A Crooked Man, A Crooked Road

[Daveparts]

A Crooked Man,A Crooked Road
By David Glenn Cox


The good news is that there is no good news, the bad news? Well, that’s the good news. Bush and McCain say that it is the surge that has brought relative calm to Iraq. Obama claims it was more due to Anbar awakening. Who is correct? Neither is correct, both are absolutely wrong.

It is cash and condoned corruption that has brought the calm, the US military by buying off the tribal groups and by giving them free reign in their own neighborhoods have purchased peace or maybe just rented it. Far from the grandiose Bush promises of democracy is the brutal fact that little more than street gangs rule the country. Tribal sheiks each with a militia/street gang rule the roost; the Iraqi government lives inside the green zone and has little influence over the sheiks.

In that fantasy delusional Bush world the tribal group’s members are to be disbanded and absorbed into the Iraqi Army and police force but only 25% will make that cut, where will the other 75% go? Armed bands with no allegiance to a national government, a national government that would rather see them done away with. These tribal groups have ruled Iraq on a local level for hundreds of years. What would lead one to believe that they have suddenly developed a love of democracy? They love democracy as long as the money keeps coming in and they are granted a free hand in their little fiefdoms.

The tribal leaders have a say as to who gets hired on reconstruction projects and wet their beaks in hundreds of other ways aside from their Uncle Sam supplied cash. An Iraqi version of the Sopranos, and were paying off the loan sharks for peace and $100.00 for each roadside bomb turned in. But these tribal groups acknowledge the Iraqi government in the same way Tony Soprano acknowledged the cops, with a smile and a wave. We are building the next Iraqi conflict brick by brick, dollar by dollar. Two groups, a government and traditional tribal sheiks each with armed militia both under the pay of the US, the question then becomes, when the money stops, who shoots first?

We’ve created a situation, where we can’t stay but don’t dare leave, McCain is right we will have to stay 100 years. Obama is right as well, we should be out in 16 months but we have one foot on a land mine and we’re holding up a falling brick wall with both hands. In Bush world we will train the Iraqi police and military to maintain civilian control. Its Vietnamization all over again, putting people in authority with dual allegiances. Arvin by day Cong by night, Maliki by day tribal at night, I wonder how they always know our plans? Most all of the Iraqi army and police leadership are all also members of the different tribal groups.

A corrupt enterprise can not be made clean, it’s about the oil, and it’s always been about the oil. This administration would kiss the devil’s ass for control of the oil. The Iraqi government knows its about the oil and balks at the penny’s on a barrel Bush proposals. Maliki endorses Obama’s time line because he smells the end of Bush, he sits there drawing his one million dollar a month salary and thumbs his nose at Bush. Lining his pockets while making travel reservations, because when the US troops go the Iraqi government goes.

The lines have become blurred and the more closely we look at the picture to determine the details we lose sight of the image as a whole. We invaded a country to gain control of their natural resources and we have hired thugs and street gangs to give the appearance of control. We have installed a quisling government to give the illusion of democracy and now we are caught in the jaws between them. It is not a question of victory or defeat as McCain offers, it is not a question of staying or going as Obama maintains.

If we stay 100 years, as McCain would like we will still lose, if we leave Iraq in 16 months as Obama promises we will still lose. For with all of our technology and gee whiz weaponry the Iraqi’s have a better handle on us than we do on them. The insurgency hasn’t disappeared they’ve just stopped shooting long enough to cash their checks from Uncle Sam. They know that the Americans will leave sooner or later and whenever that happens then Hell’s a popin!

McCain’s got the easier position as he will never leave Iraq, so the eruption won’t occur on his watch but it will happen on someone’s. Obama’s position is fraught with peril; a race with the devil, taking our head out of the gator's mouth before it snaps shut, and snap shut it will. The correct answer to the question of who is correct McCain or Obama is neither. The correct answer is, it was wrong to go in to Iraq in the first place. A fraud perpetrated upon lies and deceit, which is also the primary reason to leave.

From a moral standpoint McCain’s position is both Bush cynical and Cheney lite, we will leave when we can safely control and fully exploit the oil resources of Iraq. If we can’t guarantee that they will never take the chance of losing what they see as their own personal property. Obama’s takes a more pragmatic position that undercuts his own change moniker, he talks of the many reasons to leave Iraq save the most important one, it was wrong to go in to Iraq in the first place. Political answers about security agreements and guarantees and of redeployments instead of just returning home.

When the US toppled Saddam they created a power vacuum in Iraq and only by creating another Saddam can they fill it. Otherwise, the US becomes the main organizing principle of the Iraqi people, Quisling or insurgent? We can pay for peace like the Barbary pirates but we should realize that we are only postponing the day of reckoning, we haven’t conquered anything in fact it is we who have been conquered. We who pay tribute to thugs, who offer to make nice as long as the cash flows and we leave them to their own brand of justice. Can any one call that a victory?

A corrupt enterprise can not be made clean, there is no delicate way to step out of a disaster and there is no way to save face in a disaster. We as a people must make up our mind that we are willing to admit to this disaster so that we can get on with doing the right thing which is setting a time table for departure and sticking to it. If we do that we might earn some small measure of respect from the Iraqi’s people. A nation big enough to admit to doing a terrible thing, we broke Iraq as Colin Powell’s pottery barn analogy once warned and we can’t fix it. We can only say that we're sorry and hand over the pieces.

That is the change that I’m waiting for, the end of lies and half-truths, of spinning and weaving. To opening the window of truth by admitting to our failings and trying to do better in the future. To bringing our troops home and righting the wrongs done to them because this debacle isn’t their fault. They volunteered to defend America instead they were cast into hell to fight like gladiators in a cynical power grab and now they wait on Caesars thumb.

The way our troops have been treated typifies the way this administration has treated America and the American people, as expendable. As unnecessary pawns in their dreams for global dominance, to have our rights dispensed with our jobs exported and our hopes like those of the Iraqis dashed. So it could be reasonably stated that the first step toward rebuilding America is to return home to it. We sought a victory that was unobtainable because a corrupt enterprise can not be made clean. We have suffered a defeat regardless of where the soldiers are billeted for the same reason, a corrupt enterprise can not be made clean

[patrice]

1. Thanks Dave! I forwarded this widely. nt