GREAT MEN GONE

As American and Israeli politicians spin the spin and spin again evermore to deflect incoming rounds of intense criticism, outright blame and strident calls for resignations and dismissals a former Nuremberg prosecutor this week called for both Saddam Hussein and George Bush to be tried for War Crimes-- No mention was made of Ehud Olmert-- Maybe Bush had an accurate premonition several weeks back when he plied some members of congress for special legislation insuring immunization from War Crime charges that might arise for aggressive actions already undertaken or committed-- Nevertheless Bush plods on emotionally desperate for war against Iran oblivious it seems to the truly quagmired condition of the U.S. Army on the ground in Iraq and how such an inhibiting situation has become so crippling to our foreign policy elsewhere in the world--

_______The Israeli failure to destroy Hezbollah missile capability by applied bombing of Lebanese civilians was supposed to deliver the robust template of success the U.S. could duplicate against Iran-- Total targets: 1,500 to be hit simultaneously from the sky-- Apparantly Bush did not get the message/lesson nor did the embunkered one Mr. Cheney though such imperceptibility or rather impenetrability hasn't stopped this administration's repeatedly emphatic use of the adjective 'robust' to tellingly describe their intentions and responses to the world-- It is the word they use most often to depict what they hope the world would think of their own actions-- Locked and loaded robust Neocon lackeys like Gingrich and Krauthammer want the world to think of the neocons in such a stupendously narcissistic and hallowed term as 'Churchillian'-- 'Maybe not today but someday the world will be indebted and thankful to us like Churchill for our courageous stand' (paraphrasing the 'other priorities' Cheney)-- What the Neocons know and betray with such galling hoped-for self-acclaim is redemption for the failure to live up to their Father's Generation-- Alienated from popular contemporaries, considered 'uncool' by the 'Sixties' and debilitated by the guilt-driven knowledge that when they had their chance to serve in a war they verbally supported, point blank pure and simple they didn't pull their trigger(like most of the middle class they went to college or bought x-rays of bad knees on the medical black market)-- Having endured a very long wait to attain power and influence, they want that long wait and that recently gained influence to have the same pay-off it did for the Greatest Generation-- Victory in WWII led to forty years of power for Roosevelt's Democrats-- For Gingrich to entwine the events of 9-11 with the attack on Pearl Harbor (the epic pretext goal PNACers salivated for) is fraught with both the tremendous respect for the heroism and attendant glory of their Father's Generation and the opportunity to redeem everything ignoble about his generation's to this day bitter loss of face in Vietnam-- Lost time is not found again-- As world events Newt's analogy fails-- In the case of Japan's attempted knockout blow we climbed up off the canvas re-armed, attacked and defeated the state army of the foe who dropped us for an eight-count-- In the event of 9-11 we attacked the terrorist foe(not an army employed by any state) in Afghanistan and weren't satisfied with a simple crushing victory there so we attacked a country even Mr. Bush this week stated had "Nothing" to do with 9-11 and who had never attacked us-- Being the aggressor in war means he has to win (only by winning and continuing to win in an ever widening ever-extended war can he avoid the charges of war criminal usually hung on the so called loser) and win Bush did in the beginning until a resilient and lethal insurgency arose capable of duelling the under-manned under-armored under-planned U.S. Army to a standstill stalemating plans for widening the war to grandiosely remake with shiny quick-victoried democracies as well as the unstated goal of securing if not outrightly capturing the oil reserves of the entire region which is where Israel enters the picture--

________ Israel too has its Ben-Gurion Dayan Begin generation legendary and militarily heroic in every sense of the word-- Their triumphant war of Independence and Statehood a success supremely magnified many times over especially by proximate comparison to the horrendous fate endured in the German camps-- Such triumph to say the least is intoxicatingly splendid for those involved-- The inevitable fate each succeeding administration/generation is tasked with is duplication if not supercession of the original feat which almost magically the Israelis accomplished in the 1967 Six Day War despite a minor dust-up when she attacked the USS Liberty an information gathering ship belonging to the U.S. in a disputable case of mistaken identity-- The air of invincibility marries hubris but the military victory/drug in its awesome aftermath as a way of life tends to mirror the heroin high--It is needed more often simply to feel normal or less relatively depressed and ultimately much harder to obtain delivering down the line unexpected demoralizing defeat or whatever the spin pins label to-- Two highly disciplined determined rag-tag irregular outfits with no air-power and no sea-power supposedly too weak too under-armed and too religiously faithful to be taken seriously except as proxy pawns of larger powers have stalemated two of the most highly rated armies in the world-- Bitter pills in the extreme for the Masters of Empire--

____ Revenge and anger engulf the leaders whose armies don't succeed or match their historical legends which is probably why Bush who needs to robustly embody Churchill attempted to goad Olmert who needs to outshine Dayan into attacking Syria-- In any event both men are clearly in a difficult desperate frustrated frame of mind-- Olmert who has a killingly impressive lineage of former Generals to measure himself or be measured against by political enemies and pundits almost immediately violated the international cease-fire in hopes of securing a quick lustrous battle victory using special force commandos to assassinate an Hezbollah higher-up which failed outright clearly tarnishing Olmert even further as well as adding to the embarrassing civil angst now enveloping Israeli society-- What Olmert and Bush should know or should have known is that Churchill like Ben-Gurion or any great man for that matter were great because they refused to be other than who they were and that nobody no matter how hard they pose will ever duplicate them-- Worse than buffoonish emulation of great men is the insanely delusional even criminal enterprise of attempting to create the circumstantial pretexts that would engender the emulator chance to occupy/fulfill his projected greatness in a prancing charade that always spells doom-- Not all who strut and fret their hour upon the stage attain true greatness before they are heard no more-- Circumstances more empowered than the neocon tribe will deliver our next great heroic men who will become heroic above all else by being true to themselves and by having a set of beliefs worth being true to-- Pretexts conjured by the ineptitude of self-interested self-absorbed hacks unerringly find history's dumpster-- Both men for the moment at least should tip their caps to Nasralla who as a statesman warrior repeatedly if unexpectedly outmaneuvered and outfought always a step or two ahead of our witlessly deadly duo (a new generation of Lebanese as well as a wider circle of Middle Eastern offspring will be tasked to outdo him)--

__________Krauthammer scalpeled out an initial obituary threatening Israel with loss of American confidence meaningfully understated to mean loss of our now continually devaluing American dollar as foreign aid/welfare and further weapon goodies complicating further the fragile Israeli mental state-- George Bush's big victory the one he didn't accomplish in the Air National Guard days of his youth is receding over the horizon like his own party bent on surviving the midterm elections distancing itself even further from the abject fraudulence of Mission Accomplished and it is certainly complicating if not endangering his not so clear and present mental state-- The country's horses are spooked--