Saturday, July 29, 2006

What Bush Thinks He Needs the Most

Distractions!

The news from Iraq is not good.

The Malicki government's writ extends only to the limits of the Green Zone, from which there are even rumors of an impending coup d'etat, presumably from contesting Shiite groups.

In the Red Zones, the news is bleaker. The number of trained Iraqi soldiers and police grew from an estimated 168,670 in June 2005 to some 264,600 this June. Yet Baghdad's morgue is receiving nearly twice as many dead Iraqis each day as it did last year.

Iraq's government said today that at least 162,000 people have fled their homes over the past five months in an effort to escape the sectarian violence that has swept the country.

U.S. KIA's have reached 2,574. Four U.S. marines were killed in combat actions in Iraq's volatile Anbar province in the last 24 hours. American military fatalities are down only slightly in July compared with the highs of the last three months.

Quiet rumors of an upwards spike in troop our deployments to 135,000 (again!) alternate daily with official denials of the same.

The lack of a dramatic down trend in American deployments in Iraq spells doom and gloom to Republican candidates. Many are eschewing identification with the White House. Some in the red states are even running as Democrats. Approval ratings of Republican leadership in Congress keeps company with the White House's ratings, in the cellar.

What Karl Rove wants are distractions.

How about the American Idols? How about extreme weather news? How about news of crimes of extreme cruelty?


Speaking of crime scenes, how about another war of extreme cruelty? Yes, that's it: a two-front war for Israel. Death and destruction on TV! (And not in Iraq!) Takes Iraq right off the front pages.

Bushies didn't start it of course, but the Neocons are definitely interested in seeing it run its course. Another proxy war against international terrorism. As Phyllis Bennis (Common Dreams) put it,
. . . this new war was set in motion by the example presented in Washington’s Iraq-centered efforts at militarized regional transformation in the guise of “democratization".
Works well domestically, too, because it covers Americans 30%-70% approval for our Iraqi occupation with a fresh and positive preoccupation with Israel's "right of self-defense". Bennis, again:
There is no question that overall, the escalation of the regional crisis to include all-out war in Lebanon and Gaza will make some work of the peace movement more difficult. It will be harder to call for bringing home all the troops from Iraq now, while the media propaganda focuses on “Israel under attack.” This is certainly true in terms of influencing congress or other policymakers, where the focus on Israel is escalating the existing Democratic Party leaders’ embrace of the Iraq war. And at a moment when key Republicans appear to be distancing themselves from the Bush administration’s war strategy, if not from the war itself, the new crisis is giving Republicans an opportunity to welcome the Bush administration’s position, while competing with Democrats over who can be stronger supporters of Israel. The unanimous Senate vote and the near-unanimous House votes supporting Israel’s war unequivocally and enthusiastically give some indication of that.
So now it's the U.S., the U.K. and the I.D.F. against terrorism of global reach. Bush, with Rove at his side, benefits from multiple proxy wars against terror eclipsing his un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (UULUIUOI).

9 comments:

  1. No doubt the Bushmaster and his "asses of evil" will benefit from the crisis in the Middle East, not only as a distraction from the Iraq conflict, but also because his handling of the Israel-Hezbollah war is bolstering his sagging poll numbers. It appears the majority of Americans agree with his position, i.e. no ceasefire until Israel takes care of business. While I also agree that Hezbollah needs to be destroyed I hate that Dub and his Dunces will benefit from the killing of so many innocents, on both sides, along the way.....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, Mike. But it's important to point out that even as Bush may be 'lifted' in domestic politics and polls, all America becomes more even more isolated in international opinion because of Olmert's action and Bush's inaction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When we liberals speak (or blog) Bush all too often becomes the object of the comment. He becomes the frame for whatever picture is being painted.

    And that is a shame. Often the President should be a minor distraction, not the center of attention.

    Here, he is doing.... well .... nothing.

    The question should be what should America (and the world) do? Can we, in fact, do anything. As I pointed out in my entry today, this war has alrezdy gone on for at least 1,378 years. A quick solution seems unlikely.

    Frankly, a permanent solution also seems unlikely.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is starting to look like fire fighters setting new fires to distract from the fact that they haven't been able to douse the big one. Or is it, a clownish juggler who is adding balls and getting maybe one too many in the air?

    One unfortunate fact seems to be evident; the U.S., despite it's status as the only super power, is loosing it's credibility to play any role as a honest broker in the world's affairs. It takes some doing to reach this point but these fumbling neo-cons have done it and their work has not been completed yet.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with everyone today and for me that is rare indeed. Bush is doing nothing and it does serve to isolate us even more. Dispatching Condi Rice to the far corners is no more than paying lip service to an age old problem. He is one of the few presidents in the last half century who has made no effort to work with the issues in the Middle East. Regardless Bush and his neo-cons will not be here forever. Today I think I agree with the WIZ and not comment on the Bush anymore. It gives him too much credit.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This administration works to divide the Middle East so the U.S. can control it all. They're all sociopaths and don't care how many people die. Needed to rant. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. John Dickerson of Slate detected the mines that leading Democrats needlessly stepped on here. Howard Dean called Maliki an "anti-Semite" for speaking out against Israel's retaliation against Hezbollah. Critical of Malicki some Congressional Dems childishly boycotted Maliki's speech. Dickerson correctly states:

    Maliki presents a problem. He's against the terrorists when it comes to al-Qaida, but he's with them when it comes to Hezbollah.

    The smart things for Progressives to see is that (a) PM [de jour] Maliki has to be his own man, (b) 95% of Iraqis - not to mention - everyone in the Middle East - think Israel is to be blamed for ongoing carnage, and (c), Hezbollah is not equivalent to Al Qaeda, even if Al Qaeda is pleased by such confusion.

    Progressives should leave it to the White House to explain why our puppet government in the Green Zone favors Hamas and Hezbollah on Palestine. But Democratic office holders and candidates, intimidated by AIPAC as they are, can't be expected to demonstrate such cleverness. They have to settle for scoring cheap patriot points.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great rant Stella and thanks from me also Messenger!

    ReplyDelete