TAXPAYERS ON THE HOOK FOR TRILLIONS IN BANK BAILOUTS
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistWhen Bush said that the Iraq war would only cost taxpayers $50B back in 2003; he should’
ve grabbed Cheney’s crystal ball and fast-forwarded the
real amount of the conflict by a factor of 3000; by presenting the American public in 2008 with a staggering bill that will reach anywhere between $1.3 trillion dollars and $3.2 trillion. (The latter used as a safety-net in the event that a future President Sara
Palin decides to stick it out in Iraq on the likelihood that John McCain kicks the bucket prematurely during his first and only term in office.)
So when the media and the government tells the people that we are only going to be on the “hook” for as little as $25 billion to $50 billion, I
wouldn’t be cashing in your chips just yet.
The true
staggering amount that the government will have to bail out one major institution after is far retching than just a small paltry amount revolving comfortably around the $25B or $50B number in retrospect.
Many of the banking institutions and mortgage lenders hold
trillions of dollars in holdings, liens, and treasury notes–which are being sucked down the hole of debt created by the foreclosure market meltdown.
Do you honestly
think that both the mortgage industry and the banking institution–which has been
deregulated by the Republican Party these last 8 years or more–will only be slapping each one of us
lightly with pitiful amounts of
accrued debt by the time all this mess is sorted out and taken care of?
Dream on.
The American taxpayer is going to be
screwed up the ass over the next couple of years or so–depending on how long this foreclosure crisis lasts–and be stiffed for hundreds of billions in higher taxes; just to cover the
huge losses incurred by the mortgage industry and possible
trillions tacked on by the failing banking system–as each major bank falls prey to sour and bad loans.
Then we have the credit crisis which has yet to be addressed. And when that costly endeavor is over too…?
There may not be much of an America left to by cheap beer with anymore.Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: bailout, Federal Reserve Bank, foreclosure crisis, Iraq, media, President Bush, tax payers
PRESIDENT JOHN MCCAIN--A DISASTER IN THE MAKING
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistAsk me
again as to
why some people want to repeat another disastrous mistake in the coming election–by voting in more of the same bellicose policies which have train wrecked our nation’s economy and worn out our military past the breaking point?
Despite recent attacks on the Green Zone and the increase in violence (plus the apparent unraveling of the cease-fire by the Mahdi army), McCain has clearly signaled that he won’t change course either–echoing Bush’s recent comments on how history will perceive his failed Iraq policy: "One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come.' "
McCain
himself believes that the US troop surge is ‘succeeding’–despite the ratcheting violence and the fact that we have hit another grim milestone (or two): 4,000 dead American troops and almost 30,000 wounded.
Does he care? From his recent statements: “Sen. John McCain declared Monday that "we are succeeding" and said he wouldn't change course -even as the U.S. death toll rose to 4,000 and the war entered its sixth year.”
Apparently not.
Imagine for the moment that McCain is President for the next 8 years–having won the 2008 primary by a slim margin (2016):
Iraq has descended into complete chaos by 2012; 8,200 troops are now dead–with as many as 62,000 US troops wounded; with many more raw recruits having to come and fill the gaps left behind, through an unregulated draft put into place 2 years into McCain’s presidency.
On top of that, $1.5 trillion dollars have been spent on the conflict so far (not counting the money needed to take care of our wounded troops), Malaki’s government no longer exists in the form that the previous administration had installed–forcing the current administration to take steps to ensure that some semblance of democracy still
exists in that war-torn region.
Between 160,000 to 1.2 million Iraqis have died so far and as many as three million more displaced by the war. Iran’s influence in the region is simply overpowering, but there is little that McCain can do to affect any real change with that country; after it succeeded with its uranium-enrichment program the year before.
At this stage, McCain is consistently accusing Iran of wanting to destroy the world with its phantom nuclear arsenal–while Afghanistan has collapsed into complete anarchy. (NATO left in 2011-2012–having been unable to turn the tide against a now entrenched Al-Qaeda; with the country in complete control of the warlords which now operate without fear.)
Pakistan is now no longer our ally in the war against terror; having given up its pursuit of democracy. That in turn has left Al-Qaeda a new place to call home--even as its operations have started to expand on a
global scale; instead of just isolated to one or two countries. (As many analysts were quick to point out that the Iraq war conflict has deeply inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad and given groups like Al-Qaeda the money, resources, and manpower to carry out their deadly terrorists attacks against European and American interests; and a few recent attacks here in the states.)
