The Fog of W

W: TF

Quagmire

March 19, 2015

My how time flies. It seems like only yesterday when team Cheney/Bush were asleep on the job - as warnings came from every corner of the globe (and since the globe -despite what people like Ted Cruz think - is round it has an infinite number of corners) - while a bunch of Saudis perpetrated the worst terror attack on American soil and then used this horrific event to launch their Dream War. But since nothing can deter the calendar from moving inexorably forward, here we are at the twelfth anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, and this reporter cannot help but feel a bit nostalgic for the good old days. Add to this the heady prospect of another Bush (or Clinton) in the White House and you’ve got yourself one hell of a reason to party. Who could forget the weapons of mass destruction, I mean the ousting of ex-friend evil-doer Saddam Hussein, I mean the fight for the equality of Iraqi women, um... bringing democracy to the Middle East?…or whatever the hell the reason was for Operation Halliburton Greedom*? ?

As we see all around that region today, democracy in the Middle East is as plentiful as Saddam’s WMD in 2003. My guess is it’s buried in the sands of Syria, somewhere to the north, west, east and south of Saddam’s WMD. Good luck finding anything there. Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan recently said of the Middle East, “The…much more proximate cause of the instability we are witnessing today, was the invasion of Iraq in 2003.” To be fair, Annan was never a supporter of the illegal, ill-advised, poorly-carried-out invasion, so his assessment could be somewhat biased.

On March 23, 2003, just four days after having invaded Iraq, while he was still busy lying to the American public about the “need” for the invasion, George W. Bush told reporters, “If there is somebody captured, and it looks like there may be, I expect those people to be treated humanely...I expect them to be treated, the POWs, I expect to be treated humanely and uh, uh, just like we’re treating the prisoners we have captured humanely. If not, the people who have mistreated the prisoners will be treated as war criminals.” Where’s a mirror when you need one?

Iraqi prisoner being humanely treated at Abu Ghraib

“Those who make you believe absurdities can make you believe atrocities.”

Voltaire (1694-1778)

That same day the CIA was completing their 183^rd waterboarding of Kalid Sheik Mohammed. A few months later the International Committee of the Red Cross claimed that they had evidence that the US was holding people at black sites with no access to the Red Cross. I assume these secret prisoners were being treated and/or waterboarded humanely nonetheless. Hey we even treated those lazy prisoners to rectal feeding. What would you rather do, eat at McDonalds?

Two days later Secretary of Death and Destruction Donald Rumsfeld (Cheney’s mentor during the Nixon years), who Richard Nixon once called “a ruthless little bastard” said, "This war is an act of self-defence, to be sure, but it is also an act of humanity.... In recent days, the world has witnessed further evidence of their [Iraqi] brutality and their disregard for the laws of war. Their treatment of coalition POWs is a violation of the Geneva Conventions." Oh, the humanity!

We sentenced Japanese torturers to death for waterboarding American prisoners after World War II. The good news, according to Cheney’s hunting buddy Antonin Scalia, is that the Constitution does not appear to prohibit torture. When we do it. Scalia also wants you to ask yourself, “If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder?” Supreme Court Justice-for-life Antonin Scalia ladies and gentlemen - please tip your waitress and drive safely.

Do you know what an airplane is sir?

While debating Al Gore in 2000, candidate George W said, “I just don’t think it’s the role of the United States to walk into a country and say we do it this way, so should you.” That of course was several years before galumphing into Iraq, eyes closed and guns ablazing, and by both inference and deed, saying precisely to the Arab world, “We do it this way, so should you.” They’re doing it now. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

How can we forget you when your smell is everywhere?

And if you needed any further convincing of just how badly BushCo. screwed up over there, serial liar, all-around-sociopath and Fux News host Bill O'Reilly said on Tuesday night that the Iraq War was a "victory until President Obama mucked it up" by removing combat troops from Iraq. The removal of troops, as anyone who follows these sorts of things knows (or is just plain lying about), was based on the Status of Forces Agreement signed by one George W. Bush. If memory serves, he made this agreement before Obama was even elected to his first term – something George W. Bush will never be able to claim with any degree of truth. Muck you O’Reilly.

* Greedom: the unbridled ability of large, well-connected corporate entities or their ilk to do as they please, usually to the great detriment of the public at large.  Not to be confused in any way with FREEDOM and is not a typo.

I. Mangrey reporting. Oy.

To be continued…