WINOGRAD

Israelis of all political stripes, some vehemently, some disgustedly, continue to demand the resignation of their Prime Minister who was mercilessly pummeled by a scathing denouncement in the long awaited report from the special Winograd Commission juried to examine the dismal performance of Ehud Olmert, his government and his military staff in the disastrous Israeli War last summer on Lebanon-- Shorn of all possible denial, the commission nailed ignominious defeat in no uncertain terms to Ehud's quickly closing door--

Bearing the unassailable earmarks of dead man walking, Olmert stands disconnected like a disheveled scarecrow in winter begging for a second chance to rewrite his embarrassing ineptitude and incompetence as a military leader-- Lost wars never go away and they never grant the defeated those sought after second chances-- The long road of Defeat eats all participants and it runs forever-- Olmert's succor currently roused from sycophantic loyalists who fall when his regime falls will fade as more calls for resignation pierce his oblivious denial-- The longer he desperately hangs on, off-key and out of tune, the longer Israel suffers--


Israel clearly lost on strategic, operational and tactical grounds and the commission, didn't flinch in spelling out the damage done and it's potential repercussions-- It did, however, refuse consideration of the moral aspects of Olmert's improvisational martial gambit in the first place that ultimately wrought condemnation from the entire region and most of the world-- Millions of cluster bomblets and their maiming potential left scattered across farmlands and playgrounds and demolished neighborhoods won neither moral kudos or simple tokens of friendship from anyone anywhere-- This, after which the cease fire agreement was, for all intents and purposes, acknowledged as fait accompli by all parties--

The Israeli psyche has been fractured by the loss of their once invincible hubris and deteriorating economy(frothy run-up in stock prices a mirage of exception) and a critical lack of true leadership(as opposed to posturing professional dandies and opportunists which the general population appears now to loathe) currently prevents her from coming to grips with the depressingly dangerous predicament-- While 150,000 Israelis fill Rabine Square protesting Ehud (of 3% poll support)Olmert's decision to resist resignation, the chaotic disconsolate condition of the country precludes any overt and legal action to remove the man too incapable of discerning his misguided train not only left the station long ago but also departed on rails heading in the wrong direction--

The country might just be too chagrined to care enough to lop off the political head this sorry excuse for a real leader-- Not unlike its last remaining ally, America, the whole political echelon is suspect-- Leaders who knew better, or should have known better, failed to summon courage enough to act-- Israel's existential threat ain't coming from straw man Ahmadinejad or Iran, it is roiling up from the shame within and the outward contortions that rabid denial of such exhibits-- There may appear to be temporary respite from the storm in simply wishing the whole sordid mess would just vanish on its own accord, but the ultimate problem of Olmert's incompetence and the open extant highly-visible corruption of a large swath of the current political class will continue to fester until the Israeli people's strength of will, until now painfully lacking, ends this regime-- Fat Chance in the current climate--

The weakest most abjectly damaged political leaders in the world today are those who lent their moral and political integrity(such that they bore) leveraging their soul as well to the faux glory embodied by the Project For A New American Century now hemorrhaging disillusionment and self-destruction in Iraq-- The project, concocted by a group calling themselves 'The Cabal' later monikered as Neocons', consisted of think-tank zealots, some bearing dual passports, who fervently calibrated Israeli interests to be absolutely synonymous with American interests in the Middle East and who first won praise for their project from Israeli hawk Mr. Netanyahu-- Cheney arrived on board without being cudgeled toting Scooter Boy and with magical help from charismatic Ariel Sharon quickly swiveled Mr.Bush into position-- Richard Perle ascended to Rumsfield's right-hand man whenever Paul Wolfewitz could not avail himself for duty-- Tough talking milquetoast Brit PM Tony Blair found martial seduction facilely to his liking as well as the newly found tone of belligerence charading through his imperially pompous but out-of-touch speech-making-- George Tenet the erstwhile enabler now sudden convert to the aggrandizing nature of self-pity whining for or to likes of Oprah-- The list could go on........ Powell, Rice, Rove, Libby, Lieberman, Feith(of faith-based intel),Bolton,............. No longer strutting but most definitely fretting their remaining hour upon the world stage and with history's unwelcome judgement still to come, these ghostlike figures shattered of credence, crippled of and by the power invested in careerism, world political influence, once strident, now nebulous at best, almost fanciful ........ Dead Men Walking........ All of them, now, like Ehud Olmert-- Losers in the tarnished limelight of history--


