 Mission accomplished, indeed. George W. Bush has succeeded in making a horse's ass out of himself four years running, maintaining a consistent record of failure in Iraq, of mendacity and stubbornness at home, of using American troops and pawns and props the world over, and of cementing in stone, his place as the most incompetent and worst president in U.S. history.
Today, on the four year anniversary of his infamous flight suit adventure aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln (an affair so staged and false it was actually prissy, and after which his administration very crisply blamed the troops for hanging that ridiculous banner, produced by the White House, oh, and media, before you get to haughty today, some of us remember how Glorious you thought the flight suit thing was at the time ... Chris Matthews...) Mr. Bush vetoed legislation that would have funded the troops, funded increased mental and physical health care for those wounded in his useless war in Iraq (and the forgotten war in Afghanistan), given those troops the body armor, and the rest, they should have been entitled to from the beginning, and given the American people the timeline that 7 in 10 of us -- the citizens of this country -- have made clear that we want.  When this war began, Bush told us that we were going in with some 30 allied countries: a " coalition of the willing," that actually meant more than 150,000 American troops, 11,000 brits, 1,200 or so Aussies, the scatterlings of the old Soviet empire and a smattering of technicians and mechanics from here and there, a scad waving at us from the ground as we flew over their tiny states, plus really strong "tally hos" from the rest... (yes, and not a single Arab country.) The war was swift, and successful, lasting just 41 days, as our troops marched relentlessly towards Baghdad, benching the Saddam Hussein government, and handing a free country to his formerly repressed people, who promptly began to trash, loot and blow it up, and that was before the civil war. In seven more months, Saddam would be captured. The following June, an interim government would be in place. Another year on, the first of three elections, followed by three prime ministers (shuffled at the whim of the Bush administration, rather than the Iraqi people...) endless newfangled surges, revamped strategies, tweaks and milestones: Zarqawi killed, Saddam hanged, and on and on and on. In the meantime, there were darker milestones: Fallujah, Abu Ghraib, the bombing of the Golden Mosque, and about that hanging...
Today, there have been 3,622 coalition casualties in the war, 3,351 from the U.S. There have been 117 in this month alone, 107 U.S. That's versus just 92 coalition including 65 U.S. combat deaths on this day four years ago, on the day the war supposedly ended.
How much damage can one man do to a military, to a country? And can he yet do more?
Sadly, the answer to the last question is yes. George W. Bush seems determined to keep on damaging this country, this military, and Iraq, until his last damned day in office, and probably beyond.
Happy fourth anniversary of Mission Accomplished, George W. Bush. I'd say I hope you can sleep tonight, but unfortunately, I know all too well that you're going to sleep like a baby. You're just that kind of guy.
Labels: Bush administration, Iraq, Iraq war, lies, media, mission accomplished, war, worst president ever |
