Bush turned the United States into an aggressor nation. He kicked off an orgy of violence in Iraq that has probably left a million dead. He destroyed entire cities. He left millions of widows and orphans, and millions more displaced. He lied, he destroyed habeas corpus at home and abroad, he tortured. It is too soon to know if American democracy will ever really recover from lawless regime.
Professor Juan Cole
December 6, 2008
Wounded and enraged by the atrocities of 9-11, America lashed out, first at Afghanistan and the al-Qaida source of the conspiracy, then at Iraq, which had nothing to do with the attacks. Thus did the Bush administration disunite its nation and forfeit its mandate.
Patrick J. Buchanan
December 2, 2008
Using government statistics, terrorism analysts have shown that terror attacks increased by a factor of seven after the invasion of Iraq. The most careful scholarship on the Jihadi movement has shown that the invasion of Iraq inspired the Jihadi movement, which originally had been highly skeptical and in fact quite critical of Osama bin Laden's adventurism, but that re-constructed it.
Noam Chomsky
***
President Bush Attends Saban Forum 2008
Newseum
Washington, D.C.
December 5, 2008
[NOTE: This a VERY edited and abbreviated version]
THE PRESIDENT:
Thank you very much. I thought for a minute you were going to say I was your favorite rabbi
[or rabbit].
Over the past eight years, I have had the privilege to see the Middle East up close.
[But so can you if you use the Internets]
I have stood on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and I've hiked the cliffs of Masada.
[I’ve got to give my speech writers a raise. This stuff is really good.]
I've enjoyed dinner in the desert of Abu Dhabi [Although it was gritty and hot], and prayed at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. I have looked into the eyes [and one Russian soul] of courageous elected leaders from Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories. I have been convinced that no region is more fundamental to the security of America [Or for securing oil]
or the peace in the world
[Even though America is fighting two wars]
than the Middle East.
From our earliest days as a nation, the Middle East has played a central role in American foreign policy.
[Whether it was our support of the Shah in Iran or funding Osama bin Laden to fight the Russians in Afghanistan]
One of America's first military engagements as an independent nation was with the Barbary pirates.
And then came September the 11th, 2001, when 19 men from the Middle East carried out the worst attack on the United States since the strike on Pearl Harbor 67 years ago this weekend.
[Some have even called 9/11 another Pearl Harbor and false flag operation.]
We realized that we're in a struggle with fanatics pledged to our destruction. We saw that conditions of repression and despair on the other side of the world could bring suffering and death to our own streets.
[Just as a president could]
With these new realities in mind, America reshaped our approach to the Middle East. We made clear that we will defend our friends, our interests, and our people against any hostile attempt to dominate the Middle East---
[Or any attempts to stop our domination there]
whether by terror, blackmail, or the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
It is true, as I've said many times, that Saddam Hussein was not connected to the 9/11 attacks.
[Don’t any pay attention to what Dick says]
But the decision to remove Saddam from power cannot be viewed in isolation from 9/11.
[Because 9/11 provided an excuse for my shock-and-awe invasion of Iraq]
In a world where terrorists armed with box cutters had just killed nearly 3,000 of our people…
[Box cutters are easy to find---unlike WMD---and they are very effective for killing]
…we offered Saddam Hussein a final chance to comply with the demands of the world.
[They were my demands because I am the Decider]
And when he refused to resolve the issue peacefully… we liberated 25 million Iraqis.
[And ended their water, electricity, and jobs]
When Saddam regimes -- regimes fell -- when Saddam's regime fell, we refused to take the easy option and install a friendly strongman in his place.
[Instead, we got someone who was easy and friendly to our own intentions]
As with any large undertaking, these efforts have not always gone according to plan, and in some areas we've fallen short of our hopes.
[But not of undertakers]
For example, the fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than expected.
[My MISSION ACCOMPLISHED speech on board that ship was a premature propaganda ploy]
Those who ask what this future will look like need only look around.
[A fearful world with more and more ruthless killers who want to avenge what I have done]
We see the new story of the Middle East in Iraqis waving ink-stained fingers,
[And blood-soaked arms and heads]
These are striking images, and they do point the way to a brighter future. I believe the day will come when the map of the Middle East shows a peaceful, secure Israel beside a peaceful and democratic Palestine.
[And I believe these things without being under the influence of cocaine or alcohol]
Earlier this year, I laid out this vision in my address to the Israeli Knesset, and then in my address to the World Economic Forum in Egypt. It was not a Jewish vision, or an Arab vision, or an American vision. It is a universal vision.
