Wringing of Twisted Hands

One of the stories on the front page of this week's Sunday Oregonian talks about how many in the Pentagon have acknowledged that they may need to "rethink" the quick-hit attack plan in light of their difficulties in implementing this plan successfully in Iraq. In fact, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There has been a lot of hand wringing lately about a bevy of miscalculations concerning the war in Iraq.

But let's get real. The failure of the US strategy in Iraq has nothing whatsoever to do with overly optimistic thinking or strategic miscalculations. No, the problem is that reality -- and an easily FORESEEABLE reality at that -- has caught up with the Bush architects of war. In other words, the Bush Administration is now coming face-to-face with the scores of lies they consciously told as a lead up to the Iraq invasion.

I realize some of you may be upset with me for characterizing these things as lies. You may well argue that none of us possesses a crystal ball and reasonable people can look at a situation and make honest miscalculations.

I will grant this fact, but not in this particular situation. Almost every negative aspect that has come to pass in relation to the Iraq War was predicted by peace activists and the alternative media. And, each time we brought up any of these legitimate concerns, we were shot down by the Bushies, the mainstream media and a lot of the general public. It was said that we were unpatriotic and simple-minded.

Initially, the Bush Administration told us that the “war” would cost no more than $80 billion. We countered that it would most likely cost $100-$200 billion and more. Unfortunately, we turned out to be correct.

The Bush Administration characterized the military plan as a quick-in, quick-out operation. We countered that it would turn into another Vietnam, with US soldiers facing a guerilla-style opposition, and our forces would get bogged down in Iraq for YEARS. This is precisely what is taking place.

The Bush Administration told us that Saddam HAD WMDs and “we” knew where they were. We countered that it was very unlikely that Iraq had any WMDs and that the UN inspectors should be given the chance to prove this. As we all know, after months and months of searching for what we were told was definitely there, NO WMDs were found.

The Bush Administration said that an attack on Iraq would lessen the terrorist threat. We countered that it would fuel it due to increased anti-American sentiment. Yet again, we have proven to be on-target as the nation’s terrorist alert status has bobbed up and down like a yo-yo and even the Bush Administration now admits that foreign terrorists…surprise, surprise… are streaming into Iraq to help in the resistance movement.

This list could go on and on, but the point is made. Each of these observations was there for anyone to see prior to the Iraq invasion. If a bunch of us “left wing kooks” could readily figure all this out, don’t you think the Bush Administration had it figured out too?

If some of you still wish to cling to the idea that Dubya and his minions simply made a lot of unfortunate miscalculations, then I guess it means that we peaceniks are far more intelligent than our government leaders. We figured things out at the very beginning and what we figured out has been right on target.

Since we appear to be so bright, you should be electing us to run the country!