Iraq and the Gang of Five….Some thoughts:


Five years ago, I was a senior editor of Democracy Chronicle. I was writing my own guest editorials under different pseudonyms for other liberal and progressive sites.
In these, I harped on the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11; that the WTC was the work of Osama bin Laden. Prior to that, he had been linked to the Cole and the destruction of the two embassies in North Africa.

I had already personally felt Obama and the terrorists blows when my cousin was killed on the Achille Lauro.

And in the late 80’s, I used to eat regularly at the restaurant blown up by Kahane’s followers after his assassination. I knew one thing: This was not going to go away. Too bad nobody had listened to the Assistant FBI Director in the New York field office; he had the measure of what was going on in the Middle East, but Louie Freeh, the FBI Emperor was too hot to get Clinton and felt that the New York agent was not a “team player” so he took him off the case, and things started to happen faster than we could keep track of them. Remember, 9/11 came after the botched effort of 93 where the original culprits were set free. It turned out that one of them was the architect of 9/11.
We know that because he was picked up attempting a hi jacking in the Philippines where he lost his computers and our government was warned what was coming.

But we didn’t listen then either.

It is too easy to relive all of the screw-ups, all of the bad planning, all of the politicking that went on during that time and our willingness to ignore everything that was unpleasant or did not fit the rigid formulae set by Bush & Company.

So, how do we resolve it?

We make a bad decision worse by reinforcing it with something called the Surge, a fancy name for something we Blog writers urged the president to do in the beginning.
No, Rummy was too smart for that. We would cut costs and quicken the war with Shock and Awe which turned out to be more like Schlock and Flaw because we were flawed in our understanding of what our weapons could and could not do and we turned to schlock because we refused to add the manpower every general recommended (with the exception of one and he took early retirement).

Now, we see the solution as something we should have done in the first place.

But we didn’t.

So, we add a new name and rush straight ahead.

McCain thinks its working; but what does he know. He’s surrounded by a contingent of special forces and is guarded more closely than Fort Knox.

His visit is a waste of time when it comes to reality.

But lets get back to the original question: Does persistence compensate for making the wrong decisions—like going into a country that had nothing to do with war in the first place?

I don’t think so. Nor should any right thinking person.

However, Bush has the media on his side.

And they don’t want to alienate the man who is the “decider.”

And since Congress seems hog-tied, again this entire issue falls into the laps of the people.

So far, most have been docile.

But it is year five.

Our troops are drained.

There is little enthusiasm.

And our battlefield weary troops need years of R&R to recuperate.

In the meantime, who is going to be left to fight the war you started, Mr. Bush.

Or don’t you care, inasmuch as you will be doing the weeding when this comes to a head.

Then let me ask you, Mr. McCain on the Anniversary of Year Five, are you planning a Draft? If so, I think you should be obligated to tell us so we can update our passports and get our kids out of this country.

Mr. McCain, many of us come from military families. I did. And I did my service.

But it was about something I believed in.

I don’t believe in this any way you try to shake it.

And I don’t believe that our president has any real interest in resolving this war soon.

And I believe that pretty soon, everybody is going to understand what is really going on with you and Cheney and your gang of little misfits.

So watch out, Mr. Bush, the Grand Jury is never far away!

Les Aaron