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The Bush Legacy, Iraq and Reality
There is a school of physics, or maybe science fiction, it doesn’t matter, that posits if matter and anti-matter collide it will be the end of the universe. Collapse of the time-space continuum, regression of the speed of light, that sort of thing. We can say now that such theories are wrong, having witnessed a great collision of reality and anti-reality at the Bush Library opening and lived to tell the tale.
Anti-Reality
Last week found us wallowing in the opening of the Bush Library in Texas, a monument to George W. and his eight year reign of terror in America. The library opening also signified the opening shots of Bush revisionism, the signal that all loyal or ignorant (perhaps loyal and ignorant?) pundits should start trying to make up a new version of reality to replace the evil, horrible crap that really happened between 2000-2008.
Leading the pack was Charles Krauthammer (the name is somehow not a punchline of its own), who reminded us of how wonderful the Iraq War really was. Krauthammer fapped:
Finally, the surge, a courageous Bush decision taken against near-universal opposition, that produced the greatest U.S. military turnaround since the Inchon landing. And inflicted the single most significant defeat for al-Qaeda (save Afghanistan) — a humiliating rout at the hands of Iraqi Sunnis fighting side-by-side with the American infidel.
As with Lincoln, it took Bush years of agonizing bloody stalemate before he finally found his general and his strategy. Yet, for all the terrible cost, Bush bequeathed to Obama a strategically won war.
Wow. That’s enough to make an old man proud. Out of breath here, gimme a minute, OK…
Reality
Meanwhile, in the real Iraq, last week saw the deaths of some 200 people, mostly those perky Sunnis Krauthammer writes about, in combat against the dominate Shia regime (Krauthammer at least got it right that it was a civil war.) The fighting escalated to the point where Sunni fighters briefly took over a town and had to be killed by the Iraqi army to restore Shia order.
Also among the Sunni dead last week were two Sahwa (“Sons of Iraq”) leaders, gunned down with silenced pistols in a classic assasination. The Sahwa of course were America’s creation, the Sunnis willing to fight on our side for money.
The killings noted above were preceded by a series of pre-election bomb blasts across Iraq that killed at least 42 people and wounded more than 257 others. Suck on that Boston!
The whimpering U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was roused from its absinthe-fueled haze to issue a bland statement that “raised concerns” about the Sunni-Shia clashes, without of course assigning blame. It again called for an “urgent and transparent investigation.” And get this line, delivered without irony: “The United States stands firmly with the Iraqi people who seek to live in peace after so many decades of war.” Hah hah, it’s funny because it was the U.S. that created those decades of war! It’s like SNL, the good years!
But the most significant sign of Iraq’s state of democracy was that Iraqi authorities announced Sunday they revoked the operating licenses of pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera and nine other satellite TV channels, alleging that they are promoting a “sectarian agenda.” That agenda seems to include reporting on more than the wonderfulness of the Shia Maliki government, hence the censorship.
Now if you want to be sad, read this bit of revisionism, as one American soldier continues to imagine his time in Iraq “made a difference.” You understand the politicians and the pundits say their stupid things for gain or money, but this soldier is just plain sad trying to make his sacrifice seem worthwhile. My heart goes out to him in his ignorance of how he was used.
So, that all clearly justifies 4,462 American and 122,000 Iraqi dead under Bush’s war. Moving on…
Bonus: Condi Rice explains why Bush-era torture was OK (Turns out it was all nice and legal)
Extra Bonus: Handy guide, “How to Debunk George W. Bush’s Attempts at Revisionism,” neatly destroys the “but he kept us safe” myth.
Super Bonus: Read 50 Reasons You Despised George W. Bush’s Presidency: A Reminder on the Day of His Presidential Library Dedication
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Lafcadio said...
1Charles Krauthammer really annoys me.
From the safety of his wheelchair, he’s never seen a war he doesn’t mind sending other people out to die in.
A real piece of work. . .
On can always hope. . .click to 3:33 on the link below if you can’t wait. . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHHJsXH3BiU
04/29/13 12:09 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2The George W. Bush Library,where the truth is never checked out, is a colossal monument to our colossal stupidity. America should be proud.
04/29/13 12:39 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
3Caption of photo – “My God, what monster did I bring into this world?”
04/29/13 2:42 PM | Comment Link
Lafcadio said...
4Bauer:
“My God, what unholy scumbags did I bring into this world?”
Fixed it.
Lafcadio
04/29/13 2:59 PM | Comment Link
Oreo said...
