Joe Hack

Poor old George W. He’s suffering from ’surge sickness’ and it might just be terminal. One of its worst syptoms is a resolute refusal to face reality. In a speech today in Ohio he attempted once again to wave the flag for his failing ’surge’ strategy in Iraq. As an aside, does anyone else find the idea of Bush actually having a ’strategy’ kinda funny ?

Anyway, he’s asking for ‘patience’ from congress and the American people as the bloody civil war in Iraq continues unabated despite the fact that General David Petraeus is expected to report negatively in his July ’snap-shot’ report on the so-called ’surge’ in troop deployment that was Bushs desperate last throw of the dice. The ’surge’ as you will recall, was the piece of inspired ‘Alice-in’Wonderland’ thinking that sent an additional 30,000 US troops to Iraq to fight an unwinnable war. American casualties continue to mount, the civilian death-toll is horrendous, and the body-bags just keep on coming home (although as we know there has been continuing pressure on the TV companies not to show images of these on TV ).

Times have changed though. No-one seems to be listening to Georgey-boy any more. Calls for a withdrawal to begin immediately are growing in Washington, with four Republican senators last week adding their voice to those demanding a new plan and this week will see a contentious debate in the US Senate over a major defence spending bill. In fact, the rise in pressure within Congress and among the US public is so great that one official speaking to the Washington Post newspaper said that “July has become the new September”. Independent news commentators say that the president’s call for a truce in the political battle cannot mask the sharply growing sense of urgency in the White House over the need to stem the flow of Republican defections on Iraq. Vice-President ‘Deadeye’ Dick Cheney and other senior administration officials have been scurrying about in Congress during the day urging senators to remain loyal. Even before Mr Bush’s ‘more of the same’ speech White House aides were playing down the July report, calling it a “snapshot” and emphasising that not too much should be expected just yet.

On Monday, speaking to the BBC, Gen Petraeus also called for patience, warning that fighting the insurgency is a “long term endeavour” which could take decades. Eh? Say that again slowly, buddy. Decades ? So is the guy on the ground now saying that American troops are going to be sacrificed in this bitter carnage for ‘decades’ to come ? Not just your children, but your childrens children ? Well that sounds like a great strategy that the American people will be rushing to get behind, doesn’t it ?

Fact is, its all about arrogance. Bushs arrogance and dumb inability to admit he got it so horribly wrong. He invaded Iraq on the basis of lies for reasons that were more to do with oil and Isaeli pressure than anything else. There was no WMD. There was no link whatsoever between Iraq and Al Quaeda (although thanks to George W its a terrorist playground now). Bushs illegal war has cost over 600,000 Iraqi lives and made another 4 million of them into refugees. American military deaths and serious injuries in Iraq continue to escalate. The country is descending into bloody civil war and the whole of the middle-east has been destabilised. Because of the Abu Ghraib and other torture scandals,  ‘extraordinary rendition’, and Guantanamo Bay, Americas reputation as a civilized  country has been dragged through the mud internationally and the US is divided internally like never before. Thats the sum total of Bushs great Iraq strategy so far.

And his solution to the chaos ? You guessed it. No change. More of the same.

You really couldn’t make stuff like this up, could you ?Tags:Abu Ghraib American Bush congress George W Guantanamo Bay insurgency Iraq lies political battle Political Rants speech terrorist US troopsAbu Ghraib, American, Bush, congress, George W, Guantanamo Bay, insurgency, Iraq, lies, political battle, Political Rants, speech, terrorist, US troops

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