he wants this war and he is going to have this war." I never, for a moment, believed a word he said. I knew better than to trust him.

But I didn't have to run for re-election so I was immune to being bullied about being "strong" on the defense of America.

We paused in our celebration to listen to the radio as we heard that Bush had, indeed, launched an attack on Iraq. We prayed. And we began our mourning then.

It is five years later. The United States continues to occupy Iraq. We continue to pray. We continue to mourn.

The whole thing is, as many have aptly noted, one big clusterfuck.

h/t to Blork Borg for the vintage Coppertone image

So today I have gone back to look at the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.

Shall we take a little trip back in time to October 16, 2002?

“Whereas the efforts of international weapons inspectors, United States intelligence agencies, and Iraqi defectors led to the discovery that Iraq had large stockpiles of chemical weapons and a large scale biological weapons program, and that Iraq had an advanced nuclear weapons development program that was much closer to producing a nuclear weapon than intelligence reporting had previously indicated;

Erm.... The weapons inspectors found stockpiles after the first Gulf War but also were not finding them following 9/11/2001. Even with all of Saddam's obstruction--and he did not want it revealed that he no longer had these weapons because the phantom of them helped him against his chief enemy, Iran--there were sufficient indications that in the most generous view they could not have nuclear weapons sooner than in five years. The CIA was questioning all this.

Despite the claim that Iraq's supposed WMD posed an imminent threat to the U.S., Secretary of State Colin Powell said on 2/24/01 that Saddam Hussein "has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction."

...

On 7/8/03, the W. Post reported the Administration admitted the Iraq-Nuclear allegation was false. Revelations by officials at the CIA, the State Department, the UN, in Congress and elsewhere made clear that the White House knew the claim was false before making the allegation [7/20/03]. In fact, CIA Director George Tenet successfully intervened with White House officials to have the reference removed from a Bush speech in Oct. of 2002. [W. Post, 7/13/03] (source)

In the "so what?" category:

“Whereas Iraq, in direct and flagrant violation of the cease-fire, attempted to thwart the efforts of weapons inspectors to identify and destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction stockpiles and development capabilities, which finally resulted in the withdrawal of inspectors from Iraq on October 31, 1998;

Yes, but before our invasion of Iraq the weapons inspectors were in Iraq and given all the access they requested. Inspections were moving ahead and Bush ordered them out (so he could attack). Saddam did not kick them out that time; Bush did. Let's be clear on this. The failure to verify the WMD situation, in the end, rests on Bush's shoulders.

Back to the AUMF:

“Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;

I believe we have here an instance of what Stephen Colbert calls "truthiness." The closest it comes to truth is that a member of al Qaida had, in fact, been in northern Iraq, the region controlled by Kurds and part of the northern no-fly zone where the US controlled the air space. In other words, a person with whom Saddam and the Iraqi government had no relationship was in Iraqi territory outside the control of Saddam.

Oh, and we could have taken this person out but the US government chose not to because it served our propaganda purposes better to have this person there.

Did I mention that Iraq had NO relationship to the attack on 9/11/2001?

Amid the authorization we find this:

“(b) Presidential Determination.—In connection with the exercise of the authority granted in subsection (a) to use force the President shall, prior to such exercise or as soon thereafter as may be feasible, but no later than 48 hours after exercising such authority, make available to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate his determination that—
“(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic or other peaceful means alone either (A) will not adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq or (B) is not likely to lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and
(2) acting pursuant to this joint resolution is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorist and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

That determination was not provided to Congress. Since weapons inspections were functioning until Bush ordered them to cease, it seems disingenuous at best and more likely heinous in the extreme for anyone to assert that "further diplomatic or other peaceful means alone ... will not adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq or ... is not likely to lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq."

It would also be rather challenging to publish a determination (not laced with lies and misdirection) that our military action would be "consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorist and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." The invocation of 9/11/2001 was gratuitous, of course. If I could figure that out back then, WTF was wrong with the media and Congress? There is the catch-all escape clause "international terrorist and terrorist organizations, including...." With a net that large one might include damn near any and everything.

Still waiting for an honest, articulate, and cogent determination.

[Crickets chirping]

With all the lies that went into Bush's ginning up this war I can only conclude that it was all pulled out of their collective asses.

As Bush spoke today in a vain attempt to justify his infliction of this deadly obscenity on the world, this sad observation is only reinforced.

In the donjeon at Aigues Mortes, France, one may read a word carved into the stone by a Huguenot prisoner from ages past. That word is RESISTEZ, RESIST.
--the BB



You can find "key false statements" from The Center for Public Integrity.

I'm in too!

Blogswarm on March 19 - the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq - is a time for folks to speak up and speak out. I'm not going to let it pass unnoticed.

Check out MARCH 19 IRAQ WAR BLOGSWARM if you want to join.

This blogswarm will promote blog postings opposing the war in Iraq and calling for a full withdrawal of foreign occupying forces in Iraq. Five years of an illegal and catastrophic war is five years too many. On the March 19 anniversary of the conquest of Iraq by the Bush Administration, there needs to be a loud volume of voices countering the pro-war propaganda from far too many politicians and corporate media outlets.

--the BB