Public opinion has so soured over the war (with a scant 15% still supporting the administration), that they see themselves unable to connect with their representatives over the war–let alone the government that’s
supposed to represent them.
However, things at home are much worse than they were when Bush took office. The economy is still mired in a deep recession brought on by the collapse of the housing market, the credit crunch, a near worthless dollar, and $170 oil. (Not to mention nearly $7 gas.)
High energy costs have left the majority of Americans dependent on their federal government to make ends meet–rather than the now scuttled wage earners which had helped prop up many of the former middle-class Americans in years past.
Chronic homelessness and rampant poverty now grips the nation, with no end in sight.
McCain’s tax cuts for the rich and the continued war has pushed the US deficit to nearly $14 trillion dollars–as federal revenue has fallen to its lowest level in recent memory; coupled with the strain of the insurgent population of baby boomers on Social Security and Medicare (whom retired in 2008), healthcare costs which have transcended levels not seen in a generation, and the
surge of illegal immigrants into our country has put a severe strain on our country’s medical and social services. (Thanks in part to McCain’s successful ‘amnesty’ bill; pardoning many immigrants from breaking federal law and not paying their share in back taxes–while working here illegally.)
But McCain is up for re-election and he’s once again claiming that despite the high costs of lives and money, the US is “winning the war in Iraq”. (The same ploy which Bush used in his last year in Iraq.)
And this time, the
majority of the country doesn’t support or share his views. Even a larger majority of Republicans whom blindly supported Bush’s push for war during the early 2000s, don’t rush to his defense of the conflict as they did before many years prior.
But will a change in the American public’s perceptions finally end what McCain said would be a “100 year occupation” of Iraq by 2012–almost 10 years after Bush invaded that country?
It all depends on how the people in there and
now vote.
The above scenario is little less of a fantasy and more on the
reality we all face if we let someone like John McCain in the White House–based on current trends and an equally dismal future for
all Americans.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: elections, healthcare, Iraq, Iraq war, Iraqi civilians, McCain, milestones, national deficit, President Bush, recession, troop surge
BUSH DESIRES A REPEAT OF LEBANON
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistOddly enough, Admiral Fallon’s departure represented not just a
shift in US foreign policy, but another example of how rational
minds are no longer
wanted within the US government of high-rollers and shakers.
To
disagree with Bush is inviting getting your ass fired in a relatively short order. The President has made it clear to everyone that he doesn’t brook dissidents within his own administration.
Many have questioned his policies and paid the price for it. Many prominent figures within the administration like Colin Powell have left because of such disagreements.
And what was replaced?
Neoconservative war hawks whom belie the administration’s continued beating of the war drums.
In this day and age, this administration has made it their mission to wreck as much havoc and misery on other countries in the name of freedom and democracy;
jingoistic propaganda that would’ve sounded
great during the days of the Cold War–where we actually had an enemy, and adversary, a clearly defined
threat.
But where is the fire now?
Where in the world can the United States still call itself a superpower
by standing up against such evil despotic countries suppressing their people and their rights to such freedoms and Western-style democracies and ideals?
Unfortunately, the world
today is not the same as yesterday. The USSR that I grew up with is
gone–to be replaced by a Russia that no longer has the reach it has.
As such, there are very few countries which could threaten us militarily.
Whatever possessed our President to invade Iraq on fixed intelligence and a distortion of the facts–we may never know for awhile yet. But the end results were
not what the Bush war machine
envisioned: That Iraq would be a Western bastion of democracy and freedom.
Instead, Iraq is not even a shadow of
that. The country is continuously wracked with violence.
The government we helped install doesn’t seem to get the Bush idea that it’s supposed to rule in the traditional
democratic fashion. Since 2005, the Malaki government has shown a severe
disinclination to speed up reform and institute a democratic rule of law. As a result, there has been no democracy, no freedom, no “Hail to the Chief”-type patriotism. Just a lax of
enthusiasm, a sense of urgency, or
anything that would normally instill a recently created government body.
In short, the Bush administration had sold its soul on the idea that–
if–it could remove such despotic regimes by force, democracy would soon follow.
Sadly, history has been against us every step of the way.
