Journalist Robert Fisk recently explained the Bush/Cheney abomination in the Middle East quite succinctly, when he asserted: "The world in the Middle East is growing darker and darker by the hour. Pakistan. Afghanistan. Iraq. "Palestine". Lebanon. From the borders of Hindu Kush to the Mediterranean, we - we Westerners that is - are creating (as I have said before) a hell disaster. Next week, we are supposed to believe in peace in Annapolis, between the colorless American apparatchik and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister who has no more interest in a Palestinian state than his predecessor Ariel Sharon." [Robert Fisk, "Darkness falls on the Middle East," Independent.co.uk, 24 Nov. 2007]
On Friday, November 23rd, a bomb exploded in a pet market in central Baghdad. It followed a "brazen attack against U.S.-backed Sunni fighters on the southern belt of Baghdad" and a mortar and rocket attack on the Green Zone a day earlier that constituted "the biggest attack against the U.S.-protected area in weeks." [Bushra Juhi, "Twin bombings Kill at Least 26 in Iraq," Associated Press, 23 Nov. 2007]
You might keep such information in mind whenever you hear dishonest Republicans and feckless Democrats shy away from the awful truth about the "hell disaster" in Iraq and the Middle East.
And the awful truth is this: During the seven months preceding the Bush administration's reckless, immoral, illegal and incompetent invasion of Iraq, the architects of that criminal war -- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Wolfowitz, Feith and Perle -- lied repeatedly about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and links to al Qaeda, grossly exaggerated both the welcome American troops would receive and the ease with which democracy could be established in Iraq, while fraudulently understating the projected costs of their evil venture. In a word, our "MBA President" and his cronies failed to exercise due diligence with the American people.
Yet, while these criminals were preparing to commit their crime, critics of the proposed invasion were struggling to be heard, struggling to penetrate the herd mentality of the mainstream news media - which, except for some reporters at Knight Ridder, found itself shocked and awed by the administration's war mongering propaganda. As we now know, post-invasion facts on the ground vindicated the critics, not only for doubting the Bush administration's bogus claims about Iraq's WMD and links to al Qaeda, but also for questioning the very need for preemptive (actually preventive) war and the very feasibility of forcing democracy at gunpoint.
Unfortunately, more than 31,000 American soldiers have been killed or wounded in the course of executing Bush's criminal plans. Add to that figure "at least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan…[now] found with signs of brain injuries." [Gregg Zoroya, "Combat Brain Injuries Multiply," USA Today, Nov. 23, 2007]
Moreover, although some 3,875 soldiers have died in Iraq since March 2003, 6,256 US veterans committed suicide in 2005 alone. According to CBS News, the suicide rate among veterans is double that of the civilian population and veterans aged 20 through 24 - those caught up in Bush's war - had the highest suicide rates among all veterans. Finally, consider that almost 8,000 soldiers deserted the US Army during fiscal years 2006 and 2007.
Beyond such casualties, Bush's war has strained the U.S. Army to the breaking point. As Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George Casey recently observed, "The current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply." According to Senator Jack Reed and security analyst Michele A. Flournoy, "Roughly half of the 2000 and 2001 West Point classes have already decided to leave the Army" citing multiple, back-to-back combat tours as the primary reason. Moreover, "roughly half of the U.S. Army's equipment is in Iraq or Afghanistan, where the harsh environment and the high tempo of operations are wearing out equipment at up to 9 times the normal rate."
Then, there's the exorbitant cost of Bush's war of choice. According to Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee, when the hidden costs of Bush's war are considered, the total economic cost has exceeded $1.5 trillion. The surge in the price of oil, from approximately $37 per barrel at the beginning of the war to over $90 in recent weeks, constitutes a major portion of those hidden, but very real costs.
Finally, citizens of the United States have seen their liberties subverted by the Bush administration in the name of national security. Through the abuse of signing statements, the use of torture and the embrace of illegal wiretapping the Bush administration has moved America creepily closer to those horrid dictatorships its citizens once derided.
Yet, the costs to the United States constitute mere chump change when compared with the price paid by Iraqis. Life in Iraq during Bush's reign of terror has been far worse than life was during the last years of Saddam's brutal regime. Consider the national humiliation associated with America's successful invasion, its brutal occupation and its degrading torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
According to Robert Dreyfuss and Tom Engelhardt, "There are, by now, perhaps a million dead Iraqis, give or take a few hundred thousand. If a typical wounded-to-dead ratio of 3:1 holds, then you're talking about up to 4 million war, occupation, and civil-war casualties. Now, add in the estimated 2-2.5 million who went into exile, fleeing the country, and another estimated 2.3 million who have had to leave their homes and go into internal exile as Iraqi communities hand neighborhoods were 'cleansed.'"
As columnist Cesar Chelala recently wrote in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "One child dies every five minutes because of the war, and many more are left with severe injuries. Of the estimated 4 million Iraqis who have been displaced in Iraq or lest the country, 1.5 million are children." Quoting from an assessment by 100 British and Iraqi doctors, Chelala adds: "sick or injured children, who could otherwise be treated by simple means, are left to die in the hundreds because they don't have access to basic medicines and other resources. Children who have lost hands, feet and limb are left without prostheses. Children with grave psychological distress are left untreated."
Chronic shortages in electricity persist. And, as Bobby Cain Calvan of McClatchy Newspapers reported on November 18th, "the percentage of Iraqis without access to decent water supplies has risen from 50 percent to 70 percent since the start of the U.S.-led war…The portion of Iraqis lacking decent sanitation…[has been] even worse - 80 percent." Yet, the horrors in Iraq have been grossly underreported by America's mainstream news media. As Dahr Jamail concludes in his new book, Beyond the Green Zone, "If the people of the United States had the real story about what their government has done in Iraq, the occupation would already have ended." [p. 291]
One might ask how Bush and his co-conspirators are able to sleep at night, given all this blood and carnage on their hands. Why do they remain in office? Why haven't they been impeached? Why haven't they been thrown in prison?
But, then, one also might ask why the many conservative scholars and pundits who got everything so wrong -- especially those despicable neo-cons - still fill opinion pages and the airwaves with their vile excuses for yet more war. Their latest con is to argue that the surge is working. Some dishonest clowns even mention the word "victory."
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