Bring It On!

The War IS on Trial

When Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said "This indictment is not about the war," Rightwing Republican Rabbleers (who, by definition, can not tell the difference between Rhetoric and Reality) jumped for joy.  "See?" they chided, "See? This is not about the war!" 

Yes it is.

This is bigger than Scooter Libby and, if it goes no farther than him, it would be a travesty of justice.  The GOP spin machine, who’s vortex is the White House, attacked any and all who dared speak out against the war prior to invasion.  Remember Richard Clark?  Wilson, an expert Foreign Service man had to be silenced, so the White House outed his CIA wife.  That’s what happened.  Scooter, an expert liar, got caught lying about that.  Perhaps he’s not so expert after all.  In fact, one wonders if there are any experts in this tragically goofball "administration."  But I digress.

The White House and the GOP had to lie about Iraq in order to go to war.  They cynically played the 9/11 card, put on their best poker faces, and lied, lied, lied. This ill-conceived, ill-planned, ill-executed war was never essential to American security or other interests.  This war was about American Jingoism, Crazy Republican Ideas about the Middle East (try that acronym on for size!),oil, and War Profiteering.  DUH.  I knew this from the beginning, and I’m just a working class shlub from New Jersey. 

Let me post a hypothetical:

You’re Saddam Hussein circa pre-war 2003.  Iraq has been under 12 years of Embargo, and that after losing a major war against a genuine International Coalition - with tanks, not Humvees.  The Oil for Food program is done.  You’ve milked it for all it’s worth.  All that’s left now is to try to wait out the embargo and get that Oil for Food program back.  You’re broke.  You’re barely hanging on to power.  You’re trapped like a rat in the center of the country.  You have no allies, no friends - but you still have your Sunni base and you still have your reigns on the state.  Would you now threaten the United States?  Would you try something crazy like give WMD’s to Bin Laden?  Do you even know Bin Laden?  Do you even have WMD’s?  The only threats I remember hearing were essentially "beware of dog" signs put up to ward off an impending invasion. So why would any American fear Saddam Hussein?

In the comic book view of the universe shared by all too many Americans, major historical events happen in a vacuum, and are carried out by Super Villains and Super Heroes (think Reagan "tear(ing) down that wall" with his Super Right-Wing Rhetoric Breath).  In an interview with PBS’s Frontline for the 2001 episode Gunning For Saddam, Defense Establishment darling Laurie Mylroie said, "He (Saddam) is a man who takes chances. Moreover, Saddam’s view of the utility of violence is entirely different than ours." One wonders which she understands less, America or Saddam.  Well, she authored the preeminent work on Saddam’s involvement in the ‘93 Twin Towers bombing - so what does that tell you?  Oh, and yes, she was a Saddam fan in the 80’s like the rest of them. Sometimes Heroes become Villains and Vice Versa, and sometimes they get together against a common foe, like when Spider Man hooked up with Octavius… oh, you get it.

So, again, why did people fear Saddam?  Because he purportedly wanted revenge for the Gulf War debacle?; Revenge - the life’s blood of Super Villainy!  Okay, then further questions are begged.  Why did Saddam invade Kuwait in the first place?  Did he think he was getting away with it? To the former, lot’s of reasons, and the latter, yes, he did. With the end of the Cold War, the Military Industrial Complex and the giant Republican Welfare State that is the Armed Services were in danger of becoming obsolete, meanwhile, Saddam was tiring of Kuwait’s assisted slant-drilling and OPEC production cap-breaking. (You remember Harken Energy, don’t you?  Remember, no good Insider Trade goes punished for a Bush, who sold his stocks two months before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.) The U.S. suckered Saddam into attacking Kuwait, which was traditionally Iraqi territory anyway, and then launched a patriotic and internationally popular war against him to “Liberate” a Human Rights-less Medieval Kingdom.  Everyone was sated - the Military got their excuse to exist, Bush the First got his War President Badge, Big Oil got some Oil, Haliburton got our money, etc. 

But George Herbert Walker Bush was not a moron, despite the surname.  He realized that invading and occupying Iraq

“would have incurred incalculable human and political costs" and "Had we we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land." 

DUH.  I remember well all the whining and Monday Morning Quarterbacking about how we should have ‘finished the job’ and ‘taken out Saddam,’ but when I asked those same folks, "Then what?" the answers were nil. 

So now we come to the crux - why did we invade Iraq?  No WMD.  No Yellowcake (which didn’t matter anyway).  No OBL ties.  Nothing.  We invaded Iraq because the Neocon morons wanted a "War President," the PNAC loonies wanted to establish an American Empire in the Middle East, Haliburton moneybags wanted your tax dollars, Big Oil wanted Big Oil Reserves, and George Bush wanted to be a Super Hero.  When Joseph Wilson stood up and called this spade a spade, the White House orchestrated a leak on his wife’s CIA connections as part of a smear campaign against him, his expert opinions, and the CIA itself.  This "administration" is not just devoid of intelligence - it is Anti-Intelligence.

This is what’s on trial.  Thank you Patrick Fitzgerald for throwing the Rhetoric Reducing Rabble of the Right off the scent.  It’ll be more fun this way, watching the look of Shock and Awe on their Chicken Hawk faces when the spade hits the table.