And the bonofide mess in Iraq was the result of such grandiose visions. But do you hear Bush harbor regret for dragging one of the world’s most powerful armies in the world through one of the
worst blunders in modern civilization?
Nope.
The way Bush tells it, we should be
glad that we removed Saddam. We should be
glad that we wasted a soon-to-be record $3T dollars, thousands of American troops, and even more innocent Iraqi lives–just so we can have an endless war, and endless occupation of a country that is about the size of California and posed virtually no
threat to this nation.
And have no democracy or resolution in sight.
But it gets
better.
How?–you ask?
With the departure of Admiral Fallon, it pretty much clears a path to Iran’s door.
A war that’s been in the making since 2001.With Iraq under US occupation and both our troops and their equipment wearing out past the breaking point, Bush and Cheney have tried their hardest to paint Iran as a growing and
visible threat to the US.
Last year, they ramped up the “World War III” rhetoric–implying that if we did nothing
now, we could be faced with Iran raining nuclear missiles down the United States.
Would be more
credible; had the Bush administration not
lied about the threat that Iraq posed to the US and the world.
With Fallon out of the way, there is little to stop Bush from launching a
third Middle East war with a crippled military. However–before anyone gets excited over that prospect–maybe we should time-warp ourselves to the summer of 2006; where Israel tried to take out Hamas using only airpower and very little ground support.
As a result of that botched conflict, Israel came away deeply embarrassed and in no better position to do anything about that entrenched terrorist organization then it was when it first attacked.
The word on the grapevine is that Bush wants to launch punishing air strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities–in hopes that it would spur the overthrow of Ahmadinejad’s democratically-elected government.
But didn’t Israel try something similar against Hamas in 2006?
Just makes me wish that Bush had been paying more attention to what was going on in 2006 instead of trying to cement his failed war legacy in 2007.
Or 2008.
Then he would’ve
seen how much a fruitless exercise it would be to try and take out Iran with such limited resources at hand.
Given how he's reacted to imaginary or realistic threats to our national security, my guess would be...?
A resounding no
!Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: Admiral Fallon, Hamas, Iran, Iraq, President Bush, war, World War III
FANTASY BECOMES A NIGHTMARISH REALITY
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistForget Iran.
Let’s worry about a nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Yes.A nuclear-
armed Pakistan.
This isn’t just some fantasy spiel concocted by the Bush administration over the case of phantom weapons of mass destruction with Iraq–or the possibility that Iran
might be developing nuclear weapons.
No.
This is reality.
The US’s worse nightmare imaginable.
For years now, we’ve heard the Bush and neocon cabal tell us that their worse Cold War fears is that terrorists somehow get a hold of some nukes and detonate them abroad or on US soil.
The perfect harbinger to and end to our democracy.
They’ve been telling us that we should be vigilant and fear everyone around us whom is not an American citizen. (a.k.a:
Muslims)
They’ve told us that if we didn’t rat out those whom we saw as a threat–we would only play into the terrorists’ hands.
Oddly enough, Pervez Musharraf’s recent actions in Pakistan seems to have born out some of those fears.
But let’s not get a hold of ourselves here and start preaching doom and gloom just yet.
After all, we supported this latest military strongman (for democracy’s sake–
naturally), and we’ll go on supporting him until it’s convenient for us to either cut ties with that country and our former ally–or
invade.
We did it with Iraq. So why not Pakistan?
Of course, with Musharaff cracking down on dissenters, the media, and the opposition–he’s making the terrorists’ job of obtaining nuclear matériel that much easier.
And given the fact that we practically
gave Pakistan the weapons technology and material to make
nukes–that Cold War fantasy of terrorists getting their hands on them…
Makes it all the more real.
And to think…we have
Bush to thank for that?
Who would’ve thought: A US President supposedly upholding freedom and democracy–by giving the terrorists just what they could’ve wanted and more...?
Only because our esteemed President (George W. Bush) thought it would be swell!–to park some nuclear weapons in the middle of a predominantly Muslim
country?I guess it is really true what they say about people and their ambitions these days:
You really don’t need a brain to become President of the United States of America!Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: Al-Qaeda, fantasy, Iran, Iraq, Musharaff, Muslims, nightmare, nuclear weapons, Pakistan, President Bush, terrorists, US
NO CHILD LEFT ALIVE?
