As America waits for the long-anticipated but even longer predetermined report from Gen. David Patraeus on the situation in Iraq it becomes more and more obvious that little, if anything, will change in the war that just today cost seven more American soldiers their lives.
Patraeus will claim progress in a country torn apart by a civil war we started because those were his marching orders all along. President George W. Bush will agree to a small, but meaningless, troop cut that will gain enough Republican votes to keep Congress deadlocked and stymied and Democrats who swept into office on a platform of change will wring their hands, whine about how they need more of a majority and then claim that “gee, we tried.”
More Americans will die in a war that never should have been launched, deeper political and philosophical divisions will divide this country even more but – in the end – nothing will really change.
Bush has made it clear he wants a “sustained American presence in Iraq” and, for the most part, Bush gets what he wants from a timid Congress. The failed Democratic leadership of Congress walked away from their campaign promises to bring change and compounded their felonies by caving in to Bush and expanding his powers to wiretap and spy on Americans at will.
Americans may not face any real change when the final choices come down in next year’s election. The Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, voted for the war and won’t commit to any real plan to bring the troops home. Republican frontrunners all support the war and the newcomer to the race – former Senator and sometimes actor Fred Thompson – is as big a hawk as Bush.
Bush conned the Congress and the American people into giving him more time to prove his “surge” would work, knowing all along that even if it didn’t work he could cook the books enough to claim it has. A carefully-planned propaganda campaign by the White House has caused a small, but significant, shift in public opinion towards the war fueled by just enough bogus, but plausible, claims that the surge is working.
This brings enough wavering Republicans back into the fold and gives Bush the votes to stall any Congressional effort to set a timetable for withdrawal or force an end to a failed war.
While giving the appearance of an administration on the ropes, the Bush White House has outfoxed Congress at just about every turn, backing the lackluster Democratic leadership into a political corner where any real attempt to end the war comes off looking like abandonment of our troops in the field.
Bush is the unabashed godfather of a political conspiracy to force an unneeded war on a gullible public but Democrats and Republicans in Congress remain his co-conspirators, complicit by giving the authority to wage a war based on lies and hidden agendas and then failing to stop him when those deceits became a matter of record.
So nothing will change. Soon, the American death toll in Iraq will top 4,000. Then 5,000. In the future, when the need comes to build a monument on Washington’s mall to honor those who gave their lives in another failed war, the names on a wall dedicated to the Iraq debacle may outnumber the more than 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
22 thoughts on “In the end, nothing will change”
Doug – you wrote:
“The Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, voted for the war and won’t commit to any real plan to bring the troops home.”
This is correct.
But once again “frontrunner” Obama escapes criticism for the same behavior.
As you know, Obama wasn’t in the Senate at the time of the vote.
Based on his actions since becoming a Senator I have no reason to believe he would not have voted for it as well.
This is what Obama has said about ending the war in Iraq:
“[H]aving visited Iraq, I’m also acutely aware that a precipitous withdrawal of our troops, driven by Congressional edict rather than the realities on the ground, will not undo the mistakes … It could compound them. It could compound them by plunging Iraq into an even deeper and, perhaps, irreparable crisis.”
How this differs from Bush escapes me. Obama is saying exactly what Bush said to the VFW a few weeks ago.
Personally, I think it is dangerous for us to let Obama get away with it.
My anger is directed at the democrats right now – and that includes the pretenders to the democratic nomination. Kucinich – clear.
But Clinton and to an even greater extent Obama have the eyes and ears of the people right now and they aren’t saying much. I should modify this because I have read that Clinton may be about to say something – but as of this moment the Clinton and Obama exit strategies are non-existant. What they have said is indistinquishable from what Bush is saying.
Year…. Jan..Feb..Mar..Apr..May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2003…… 0—-0 –65 –74–37– 30–48–35– 31–44–82–40
2004—- 47–20–52–135-80—42–54–66–80—64-137-72
2005….107–58–35–52–80—78–54–85–49—96–84–68
2006…..62—55–31–76–69—61–43–65–72–106-70–112
2007…..83—81–81-104-126-101-79–84–18—0—0—-0
Please note:
Jan 05, was the only year that we lost more troops than this year in Jan.
April 04, was the only year that we lost more troops than this year in April.
August 05, we lost one more than last year in August.
All the rest of the months in all of the rest of the years we have lost more this year.
Please tell me how this is working????
I fear a false flag nuking or a ‘dirty bombing’ of an oil refinery in or near Houston some time between 9/14 and 9/21 (options “witching date”). I hope I am wrong and that I am nothing more than just another internet crackpot.
Kent Shaw
Not necessarily so Doug. Bushco is in for a huge destabilizing “surprise” soon…! :)) Rather than provide an outline, I’ll simply let it be a surprise. As Martha Stewart would say… “it’s a good thing”…! 😉
Nemo **==
OFF TOPIC.
Doug, thanks for the recent reminder regarding needless use of abusive or venomous language to express blame or censure or bitter deep-seated ill will in our comments. I like to leave all of that to current media darling Ann Coulter.
Best regards,
Kent Shaw
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