Four More Wars!

Four More Wars! Four More Wars! Four More Wars! Four More Wars!
Copyright © 2005-2009 by Tim Horrigan

Today's Terrorist Threat Level:
(unless you are traveling by commercial airliner, in which case the Threat Level is Orange.)

[December 15, 2011] President Obama rather quietly announced the official end to the War in Iraq. We still have 15,000 diplomatic personnel in Iraq, but no military bases are left.

December 15, 2011: "The Final March From Iraq"

[January 20, 2009] George W. Bush is no longer President: Barack Obama has taken over. Although he doubtless will have to send our troops into some wars, Obama seems disinclined to start any more wars. And he spoke out against the invasion of Iraq way back in 2002.

Bush II was not satisfied with invading Iraq. There were several other countries he wanted to invade. But, happily he was unable to do so. Bad as things are, they could have been much worse.

The pictures of the Bush family, by the way, are no longer on this page. You may be able to find some pictures at:

http://www.TimothyHorrigan.com/bushtwins.html

Four More Wars! Four More Wars! Four More Wars! Four More Wars!
Copyright © 2005-2009 by Tim Horrigan

Today's Terrorist Threat Level:
(unless you are traveling by commercial airliner, in which case the Threat Level is Orange.)

The 2004 election didn't turn out the way I hoped, and Bush II and Cheney were re-selected. However, we were still able to have another election in 2008!

Iraq has had several elections since 2005, and Emperor Bush congratulated himself repeatedly on how great it was that constitutional democracy is coming to Iraq. (Ironically, he has been simultaneously trying to dismantle the institutions of constitutional democracy back home in the United States.) The initial Iraqi elections didn't exactly turn out the way Bush II wanted: his point man in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, headed a party which seemingly failed to win even a single seat in the new Parliament. Eventually, some more elections were held, an a pro-Bush regime was eventually installed in Baghdad. This new government, however, has totally lost control of the country (so Chalabi is lucky he lost the election.) It doesn't even control its capital. The Parliament has to meet in the US-occupied Green (oops!... "International") Zone— and even then it's not safe. (For example, On April 12, 2007, a suicide bomber managed to blow up the parliament's dining room, killing several members and staffers.)

We have had some elections in the USA as well. The war was the main issue in the 2006 mid-term election, and the Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress. The Democrats won the Semate only after a close race in Virginia which ended (at least temporarily) the political career of the leading contender to be Jeb Bush's running mate: George "Macaca" Allen lost his seat by a narrow margin to a former Republican, Jim Webb. Senator Webb just happens to be a decorated ex-Marine and Vietnam combat veteran who served as Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy. And he is definitely not a peacenik— and yet the Iraq war led him to switch parties.

The war is a key issue in the 2008 Presidential Election, even though the media have stopped covering. The Democratic candidates were, to a man and woman, against it— although only Dennis Kucinich actually voted against this particular war in Congress (and spoke out against the war before it even began, as shown in his September 2002 "Case for Peace" presentation.) The initial frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, was in a particularly difficult position because she supported the war without fully considering all the available evidence (as she admitted during an April 14, 2007 Town Meeting Event when confronted by a concerned citizen.) During the 1008 race, she has been giving an unconvincing explanation of her past and present positions. There was even an antiwar Republican in the race, Dr. Ron Paul.

The war in Iraq, which is addition to being a fiasco happens to be grossly illegal, was also a key issue behind a movement to impeach Bush & Cheney. This movement is gathering strength even now that Bush II's term is about to expire, even though it is operating under a news blackout and even though the Democratic leadership in the US House of Reprsentatives wimped out. An impeachment resolution even made it to the floor of New Hampshire state legislature in April 2008.

To say the least, the war in Iraq is not going as planned. Bush II's original plan was to wrap things up in 2005 and move on to further adventures against the other two poles of the Axis of Evil (i.e., Iran and either North Korea or Syria, depending on which version of the Axis happens to be operative at the moment.) However, it is now 2008 and American forces are still bogged down in Iraq, although supposedly we are winning over the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. On some perverse level, it may be a good things that our forces are bogged down, since this way our nation only ends up fighting one pointlessly destructive war. Bush II has a long list of countries he would like to go to war with: aside from Iran, North Korea and Syria, he wishes he could attack Venezuela, Sudan, and Cuba, amongst others. Some of his fellow conservatives even like to make threatening noises about the friendly (and very well-armed) nations of Mexico (which refuses to stop its citizens from entering the USA illegally) and France (which is just plain French.)

It is obvious that Bush II has no intention of bringing the troops home, no matter what happens. The Democrats made the 2006 election into a referendum on the war, and the war lost— but Bush II has refused to even consider pulling out of Iraq. Indeed, he has refused to have formal meetings with the Democratic leadership on the war unless they agree in advance to take troop withdrawal off the table. Moreover, he began the new Congress with an absurd proposal to send a "surge" of additional troops: an absurd proposal which was in fact implemented (although now there is talk of reducing troop strength to "pre-surge" levels.)

The Iraq War was planned, insofar as it was planned at all, as part of a broader offensive planned way back in 1992, and which would have started in 1993 if Bush I had won a second term. (Click here to learn more.) Gulf War II is not really a response to 9/11; in fact 9/11 delayed the Iraqi invasion. Yes, 9/11 did serve as a pretext for the invasion of Iraq, but if 9/11 hadn't happened, Bush II would have simply used some other pretext. In fact he has used literally dozens of other pretexts. (Click here to learn about one of these pretexts, "Weapons of Mass Destruction.")