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistFor six years, George Bush and the Republican Congress had spent American taxpayer monies to the tune of $9.3 trillion dollars to date–most of it going to tax cuts for the rich and the wars in Iraq, and Afghanistan.
For six years, Bush had vetoed not one spending bill proffered by the GOP.
But suddenly, Bush is flip-flopping on his 2004 promise to
expand a children’s health insurance coverage plan; known as SCHIP–in an effort to diplace millions more poor children whom otherwise can't receive coverage otherwise outside the current program.
The President is claiming that the program overreaches into the middle-class–and has become too expensive to maintain.
He claims that Democrats are just in it for the political points, but many of his own party whom support the program openly are
dismayed that the President would go against himself and his promise to help expand and continue funding a much needed program for the poor.
A program that currently helps 6.6 million children get the care that they
need.
Ironically, Bush just sent Congress legislation demanding that he gets additional money for the wars in the Middle East–totaling upwards of $245B.
But to spend an additional $35B over the next 5 years to keep those 6.6 million kids from getting sick or
worse–when we spend on average $120B to $130B a year
in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Nah.
Bush just thinks that’s just too
expensive.
After all, with just 15 months left his presidency, W is suddenly
eager to re-establish himself and his legacy as being
fiscally conservative.
Unfortunately for him, it’s come far too late to be anything but a big spender.
All at the expense of our children’s health of course.
But that doesn't seem to bother Bush at all.
And why should it?
He's not paying for it. But our kids are.
Or they will be as soon as Bush vetoes the bill.Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: Afghanistan, Bush, children's, conservative, debt, fiscally, healthcare, Iraq, legacy, trillions
BUSH'S NEW WAR STRATEGY: STAY THE COURSE
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistNaturally, General Petraeus plays the same tune that Bush wants to here: “Stay the course–because we are making progress.”
But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is proving all that more harder to cover up with optimism and political spin:
Just this week, a leading Sunni sheik was assassinated by an Iraqi bomb.
The Iraqi police force needs to be disbanded and started over from scratch.
The Iraqi government is completely dysfunctional.
Only one of the political benchmarks have actually been met. (Or actually not. The meeting--between the leaders of the sects on August 26th--caused the Pentagon to revise that de-Baathification objective from being "unsatisfactory" to "satisfactory".
All because of that meeting! But the funny thing, is that no legislation has been passed!)
The rest have failed.
The Iraqi security forces need another 18 months to be "effective." (Not that we haven't heard
this before...)
And the list goes on.
This is the reality of the war in which we have effectively lost to the insurgents.
No amount of ‘good news’ and spin from the White House can erase what many Americans see now as a lost cause.
You don't hear
victory, just a "redefining of definitions of progress" and goals which can't possibly be met now or in the near future.
Certainly not when Bush leaves office.Things are too far gone to simply turn a blind eye towards our failures and try to start things over--which is what this adminstration has been trying to do.
Try to restart a war in which events of the last 4.5 years never existed at all. In reality, Bush is trying to rewrite history before his term of dishonor completes itself.Sp his idea to bring home the troops is nothing more than an insult, and a slap in the face for our serving military.
Considering that the conditions on the ground mirror a low-level civil war, all Bush is doing is buying time for himself–not the troops. Those troops whom were added to the surge have to be pulled back anyways.
Not because they
succeeded in doing anything impressive, but because they are stretched past the breaking point and have no fresh replacements on tap to replace them.
So they have to come home. But rumors are circulating even now that the President and his military crony advisors are planning on extending tours once more and shortening leaves--to make his surge more
permanent through 2008.
With no stability, unity, or democracy in
sight, Bush is just trying to escape the mess he’s created by announcing that he is indeed the Decider--no matter--and he has decided that no change in course is warranted–until
after he leaves office.
Which begs the question:
Is the Iraq war still worth it?Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: Bush, civil war, insurgents, Iraq, stay the course, troops
SUPPORT FOR THE FAILED TROOP SURGE CONTINUES UNABATED
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistIt’s a bit puzzling: Seeing the GOP continue to support a clearly failed Iraq policy.
But that’s what they are apparently content in doing. And the question is
why?
What possible political gain could the GOP hope to achieve by supporting a failed troop surge?
The original premise of the surge was to tamp down violence in Baghdad long enough to give the Malaki government enough reconciliation time and get its act together.
