Our Troops Have Not Failed: Bush and Cheney Have Failed Our Troops
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Wed, 07/11/2007 - 7:02am.
A BuzzFlash Editorial

In today's BuzzFlash interview with author Larry Beinhart (who wrote the
book that the movie "Wag the Dog" was based on), he astutely comments on
Bush and Cheney gambling with lives in Iraq as if GIs were poker chips:

The Bush-Cheney situation right now is like this: They've gone to Vegas.
Their stake was $200,000. They're down $300,000. If they get up and they
leave the table, everyone knows they went to Vegas, lost their shirt, plus
some more. If they stay there and keep betting, one of two things is going
to happen. Either a miracle is going to occur, and somehow they'll suddenly
win the war, or there will be a new election and they will be magically
whisked away from their seats. Somebody else will be sitting there and
become responsible for the losses.

When you have no one in your extended families in the military - or even
relatives of your elitist group of rulers - it's easy to bet with the lives
of others, easy to double down. It's like a mayor going to Vegas with the
town's tax collections. He's got none of his dollars at risk. (That's the
problem of having a government composed primarily of AWOL from combat
monarchists. At least in England, the royal progeny serve in the military.)

We have been reviewing some video clips of Bush's statements on the Iraq war
since the infamous "Mission Accomplished" moment -- not to mention Cheney's
"last throes of the insurgency" claims and the like -- and this documented
evidence only confirms that our soldiers have been betrayed by hustlers.
Bush and Cheney don't support our troops; they sacrifice them for their own
vainglory, because being perceived as "losing" in the culture of
hyper-masculinity - this "victory culture" -- is more than they can handle.

So, though Bush stated in his infamous "Mission Accomplished" declaration in
2003, "Major combat operations have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United
States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in
securing and reconstructing that country," more than four years later major
combat operations have never ceased.
As we looked at tapes of Bush archived on the Net, we watched glowing
assessments by Bush of the "success" and "progress" in Iraq. Yet all the
time, he was letting down our GIs, because the situation on the ground was
deteriorating and becoming more dangerous every day.

Under the guidance of propaganda gurus, the White House and Pentagon have
played a daily game of prestidigitation with the facts. They have turned
fictions into perceived realities, with the general acquiescence of the
mainstream media (with some rare exceptions, such as the McClatchy news
chain).

One example of this re-creation of "reality" at every new sunrise is the
number of times that the White House has announced a "new way" in Iraq to
placate those who see the travesty of this botched and senseless conflict.
We have had, essentially, a new way, a new new way, a new new new way . and
running out of space, the White House on July 10 switched from a "new way"
to a "new message" without even bothering to pretend there was anything new
in substance going on with the Bush/Cheney failed military and diplomatic
tactics.

Most recently, on the turn of a dime, we woke up to the mainstream press
following lockstep with the White House suddenly calling all the opponents
in Iraq "Al-Qaida" instead of "insurgents." This is a bold propaganda move,
particularly considering that the general consensus is that Al-Qaida
composes less than 5% of the insurgency in Iraq. In fact, as BuzzFlash has
pointed out many a time, a Washington Post poll indicated that the
overwhelming majority of Iraqis, alas, support armed attacks on American
GIs.

It is like we are watching a magician saw a woman in half, only to find, in
the end, when he puts the two halves of the boxes together that she is dead
because there is no illusion: he has really cut her in two.

That is the monstrosity of the so-called "War in Iraq." The Republicans and
few Democrats who continue to support the White House's commitment to "stay
the mistake" don't support our troops; they betray them, and they undermine
the national security of America.

After four years of failed promises, of evolving propaganda and excuses, of
egomaniacal behavior (Cheney) run amuck and a stunted growth (Bush) photo-op
presidency, it is time to stop gambling with the lives of our GIs and time
to stop outsourcing our military.

Cheney and Bush are playing poker with our money and the lives of people we
know. They have put nothing of their own down on the table - not the lives
of their kin or the fortunes in their banks.

It is time to support our troops, not betray them any longer.

It is time to bring them home - and to hold Bush, Cheney and the other
architects of this national disgrace accountable under the Constitution and
the rule of law.

Our brave men and women fighting honorably deserve no less.

A BUZFLASH EDITORIAL