AlterNet: Bush Won't Let Go of His Failed Iraq Project

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Bush Won't Let Go of His Failed Iraq Project

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted September 14, 2007.


Bush's Oval Office address on Iraq culminates a week of brazen propaganda from the White House and Pentagon, with no sign that the president has learned anything from his failure.


Let's cut through the debate about the troop surge and violence in Iraq and all the rest, and get to the heart of the fraud perpetrated this week on the American people. That was the almost universal assertion -- almost universally unquestioned by the commercial media -- that U.S. interests in Iraq are (A) compatible with Iraq's interests, and (B) that U.S. policy makers' primary concern -- at least now that we're there -- is to stabilize the war-torn country and assure that it doesn't become a "safe haven" for al Qaeda or a puppet state controlled by Iran.

It was a Big Lie that was repeated during every minute of testimony by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and echoed in every statement made by a Republican or a Democrat and at least implied in every analysis in the traditional media.

And it was the centerpiece of Bush's pitch from the Oval Office Thursday night to continue the occupation of Iraq indefinitely: "Iraq is an ally," he said, and "our moral and strategic imperatives are one: We must help Iraq defeat those who threaten its future -- and also threaten ours." That help will be open-ended: "Iraqi leaders have asked for an enduring relationship with America. And we are ready to begin building that relationship."

So the discussion in the United States remains: What can "we" do to help the Iraqi government, fight insurgents, bring about political reconciliation, keep the civil conflict(s) tearing the country apart from spreading across the region, etc. The implication is always the same: "We" are on the same side as the Iraqi people, with whom "we're" fighting terrorists and "anti-Iraqi forces" -- a favorite term at the Pentagon -- and whatever "we" do to advance our own interests will also improve the situation in Iraq.

If that were true, the United States could play a significant role in bringing about a modicum of stability to Iraq, and it could help do so relatively quickly. After all, poll after poll shows that a significant majority of Iraqis -- like a majority of Iraqi lawmakers -- want their country to develop into a nonsectarian state free of Iranian interference. Iraqis, historically one of the most secular polities in the Middle East, almost universally despise the insurgent group called al Qaeda in Iraq -- the little support that the group enjoys is based entirely on its resistance to the U.S. occupation -- and favor a strong central government free of ethnic and sectarian voting blocs. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62554/

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1. Bush has war KORO