But 8 months later--zero political progress has been made by the clearly
dysfunctional Malaki government.
Does this stop the GOP support?
Nope.
These misguided fools (and their supporters) still hinge on the idea that “it takes awhile for progress to be made”.
Okay…um…8 months have passed and
no progress has been made in political reform, unity, or reconciliation within the Malaki government.
The year before that…?
Nothing. The year before that?
Nothing.So what are the GOP and its war supporters waiting for?
A sign from God?
With limited progress on the ground, the Malaki government clearly has shown that it cannot govern. But does this persuade the Republicans that nothing they do or say is going to change the facts on the ground?
That this surge is a monumental failure?
Sadly, no.
The GOP is inherently blind to reality. They still believe that through some unforeseen miracle–Iraq will somehow
right itself and fly right.
But both war-weary Americans and Democrats are
tired of waiting. And seeing our military abused for clearly selfish purposes.
But take heart. All of this will end sooner than we all thought.
Someone recently said: "When we make a mistake, it is the obligation of the people—through their representatives—to correct the mistake, not continue the mistake. We have dug a hole for ourselves and we have dug a hole for our party. We are losing elections, and we are going down next year if we don't change it."
And that person was none other than Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul
himself.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: American people, Democrats, GOP, Iraq, Iraq war, Ron Paul, troop surge failure
BUSH’S FAILED WAR ON TERROR
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistPersonally, I don’t get tired of saying it: But you
cannot defeat an ideology with military force.
You can knock terrorist groups down for a time, kill some of their followers and maybe–if you’re lucky–nab some of their leadership, but in the end–they always bounce back; stronger than ever.
When President Bush was asked about Al-Qaeda’s resurgence and phenomenal strength of numbers, the
look on his face and body posture looked clear to me that he was about to
throw up.
Why?
Because since 9-11, W has been telling us: “We’re winning the war on terror!” and “We have Osama on the run!” and “It’s just a matter of time before we catch him!”
So the reality of this latest report by some intelligence analysts really shocked Bush to the core.
After blowing billions of dollars, manpower, and military hardware trying to oust and defeat the Taliban–and letting Osama escape at Tora Bora–the stark reality of this “war on terror” has been made perfectly clear:
We haven’t won anything at all.
Because of Bush’s incompetence at Afghanistan, his brazen swaggering into Iraq to topple an impotent dictator–the last 5 years of war in Iraq was just the ambrosia that Osama needed to reconstitute, reconstruct, and literally
remake his organization into an even more deadlier, more
stronger, entity than ever before.
And this time…?
Killing off Al-Qaeda is going to be even more
difficult to achieve than ever before. Even impossible.
All of this because Bush let his eyes off the ball for one split second in Afghanistan.
And do you what’s even more amusing about this whole thing?
Bill Clinton really can’t be
blamed for Bush's failures! Because he wasn’t
President on 9-11!
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: 9-11, Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, failures, Iraq, Osama bin Laden, President Bush, war on terror
BUSH’S DESPERATION IS BECOMING CLEAR
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistIn an effort to paint Iraq the central war on terror, Bush rushed to declassify information that the American public had known since this war on Iraq began:
That Osama bin Laden is going to use Iraq as the central staging point for his attacks.
Does W think we are
stupid?
That one day we would wake up and say, “Hey! You’re right! We should stay in Iraq until the job is done?”
I think not!
The sad fact is, is that Iraq wasn’t the central stage in our terror war. That was Afghanistan.
We should’ve stayed there.
But we didn’t. Or rather
Bush didn’t. Bush made the rash assumption that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and rushed in to overthrow Saddam–by taking his eyes off Osama at Tora Bora for a split second.
And in that split second, Bush blinked, and Osama escaped. The bulk of his leadership escaped, while a great many of his followers were killed in the ensuing US invasion.
After toppling Saddam’s government, Bush inadvertently created a
vacuum in which the insurgency and groups like Al-Qaeda could fill with splintered-association groups, and keep the American-led coalition hopelessly pinned down through constant fighting.
And it’s worked.
Now, Bush is desperately trying to paint this war as the central war on terror–desperate to regain whatever support he still has left to him.
Like he’s done in the past when things have gone south in Iraq.
And they have.
But no matter what, neither Bush or any future President can fight what’s begun.
By shifting the war to Iraq–instead of Afghanistan–we’ve created a nightmare scenario that could’ve only come from a fictionalized movie.
