Our Troops Have Not Failed

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorials/146

Our Troops Have Not Failed: Bush and Cheney Have Failed Our Troops
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Wed, 07/11/2007

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.

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