5I spent 18 months in that country. 11 of which was providing humanitarian aid in Fallujah in 2007-2008. I was there for the surge and swarm operations that stabilized the city. We did not help those people. What aid we brought them was a stop gap to make up for what we blew up in 2004. We brought AQI to the country when we invaded. We set the stage for the murder of a million Iraqis and that idiot wants to call it a good thing? The cognitive dissonance is strong in that one. That body count doesn’t even consider the horrible deaths and physical deformities caused by the munitions we used in that country. If he believes what he wrote and all of the suffering we caused was worth it. He is a disgusting human being.
04/29/13 3:18 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
6Wait till they print the “new” history books for schools. I bet the Bush Cabal shines brighter than Washington/Lincoln.
ummm, excuse me..I have to puke.
ok..that’s better. geeezus…I’m starting to look like a victim of bulimia. Daily ingestion’s of reality vs revisionism/MSM lies have taken their toll. Sickening notwithstanding, this latest meal of Dubya bile almost did me in. After spending an hour on the floor in gut splitting laughter, I couldn’t get up from hysterical spasm cramps.
Well folks, now that the Bush regime history revisionism is main stream, I guess we can all relax now. History marches instep with Empire.
Only thing left to do is die knowing the truth. And that’s enough for me.
04/29/13 4:52 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
7The Bush monument is testimony to the pyramid scheme that our military-industrial complex stole from US. After 2000 years what have we learned? Our Republic had been replaced by a monarchy and all roads lead to Wall Street.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57577996/a-vanishing-middle-class-the-new-normal/
04/29/13 5:29 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
8speaking of monuments..I’d pay a years income to see every single Dubya & Co head on a pike outside WDC. On the other hand, that’s letting them off too easy. If I were a judge at their war crimes tribunal..I’d sentence them to life in a Vet hospital tending to all the needs of those whom they sent to hell, licking their urinals notwithstanding.
04/29/13 6:03 PM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
9What is there to put in this library collection?? Sorry to sound like a neocon, but those eight years are kinda like a fog
04/30/13 12:25 AM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
10Per Kyzl’s inquiry, I nominate the seminal library text to be one that GWB carried under his arm whilst crossing the White House lawn early in his presidency: Camus’s “The Plague”. Could anything be more prophetic than that?
04/30/13 2:37 AM | Comment Link
Jhoover said...
11http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2013/04/george-w-bush-is-back-politico-roundtable-.html?ml=vi_1
04/30/13 5:23 AM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
12That is impressive anyone from that administration would deign to read a Camus work. The gift shop will probably be larger than the library collection lol. Unfortunately, the most relevant documents will be classified or have been shredded. Or maybe ala Sandy Berger, stuffed in someone’s pants and carried away.
The Politico video is interesting. It seems ironic that crowd does not supposedly keep in touch but they were overly-ambitious in a detrimental way. I think Cheney and Wolfowitz are still associated with AEI
04/30/13 2:03 PM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
13Kyzl says,
That is impressive anyone from that administration would deign to read a Camus work.
Oh, no, I did not suggest that he read it, or that if he did, that he understood it. Perhaps he liked the title, and it was merely an aspirational endeavor. Maybe, it was a tease … the shape of things to come.
04/30/13 3:23 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
14After reading the Krauthammer link it reminded me of a hunch I had way back that George Sr and his cronies sat around bored in Texas bored decided as a lark they would run Shrub as a front for getting Cheney in the White House. Damned if it didn’t work brilliantly. The dark side guys seem always able to pull off brilliant ruses. Maybe this orb IS the domain of that horned guy with cloven feet.
04/30/13 5:46 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
15Bauer- I like to think of the Pentagon with its beribboned gangsters as operating a very successful shake down racket not so much a pyramid scheme. They come around every April and I have no choice but to give them protection money.
04/30/13 5:55 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
16I don’t know if PVB has banned me..but I tried to post this twice. if it don’t post this time…well, you won’t know anyway. so here goes..
Kyzl Orda said…
quote:”What is there to put in this library collection??” unquote
His library wouldn’t be complete without a few of these.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dze1ZKf_G0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYX-ruID718
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D4uAW_3Gjg
04/30/13 6:35 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
17Nobody ever gets banned without notice. I’m having database problems today.
04/30/13 10:00 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
18Database problems or did you vomit on your laptop when you read this:
“The State Department would never tolerate or sanction retaliation against whistleblowers on any issue, including this one,” said the department’s deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell. “That’s an obligation we take very seriously.”
