WHO IS REWRITING HISTORY?

Brian Glyn Williams, writes in a guest post at Juan Cole's Informed Comment of the history of development of ISIL in Iraq, for which Republican candidates for the presidency now blame President Obama. The essay is a long read and a challenge for those of us with short attention spans who are accustomed to sound bites and Twitter feeds, but it is well worth attention as George W Bush's brother Jeb will soon announce his candidacy for president of the United States. A good many of George W's foreign policy advisers are already busy at work in Jeb's campaign.

Today ISIS fighter-terrorists rule over millions of Iraqis (many of whom were formerly secular Baathists under Hussein) and Syrians in a region larger than the U.K. and twice the size of Israel. It goes without saying (well except by the likes of Ms. Ziedrich) had Bush, or more correctly Paul Bremer, not fired both the Iraqi Army and Baathist Party after the 2003 invasion of Iraq there would be no ISIS today. It has been widely demonstrated that the Baathists fired by Bremer in 2003 play a major operational role in ISIS today. The Washington Post, for example, has reported that “almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes.”

Jeb Bush, it's not courageous Ivy Ziedrich who is rewriting history. Your brother is your albatross, and you are compelled to rewrite the history of the Iraq war during the campaign, but at least some of us see your lies for what they are.

Today ISIS fighter-terrorists rule over millions of Iraqis (many of whom were formerly secular Baathists under Hussein) and Syrians in a region larger than the U.K. and twice the size of Israel. It goes without saying (well except by the likes of Ms. Ziedrich) had Bush, or more correctly Paul Bremer, not fired both the Iraqi Army and Baathist Party after the 2003 invasion of Iraq there would be no ISIS today. It has been widely demonstrated that the Baathists fired by Bremer in 2003 play a major operational role in ISIS today. The Washington Post, for example, has reported that “almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes.”

Reading through the essay reopened wounds from the runup to war through the entire debacle, which is not yet over for us here in the US. If Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld had set out to test just how incompetent a government could be in launching and conducting a war, they could not have done a worse job.

MAD MISSION CREEP

The nation's top military leader [Gen.Martin Dempsey] told Congress Thursday that the United States would consider dispatching a modest number of American forces to fight with Iraqi troops as they engage in more complex missions in the campaign against Islamic State militants.
....

Joining him at the witness table was Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who said the coalition was making progress in the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, but the American people must prepare for a long and difficult struggle. 
....

Hagel maintained that the U.S. personnel will not be involved in ground combat.

Tell me another, Mr Secretary.

The US should be out of the Middle East altogether, except for strictly humanitarian purposes to aid the vast numbers of refugees who have lost their homes or been driven out into surrounding territory. I do not speak of humanitarian purposes as broadly as the Obama administration interprets the phrase to include members of the US military, arms, and other types of military aid. The US has made the situation worse rather than better each time we intervene, and it's way past time for us to allow the countries in the Middle East to work out their own destinies.

With regard to humanitarian aid, our efforts fall woefully short, considering our part in contributing to the chaos of death and destruction that now exists.

SHOCK AND AWE - TEN YEARS LATER

I will never forget my growing alarm as the war drums for invading Iraq beat louder and louder.

I will never forget my embarrassment at Colin Powell's speech at the UN.

I will never forget that the UN inspectors who asked for a couple of months more to continue the search for WMD, but were instead driven out of Iraq on the run, by the beginning of the Shock and Awe invasion.

I will never forget the pillaging of the ancient and priceless holdings of the museums and libraries in Iraq, because there was no plan to protect them.

I will never forget the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA secret agent and the persecution of Plame and her husband, Joe Wilson, by the Bush administration because after his investigation, Wilson said that Niger did not sell uranium to Saddam.

I could go on and on with my list.  I began to lose a friend when I continued to suggest that there were no WMD in Iraq and that there was no connection between Saddam and al Qaeda.  I finally lost that friend on May 1, 2003, when I mocked George W Bush's "Mission Accomplished" moment.

How could I, way down in the swamps of Louisiana, know that the chances of finding WMD in Iraq were slim to none, and the members of Congress not know, especially the Democrats who voted for the war?  How could I know that Cheney/Bush were lying, and the members of Congress not know?