And with each passing day, we are paying for it in both blood and treasure.
All because Bush wanted Iraq for his very own.Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.comLabels: Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Bush, civil war, desperation, insurgency, Iraq, Saddam, Tora Bora
DON’T GET TOO OVERLY EXCITED–U.S. HAS ONLY BOUGHT ITSELF TIME IN THIS TWO-FRONT WAR.
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistIt comes as no surprise that the security operation in Baghdad has lessened some of the impact and horrors of the raging 4-year-old Sunni-led insurgency.
But before any of you war supporters start popping those champagne corks, you might want to just hold off the celebrating permanently:
All this has done is bought the US-led coalition forces some time and breathing room.
The insurgency has gone to ground and laid low for the time being, calculating new attacks and new approaches to the security operation–and probing the whole thing for weaknesses. But it doesn’t mean that the insurgency has been defeated by any means.
Even the capture of Al-Qaeda of Iraq’s leader (supposedly captured–no one has actually confirmed this publicly), hasn’t lessened the daily car bombings, the violence, and the killing of Iraq’s vulnerable citizens.
Make no mistake about it:
This insurgency hasn’t been crushed. And it won’t be militarily–no matter how many troops Bush sends into Iraq.
And we won’t even be able to hold onto the said areas once things are in place. Because–like before–the insurgency will rise and strike either at will or elsewhere in Iraq; thus drawing away much needed security from other cities and even the capital itself.
While Bush and his cronies are crowing about this latest “success”–they are still dangerously short-sighted in the long term:
We still won’t win this war by force or playing it up as a victory
in the war against terror.What will win this war is one thing which Bush doesn’t have or won’t embrace willingly:
Diplomacy.
And while he thinks that the talks with Iran this month was still a win for the US, it proved that we have lost a lot of ground with the international community as a whole.
Instead of, “Sure, we’ll sign on board,” Iran has simply offered, “We’ll think about it and let you know the results.”
That in itself is a slap in the face for our long-standing foreign policy initiatives.
And it will be awhile before the nations of the world begin to trust the United States openly again.
A long time indeed…Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.comLabels: Al-Qaeda of Iraq, Bush, civil war, insurgency, Iran, Iraq, time, United States
WHICH SIDE ARE WE ON THESE DAYS? FANTASY OR REALITY?
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistIt doesn’t cease to amaze me. You would think that this endless war without a plan or exit strategy would curtail the government and military’s
rosy and
optimistic views on how this conflict is going–but it
hasn’t.
Curiously, it seems to have
magnified the symptoms drastically: Though we have daily bombings in Baghdad, with civilians and US soldiers dying pretty much every day, both the military and the government running this dog and pony show still
believes that they are making “progress”!
So I guess in this instance, we are in
fantasy mode–not reality.
Despite all the carnage going on, both apparatuses are operating under a
make-believe mentality that things are progressing regardless of the enormous loss of life done to both occupier and its
liberated populace.
Which of course, is making the mission in Iraq less definable and more complex. If the recent surge of troops (scheduled to be increased to 28,000) was supposed to have worked by now, it has
failed.
If the recent surge of troops was supposed to have stemmed the bombings and contain the violence, it has
failed.
That is reality. But to Bush and the military, that’s “progress.”
To my mind, this is the
worst application of military and federal intelligence in any war brought forth by the US since its inception over 200 years ago.
It is no wonder the chaos still goes on unimpeded! We are simply allowing this to happen because we got a bunch of amateurs in both sects of command operating under the mentality of a
retard!
This goes beyond anything which the civilized world would be able to understand. And quite frankly, this conflict is creating more instability by the day, than it could possibly do in the exact opposite.
And despite Bush’s claims to progress with Malaki’s government, there hasn’t been at all. Some half-hearted gestures from his side, but in reality, he’s allowed this to go on for far too long.
The Iraqi people are clamoring and
demanding that he does something, but he
can’t.
However, Bush will still call it “progress” no matter what. The Iraqi security forces are unable to halt the violence. Stop the insurgency, stop the Shiite militias.
And neither can ours.
So in effect, what we are dealing with here is something we all call
reality.
But to the Bush administration and the US military, it’s called
fantasy
“progress”.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.comLabels: Bush, chaos, fantasy, Iraq, Malaki, reality, troop surge
