5 Years after Mission Accomplished;
April US Troop Toll 50 Killed;
1,073 Iraqis Killed this Month
5 Years after George W. Bush's infamous speech aboard the USS Lincoln, the mission seems incomplete. Bush imagined that he could get rid of Saddam Hussein and install exiled businessman and bank fraudster Ahmad Chalabi in his place. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told Congress that the US would be out of Iraq, except for a division (20,000 men or so), by October of 2003. Wolfowitz and other Bush officials depicted Iraqis as secular and downplayed the possibility of ethnic violence in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Baath Party.
Here are some memorable phrases from Bush's mendacious speech half a decade ago:
' . . . major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. . .
And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. . .
In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty and for the peace of the world. . .
Because of you our nation is more secure. . . [Note that he is trying to attribute to the poor enlisted men his policies.] . . .
In the images of fallen statues we have witnessed the arrival of a new era. . . [The statue was pulled down by the US military and the whole thing was staged before a tiny Iraqi crowd, the small size of which media close-ups disguised.] . . .
In defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Allied forces destroyed entire cities, while enemy leaders who started the conflict were safe until the final days. Military power was used to end a regime by breaking a nation. Today we have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a dangerous and aggressive regime. With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians. . . [The US has probably directly killed about 200,000 Iraqis and destroyed the city of Fallujah as well as damaging and repeatedly bombing others. Bush's fascist attempt to reconfigure warfare as a humanitarian gesture is the biggest lie of all] . . .
Men and women in every culture need liberty like they need food and water and air. [Foreign military occupation is not generally considered 'liberty' by most people.] . . .
We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons, and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. [The sites were being investigated before the war, and nothing was being found, so Bush pulled out the inspectors and went to war. Nothing ever was found.] . . .
Our coalition will stay until our work is done and then we will leave and we will leave behind a free Iraq. [When will that be exactly?] . . .
In the battle of Afghanistan, we destroyed the Taliban . . . [ Maybe not so much; this 'mission accomplished' passage has not been sufficiently criticized] . . .
The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of Al Qaida and cut off a source of terrorist funding. [There was no operational connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda. None. And the US occupation of Iraq gave al-Qaeda a new lease on life ] . . .
We are committed to freedom in Afghanistan, Iraq and in a peaceful Palestine. . . [90% of the world fell down laughing at that point in the speech; only gullible, self-righteous Americans could even think about taking this snow job seriously] . . .
'
The "mission accomplished" banner was the least of it.
As for the present, the struggle between the al-Maliki government, backed by the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and its Badr Corps militia on the one hand, and on the other the Sadr Movement with its Mahdi Army militia (all of them Shiites) made April among the deadliest months in Iraq since last September. Official figures show 1,073 Iraqis killed in political violence and 50 US soldiers killed. AFP says of Iraqis, "1,745 civilians, 159 policemen and 104 soldiers" were killed in April.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 5/01/2008 07:56:00 AM
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19 Comments:
"The US has probably directly killed about 200,000 Iraqis"
US has probably murdered 1 200 000 (!) Iraqis, and please spear me "directly". The agressor is for blame for ALL murdered in Iraq.
Dear Majority Leader Reid, Senator Cornyn, Senator Hutchison, Senator Biden, Senator Clinton, Senator Dodd, Senator Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Congressman Ortiz, DNC, and RNC,
I haven't written you in quite sometime because I feel that you will not be influenced by my voice or by the voice of any other individual American. I think of you as the outsourced employee of your campaign contributors. Mere Americans, we the people no longer have any representation at all in Washington DC.
Yet I write again because I must try to do something to avert the upcoming war with Iran. That we are marching toward it purposefully, at the direction of the War, Oil, and Israel lobbies is more obvious everyday.
' It is 1939 all over again. The world waits helplessly for the next act of naked aggression by rogue states. Only this time the rogue states are not the Third Reich and Fascist Italy. They are the United States and Israel. '
So says Ronald Reagan's Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.
Don't play dumb with us. We can all see exactly what's happening, what's happened to us. We have become our own worst nightmare.