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/30/state-dept-downplays-reports-benghazi-bullying/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS#ixzz2RzIId6KD
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
04/30/13 10:22 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
19Nothing to fear but change itself:
Boris Berezovsky, according to the New York Times, planned to transform Russia into a fake two-party state—one social-democratic and one neoconservative—in which heated public battles would be fought on divisive, symbolic issues, while behind the scenes both parties would actually be controlled by the same ruling elites. With the citizenry thus permanently divided and popular dissatisfaction safely channeled into meaningless dead-ends, Russia’s rulers could maintain unlimited wealth and power for themselves, with little threat to their reign.
04/30/13 10:40 PM | Comment Link
Jhoover said...
20Iraq and Reality?
An oil country with revenue reached $US118 Billions, so what USAID doing with that rich country?
Let read how USAID how caring for fining and creating job for the youth in Iraq after thrown 6 Hiroshima’s booms alike, killed 118,000 of Iraqis, 8 million made refugees all around the world
الوكالة الأمريكية للتنمية الدولية (USAID) تسعى إلى تنمية قوى العمل وتوفير فرص العمل للشباب
Read more: http://www.sotaliraq.com/mobile-news.php?id=98189#ixzz2S1T34JkJ
05/1/13 7:26 AM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
21JP says provocatively,
Maybe this orb IS the domain of that horned guy with cloven feet
Ever noticed how that guy didn’t have to make up a set of commandments to get people to follow him?
Jes sayin’ …
05/2/13 12:44 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
22@ JP and Lisa,
That’s exactly why in orthodox Christian doctrine (small ‘o’, including Orthodox, Catholic and what used to be mainstream Protestantism), Satan is called the “prince of this World”. Expanding on that, the idea is that Satan took control of the powers of this world through his illegitimate rebellion, thus he retains political power albeit illegitimately. (Interestingly, in that light, Jesus is not a revolutionary but rather a reactionary.)
But regardless of whether one subscribes to those beliefs, isn’t it poignant that most Americans believe the “Prince of this World” is the President of the United States?
05/2/13 2:58 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
23Ps re the “Prince of this World”, consider Simon Zealotes’ song from “Jesus Christ Superstar”. I think if Simon Zealotes were an American today, he’d be a “Christian Zionist”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iFAf7a0gi4
05/2/13 3:14 AM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
24Jesus is rightly a reactionary if he is to be allied with God; Christians, in order to create something new, created this other “godhead” — the Dr. Evil of Gods, Satan (said just like the Church Lady does) — in order that they might own their own church.
ISTM that to be monotheistic, you would simply continue to believe in God. Period … not some sort of riven being called The Trinity (why does EW&F’s “Shining Star” come to mind right now?) with another “Bad God” running around with a pitchfork. (Dear God, is that YOU, “Pitchfork”?!?)
I had not heard of the President as the Prince of the World (and I live in the South.) Must not be hanging with the right people.
05/2/13 3:59 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
25@ Lisa,
1. You and I must drink together sometime!
2. I won’t argue about the Holy Trinity, an ipso facto transcendent concept. But I can and will argue about this:
3. “Christians, in order to create something new, created this other “godhead” — the Dr. Evil of Gods, Satan”
Incorrect. At least in the Catholic and its twin the Orthodox wings of the Church, Satan is absolutely nothing like God. (The literal meaning of the Hebrew name of St Michael – the Archangel who defeated Satan in the war of the angels – is, “Who is like God?”, which was St Michael’s unanswerable argument which won that war of ideas.)
No, the older forms of Christianity (the non-Sarah-Palin kinds) regard Satan as just a creature, totally subject to God’s will. And in that light, that’s why the Catholic tradition says the opposite of Satan is NOT GOD, rather the opposite of Satan is God’s Mother Mary, another creature – the idea being that the creature Satan was the highest but fell through his pride, and his opposite is Mary who was created among the lowest but became the highest through her humility.
Anyway, Lisa, we gotta party together sometime. And in MY adopted country, there are no drones, so you and PVB and others on “Double-Secret-Probation” are invited! Cf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AohA367VVk
05/2/13 4:59 AM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
26Sounds good, meloveconsul; I hope it may come to pass, God willing and the creeks don’t rise. I like your highly allusive style.
