INSANITY'S HOLY LADDER

By: Thebeerdoctor

First there is the banality of the news: US STEPS UP AIR STRIKES IN BASRA. A glib announcement to be sure, sandwiched between celebrity gossip and the latest political drool pool. It seems so abstract, so distant. President Bush proclaims this to be a defining moment. Everybody is “aiming to make sure that we have enough of a presence to make sure that we’re successful in Iraq.”

What is considered successful in Iraq is something only the commander-in-chief and his handlers can define. But something that needs no further definition is the terror and horror wrought on the Iraqis from these air strikes. Any concern about the moral ambiguities of such actions, becomes simply an argument over whether those found in the smoldering rubble, were civilians or combatants. One thing is certain, whatever their political status, they are all equally dead.

There is something about the inherent vicious cruelty of the Bush occupation doctrine that most people in the United States do not want to comprehend.

“This is a test and moment for the Iraqi government, which strongly has supported Prime Minister Maliki’s actions, ” George Bush instructed. Tell that to the forty or so policemen who surrendered their weapons to Sheik Salman al-Feraiji, representative of Moktada al-Sadr, in exchange for an olive branch and a copy of the Quran. They explained that they could not fight their brothers in the Mahdi army.

“They’re fighting some pretty tough characters,” George Bush noted, while explaining US support of Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s crackdown on Shia militias. “People who kill innocent people to achieve objectives. And yes, there’s going to be violence, and that’s sad.”

This statement was not as dead pan glib as the vice president’s So? But equally distressing. Here is certified proof that war, or as in this case, occupation, is in itself a form of terrorism. But the people orchestrating this debacle refuse to admit this, they would rather, look at the big picture, where the inhumanity of deliberate deception becomes abstracted to a sound bite blur: Things are getting better in Iraq, I don’t care what anybody says. The surge is working. This is freedom’s defining moment.

Working for whom is the real question here. This is certainly not the case for the ordinary Iraqi who struggles to find clean water and electricity, and avoid becoming collateral damage from some misguided precision air strike. How would an ordinary US citizen feel if our cities were occupied with helicopter gun ships hovering about? One of the chief demands of the fiery radical cleric, as he is referred to here, is for the occupiers to get the hell out of his country. If the roles were reversed, and the United States was occupied, Moktada al-Sadr would be considered a fiery patriot.

“It’s still a dangerous, fragile situation in Iraq, ” President Bush cautioned. Apparently the surge is working, just not quite as well as they thought.

Using military rationalization to justify this horrendous conflict, makes the candidacy of Senator John McCain a precarious choice for president. Despite the news media excusing his foreign policy gaffes, the last thing this country or world needs is an uninformed leader, when attempting to repair the broken hornets nest that is Iraq. But this is pointless to bring up with those who subscribe to the we are not going to cut and run like they did in ‘91 mantra. The ever elusive goal of victory remains the raison d’etre, even if that involves a systematic eradication of empathy. What a peculiar form of Christianity. The holy mission of bringing democracy to the people of the world, is said to be President Bush’s plan from God. He is resolved to bring them liberation, even if it kills them, one or all.