Friday, April 13, 2007

At what cost?

George Bush is going all-out on the war funding issue, because he is desperate to keep the killing on pace for another 21 months – long enough for him to slink off back to Texas and bluster that Iraq wasn’t lost on his watch, and then he can set about re-writing the history of his failed presidency on a Big Chief tablet with a fat pencil. January 20, 2009 is the scheduled date for the end of an error - unless we just throw his ass out now, and I'm all for that notion...

Whatever avenue the next occupant takes to the Oval, the next president will be the one charged with making the tough decisions that will have to be made to end it.

Make no mistake – aWol is not escalating the war in a last-ditch effort to salvage victory. There is no victory to salvage. The troop escalation that is currently underway is not a strategy for the elusive *victory* that is unachievable. Sending troops into violent sectors of the city is merely relocating the violence.

Yesterday, it relocated to the Green Zone.

There is no victory to be had when the only thing the warring factions in Iraq can agree on is that killing Americans is a top-notch notion, and a game the whole family can enjoy.

In March, more American soldiers were killed than Iraqi soldiers.

What bush is looking for now is not victory. Instead, what he seeks is a petticoat to hide beneath. He hopes it will provide enough cover that he can launch a few salvos at *defeatocrats* from that vantage. He pathologically clings to the desperate meme that “Iraq won’t be lost on his watch” in a thin, reedy wheeze.

The only hope he has of achieving that end is a showdown with the newly seated Democratic Congress.

But those who will pay with their most precious coin are the American troops and their families. Specifically, the Soldiers of the United States Army, who on Wednesday learned that their deployments will be extended to 15 months from 12 months – effective immediately.

The Army National Guard is being likewise exploited. Four Guard brigades got word last week that they would be redeploying, even though the contract they signed when they enlisted limited the time they could be deployed. Need troops? Change the rules. They won’t mind…

Let’s clarify something – I don’t give a tinker's damn who fathered Anna Nicole’s whelp. I don’t care who got booted from American Idol. I’m always glad when a pig like Imus gets told to grab his ankles and take it for a change, but on balance, none of that registers on my radar.

I care about the 3300 who have died for lies. I care about the 50,000 who have been wounded. I care about the families that have been left behind, and the children who are growing up with parents deployed.

What will be achieved if this clusterfuck continues for two more years? Thousands more dead? Tens of thousands more wounded? How many more dead American, war orphans, destroyed marriages and damaged psyches is this small, vapid little man willing to sacrifice at the alter of his *legacy* in history?

9 comments:

exMI said...

"There is no victory to be had when the only thing the warring factions in Iraq can agree on is that killing Americans is a top-notch notion, and a game the whole family can enjoy."

Except of course they are for the most part not killing Americans. They are killing each other. Many of them are working with the Americans to stabilize their country. And not just Iraqi government people, the Sheiks in Anbar province who are working with the American forces against the foreign fighters. Victory ( a reasonably stable Iraq) can be achieved. But not by running home and putting our heads under our pillows and leaving Iraq to go the route of Post Soviet Afghanistan.

Anonymous said...

Oh really? Things are going so well over there fter all this time; longer than we were in WWII. Give it up; oh I forgot,the delusional never give up. Dream on, then. You are so off the mark I can't believe you ever served anywhere, and if you did, you sure as hell did not see action-death and destruction or you would not be so hungry for it to continue.

Unknown said...

don't forget that to them, americans are foreign fighters, too...

Anonymous said...

Blue Girl, you are absolutely right. Chicken george does not want his term to end with him having to admit defeat. He will willingly, and without any thought whatsoever about those whom he sentences to death in Iraq, send them over as his little toys to do with as he pleases. This is a sick man and he needs to be IMPEACHED NOW. The man needs to be drug-tested; his IQ needs to be tested ad results of both should be made public. Tyrant and dicatator; just who IS he referring to. Why, himself. Look at what has happened to our own country, our own citizens, our own rights and laws since this jackoff "took over." How can and do the Americans sit on their thumbs and allow this to happen, dammit??

Anonymous said...

exMI, I clicked over and based on what I read in your bio, your opinion isn't worth a bucket of warm piss. What ended your career? Tweak? you a tweaker? That where your bloodlust comes from? I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about you fucking up and getting me killed.

Anonymous said...

BTW, that Blue Girl never mentions your status shows her class. Your warmongering at the expense of others shows your lack of it. You need to STFU, since your blood ain't good enough to spill.

Blue Girl, Red State said...

I disagree vehemently with exMI on this issue. I believe that he is as wrong as a person can be about this. I believe he is wrong, wronger, wrongest. The absolute epitome of wrongness.

But some things I just won't do to win an argument or silence an someone I disagree with. I don't bring up the past when I fight with my spouse, and I don't throw past transgressions in someones face to dismiss them out of hand.

Besides that, I am a human being and subject to human frailties. I may need a second bite at the apple some day.

That last sentence made me cringe, Adam. However, I should state openly that multiple members of my own family say similar things, especially as the perceived warmongering sentiment has become more overt. Some of the emails my brother (a retired Lt. Colonel, out one year this month) sends me would make Dice Clay blush.

But I'm a liberal. Say what you please - just be able to take the heat if you say something that someone might be put off by.

Blue Girl, Red State said...

For the record - I checked Adam's IP and it traces to a mil server in Kuwait.

Keep your head down and stay safe when you go in.

Back here at home I'm doing everything I can to get you out of that hellhole as fast as possible.

Anonymous said...

exMI - there are plenty of mercenary outfits hiring, since you think this is a good idea. They'll take you even if the army won't. A criminal record might even be considered an asset to some of them. And the pay is better.

--Joy