DESPERADO

President Bush this week gave US Troops stationed all over Iraq the a-okay to defend themselves against Iranian spies, guerillas or military trainers/Republican Guardians and any other Iranian badguys-- One has to ask 'why now?'-- Have our troops been bivouacing in the searing heat and dust there for nearly four years of insurgent guerrilla warfare, violent sectarian cleansing, criminal gangsterism and the complete breakdown of order physical and economic and moral .....I repeat, have our under-manned, under-armored and under-missioned troops waded through this insidious maelstrom for nearly four years without this okay??? Why wait until this week to give our troops the 'authority' to defend themselves against anybody who is trying to kill them??-- Why haven't they always had this micro-managed 'permission' ???--

Obviously this dog and pony command is more for the Iranian mullahs' ears than for the American Troops who from day one have served above and beyond the Bush/Rumsfeld mission they call Operation Provide Targets-- Bush has gone on record to deny that he is trying to start a shooting/bombing war with Iran on their turf-- Therefore some kind of provocation will be needed to incite such an outcome to the poisoned verbal sparring that has accumulated over 2006-- The Persian Gulf of Tonquin???-- Will Israel find first provocation???-- Or will Iran decide to pre-empt supply lines winding north from Kuwait??-- We can assume that, aside from Israel, no one, least of all Saudi Arabia, in the flame roiled region really welcomes a US /Iran war except maybe Osam bin-- The killer we somehow eluded at Tora Bora--

Meanwhile the sophisticated breach of American/Iraqi security responsible for protecting a government compound in holy city Karbala by insurgent special forces wearing American like uniforms, carrying American weapons, speaking English, and driving big black gas guzzling SUV's would be mockingly dismissed as fubar incompetence were it not for the four American troops kidnapped and later tragically executed in an insurgent controlled neighborhood-- After the attempted cover-up and/or denial began to fall apart American military authorities embarrassingly copped to facts-- There are still those who believe we are engaging in a war against anti-modern fifth century religious zealots who would surrender if more firepower were employed-- The neocons are full of this delusive strategy--

Softened by years of cushy perks and high salaried deployments in mahogany foxholes esconced in the hubris laden techno-suburban think-tanks of Empire the Neocon phalanx could not initially imagine that potential insurgents, if by faintly fat chance any should emerge, would have any fight remaining after the opening crescendo of Shock and Awe-- Shock and awe was a serious expenditure of high explosive ordinance, obviously of sufficiently high enough caliber total surrender would follow-- This would have been the point where these architects of a New American Century would themselves have capitulated were similar ordinance to have visited them-- They imagined Iraqis would surrender here because here is where they would have thrown in the towel--

The intellectual sting of having been proven drastically wrong on the ground by the at-first dis-respected tenacity of a tougher more cunningly astute and more deceptive people than dreamed possible seeks assuaging balm in the call for a more and heavier surge of firepower against an ever wider adversary..... fanatically redoubling efforts after forgetting their aim-- Escalation to contagion to 'creative destruction' as a defining goal now passes somehow for redemption-- At The Last Chance Saloon bitter whiskey all around.....desperation is the chaser-- Out the double door limps phantom Victory-- Tomorrow another Bad Day At Black Rock--