Well it can always get worse. And it's going to get much, much worse if you personally do not do what it takes to keep that from happening. Let me repeat: We can all see exactly what is happening.
The idea that any of those people care what I or you think is pretty absurd. Asking Hillay Clinton to stop the war in Iran? Ha! Yet what can I do?
There's a fellow at GI Special. Who is on the ball. His thesis is this: the enlisted people ended the Vietnam war, all wars really, and the enlisted people are going to have to end this one. Because no one else is going to do it for them.
So find your way to a military base and introduce yourself as an American who knows that among us Americans they are the ones made to suffer by the monsters in Washington and that you appreciate their suffering. And thank them for it. And give encouragement to everyone in the military to resist in whatever way they can. Not to do anything foolish. Not to get thrown into the brig where they are isolated from the rest of their comrades but just to do everything and anything they can to end the war.
Because no one else is going to do it. Certainly not those people in Washington DC on whom I waste my emails. Tell the people in the Armed Forces of the USA that you appreciate what they are, and that you support and will support our troops in any and every act of resistance they may choose to make to the illegal and immoral orders they under from the 537 war criminals in Washington DC. And thank them again for their silent service and all the suffering they have borne and bear up under.
Support Our Troops.
Prior to 2003, the likelihood that any Iraqi would ever do harm to the US was nil. But now many will be so radicalized that they will join AQ-like groups for the long fight outside Iraq.
Iraqi partisans may discover that the only way to dislodge the Americans is to begin attacking us in America, as the Algerians did with the French.
of all the lies the bush administration has told (and continues to tell) about iraq, this whopper has long been a personal favorite:
"in terms of the american taxpayers contribution, [$1.7 billion] is it for the us. the rest of the rebuilding of iraq will be done by other countries and iraqi oil revenues ... the american part of this will be 1.7 billion. we have no plans for any further-on funding for this."
— usaid director andrew natios, 4/23/03
Iraq is a house divided. Current government is little more than a faction supported by foreign troops. No obvious path to unification. Prospects: grim.
No one knows how many were killed. The given figures are minimum and probably drastically low. Almost a thousand, maybe more killed in Sadr City alone, in an ongoing Fallujah that I guess no one in America cares about since they are poor people and as we saw with Katrina, poor people deserve to die.
And no one in America seems to want to note the Irony that Sadr seems to be the closest thing to a leader who wants to and can possibly unite the factions in Iraq. Since he refuses to be our puppet, he's beyond the pale.
>The "mission accomplished" banner was the least of it.
Word. One of the most galling things about the speech -- the declaration that "major combat operations" were over -- was not only a wildly inaccurate description of the actual state of affairs, but it was cynical legal gamesmanship. Bush needed to officially declare that "major combat operations" had ended in order to fund the contuing combat operations by means of supplemental appropriations from Congress, rather than from front-loaded appropriations that have to be included in the annual budget.
This mendacious gimmick has allowed the Administration to keep presenting wildly inaccurate budgets that do not account for the cost of the war -- and also to hold a gun to Congress's head by having Iraq appropriations isolated from the general budget process. So it was not only short-term propaganada, but a lie designed to enable more long-term lying about the cotsts of the war.
This does not get nearly enough attention.
"And the US occupation of Iraq gave al-Qaeda a new lease on life"
I would say it did way more than that - it inspired al Qaeda types to come into Iraq and then the Pentagon psych-ops for Iraq was "villianize Zarqawi, leverage xenophobic response"..... thereby making them bigger and badder than they would have been.
One has to question why they would do such a thing - promote evil and purposefully frighten the Iraqi people.
One day we may find out that those "al Qaeda" types were actually on the Pentagon payroll.
[The statue was pulled down by the US military and the whole thing was staged before a tiny Iraqi crowd, the small size of which media close-ups disguised.] . . .
The small crowd was not disguised that well. I noticed that immediately as it was shown on all the networks all day long.
This is my first comment here. Thanks for yours insights, Professor Cole.
This got me to wondering about the fate of the actual banner...the physical cloth or plastic or whatever it was that said "Mission Accomplished". I wonder where it is today? I think it should hang in the Smithsonian as a little reminder to all of us Americans to be a bit more humble and circumspect.