Per St. Michael’s winning argument (“Who is like God?”), I have so many problems with liturgical hermeneutics, and especially translations. St. Anselm thought it was a pretty good retort to the god-doubters to say, “He is the being of whom I can imagine no higher.” Oh, but if I do wake up and imagine better, why then THAT’S the guy! Ugh.
The Jewish concept of Lucifer is more appealing to me in that he operates on the human plane to reveal our affinities — either to our “better angels” or our yetzer hara.
ISTM there are no lock-tight arguments, but as you say, it’s all the realm of the transcendent, so c’est la vie.
05/2/13 3:42 PM | Comment Link
Jhoover said...
27Good artical about the tyrent regim and the new Iraq goveremnt and the attack in Hawijah by the predominantly Shiite security forces last week:
الحويجة… مجزرة وفق الدستور أيضاً!
لكن حزبيي السلطة، وبالأخص «دولة القانون» وقطبها «الدعوة»، لا تجري على ألسنتهم سوى لازمة واحدة، هي أن المعتصمين لا يريدون حاكماً شيعياً، وأنهم اعتادوا على وجود السلطة بأيديهم؟ أسأل: هل مثل هذا الكلام يفسر المشكلة ويحلها؟ يقولون هذا، مع أنهم يعلمون أن ما كان بينهم والنظام السابق ليس بين شيعة وسنّة، إنما كان بين أحزاب تريد السلطة وإقامة نظامها الخاص، وحزب متمسك بها ومستعد أن يفني العراق في سبيلها! فهل خلا هذا الحزب وسلطته من الشيعة؟ أم أن الشيعة فقط انتظموا في «الدعوة» دون غيرها من الأحزاب والجماعات على مختلف المشارب؟!
http://www.alittihad.ae/wajhatdetails.php?id=72228#ixzz2SIxfR4eX
05/4/13 7:28 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
28@ Lisa, thanks and good on ya. And in reply:
“Per St. Michael’s winning argument (“Who is like God?”), I have so many problems with liturgical hermeneutics, and especially translations.”
But the story of St Michael’s argument is not liturgical, and it’s not even doctrine although it’s considered “worthy of belief”. Liturgy is the ritual form of the mass (the sacrament of the Eucharist aka Communion) and it’s very mutable as long as essentials are followed; anyway liturgy is not doctrine. Furthermore there’s no Biblical source for the story of St Michael, however there are credible historical reasons to believe it’s one of many things Jesus told his Apostles about. As I infer you’ve never been Catholic, I deduce you’re probably not very familiar with how the Catholic body of doctrines is based principally upon traditions handed down by the Apostles, not all of which are in the Bible. In other words we don’t follow the Protestant belief in “sola scriptura” (“no authority outside of the Bible”), for the common-sense reason that the authority (if any) of the Bible began with the Apostles BEFORE any New Testament was written!
Thus, re the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism(s), cf James Joyce: “Why should I convert from an absurdity which IS logical and coherent (Catholicism), for an absurdity which is ILLOGICAL and INcoherent? (Protestantisms)” 😉
“St. Anselm thought it was a pretty good retort to the god-doubters to say, “He is the being of whom I can imagine no higher.” Oh, but if I do wake up and imagine better, why then THAT’S the guy! Ugh.”
St Anselm doesn’t persuade me either. But then his argument is not part of Church doctrine; Catholics are free to disagree with him.
“The Jewish concept of Lucifer is more appealing to me in that he operates on the human plane to reveal our affinities — either to our “better angels” or our yetzer hara.”
Interestingly, that’s a lot like the Sufi concept of Satan (aka Iblis), the idea that Satan is paradoxically a servant of God. But I think a more truthful AND common-sensical idea is that God inevitably turns evil toward His own ends, yet evil remains evil after all – therefore Satan is an UNINTENTIONAL servant of God, like a cosmically ingenious Homer Simpson.
05/4/13 5:25 PM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
29PS, Lisa, a bit of fun here, to illustrate what the Catholic Church does NOT teach about “faith” – I mean, faith is actually the opposite of credulity!
In OUR tradition, credulity is the twin vice of skepticism, and faith is the golden mean between those two vices…
…which is why Catholics (at least reasonably educated ones) laugh along with the South Park writers of the Broadway play “The Book of Mormon”, especially here – I mean to a Catholic mind, THIS IS HILARIOUS because it illustrates the difference between faith and “belief”, two entirely different things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHEqCXY2B-w
05/4/13 5:50 PM | Comment Link
Jhoover said...
30To Iraq and back
05/5/13 9:29 AM | Comment Link