The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld Strategy for Iraq

An Unqualified Success - the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld Strategy for Iraq

There have been many articles in the media expressing the opinion that George Bush might be the worst president in U.S. history. Almost without exception commentators have labelled the Bush neo-con Iraq strategy a failure.

They are all wrong. The Bush neo-con strategy, formulated by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfovitz, Libby, et al has been a resounding success. It has achieved everything it set out to achieve. The key is to understand what they set out to achieve. First, a bit of history:

The Project for a New American Century set out a plan [in the mid 90's] to dominate the Middle East and in particular to have control of its natural resources, particularly oil. However, that may have been a smokescreen for the neo-con's real intentions. To put the plan in action they needed an American 'tragedy' like, as mentioned in the plan, Pearl Harbor.

FBI agents discovered potential terrorists but their investigations were shut down by the hierarchy - stupid.

Some of the 9/11 terrorists learned to fly at CIA operated schools, and the CIA helped some get into the country while the FBI helped some get drivers licenses - stupid.

Cheney took the control of the fighter jets that were charged with intercepting hi-jacked airplanes out of the hands of the military and put them under his direct control. He then kept them on the ground until the twin towers had been hit [as testified by Norman Minnetta] - stupid.

A 'security exercise' closed down the twin-towers several times in the week before 9/11, allowing the explosives to be placed which were the cause of the towers falling. The security firm involved was part-owned by one of the Bush brothers. For the first time in America's recent history, 'burned' buildings were not investigated.... in fact, all debris was shipped off to China and no investigations were allowed - stupid/

Rumsfeld confiscated all the security cameras that would have filmed the 'plane' that flew into the Pentagon and the ground around the impact was dug up and destroyed the next day so no investigations could take place - stupid.

Therefore, the neo-cons made sure they had their 'Pearl Harbour'.

Bush refused to continue Clinton's peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians - stupid.

Bush/Cheney supported Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the Muslim's holy Temple Mount which sparked a demonstration - as they knew it would- that gave the Israeli's an excuse to attack Palestinians, thus prompting the Intifida - as they knew it would - stupid.

The Bush Admin. blamed Afghanistan for harboring Al Quida, even though the Americans had set up Al Quida and funded it in the first place. This gave them an excuse to unilaterally and illegally invade another country, though this was against laws that the U.S. supposedly adhered to. The invasion was planned and signed off in June, 3 months before 9/11 and was designed, in agreement with Russia, to facilitate an oil pipeline from Russia to the Gulf, after the Taliban pulled out of pipeline discussions. - unlawful.

Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld all lied about the Weapons of Mass Destruction and refused to follow international law as set out in United Nations agreements, attacking Iraq under false premises and illegally - stupid. Over 650,000 innocent Iraqi's, not to mention all the soldiers of many nations, have been killed by this illegal act.

With the Palestinian problem looking like it might be solved pre-Bush, and many parts of the Middle East [Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc] becoming friendly with the U.S., even the Taliban talking to the U.S. govt, there was little reason for terrorists to exist, let alone cause terrorist acts against peaceful nations. Bush and co. fixed all that... by purposefully inflaming the Palestinian situation, declaring Muslims as enemies, attacking Muslim countries without provocation, etc. Bush created the perfect environment as well as justification for terrorists and even helped create excellent training grounds for them in Iraq and Afghanistan - stupid.

A 100 point plan was drawn up for the reconstruction of Iraq after the invasion. It included firing all Iraqi military and government personnel and replacing them with U.S. corporations. It closed down food production and forced Iraqi's to buy food and seeds from the U.S. and allies [like Australia] farmers. It brought all infrastructure under U.S. corporate control. It required the total disintegration of social and political control - stupid.

Bush pulled out of the Strategic Arms Control agreement with Russia - stupid.

Bush cancelled the oil and other aid to North Korea which had been negotiated by Clinton in exchange for North Korea not continuing its nuclear programme. Bush's move virtually forced North Korea to enrich uranium to provide power with it's other source, oil, now cut off. This enabled Bush to declare North Korea part of the 'Axis of Evil.' Bush refused to have direct talks with North Korea and refused to say the U.S. wouldn't attack North Korea, which has always been the peace agreement North Korea wanted and are now trying to get by continuing its nuclear programme - stupid.

Bush has continually refused to talk directly to Iran, thereby ensuring that Iran remains a foe of the U.S. - stupid.

And who else but Cheney and Rumsfeld could devise a strategy that effectively gives control of Iraq to the Iranians and Shiites, the so-called enemies of the U.S. and major sponsors or terrorism - according to Bush - as is currently being suggested - stupid.