[Not just another hallucinatory delusion concocted by my speechwriters]
It unites all who yearn for freedom and peace in the Middle East. And if we lead, [and invade] and if we persevere, [and bomb] and if we keep faith in our ideals, [and vital self-interests] that vision will become a reality someday.
Thanks for letting me come, and God bless.
(Applause.)
IT'S THE OIL STUPID!
***
The War Party's Imperial Plans
Patrick J. Buchanan
September 11 2002
The fires had not yet gone out at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a year ago, before the War Party had introduced its revised plans for American empire. What many saw as a horrific atrocity and tragedy, they saw instantly as an opportunity to achieve U.S. hegemony over an alienated Islamic world.
President Bush initially directed America's righteous wrath and military power at al-Qaida. But in his "axis-of-evil" address, he signed on to the War Party's agenda.
What lies ahead? When America invades Iraq, it will have to destroy Saddam and all his weapons of mass destruction. Else, the war will have been a failure. And to ensure destruction of those weapons, we must occupy Iraq. If you would see what follows, pull out a map.
With Americans controlling Iraq, Syria is virtually surrounded by hostile powers: Israel on the Golan, Turks and Kurds to the north, U.S. power to the west in Iraq and south in Jordan. Syrian President Assad will be forced to pull his army out of Lebanon, leaving Israel free to reinvade Lebanon to settle accounts with Hezbollah.
Now look to Iran. With Americans occupying Iraq, Iran is completely surrounded: Americans and Turks to the west, U.S. power in the Gulf and Arabian Sea to the south, in Afghanistan to the east and in the old Soviet republics to the north. U.S. warplanes will be positioned to interdict any flights to Lebanon to support Hezbollah.
Iraq is the key to the Middle East. As long as we occupy Iraq, we are the hegemonic power in the region. And after we occupy it, a window of opportunity will open – to attack Syria and Iran before they acquire weapons of mass destruction.
This is the vision that enthralls the War Party – "World War IV," as they call it – a series of "cakewalks," short sharp wars on Iraq, Syria and Iran to eliminate the Islamic terrorist threat to us and Israel for generations.
No wonder Ariel Sharon and his Amen Corner are exhilarated. They see America's war on Iraq as killing off one enemy and giving Israel freedom to deal summarily with two more: Hezbollah and the Palestinians. Two jumps ahead of us, the Israelis are already talking up the need for us to deal with Libya, as well.
Anyone who believes America can finish Saddam and go home deceives himself. With Iraq's military crushed, the country will come apart. Kurds in the north and Shi'ites in the south will try to break away, and Iraq will be at the mercy of its mortal enemy, Iran. U.S. troops will have to remain to hold Iraq together, to find and destroy those weapons, to democratize the regime, and to deter Iran from biting off a chunk and dominating the Gulf.
Recall: After we crushed Germany and Japan in World War II, both were powerless to reassume their historic roles of containing Russia and China. So, America, at a cost of 100,000 dead in Vietnam and Korea, had to assume those roles. With Iraq in ruins, America will have to assume the permanent role of Policeman of the Persian Gulf.
But is this not a splendid vision, asks the War Party. After all, is this not America's day in the sun, her moment in history? And is not the crushing of Islamism and the modernization of the Arab world a cause worthy of a superpower's investment of considerable treasure and blood?
What is wrong with the War Party's vision?
Just this: Pro-American regimes in Cairo, Amman and Riyadh will be shaken to their foundations by the cataclysm unleashed as Americans smash Iraq, while Israelis crush Palestinians. Nor is Iran likely to passively await encirclement. Terror attacks seem certain. Nor is a militant Islam that holds in thrall scores of millions of believers from Morocco to Indonesia likely to welcome infidel America and Israel dictating the destiny of the Muslim world.
As for the pro-American regimes in Kabul and Pakistan, they are but one bullet away from becoming anti-American. And should the Royal House of Saud come crashing down, as the War Party ardently hopes, do they seriously believe a Vermont-style democracy will arise?
Since Desert Storm, America has chopped its fleets, air wings and ground troops by near 50 percent, while adding military commitments in the Balkans, Afghanistan, the Gulf and Central Asia. Invading and occupying Iraq will require hundreds of thousands of more troops.
We are running out of army. And while Americans have shown they will back wars fought with no conscripts and few casualties, the day is not far off when they will be asked to draft their sons to fight for empire, and many of those sons will not be coming home. That day, Americans will tell us whether they really wish to pay the blood tax that is the price of policing the War Party's empire.
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