| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
24 Feb 2006 03:09:51 PM |
| Object: |
The Bush-created catastrophe emerging in Iraq |
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8194.shtml
Civil war in Iraq equals monumental failure for Bush
By DOUG THOMPSON
Feb 24, 2006
Deep in the bowels of the Pentagon, military professionals privately
admit what the Bush Administration publicly fails to recognize - the
United States veers dangerously on the precipice of its worst wartime
embarrassment since Vietnam as Iraq plunges into an irreversible civil
war.
"The civil war has started and the U.S. planners had better get used
to it," says retired Marine and military affairs expert H. Thomas
Hayden, now a writer for Military.Com.
"Shiites have always planned to align themselves with Iran but the
Pentagon dominated planners in the Administration have never
understood the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite and the great
religious gulf between them that has existed for almost a thousand
years."
Jeremy Bowen, Middle East editor for the British Broadcasting
Corporation, agrees.
"The destruction of the al-Askari shrine takes the danger of a civil
war in Iraq to a new level," Bowen says.
"It has produced bigger protests than the killing of humans."
Pentagon professionals have long warned President Bush that if civil
war erupts in Iraq the U.S. will have to admit failure in its efforts
to create a stable, democratic government.
As he has with most warnings from those who fight wars for a living,
Bush ignored the advice.
"The issue hangs on the next few days. Either the gates of hell open
onto a civil war or the Shi'ites will take more power with the excuse
that Sunni leaders are unable to rein in increasing terrorist
activity," says Hazim al-Naimi, a political science professor at
Mustansiriya University.
"Only the U.S. military is preventing war in some areas. In cities
like Mosul, the police would be thrown out in days if the U.S.
military left. There would be ethnic cleansing."
While American military officials publicly follow the Bush
administration's lead in painting a rosier picture than really exists
in Iraq, my Pentagon sources tell me the military pros are in private
revolt against the White House and say the U.S. faces a "humiliating
defeat."
"We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity,"
said President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.
"We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil
war."
Even worse, those who take a realistic view of what is happening in
Iraq see the U.S. effort there as a massive failure.
"The United States has not been very helpful," says Thabit Abdullah, a
Baghdad native and associate professor of history at York University
in Toronto.
"I must tell you that I was one of those who rejoiced at the overthrow
of the dictatorship, though I was like the majority of Iraqis,
extremely suspicious of U.S. intentions. I believe that the U.S. has
missed one opportunity after another to play a positive role: the lack
of effective security, the Abu Ghraib scandals, the joke that is the
reconstruction -- one disaster after another."
Still, the Bush Administration claims the situation is not as bad as
it is.
State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli claims "significant
progress has been made toward building a democratic government."
"There are some savage and unprincipled elements out there that are
going to stop at nothing, including attacking one of Shi'a Islam's
holiest shrines to promote the kind of unrest that the great majority
of Iraqis have clearly demonstrated they don't want to see," he said.
"I don't call that civil war, I call that attempts to undermine
understanding and an emerging compact among Iraqi society for a
peaceful political future."
But look beyond the administration's talking points and you find the
sad truth that the country that claims to be the greatest military
power on earth cannot stop these "savage and unprincipled elements"
from plunging Iraq into the kind of civil war that will force the U.S.
to either hunker down in Iraq for a Vietnam-style, prolonged conflict
or withdraw from the region in humiliating defeat.
Either choice is a monumental failure.
____________________________________________________________
"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and
catastrophe."
H.G. Wells
Harry
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| User: "Neolibertarian" |
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| Title: Re: The Bush-created catastrophe emerging in Iraq |
25 Feb 2006 12:13:42 AM |
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In article <ohtuv1hsg29v8sh4duc9obkupol20t0ro7@4ax.com>,
Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8194.shtml
Civil war in Iraq equals monumental failure for Bush
Dummy, quit trying to pin the blame on someone else.
If America succeeds, then America succeeds. If America fails, then
America fails.
Don't blame your servants for doing your bidding.
--
NeoLibertarian
Global Warming: It ain't the heat, it's the stupidity.
.
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| User: "Kevin Cunningham" |
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| Title: Re: The Bush-created catastrophe emerging in Iraq |
25 Feb 2006 09:45:50 AM |
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"Neolibertarian" <cognac756@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:cognac756-A49580.00040625022006@newsclstr02.news.prodigy.com...
In article <ohtuv1hsg29v8sh4duc9obkupol20t0ro7@4ax.com>,
Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8194.shtml
Civil war in Iraq equals monumental failure for Bush
Dummy, quit trying to pin the blame on someone else.
If America succeeds, then America succeeds. If America fails, then
America fails.
Don't blame your servants for doing your bidding.
--
NeoLibertarian
Geez, chill out. Just because you guys are loosing the war don't blame me.
I never voted for Bush, I never wanted the war. You fools brought this on
yourselves. The Bushster is not my servant, I wanted some one who could
read.
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| User: "Logician" |
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| Title: Re: The Bush-created catastrophe emerging in Iraq |
25 Feb 2006 03:17:40 AM |
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Neolibertarian wrote:
In article <ohtuv1hsg29v8sh4duc9obkupol20t0ro7@4ax.com>,
Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8194.shtml
Civil war in Iraq equals monumental failure for Bush
Dummy, quit trying to pin the blame on someone else.
If America succeeds, then America succeeds. If America fails, then
America fails.
Don't blame your servants for doing your bidding.
Bush has a brain of peanuts. Does he think still that Africa is a
country? Bush probably gets lost in the WH.
--
NeoLibertarian
Global Warming: It ain't the heat, it's the stupidity.
.
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