Hoping This ‘Iraq Thing’ Blows Over

To wrap your head around the logic behind the Bush administration’s spin campaign concerning the war in Iraq, a good trick would be to somehow channel a ten year old explaining to their father why they did something they weren’t supposed to. In this frame of mind it’s possible to understand Rumsfeld when he explains that when Cheney characterized the insurgency being in its ‘last throes’, he intended for us to understand that could mean something lasting 12 years. It could also come in handy when he says that among a list of fifteen scenarios he provided the president of what could go wrong following the invasion, one happened to be the enemy digging a moat outside a building they were in, filling it up with oil and setting it on fire. Of course, when Tim Russert then asks whether a ‘robust insurgency’ was on that list, he can’t recall. All lathered up in a thick coat of arbitrary goo, Rumsfeld plays the old man routine when it suits him, and otherwise his spirit remains faithful to the time honored tradition of an ancient debate discipline known as ‘nuh-uh’.

It’s quite obvious that these guys just make it up as they go along, but why give yourself headaches over it? Just sit back, turn on the tube and go shopping for that pill that can make it all go away. In a country that provides us so many things, why allow yourself the indignity of such suffering? What did Buddha describe as the cause of all suffering? Ignorant craving of course, and if there’s anything that fits the bill, expecting the truth from this administration concerning the war in Iraq is surely it. It’s as rare as a flawless three carat diamond, and like the death that’s needed to find one, bodies must pile up before the truth concerning Iraq is allowed to sparkle. So why not make use of all this country provides, chose a God and a pill, and leave the high-level stuff to the experts? If the lies are what bothers you, get some of that stuff Rush Limbaugh was taking for it. Otherwise you’re in for a long couple of years, because these folks are willing to babble some powerful nonsense if they have to, and it’s only going to get more ridiculous as the months go by.

When faced with a segment of their words on my television screen, the first thing that occurs to me is that they’re men who haven’t had to admit to many mistakes in this life. The boss in a corporation can dictate what the truth is when faced with a dilemma, or if the heat is really on, designate an underling to be thrown under the bus. That dynamic resonates within the explanations of the administration, but now we’re seeing a real problem unfold for them, as most of the underlings who’d fit the bill have been promoted already. Now America is looking for answers and Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are left to babble the brains out of our skulls, as we all become well acquainted with the reality that to them it’s not so much about getting it right as it is simply getting to the end of the segment or speech without having to take the blame for anything. Hence the constant sunny day spin and mind-numbing semantics.

This was their ideology at work, the neoconservative theory that would propel our empire on through the next century on top. Given an enemy to combat, a country to liberate, and a public driven by fear, they would be able to spread our way of life across the globe while the world cheered us on. The philosophy behind decisions to approach the invasion in the way we did were born from years of thinking and analysis that proved out to be dead wrong. With a disturbing level of arrogant naivety regarding the true nature of human beings in a setting known to all of us as ‘reality’, they assumed to know more about military operations than the military itself. Decided they were smarter than the top general of the Army and provided half of the troops he insisted were needed for the mission. Their belief in what would happen is captured in numerous statements made leading up to the war, and oh how wrong they all were. Cheney and Rumsfeld are currently in the unique position where they’ve essentially used the American population as guinea pigs for an experiment, and now that it’s gone wrong are forced to explain themselves. Only instead of snapping out of it and becoming leaders, they’ve instead turned into gutless campaign managers for an election that’s never going to take place.

Since it’s an imaginary election we’re dealing with, naturally Karl Rove has thrown his hat into the ring by proclaiming that liberals are spineless and conservatives are the only true American patriots. Meanwhile attempting to super glue 9/11 and the Iraq war together with every last bit of manipulative insight he can muster up. The President mentioned 9/11 several times in his speech on Tuesday hoping the trick would work, but what they all fail to understand at this point is that America has done their homework on this one. Leveraging ignorance, something Republicans have mastered over the past couple of decades, only works when the people you’re hoping to trick aren’t already hip to the flip. Predominantly red states from the south are showing job approval numbers for Bush below 50%. Recruiting shortfalls and the lack of proper funding in the VA budget are of great concern to the American people, but the administration is so far out of touch that they’ve decided to ignore these problems, hoping they’ll just go away. Instead focusing their efforts on a misinformation campaign aimed at convincing us that the war in Iraq is an extension of 9/11. Rather than address mistakes and solve the problems at hand, they’re aiming to attack the problem with words instead of ideas.