Bush's Mission Accomplished photograph re-enacted in LEGO here
See further Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and Lebanon images recreated in LEGO here.
Fred Kaplan in "Daydream Believers" says that Bush did not support Chalabi. He mentions two occasions when Bush stopped Feith and later Wolfowitz and told them that the choice should be up to the Iraqis.
Kaplan also says that Rice told Bush several times that Rumsfeld was not planning for stabilization, but Bush did nothing about it, except call a meeting so that Andy Card could get Rumsfeld back in line. (pp 155-157)
So Bush didn't have what it took to face down his own SecDef and force him to do the job.
wmr
.
Gaza ‘On Point of Explosion’ Warns UN
Describing humanitarian conditions in Gaza as “shocking” and “shameful” because of the lack of basic supplies, he said the closures imposed since last June, when Hamas seized control of the territory, were having a “devastating effect” on the civilian population.
Our government in the US is so thoroughly controlled by the US/Israeli Neocons that every Palestinian on earth might meet his or her end at the hands of the Israelis before anything was done to help the Palestinians. And we Americans in our majority have demonstrated on every occasion that we feel we are utterly unconcerned with the fate of the Palestinians at the hands of our "ally".
So let us in the minority work to encourage the EU to break the Israeli blockade and to bring food, medicine and fuel to the Palestinian people.
Gaza has a coast on the Mediterranean and ships from the EU could deliver supplies to the Palestinians despite the Israelis. If the Israelis kill the EU relief workers and sink the relief ships... well then the EU ought to arm and return and liberate Palestine from the Israelis and help the Palestinians recover from four long decades of US/Israeli abuse and exploitation.
The alternative, to do nothing while the Israeli genocide continues, may be acceptable to Americans, but the European countries claim to be civilized nations and so must be called upon to exhibit the very minimal characteristics of strong, wealthy, just nations when confronted with such phenmenal acts of barbarity by such a small band of barbarians against an entire people.
icasualties.org is reporting 52 soliders killed in April 2008.
While he names of the last few have not yet been released pending notification of next of kin, all these deaths were reported by official sources. None are based on media reports.
The total for the invasion and occupation is now 4,065.
Maybe we need to back to the draft. Not because the all volunteer military (AVM) can't blow things up, kick down doors, and other stuff. But because the thread between the AVM and the American public is way to thin.
When Bush told the AVM to whip Afghanistan an Iraq, he also told the rest of us to go about our business - shop till you drop and no new taxes. With the thread between the AVM and the public at large so thin, Bush right or wrong, congress right or wrong, pundits right or wrong, made little difference to most of us. Polls found that about 70% of us were in the "What, me worry?" group.
As Vietnam showed, the draft became a real drag on adventure. Then the ties between the military and the public at large were ubiquitous and reached into every layer of society (not proportionately to be sure). Draftees, potential draftees and their families had a direct and unnerving interest in ending the war, and their congressmen knew it.
The thesis is we need a draft to make the politicians think twice about going off to war. And when we do have to go to war it will be in defense of our country, not to propagate a pipe dream.
Thank you for reminding us. I had forgotten the new meaning of May Day.
Dr Cole, You and your readers should find James Patras's Military or Market-Driven Empire Building: 1950-2008 a must read. I think it deserves a spot toward the top of your Friday blog.
Many of the few who were present at that statue toppling have since expressed a longing to a return of the era in which the statue stood.
It took a "heckuva job" kind of guy to make Saddam's era seem like one of relative peace and prosperity, but the empty suit managed to get the job done.
aargh-
$1.7 B was about right, actually.
1% down, 99% financed through petrofutures secured by sales of U.S. subprime mortgage debt and other exotica, packaged by Wall St., originated by the slick mortgage broker ('rates go up? no problem, just call me'). As soon as mr. or mrs. america signed off on the loan, it was sold in the back alley to faceless intermediaries who in turn pitched them to the Wall St. storytellers, who pawned them off overseas...
Uncle Sam saw it all.
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