The degree of security Israel absolutely professes to need is simply unattainable-- And if the illusions possessed by this desire convince the many or even the few that such security has, currently or in the mythic past, been once attained it is simply incapable of being maintained-- Israel sees enemies everywhere and where those enemies are real they are all strengthened greatly by last summer's defeat as well as by upgraded guerilla tactics and military hardware-- Invincibility no longer feared and deterrence no longer beyond doubt, serious trouble now awaits this crusader state-- Hezbollah leader Nasrallah praised the Winograd Commission for looking defeat squarely in the eye and studying hard earned lessons for the future-- He will not take Israeli desires for revenge lightly--For Bush, Blair and the rest of the neocon boys, there is no future to rebuild-- The future is a football full of fear and failure and an horribly acute mess they created to be handed off to a successor they hope shoulders the blame they richly deserve-- A veritable wasteland devoid of Honor---

Lost time and opportunity is the bitter pill not found again, Ehud-- Just ask John Kerry and Al Gore about second chances-- Better yet, why not ask.......... Mr. Kissinger??--

SLAM DRUNK

There were at most a handful of administration players in the room-- George Tenet prefers to feign ignorance and a lack of concern about who leaked his celebrated 'Slam Drunk comment to consummate DC insider Bob Woodward (who was only too happy to curry favor from the Bushie crowd facilitating a deflection of public opinion by implicating the inept Tenet as a scapegoat for failure to find WMD's in Iraq) but was quick to peddle his abused integrity playing the victim card, "the most despicable thing that ever happened" to him.-- Since the promotional copy coming from the recent 60 Minutes interview with Medal of Freedom recipient and former CIA Director Tenet did not identify any of the potential leakers, it would appear Tenet is seeking Justice for his outraged bureaucratic sensibilities a whole lot less than drumming up potential book sales--

The 'woe is me' Tenet whines, "And the hardest part of all this has been just listening to this for almost three years, listening to the vice president go on Meet the Press on the fifth year [anniversary] of 9/11 and say, 'Well, George Tenet said slam dunk' as if he needed me to say 'slam dunk' to go to war with Iraq"........-- Never mind that 3500 American troops have had their young lives snuffed-out and tens of thousands more have met grievous wounds and psychological maiming-- Never mind 3 million Iraq refugees have lost their homes and jobs and family roots and a half million more have lost the breath of their life to boot-- The 'hardest part of all this' for the self-pitying Director of the Central Intelligence Agency ensconced in the air-conditioned comfort of his mahogany foxhole was not watching the the administration's incompetent war efforts implode in the insurgent dust of murderous Iraq and the subsequent devolution of American influence and stature worldwide but the VP Cheney's Machiavellian mis-characterization of a superficial cavalier soundbite to help sell a bogus threat as a rationale for pre-emptive eternal war--

"........And you listen to that and they never let it go. I mean, I became campaign talk. I was a talking point. 'Look at the idiot [who] told us and we decided to go to war.' -- What narcissistic pap!!!-- Beaming in the presence of the Decider in Chief, Mr. Tenet accepted his Medal of Freedom proud of his contribution enabling the Neocons' Project for a New American Century even as earmarks began to appear signaling an emergent insurgency quite capable of inflicting serious damage up to and including stalemate to occupation troops while the evidence of security problems countrywide became more and more visible-- Intel concerns had shifted from making a phony case for pre-emptive attack to administrative denial of Iraq's burgeoning insurgency but by then Tenet was gone--

For three years Mr. Tenet, incredibly, endured this malignant affront to his dignity and professional integrity in absolute silence-- 'Slam Dunk' now gets bandied about in mockery and verbal parody of any effort that overstates any case with faux and facile certitude-- Mr. Tenet's intellectual and professional reputation is now nil-- His ridiculous denials of torture strain credibility but the success of the "alternative techniques" he, now, endorses as being more intel-productive than anything his CIA effort was able to achieve over the years-- Why not challenge Cheney's misrepresentation immediately??-- Why wait three years to defend yourself??-- Why accept the medal??-- You went along to get along, crybaby!!--

That Cheney or Rummy or Rover or even Bush would seek to shift blame for the Iraq disaster to Tenet is not beyond the realm of possibility but entirely feasible and quite probable-- Imagine boss Cheney nodding as Bush nervously looking for a fall guy asks 'Hell,..... I mean,..... Why not stick Tenet's head in the meat-grinder?'-- The question suspended from a momentary eternity until......... "After all,...... he..... is...... a Clinton holdover"......... breaks the overwhelmingly unbearable silence-- The voice behind the White House curtain belongs to Woodward to which the grinning smirking Decider replies, "Slam Drunk"--