Bush made the claim that more troops aren’t needed in Iraq based on what the commanders on the ground are telling him. In response to this dishonest claim, Joe Biden said, “I’m going to send him the phone numbers of the very generals and flag officers that I met on Memorial Day when I was in Iraq. There’s not enough force on the ground now to mount a real counterinsurgency.” The border region alongside Syria is arguably the most vital area in stopping the influx of enemy combatants, but the marine units tasked with policing it are much too thin for the mission. Current troop levels now, as they were following the invasion, are adequate for chipping away at the enemy, but not sufficient for crushing their ability to continue fighting and reconstituting their numbers. Two years in and the public is now being informed about plans to secure the borders, and even as the focus is beginning to shift towards that soft spot in our battle plan, there aren’t enough soldiers and marines to actually do it. We’re reacting as new ideas make their way up the chain, but aside from cruelly extending tours to a year and a half in length, there’s no plan as of now to remedy the issue of manpower the military is struggling to overcome. The President is apparently unwilling to stick his neck out and make a decision for the sake of the troops that are already there, but instead content with wagering the success or failure of our mission solely on the ability of the Iraqis themselves to fill the gaps in short time.

Along with his denial over the serious problem that a lack of new recruits presents, this insistence that by fighting terrorists in Iraq we are keeping the fight away from our soil continues to show up in the logic. What he’s saying here is that we’re using Iraq as a staging area for a war against an enemy we’d otherwise be fighting here at home. Is the message that we’re there to bring freedom to the Iraqi people in exchange for the use of their land to fight a separate war of our own? Where specifically in the spin cycle does the war become less about the Iraqis and more about our own interests? If this is the reason we’re over there now, why isn’t the fact that our very presence manages to create more terrorists factored into the strategy? Where specifically in the spin cycle does the creation of new terrorists become less important than attracting them to a specific area outside of the continental United States? Again, the administration is devoting more work towards the words they use to describe what’s happening there and why, than they are the actual mission and ensuring it’s success. As the manipulation of motive and intent grows more complex with each passing month, the perception of our sincerity to the outside world declines along with the desire of our own people to continue sacrificing our young lives and hard earned money to the effort.

The American people want to win this war, but we also understand that it’s not going to be won in the polls. Decisive, strong leadership is not defined by merely sending our troops into battle to begin with, but instead in the decisions that are made following that initial one. The war cannot be won with words, though can be won with leadership that does not fear mistakes, but learns and improves from them. Enemies adapt and expose weaknesses, and so must we. Any decision that would benefit the mission and the troops that are already there cannot be discarded out of fear for what the political backlash might be in Washington DC. At this time the war plan is in need of changes the administration is unwilling to consider, and with every one of these ideas that gets shot down for political reasons here at home, there’s a lie or a spun up assumption to go along with it. Only instead of assumptions that were years in the making, as the neoconservative theory on what would happen in this situation were, these new assumptions are being made on the fly based on the political climate here in America rather than the actual realities on the ground in Iraq. Each display of dishonesty, round of babbling over semantics or continued ignorance of a growing problem only manages to compound the realistic sense growing within most Americans that President Bush and his administration are not capable of pulling this off.

To a man they’d rather save face and hope it all blows over than do what’s necessary to ensure success. Perhaps the rationale for why we lost is already in the works, with liberals, the media, UN and most likely the Iraqis themselves ending up responsible in the end when a right-winger tells the story to their sons and daughters. Judging by President Bush’s explanation of why his social policy has gone nowhere thus far, blaming everyone but himself, this will be exactally what happens. There will always be those among us who represent the game jersey of their team, with or without the logic to support their beliefs, and they know that. In fact, this can probably explain to perfection the motivation behind Karl Rove saying what he did last week. Maybe his sole purpose was to claim as many corpses as he could to use in constructing a foundation for the mamouth spin job that is to come should we lose this war. Come to think of it, that’s probably the reason why no one in this administration has been willing to take responsibility for any of the mistakes that have been made. They’re getting their stories straight, and waiting for all this to finally blow over.