MEMORIAL DAY

The current state of the White House and the administration reflects a dysfunctional atmosphere replete with hesitant and clearly uncertain policy formulations being debated and leaked in various manners that border on unraveling-- The increasing mayhem in Iraq may no longer be denied and once cautiously confident statements extolling progress via The Surge are no longer bandied about DC except perhaps in the oddest of out-of-touch think-tanks and campaigns run by faux leaders fancying themselves presidential candidates-- The bold and critical objectives aimed at securing both Baghdad itself and Anbar Province are unfortunately being met by an indisputable lack of success-- Reconciliation between sectarian factions, as prescribed by in-effectual, blustery US statesmen and petulant pundits, appears to be fait non-accompli--

Into this violent wasteland strewn with not just a few discarded milestones hollowed of their promised 'cakewalk' to easy victory emerges the under-estimated Moqtada Sadr proposing after Friday prayers to forge a united Iraq pledging co-operation with Sunnis opposing the US occupation-- What may be empty prattle by the grudgingly skillful populist/nationalist/sermonist effectively sticks a political thumb into the administration's less than keen eye-- Clearly unable to predict Sadr's movements and much less his intentions which the White House attributes to radical instability, the Bush men,sooner or later, are going to have to realize the adept Sadr has won way more Hearts & Minds as a fiery crazy-fox than the ever behind-schedule General Petraeus has purchasing photo-op pastries at some secular bakery--



Petraeus' strategy would have echo-ed his intelligent skill and anti-insurgent savvy had the application of which occurred before Mr. Bremer's artless tenure as the combat-booted, cool-breeze, Coalition-Viceroy was more than allowed to screw-the-pooch from the Green Zone-- While Rumsfeld's narrow field of vision was completely occupied by micro-management and the stubborn two-year refusal to admit an insurgency even existed, 3 million Iraqi souls incarnated as refugees, two million of which fled the country-- Three million pilgrims whose Hearts and Minds poor frustrated Petraeus had fat chance of ever pimping over to the Project for a New American Century-- Always a day late and a dollar shy but still chucking good money after bad to the tune of $10 billion per month--



Mr. Bush, as reported on Time.com earlier in the week, was suddenly considering a dramatic 50% troop cut sometime in early '08, but forceful denial from the White House spin-crew nipped that unwelcome tidbit in the bud only to later re-re-adjust their message to refer to a possible operational substitution from combat personnel to troop-trainers for the woeful Iraqi Army which, also earlier in the week, confessed to actually planning, in conjunction with Iraqi political leaders, for worst case scenarios involving sudden immediate withdrawal of American forces from Iraq proper-- Is it safe to say mis-communication rules the day both in and out of the White House??-- Is the Iraqi Army privy to any of the plans??-- Rumors run amok mirroring the metastisizing vacuum--



Pushing PM Maliki for "tangible results quickly" on the Oil Bill may be the last card to play in Iraq and conceivably could end up as the last failed milestone but Bush still has a card or two up his sleeve-- Reports of a huge rift between good-cop Bush and bad-cop Cheney playing out over Iran contributed to the fevered angst enveloping the region as US Naval Forces exercised formidable battle formations in an awesome array off the coast of Iran, un-nerving most neighbors, particularly Afghanastan-- Hot conflict could be only a matter of days away should Cheney's National Security crew dominate or subvert the Pentagon/Intelligence crew advocating for Sec State Rice's team-- Bush the weakened Decider, fresh from bludgeoning the even weaker demie congress mid-week, sits inside the Crucible between these testy opponents--

Cheney, of course, has a card up his sleeve, the ever-present purchasing power of AIPAC and the VP's ever amiable proclivity to collude in criminal adventures with Ehud Olmert and the Israeli ADF-- Last week was Cheney's turn, on station in the Gulf, to strut and fret his hour upon the air-craft carrier certainly talking tough about not only the last but also the only mission remotely available for his wanting sense of accomplishment-- Add, also, to this roiled mix the Three-Star War Czar who is mandated to co-ordinate the disparate elements of this vivid jumbo-cluster coming to a live theater near you this Memorial Day--

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BACKING DOWN

Once more, the demies have have thrown in the towel on the Iraq funding bill-- Once more, the most weakened major political leader in the entire world subtracting Anthony (Poodle)Blair busy publicizing himself rock-star style with a farewell resignation-tour, and, of course, the ever irresponsible Ehud (3%) Olmert and possibly, according to recent open-source intel out of Pakistan, the popularity-challenged Pervez Musharrif, Mr. Bush has manage to cower the less than laughing-stock demies into abject surrender with a veto threat leaving no datelines for troop pullout in the immediate offing-- That a man incapable of whipping the Euro-liberals at the World Bank decimates these demies with such remarkable ease is strange testimony to the power vacuum enveloping the entire DC echelon--


Forty-seven Republicans, one independent and 19 Democrats voted with Jimmy Carter's favorite Prez, none of whom on the nominal demie's side were presidential candidates but chairman of the Armed Services Committee, the Israeli Senator from Michigan, Carl Levin kept the faith with his AIPAC handlers siding with the Lieberman ilk-- Harry Reid had the unmitigated temerity to denounce the Republican plan as weak and timid-- Non-binding demie cowardice hard at work-- No wonder positive congessional poll numbers of late have sunk like a stone--

