Bush's Simplistic Iraq Vision

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Bush's Simplistic Vision
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, March 28, 2008

The new wave of violence sweeping Iraq is not just a powerful rejoinder to President Bush's insistence that the U.S. troop surge has been a success -- it's also a reminder of how the problems facing that troubled country are much more complex than he will acknowledge.

In the vision Bush puts forward, there are just two sides in Iraq: The good guys and the bad guys; our team and an enemy who, as he put it in his speech yesterday, "will try to fill the TV screens with violence." To Bush, the people of Iraq need our help to save them from terrorists who intend to overthrow Iraq's brave and unified government on their way to attacking America.

That the current battle in Basra is essentially between rival Shiite militias fighting for political power doesn't alter his narrative.

Bush yesterday said the Basra offensive shows Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "commitment to enforce the law in an even-handed manner" and demonstrates "the progress the Iraqi security forces have made during the surge." The ultimate result, he said, would be that "terrorists and extremists in Iraq will know they have no place in a free and democratic society."

But, increasingly, it looks like the result of the bloodletting in Basra may be the U.S. more actively taking up arms in the messy, multi-sided civil war that the surge, rather than resolving, has apparently only postponed....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/03/28/BL2008032801916.html?nav=most_emailed

[havocmom]

1. People in ---> Profits out

That is cheney's vision of the conflict.

[lib2DaBone]

2. luckily, ..the Surge is working

Russian intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border
17:31 | 27/ 03/ 2007

MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran's borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday. More to follow.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:9JeIJNcqYn3I5M: