November 16, 2003, Blackbird
Before this morning's "regular blogging", a brief moment to wish Mrs. TD a very happy birthday. Happy Birthday, Mrs. TD!
And now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging...
Another day in Iraq, another incident of "Black Hawk Down", in this case, a pair of Army Black Hawk helicopters that crashed into each other (perhaps after being struck by a missile of some kind) killing at least 17 soldiers in Mosul, Iraq. During comments on the investigation of the incident, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said that, notwithstanding the sudden rapid-fire sovereignty deal, American troops would stay in Iraq to secure the place; President Bush was quick to add "though not for years and years".
Your talking dog is at somewhat of a loss as to why the latest round of atrocities, which seem to involve attacks on military personnel, seem to bother the Bush Administration far more than earlier atrocities, such as bombings that killed UN personnel (including Americans, and at least one American I knew), or bombings at a mosque that killed a key Shiite cleric and nearly 100 human beings, or the bombing of the Red Cross, or for that matter, the attack on the Al Rashid Hotel killing a colonel and nearly killing the Deputy Secretary of Defense. The latest round of attacks feature helicopters being shot down (and dozens killed at an Italian air base). Frankly, if anything, the military casualties, though most unfortunate, are to be expected in an unpleasant post-invasion occupation, whereas things like the attack on the local Red Cross are almost unprecedented.
OK-- that was tongue in cheek. Obviously, I understand perfectly why the Bush Administration is concerned about mounting American casualties (though not so concerned that it won't try to screw soldiers out of stupid things like fully paid flights home for medical or other leave, or screw with veterans benefits, or for that matter, even allow full public mourning of the military dead by allowing media coverage of their return home). The Bush Administration is finally feeling the political heat that the sheer force of numbers of dead and wounded is bringing to bear, given that the Iraq Adventure was entirely a "discretionary" war. Further, as time rolls on, every single stated basis for participating in the adventure is proving to not only have been a well-documented lie, but a lie that the Bush Administration is willing to commit crimes of the highest order to maintain after the fact (see e.g. Valerie Plame).
Hence... yesterday's sudden embrace of a previously ridiculed French initiative for a rapid sovereignty turnover to whoever will take it off our hands-- timed so that we are technically "out" some 4 or 5 months before the November presidential election. This particular after-the-fact lie finally takes out the "wild card" basis for the war (WMDs, terrorist links and threats to regional security, having now all been safely debunked)-- that being the "we will impose a shining example of democracy in the Middle East" or even the "Saddam was a bad man" argument. You see, in six or seven months, we will not handing over power to an Iraqi equivalent of Washington, Adams and Jefferson and a new democratic order.
We will be handing over power to a convicted embezzler and his cronies, and a collection of local strongmen who can cobble together the best looking gerry-rigged structure fast enough, which will greatly resemble other Middle Eastern authoritarian states, seeing as it will be one. Worse, American troops will still have to be there to prop up said regime for quite a while, shifting us from being the masters of an unpopular occupation (made unpopular by our unwillingness to commit enough men and money to actually stabilize the country) to the masters of an unpopular "local government". Let's just say-- I have problems with all this.
Lookit: I had said that I admired Bush for his resoluteness in following through on Iraq. Now he's not even willing to be resolute on that. I give up. There is now officially nothing good I can say about our President. I'm sorry-- I was trying to be somewhat objective here, but that's the way it is. A President merrily willing to squander national assets for his short term political benefits has finally demonstrated a willingness to squander what little of his own assets he brought to the table for the same end. Karl must be kvelling.
Finally, welcome back to active blogging (I hope) William Burton; he has been missed.
Comments
Happy Birthday to Mrs.TD.
I am not convinced yet that we should leave Iraq, but we should consider the possibility that may be we are part of the problem there.
Posted by Zack at November 16, 2003 07:11 PM
"There is now officially nothing good I can say about our President."
A silver lining?
He was the catalyst for the first global preemptive anti-war protest movement in the history of the world, which revitalized the notion of grassroots international solidarity.
Posted by Ipecac at November 17, 2003 03:01 AM
Best wishes (belated) to Mrs. TD.
Posted by Conrad Barwa at November 18, 2003 04:22 AM
eeek.
Take time out of your blogreading to have a tummyache, see what happens.
Happy birthday, Mrs. TD.
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