Meanwhile fifteen more American troops had their young lives snuffed out over the weekend last-- The Sunni insurgents continue their Surge options more effectively than most American officials willingly admit-- Hundreds of bystanders have recently been slaughtered by insurgent car bomb attacks plied with increasingly sophisticated technique and for all intents and purposes a relative impunity that openly mocks the Bush security plans-- Iraqi security forces manning evermore checkpoints reportedly stop certain vehicles and beg for more bullets--


Market bombs which killed 140 people have an illustrious tendency to force reports detailing incessant mortar attacks against important targets such as The Green Zone or the Airport off the home pages of most news sites-- Few politicians see any hope of building a name for themselves invoking lines of cautious optimism once so prevalent at the Surge's initial foray into the slums of Baghdad-- How long can Moqtada Sadr order his militia to stand down while under-manned under-armored American forces fail to prevent ongoing Sunni butchery??-- The facts on the ground speak way beyond the charade of political dogma so rife in DC and they do not currently bode success much less chosen Victory-- How many months into the Surge so far??-- A Colonel struggles with the double-bladed logistics of faux optimism and reminds everyone the Surge is not yet 'fully-staffed'-- Well,........ Why not??--


The air of futility, the demies' maladroit skill engenders to display in broad daylight, reverberates across the dispirited country mirrored by the cloud of exhaustion and acute despair permeating the disintegration of Iraq-- Not just a country at singular civil war but one enduring multiple civil wars locally, regionally, and in some cases, inter-tribally-- The Iraqi government, strangely enough being supported by both Iran and the US, is increasingly irrelevant across much of its own terrain-- No government earns legitimacy by failing to deliver security and services-- The Iraqi government lacks real authority and it is incapable of serving its own people-- The canard that chaos will overrun the country should we pull-out belies the intense pervasive chaos and lack of structural, political and social cohesion manifesting already-- Accepting extant reality doesn't appear to be an option--

PRETENSE NO LONGER SERVES TO FURTHER

John McCain's stroll through one of Baghdad's successfully surged neighborhood markets wearing a visible bullet proof vest and a look of focused concern is either a disingenuous campaign promotional photo-op designed to burnish his pro-surge bona-fides or a feeble exercise in self-delusional idiocy or more than likely some of both-- To the right of the command coterie in the news photograph are a group of Iraqi men watching the US officials on parade two of whom exhibit countenances closer to pure hatred than Chamber of Commerce welcome wagons--

Locals later claimed the area was teeming with dozens of armed US soldiers who arrived in heavily armored Humvees while numerous gunship helicopters hovered and circled overhead-- Locals later disputed a statement from McCain's group that the stroll was no different than a Sunday trip to an outdoor market somewhere in Indiana citing the constant threats of possible insurgent attacks at any time-- People may now wear bullet proof vests to Sunday markets in New Orleans but.........Indiana????-- Not yet, by a long shot!!!!--

The Surge may have shifted execution style killings away from Sadr City and other violent Baghdad neighborhoods but the number of killings country-wide have not diminished and lethal car bomb explosions everywhere have multiplied to record highs in both February and March-- The Sadr Shiites are not going to battle US soldiers toe to toe in a decisive formation they know in advance would fail-- The Shia have more than a healthy fear of the desperate Sunnis and if the US is unwittingly willing to take the fight to those Sunni insurgents on their behalf, the Sadr Militia is more than willing to allow it-- Hence, it is certainly not surprising the Shia, knowing full well Father Time is still currently on their side, would lie low and not openly challenge the US surge into their territory-- If McCain and his ilk read this superior position as a sign of weakness on the part of the Shia or as a sign of imminent full scale success on the part of the Surge chances for a sane conclusion to this fatal mis-adventure offer absolutely no hope--

Never say Die!!! is most often a commendable attitude but if it burnishes the sagging morale of abject congressional dimwits and oblivious has-been Neocon tank-thinkers while executing the destruction of an entire Army through imperial dissipation, bankrupt sloganeering and willful politcal refusal to cogitate harsh facts on the ground, what will it ultimately have wrought??-- Myopic security concerns of a piecemeal nature this late in the game have counterproductivity written all over it--Is Baghdad security so important that other areas are allowed such negligent security support they become cauldrons of everything the surge attempts to prevent in Sadr City-- Bloodletting mestastasizes as Baghdad becomes an island of temporary restive calm surrounded by an ocean of seething shrieking violence elsewhere??-- Who but posturing politicians could label this success??-- Wake up, Mr. McCain!!!!!--

Had the skillful intelligent Petreaus been in charge of the CPA at the beginning instead of Bremer his asymmetrical expertise may have been used to optimum effect but at this late stage he still obviously doesn't have the manpower to police the entire country all at once, nor are there troops enough here at home or around the world to fill this aching bleeding void-- The hearts and minds lost at the outset and during the ongoing torturous years Rummy and Company devoted to denial first of insurgency and later of outright civil/sectarian conflict won't give Petraeus the full scale second chance his plan would need-- Over a million, some say two, talented Iraqi civilians have opted for refugeedom and have left the arena-- Lost time is not found again-- Even as the Sadr militia melts away rampaging Sunni car bombers fearlessly ply their deadly attacks in the vacuum-- Wherever American Officials pronounce even minor success insurgent attacks pounce to dispel it as false and the Middle Eastern media are there in force to disseminate the continuing flaming chaos and its ugly truth-- The tempo and terrain belong to the natives everywhere but the Greed Zone--At the precipice of defeat pretense no longer serves to further---