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??--

ACCIDENTAL VICTORY?

Strange week on the current affairs block-- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Malicki who has publicly stated he is never allowed to move his own troops around Baghdad or even set up a checkpoint without first securing American permission, initiated invitations to all the major players in the middle east to join him at an early March round-table where the United States will come face to face with Iran and Syria and guess what....talk to each other-- Reconciliation???-- Too much to hope for given the extent of this incendiary conflagration???-- How deeply the toxicity of sectarian hatred has progressed???__ How many independent groups including intelligence agencies from outside countries are involved and the ease with which their unique agendas can derail even well-intentioned efforts??-- France agreed to attend but their I-told-you-so presence alone might be enough to scuttle the wounded pride of US options-- Bottom line, though....it's only the last place left to start--

Change of heart??-- Suddenly weak in the knees??-- The Decider in a grand stand-down??-- After failure upon failure upon setback upon setback in Iraq as well as Afghanistan did the improbable North Korean deal soften up the administration??-- His Feb. 15 speech to the American Enterprise Institute, the neocon think tank which supplied his rationale for initial Shock and Awe all the way up to the Surge which is more a reinforcement rather than a Surge in the classical sense, indicates that much of this failure has failed to penetrate his particular ideological paradigm-- At any rate, did what seems like an accidental/unintentional victory (or kow-tow?)by the diplomatic corps on the Korean Front and the ensuing praise it engendered world wide convince Bush to attempt another new way forward from the losing end of Iraq??--

A win is a win is a....... but meaningful tide-turning victories have been so few and far between during his Iraq war tenure--Having Malicki back-door the invitations is obviously designed to make it appear that the administration is only another interested party and not the desperado politico groveling for any way out of a disintegrating violent morass of his own making but the whole world knows better-- Bush doesn't really need to save face to ameliorate the world anyway-- What he needs is a Nixonian canard like Peace with Honor which allows the visage in his own mirror to appear less judgementally threatening to George himself-- He's the man he has to live with but that's really neither here nor there in the fluidity of this week's cascading events--

Interesting allegation last week that refuses to go away and hide, claims Karl Rove in receipt of an offer four years ago from Iran proffering to negotiate the whole nine yards... Nuclear options, Israel Palestinian peace ramifications, Hezbollah, Hamas and the compromises open to their government which the short sighted administration immediately dismissed out of hand in what.....a fear their hegemonic dreams might yield to some kind of contamination-- Sec State Condi Rice recently disavowed ever having seen the document ( but didn't disavow ever hearing about it)-- Such unnecessary dissembling which she shows no reticence in practicing with aplomb-- Iran as well as Syria have offered to start talks for years and the State Department, The DoD, The NSA, and the White House are all well aware of it--

Redundant reports all week concerning the inadequate training supplied our troops as they prepare to execute the Surge in another rush, the deterioration of our National Guard , and Joint Chief of Staff Peter Pace's unflinching public statements concerning the degraded condition of our overstretched under-manned under-armored troops in Iraq and the spent capacity to react to other trouble-spots around the globe should the need arise-- Apparently two full Army combat brigades were ordered to skip premier training for the shake and bake variety and just when the repo-men seemed to have turned the corner on portraying the lemming demies as a sniveling mealy-mouth crew who wouldn't support the troops out comes another scathing report illuminating the callous squalid treatment of wounded soldiers....our wounded soldiers... at the cockroach vermin-infested Walter Reed Hospital-- One top general has been axed while the Secretary of the Army tendered his demanded resignation-- Would that the mainstream media gets wind of the sordid treatment our volunteer soldiers receive from the careering Military (In)Justice System--

A disturbing question comes to the fore-- Are we needlessly sending thousands of ill-trained troops into the shrieking insurgent buzz saw while our diplomats cop to a surrender/cease fire/ withdrawal agreement in order to spin a canard that we were not defeated????-- Our Surge brought the enemy to the table and negotitiated a surrender on their part????-- Olmert attempted to similarly spin the Israeli debacle in Lebanon in such light last summer but was clearly and publicly rebuked by his own troops and their officers-- Dozens of Israeli reserve troops ill-trained and poorly fed were sacrificed on the final weekend even with the cease fire agreement already secured and in the pipeline-- Let us not even mention the material decimation including a relatively high number of tanks and personnel carriers or the damage to IDF's once vaunted reputation--

In Iraq General Petraeus reaped disconcerting news from his core team of PhD lauded insurgency specialists (serious academic achievers with critically impressive ground combat experience)-- Gen Petraeus' team reported after a country-wide survey of intel-gathering first-hand that the US lacks the troop count to credibly fight the insurgency-- British troops are cutting out in southern Iraq leaving massive potential for more violence in their wake-- Blair's Royal Empire has tasted its fill while less self-enamored Denmark opts to follow suit-- The coalition under-weighted as it once was appears now to be in full-fledged dis-repair before the real battle for Baghdad even begins --

Britain's troops are not going home to victory parades and Blair affirmed publicly his opposition to a Bush attack or, for that matter, anybody else's attack on Iran--No more monkey to the US organ-grinder, Blair's piecemeal troop pull-out is a vote of no-confidence and diminishes overall strength as it thins defenses in the simmering Shiite territory of oil-rich southern Iraq-- A chink in this armor strains relative insecurity everywhere else leading Petraeus himself to warn of a surge in American casualties in the months ahead-- Destination Walter Reed is not confidence-inspiring, to say the least, and in Petraeus own words, 'The stakes couldn't be higher.'--

Petraeus cannot stop the suicide martyrs, the car bombs or the roadside IED's anymore than Malicki can and his PhD crew warns of problematic morale issues emanating from the Green Zone-- There are less than a few remaining who believe in the efficacy of miracles-- Without ruling out a potential Vietnam-type endgame collapse in the not too distant future, perhaps in the not too distant present, the knell of each new car bomb punctuates the gloom with augury-- Perhaps the hapless Malicki's overture for talks signals DC's grim realization that imminent strategic defeat might be rearing its ugly head..........a leadening depressive possibility--

Referencing once again Seymour Hersh's The Redirection because it brings to light Bush's ace up the sleeve if the talks fail, or in a perverse and irrationally maddening light if they look like they might succeed-- Having asked the Pentagon for a battle plan to attack Iran with a massive aerial bombardment that could be ordered into execution within 24 hours, the word from Hersh's highly placed sources is the Pentagon has complied-- Not Gates, not Pace, not Blair, not Chalabi, not Daddy Baker, not Greenspan, not Woodward, not Giuliani, not Pelosi, not Reed, not Hagel, not Obama, not McCain, not Sheehan, not Cronkite, not Rodham, not McConnell, not Lott, and probably not even Rove at this juncture can stop it-- The Decider still holds trump unless........