How could the major media outlets fail so miserably in their responsibility to inform us of the truth in the run-up to war?  A small number of journalists expressed doubt about WMD, but few paid attention.  As my friend Doug, to whom I owe credit for the video, said on Facebook, "Shocking and awful."   

Image from Wikipedia.

HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it passing strange that the name of the most recent Republican occupant of the Oval Office is never mentioned by the members of his own party, not even in whispers?  Republicans reach back to Ronald Reagan and even as far back as Abraham Lincoln, but George W Bush has been effectively airbrushed out of Republican history.  W has not been seen nor heard from during the campaign, nor at the convention.  Which Republican candidate for public office trumpets an endorsement from George W Bush?  He's the invisible man.  Come to think of it, the Republicans are silent about W's father, George H W Bush as well.  It's as though the two presidencies never happened.  And that's not to speak of Richard Nixon, whose presidency never happened, either. 

Democrats have not forgotten W and often speak of the wars, the deficit, the tax cuts for the rich, and the economy in deep recession, on the brink of a depression, that he bequeathed to the country and to the president who came after.  How ironic that Republicans blame Obama for the last 12 years with nary a mention of George W Bush.  As Democrats say, the election of Romney would take us back to W's policies, but "on steroids". 

WHY I DON'T RUSH OVER...

...when you send me a link to Andrew Sullivan.  I remember when:

Sullivan had a longish media career, but was also one of the early bloggers. And after 9/11, General Sullivan enlisted in the Fighting 101st Keyboard Kommandos, otherwise known as the "warbloggers," whose primary mission was to fight America's most important enemy, the enemy at home known as "Americans."

Andrew and all of you who believed the crap about WMD and yellowcake in Iraq, how could you?

And now Andrew is Atrios'  choice as 2nd Runner Up WANKER OF THE DECADE.  You know I don't usually use language quite that colorful, but I make an exception just to tell the story.  I await with bated breath Atrios' announcement of his choices for 1st Runner Up  and the No. 1 spot, the champ.  See?  I couldn't type the word again.

And I fear we may be sleepwalking our way into a war with Iran, which will be another disaster.  You folks should be reading Juan Cole at Informed Comment who keeps up with events in the Middle East.  He speaks and reads several of the languages and brings a perspective which is different from the media in the West.

REMEMBER DUBYA?

A peeance freeance secure Iraq in the midst of the Middle East will have enormous historical impact.

Yeah!!!

But what does it MEAN?

Those were the days, my friends. We thought they'd never end.

THEY ARE STILL DYING IN IRAQ

A U.S. Army carry team transfers the remains of Army Staff Sgt. Quadi S. Hudgins, of New Orleans, La., at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Tuesday. Hudgins was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas.

DOD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn. They died April 2 of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their position with indirect fire in Babil, Iraq.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Quadi S. Hudgins, 26, of New Orleans, La.

Sgt. Christian A. S. Garcia, 30, of Goodyear, Ariz.

They were assigned to the Maintenance Troop, Regimental Support Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.

From NOLA.com:

Hudgins was featured in a story about soldiers boxing at Fort Hood in the Fort Hood Sentinel in March 2010. It said he had been fighting his way to-and-from school in his "highly territorial" New Orleans neighborhood.

He quoted his uncle telling him: "If I was going to fight somebody I might as well do it in the ring."

May Staff Sgt. Quadi S. Hudgins and Sgt. Christian A. S. Garcia rest in peace and rise in glory.

An Internet Prayer For Peace

O God, you are the source of life and peace.
Praised be your name forever.
We know it is you who turn our minds to thoughts of peace.
Hear our prayer in this time of crisis.
Your power changes hearts.

Muslims, Christians and Jews remember, and profoundly affirm,
that they are followers of the one God,
Children of Abraham, brothers and sisters;
enemies begin to speak to one another;
those who were estranged join hands in friendship;
nations seek the way of peace together.

Strengthen our resolve to give witness to these
truths by the way we live.
Give to us:
Understanding that puts an end to strife;
Mercy that quenches hatred, and
Forgiveness that overcomes vengeance.
Empower all people to live in your law of love
Amen.

From GodWeb.