Is George W Bush Iraq policy of staying the course...

[whistle]

...setting him, the U.S. military and the American people up for a major fall in Iraq? Will history look upon events soon to unfold in Iraq as Bush's last stand, Bush's Alamo?

<Edit> Sorry DUers, I saw the date: September 21, 2004 at the top of this piece and did not realize it was first published on www.tomdispatch.com back before April, 2004. I can't find the original with the date, so please forgive me for posting something that is this old. However, it has so much of what Kerry covered in his NYU talk and now with the BushCo putting out leaks that Bush plans to withdraw from Iraq after the election (more Bushit) this for me has been an educational read. The rest of the world knows much, much more about what is going on in Iraq so I'm just grateful to get news, even when it's dated news.

<snip>

Custer? The Alamo? Iraq 2004
By Tom Engelhardt
Mr. Engelhardt is the author of THE END OF VICTORY CULTURE and co-editor of HISTORY WARS, THE ENOLA GAY AND OTHER BATTLES FOR THE AMERICAN PAST.

Quotes of the Week:

"One senior American officer said that in any urban fight, American troops could turn Falluja into 'a killing field in a couple of days…' One senior American officer said, 'How Falluja is resolved has huge reverberations, not just in Iraq but throughout the entire area.' Or, as another senior officer put it, 'We have the potential to turn this into the Alamo if we get it wrong.'" (Eric Schmitt, U.S. General at Falluja Warns a Full Attack Could Come Soon, the New York Times)

"A security contractor killed in Iraq last week was once one of South Africa's most secret covert agents, his identity guarded so closely that even the Truth and Reconciliation Commission did not discover the extent of his involvement in apartheid's silent wars… In South Africa he joined the SA Defence Force's secret Project Barnacle, a precursor to the notorious Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB) death squad… In 1985 he was involved in planning the now notorious SADF raid on Gaborone in which 14 people, including a five-year-old child, were killed." (Julian Rademeyer, Iraq victim was top-secret apartheid killer, the Sunday Times )

"A former British soldier shot while guarding workers in Iraq predicted being 'over-run' in an e-mail the night before his death in the town of Hit… Mr Bloss, who is believed to have served with the parachute regiment in Northern Ireland, was working for a Virginia-based security firm, Custer Battles." (Iraq Briton's final tragic e-mail, BBC News)

"In the first months of the occupation, we, the educated people, thought America would show us a humanitarian way, a political way, to solve problems… But this use of force means the efforts to find a political solution for Iraq has failed, and now America is using Saddam's approach to problems: brute force. America won the war on April 9 last year; they lost the war on April 9 this year. That is what Iraqis feel." (Alissa J. Rubin, Carnage Dims Hopes for Political Way in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times)

A New Word Order

Imagine that: The Iraqis of Fallujah in "the Alamo" and a British "security contractor," with previous experience in Northern Ireland, working for the oddly named Custer Battles, a Virginia "security firm," and dying in the Iraqi town of Hit. Custer Battles, by the way, also " has the airport security contract in Baghdad. Airport security in this context does not mean bored attendees standing by an X-ray machine, but rather former Green Berets and Ghurka fighters defending the airport from mortars, rockets and snipers."

<snip>

We know that George Bush imagines himself striding into town as The Law in a western; but, wedded to the gun as he is, the ranks of his supporters filling with mercenaries as they are, what he seems to be intent on creating is a spaghetti-western world -- and, given his corporate cronies, A Fistful of Dollars wouldn't be a bad title for his "film," which unfortunately also happens to be our world.

<link> http://hnn.us/articles/4860.html

[MichiganVote]

1. Some course (of action). Could Bush do any worse? Answer. Yes.

[K. F. Gibbons]

2. Don't mow the yard, stay the course.

AS a kid I would find anything to do to avoid mowing the yard. I mean anything. It took the strength of my character to find creative and irresponsible activities that would help insure I would not mow the yard. I stayed the course until my dad grounded me.

I truly am a terrible writer.

[whistle]

3. No you aren't a terrible writer, I understand exactly what you are saying.

...and I admit I did much the same thing when it came to lawn mowing when I was younger as well. Then my dad purchased a WMD (Whiding Mowing Device, excuse that bad attempt at humor) and I was hooked. So that seems to be what the rePukes have been seduced into with this massive military machine and effort in Iraq and the billions being spent. The course that Bush is following has very little to do with winning, but rather it has almost everything to do with making payoffs and oil. Again, it's the American taxpayer who will pay the outrageous cost in both treasure and blood.

[21winner]

4. I think the major fall has already happened.

War is never about movies and movies are never about war.