Wow, what a week - Bush's speech was the big story but if you blinked you might miss important other news, some of it with a bearing on the Mikado's speech or his Lord High Executioners insistence that the US should keep its torture options open.
For instance, commenter Niniane drew my attention to this report from my home country's Glasgow Sunday Herald - a crossparty attempt to to force the Commons to set up a Privy Council investigation that would examine in detail the case for impeachment against Blair is expected to get at least 200 signatures, including former cabinet ministers.
Since Blair and Bush were essentialy singing from the same rap sheet of "fixed" intelligence, impeachment proceedings against Blair would surely increase pressure for the same against Bush.
Kevin Drum points out that "no Congress has declared war for the past 60 years. They've passed resolutions, they've passed authorizations, and they've passed budget authorities, but they haven't declared war." Kevin says that this makes a mockery of the Constitution, gives a President a blank check that won't be called by a Congress afraid of how they would look to the public and "allows Congress to evade its own responsibility for war." Yup.
Bloomberg editor Margaret Carlson points up the double-speak of Mikado George over Bill Clinton.
George W. Bush links with, and delinks from, Bill Clinton at will. While he often uses him as a benchmark for what a president shouldn't be, Bush also pulls Clinton out of the closet to clean up messes...Bush's latest and most curious use of Clinton is to cite his words as proof of the administration's reasonableness in going to war.
And says to George "You're no Bill Clinton".
Bush's new reconstruction chief, flying in the face of Inspector General and Government Accountability Office reports of mis-management, corruption, graft and profit-gouging, tells Iraqis that their "perceptions that not enough is being done to rebuild the country after the U.S.-led invasion are simply a case of bad public relations." If a Bush official told me the sky was blue, I would go outside to check.
John McCain wants America to commit to more time, more money and far more troops in Iraq - all to work from a change in strategy based on Krepinevich's "ink-spot" plan. McCain says "Success or failure in Iraq is the transcendent issue for our foreign policy and our national security, for now and years to come" and that U.S. withdrawal without fixing what it broke would be a disaster for America. Perhaps Senator McCain could have said all this before the invasion? Too little, too late, Senator. You're right it's a disaster for America, for all the reasons you state, but it is now an inevitable disaster - time to salvage what little can be salvaged of American and Iraqi interests and withdraw - Bush has destroyed American foreign policy for a generation or more.
One of the problems no-one is talking about in Iraq is that the Iraqi military couldn't defend against an invasion by three grannies on pushbikes. They have exactly 77 refurbished Soviet-era tanks, T-72's , donated by Hungary. That's pretty much their entire armored contingent - and it's based around vehicles that modern tanks and troop-launched missiles go through like a hot knife through butter. Come to think of it, the latest IED's used by the insurgency would too - U.S. troops have only managed what limited success they have had so far by relying heavily on state-of-the-art armored vehicles like the Abrams tank and Stryker personnel carrier. Even the tiny UAE has more military oomph than Iraq. Likely enemy Syria has over 1,700 T-72 tanks and Iran has 1,600 main battle tanks including around 100 of the home-produced "Zulfiqar" which may well be comparable to the U.S. Abrams. Let's not even talk about Iraq's chances in the air - the air force is non-existant.
The truth is that the U.S. and it's allies have given Iraqis the equipment to wage civil war on their compatriots but nowhere near enough to defend against external aggression or an active insurgency without U.S. help. The question should, must, be asked - was this state of affairs another example of piss-poor planning or deliberate policy?
Italian prosecutors have requested the extradition of 22 suspected CIA agents over the kidnapping of a terrorism suspect who was grabbed off a street in 2003 and taken abroad, a senior judicial source said Friday. Yeah right, like that's going to happen. This kind of stuff is exactly why the Mikado didn't want to sign on to the World Court. He regards it as his perogative to decide what justice is - and justice is what happens to other people.
Finally, from the New York Times comes the news that, having cried "wolf" so hugely over Iraqi WMD's, the Bush administration is having a hard time selling other nation's on their story about Iran's nuclear plans. The central piece of their evidence is a laptop computer filled with what they say is detail on Iraqi secret projects - but they won't say where they got the computer from and have no corroberation for what they say the computer contained.
I smell a Chalabi.
As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
I've got a little list--I've got a little list,
Of society offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed--who never would be missed!
From "The Mikado" by Gilbert & Sullivan
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