The Iraqi Army and Police

One fear I have as we embed our troops among Iraqi troops around Baghdad is the likelihood that Madi army people are in the police and the army. Bush tended to talk about these forces as if they were neutral forces that might stabilize the sectarian violence. But the army was debathified and thus heavily de-Sunnified. These forces are overwhelmingly Shiite, and some seem loyal to Al Sadr.

So do we expect them to reign in themselves? What's worse, I fear that at some point they will turn on the embedded troops!

Saddam Hanged

I watched one of the cell phone videos of Saddam's hanging on YouTube. It raised various emotions. I suppose my main sense was how pathetic the situation has become in Iraq. The punishment of Saddam Hussein should have been a climactic moment--it's the current reason we invaded Iraq. We entered to topple an evil dictator and bring democracy to a people.

So for a group of hooded Shiites to lynch him in some "back alley" ceremony behind closed doors--not what Bush or Cheney would have planned as a moment of final justice! Instead, it became an act of tribal revenge.

What to do, what to do...

Gerald Ford's funeral

I've been amazed at the praise that has been poured out on Gerald Ford this last week. He has been interestingly silent all these years--his opinion of Bush's invasion of Iraq only came out posthumously!

He is a man who's identity in my mind has largely amounted to three things:

1. The only president who was never elected.
2. The guy who pardoned Nixon.
3. The guy Chevy Chase made fun of the first season of Saturday Night Live by falling all over the place.

The last one is deeply ironic since Ford was one of the most athletic presidents we have ever had--one article said the most athletic.

I heard part of Kissinger's eulogy on him today. It sounds like he was a deeply virtuous person. Indeed, although I probably agree with much of what Jimmy Carter is saying these days, Ford's silent disagreement may win him a legacy of honor and virtue that surpasses Carter's.

We'll see.

Bush and the Joint Chiefs

I read a brief piece today about disagreement between Bush and the unanimous joint chiefs over sending more troops. They don't feel he has a plan for what they would do there. The chiefs feel it would simply intensify anti-American groups while Shia militias melted away until the extra US troops left. Then they simply come back in greater force and we are right back where we started from.

Bush's problem plain and simple is that he can't admit the colossal mistake he's made. At least he's stopped talking about victory in Iraq. And to think he might still be worried about his legacy... He's already established his legacy as the worst foreign policy president in the history of the United States.

I don't know what the answer is at this point. I'm not necessarily for time tables on withdrawal. But there's no point in "staying the course" because there is no course other than "let's drive around, stop any bad guys we run into, and try not to hit an IED today." Brilliant!

This is a fine mess you've gotten us into, Bushy!

John Bolton

Bolton turned in his resignation to Bush today as US Ambassador to the UN. Bush accepted it, but said he wasn't happy about it.

I haven't followed Bolton much since Bush decided to appoint him as interim, working around the Democratic filibuster and I believe even some Republican opponents at the time. I heard today of a few complaints against him, but by and large he doesn't seem to have messed up significantly.

All that is to say that I don't know whether he would be okay in the UN or not.

But it does seem to be a bit of justice today to see Bush having to accept his resignation in the face of a Democratic Congress. For the first five years or so in office Bush, Cheney, and friends did whatever they pleased while Fox News and others villified anyone who dared question their will.

I was thinking of that Dixie Chick and what Fox, Scarborough, and all had to say about her. There were other Hollywood voices that protested the war (who was that actor who played the president on West Wing) and the media pretty much skewered them. Of course I have no time for Michael Moore or that woman who lost her son and went off the deep end.

But it's time for a moment of truth. If we stop for a minute, some of the things they said turned out to be true about Iraq. It hurts, but the Fox News people should be forced to eat their words now that things are shaping up, well, exactly as those "filthy liberals" said they would back in 2003... 3000 dead soldiers later.

Look at what I blogged two years ago and apparently I understood what was going on in Iraq a lot better than a man who sits in an office getting daily intelligence briefings. What does that say?!

This started about Bolton. I don't know whether he is doing fine or not. But there is a whole lot of justice in Bush not being able to just do whatever he wants without consulting others.

(he ignored, almost shamed his father in his bull headedness to go to war and do what his father didn't. Well, he did what his father didn't. He has destabilized the whole world and potentially launched us into a period of American descendency).

Now watch it Democrats. I have seen in Nancy Palosi's early attempts at appointments the same dynamic potentially at work. ... rather than go with sane moderates, appointing her own set of whacko crazies. If God didn't spare the natural branches when he grafted you in, will he spare you?

P.S. Not to say that the Republicans are the original people of God :-)

Rumsfeld

OK, why did they wait till today for Rumsfeld to step down? It might have helped them win some elections, keep control of the Senate. Was there some sort of gamble? If so many seats are lost...

Frankly I don't think Rumsfeld is the main problem. Go higher up the food chain. I blame Cheney the most and Bush second. I'm sure Rumsfeld make some crucial errors but I don't know that troop numbers is the main one. We just had no idea how to win the hearts and minds, no idea how to nation build. We build buildings real well, but to understand how a different culture thinks...

Who cares about Rumsfelds resignation! It's almost a shrug. What's done is done, and I don't see anyone in this administration being able to extricate us with a good situation on the ground. This is like changing make-up. Sorry. There's just too much ungly underneath for it to do any
good.

The Election

In general I have paid little attention to this election. I take a little satisfaction that the Democrats will apparently take the House. I won't stay up to see if they take the Senate. I decided today that I would vote Republican for positions having to do with money or justice and Democrat for positions having to do with society and foreign policy (at least for now)... ish. So I suppose I'd rather the Republicans have the House and the Democrats the Senate.

But you will not find me proud of the American people today. Why? Because the same people who stupidly crammed the Congress full of Republicans last time because of Iraq are the same ones cramming the Congress full of Democrats today. Don't expect me to applaud them for something I knew three years ago. Don't expect me to think them smart when they are just as guilty as the ridiculous people they elected last time. They have no right to be angry.

The American people are just as responsible for our current situation as the government they elected while calling the rest of us stupid and unpatriotic. One week they think you're a god. The next week they stone you. One week they're laying down palm branches. The next week they want to crucify you.