Tag: War in Iraq

Academy Fight Song.

In a speech before graduates of the Air Force Academy, Dubya compares the war on terror to WWII. And, a day after being called out by Dana Milbank for his straw men, Bush is at it again: “Some who call themselves realists question whether the spread of democracy in the Middle East should be any concern of ours.” Is that really the central argument being made by those dubious of our foray into Iraq? I don’t think so.

Chairman Cheney Pads his Pocket.

Typical. Despite being oversight-crazy during the Clinton era, the Congressional GOP refuses to hold hearings about the “smoking gun” e-mail connecting Cheney’s office to a sweetheart Halliburton deal in Iraq. (And, as with the energy probe, Cheney’s office is stonewalling.) Good lord, what shadiness…is there no level below which these guys won’t stoop? Once again, the Bush administration and its Congressional cronies have proved themselves a national embarrassment of historic proportions.

…Wake up with fleas.

What does $340,000 a month buy you? Treason. Ahmed Chalabi, until very recently the Neocons’ favorite Iraqi, apparently tipped off Iran that we’d broken their codes. “U.S. intelligence officials two weeks ago had told CNN that Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, gave intelligence secrets to Iran so closely held in the U.S. government that only ‘a handful’ of senior officials knew them.” So…which of the Bushies was it? Between this and the Plame affair, the Bush administration has now displayed a pattern of disregarding and betraying our intelligence community.

Wobbly Leadership.


So apparently Dubya handles a bike about as well as he handles a Segway (or the nation)…poorly. Well, at least one benefit of this nasty scrape for the viewing public is that, when Bush addresses the nation on Iraq tonight, you’ll literally get to see the blood on his hands.

Lie down with dogs…

wake up with fleas. The US raided the compound of Ahmed Chalabi this morning, who up until this week was receiving $340,000 a month in taxpayer funds for spouting exactly the lies the Bushies wanted most to hear. In fact, Chalabi has been the Dubya gang’s favorite Iraqi for years now, but “U.S. disenchantment with Chalabi has been growing since it dawned on the White House and the Pentagon that everything he had told them about Iraq — from Saddam Hussein’s fiendish weapons arsenal to the crowds who would toss flowers at the invaders to Chalabi’s own popularity in Iraq — had been completely false.” Is Wolfowitz’s house next?

Ring around the Rummy.

With Rummy on the ropes, Dubya and Cheney rush to the defense of their man in Defense. Hey, hold him to your breast as long as possible, Mr. President…maybe then, you’ll all go down together come November.

Blowback.

From The Economist to the NY Times, Salon examines the growing calls for Rumsfeld to resign as a result of Abu Ghraib. When even Karl Rove is forced to admit the damage done by these horrifying pics, you know it’ll be rough for Rummy in the weeks ahead, even with Dubya’s vote of confidence. Well, I’m all for getting rid of Rumsfeld, but I don’t think he should be the only fall guy for this Iraq fiasco…the decision may have began with Cheney, Wolfowitz, & co., but it ended with Dubya. For Abu Ghraib as with so much else, they all gotta go.

A Moral Abattoir.

I don’t know how we will ever recover from this. Medley aptly sums up my stomach-churning disgust at the Iraq atrocity photos now circulating around the world. If there wasn’t a connection between Dubya’s carnival sideshow in Iraq and the war in terror before, there assuredly is now. And if a picture is worth a thousand words, just think how many possible US-hating terrorists have been born with each one of these vile and grotesque snapshots. Our entire nation and way of life have been shamed by these depravities, perhaps to fatal effect.

Iraq-Contra?

“Woodward reports that in July 2002 Bush ordered the use of $700 million to prepare for the invasion of Iraq, funds that had not been specifically appropriated by the Congress, which alone holds that constitutional authority. No adequate explanation has been offered for what, strictly speaking, might well be an impeachable offense.” Sidney Blumenthal sees the behavior underlying Reagan’s Iran-Contra fiasco revived, while law professor Cass Sunstein delves deeper into the illegality and unconstitutionality of Dubya’s likely misappropriation of funds.