Bush has refused to do anything about Global Warming which even the Pentagon has said is the greatest risk to the United States. In fact, he has done everything he can to increase pollution in the atmosphere and the water - stupid.

Bush has alienated at least half of South and Central America, most of whom were previously friends and supporters of the U.S., and pushed many of them into Socialist based governments as a response against American bullying and rapacious corporate rip-offs of their natural resources. Turning friends into enemies - stupid.

He also turned France and Germany, and latterly Spain, from friends into enemies by thumbing his nose at long term agreements and treaties, as well as the principles and practices that they had all spent so many years developing within the United Nations - stupid.

Speaking of the United Nations, refusing to adhere to U.N. standards over Iraq, Bush appointed an avowed enemy of the U.N., Bolton, as U.S. ambassador, thereby again thumbing his nose to the single most important body trying to preserve world peace - stupid.

And then there is Rumsfeld's 'reorganization' of the Pentagon and military forces. He created a 'lean and mean' military dependent on hi-tech warfare technology, and in the process ran down the military's ability to provide its own backup, support and logistics. They can't even feed themselves and all their barracks, jails, installations are now built by private contractors like Bechtel and Halliburton. The 'lean and mean' military have become a cash cow for corporate Republican sponsors. Now all logistics are supplied by corporations who have a history of overcharging like mad - stupid.

Declaring a 'war on terrorism' [terrorism which largely didn't exist until Bush got in the act] has been the excuse to wipe out centuries of hard fought for civil and legal rights. It is now the law that if the Bush administration 'claim' anyone is a terrorist, has terrorist connections or even sympathies, they can be put in jail without counsel or any rights to a lawyer or free trial, and they don't even have to be told what the charge against them is as those charges are 'state secrets'. This has meant hundreds of contracts for Bechtel and Halliburton to build and run jails all over the U.S. as well as in Iraq - stupid.

Not to mention paying mercenaries in Pakistan to kidnap innocents and sell them to the CIA as 'Al Quida' or 'Taliban'. Over 430 of them are still in Guantanamo, not charged, no evidence against them, no chance of a fair trial. Still, without that illegal process, Cheney's company Halliburton wouldn't have got the multi-million dollar contract, without bidding - as virtually all contracts under the Bush administration - to build the new jail at Guantanamo as well as all the jails at international airports in the U.S. to jail journalists or the over 30,000 on secret government 'lists' of undesirables - illegal, immoral and stupid.

Pulling the money away for the repair of the dikes in New Orleans knowing that a big hurricane would cause massive destruction, then, when told of the hurricane's imminent arrival, refusing to take measures to evacuate or protect the citizens of New Orleans. Instead, by allowing the Katrina destruction to take place he was then able to award $200 billion to his corporate supporters to 'clean up' the aftermath, a clean up that hasn't yet taken place even though the money has mostly been spent - stupid. I'm reminded that when a similar hurricane struck Havana, Castro evacuated all the citizens at risk, over a million, without loss of a single life. Bush killed over 2000.

Appointing as heads of all departments concerned with the environment, health, safety, agriculture, etc. corporate leaders who decimated years of protections so that their own corporations could rip off the systems at the expense of the health and welfare of all citizens and the whole environment - stupid.

I could fill up many more pages of stupid things the neo-cons have done. Tax cuts for the rich while removing support for the poor, using tax money to fund virtual billion dollar 'gifts' to the pharmaceutical industry, borrowing a trillion dollars every year and loading that debt onto future taxpayers, causing a housing bubble after the dot-com crash, a bubble which will lead to bankruptcy for millions of Americans, etc.

When I speak of Bush I recognise that he is just the public face for the neo-cons, essentially their puppet. The people who have made all these stupid decisions are mainly Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfovitz, Libby and their supporters.

The problem with the above scenario is that these people are not stupid. They are very smart, very capable, and very committed. How could they have been responsible for so many stupid acts?

There is only one possible answer to this conundrum. Even though all these acts were stupid in relation to the welfare of the U.S. and the rest of the world, they were not stupid to the neo-cons.... in fact, they achieved exactly what they wanted. Their plans and actions were an unqualified success.

To understand this, we have to understand that the Republican Party has been, since the time of Reagan, virtually totally controlled by a few major American and foreign corporations. They are the major oil companies, the major pharmaceutical companies, the major infrastructure companies [Bechtel and Halliburton, for instance], the major defense [offense] companies, and the major security companies [Bush family and bin Laden family investment vehicle The Carlyle Group fit in the last three categories].

