Bush’s Solution to Iraq Mess: Find a Scapegoat
by Jeff Davis
Finally sensing in his own mind that he is not the great generalissimo he once thought he was, and that defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan is now virtually certain, the drunken George W. Bush is now arranging his Blame Escape Plan. This involves setting up all kinds of elaborate structures and scenarios and throwing a lot of sand in people’s eyes so that he will (he thinks) plausibly be able to place the blame for failure of the Iraq War on others. There has already been an attempt to blame Iraqi politicians for not doing enough to build up an army of collaborators that can operate without the US backing them up at all times.
According to the Washington Post: “The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.” So Bush put out a help wanted ad that basically said “Scapegoat needed apply 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.” and nobody came rushing forward. A small army of military generals have retired just so they wouldn’t have to work for the screaming disrespectful Bush. Generals can only fight battles; they can’t work miracles such as making a stable, pro-West democracy out of all the mullah-following fanatics in Iraq.
This is one way in which incompetent Presidents seek to excuse or conceal their foreign or domestic policy failures–they either appoint a “czar” with supposedly autocratic authority to clean up some mess which is now beyond all hope of cleaning up, or else they try to refer the mess to a committee of some kind. Congress is, of course, playing right into Bush’s hands by kibbitzing in the war right now without actually stopping it. These politicians should remember that Vietnam was a bi-partisan failure. Once the population of Vietnam saw the US as a colonial occupier, there was no chance of success. The Kennedy-Johnson team lost about 29,000 troops in Vietnam, and Nixon, who no doubt thought he was much smarter, lost about 29,000 more. (more…)