Virtually all the leading government appointments by Republican presidents since Reagan have been corporate leaders of these companies - George Schultz of Bechtel, Cheney of Halliburtion, Rumsfeld of the pharmaceutical companies Giliad [maker of Tamiflu] and G.D. Searle [maker of the deadly sweetener Aspartame], James Baker, George Bush Senior and Salim bin Laden of the Carlyle Group, Bush brother Marvin of Securicom, the company that had the contract for security of the World Trade Centre, Condoleeza Rice of Chevron Oil, the list goes on for many pages and includes almost all Secretaries of departments like Health, Environment, Commerce, Agriculture, etc.

The Republican plan has been to fund the major politicians like the President and members of Congress [Bush received over $650 million in campaign funds from the pharmaceutical industry] and then to use those politicians to funnel taxpayers money back into those industries [the pharmaceutical companies received over $600 billion in the programme to provide prescriptions to the retired without provision for tendering of other programme to reduce or limit costs] while also using those borrowed or taxpayer funds to fund the most 'pork barrel' projects in history, which kept the Congress on side with the Administration.

Since Bush took reign, the U.S. government has been borrowing more than a trillion dollars a year. The current debt now stands over $8 trillion, but when you include future liabilities the government has committed the nation to, the total debt is $43 trillion. All this debt will have to be paid by future taxpayers, the children and grandchildren of today's citizens.

The Congress since Bush took power has approved EVERY funding bill, proving that they too do what the corporates ask - or have paid for - depending how you look at it. Therefore, the grand plan has been to borrow like mad and funnel all that borrowing, plus most of the taxes collected, into the major corporations... robbing Peter [future generations] to pay Paul [corporate sponsors]. It is illegal, unjust and highly immoral. And just what the corporate sponsors of the Republican Party want.

The difficulty of a plan like this is providing justification that will go down with the public. Sure, most of the public vote with their pocketbooks, and few would turn down any government largesse that they see as benefiting them, but how do you justify benefits to already wealthy and powerful corporates and their multi-million dollar salary earning leaders? And how do you ensure that the money will continue to flow for many years after you have left [been kicked out of] office?

Simple. All you need to do is change the world in such a lasting way that there can be no retreat from the policies you've put in place. How did they do that? They created long term enemies. Not only the Iraqi's but virtually all the Muslims except one of their corporate sponsors, the Saudi Royal Family. Pushed the Palestinian problem from a situation which looked like it had a solution into a situation that won't be able to be solved for years and years.

Pushed both North Korea and Iran into escalating the nuclear arms race, just when it was looking like being a thing of the past. They're also fuelling the nuclear arms race by increasing their own [U.S.] nuclear arms developments, but also supporting India's and Israel's, as well as pushing Russia into stopping the decommissioning of their nuclear arsenal.

They've broken down the workings of the United Nations and pushed many nations, especially in Latin America, towards left leaning governments which are antagonistic to the U.S.

They used lots of depleted uranium in Iraq which is causing thousands of deformities and cancers, and will do so for hundreds of years, thereby ensuring that that area of the world will be plagued by misery for the long term. They gave the Israeli's depleted uranium which was used in Lebanon, thereby ensuring the same problems there for hundreds of years. And on the last day of the way between Israel and Lebanon, the U.S. rushed thousands of cluster bombs which Israel dropped on Lebanon AFTER the cease-fire was signed. As you know, cluster bombs kill and maim innocent civilians [not military] for years and years.

All this strife caused the price of oil to go up, giving obscene profits to the oil company supporters of the Republicans. The same with all the defense contractors...... contracts that will now continue to bring obscene profits to defense company supporters for many years to come. Ditto for the pharmaceutical companies.... the more terrorist threats the more government money to spend on bio-warfare agents, their research and their [hopefully] preventative drugs and vaccines. And, of course, the war on terror and the whole Iraq mess has been like a gold mine for security companies.

We are now finding out that most of the money spent on the reconstruction of Iraq has lined corporate pockets with little actually helping Iraq or Iraqis [or new Orleans]. Most of it has been spent in the U.S. itself... major corporate graft and corruption.... part of the plan.

So you can see the method in their madness. If you want your buddies in the oil, defense, infrastructure, pharmaceutical and securities industries to be able to make heaps of money off a disintegrating world order, one that you have insured will create wars, conflicts, terrorism and potential health problems for years and years to come, you couldn't have developed a better strategy.

It doesn't matter that Bush might be impeached, or that the Democrats might sweep into power as revulsion with Bush/Cheney continues to mount. They have so screwed up the world that they have guaranteed conflict, massive defense contracts, high oil prices, and major security and health problems for generations to come. And the Republican corporate sponsors have an assured income stream for at least another 20 or more years.

An unqualified SUCCESS as a strategy. Pity about all the deaths and long term debt, though. Copyright © Charles Drace 2007

Charles Drace http://www.investing.co.nz

email: charles@cdrace.co.nz

ENDS

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