Cheney's gargantuan delusion

Two weeks ago today, VP Cheney told Fox TV's Chris Wallace: “If you look at what’s transpired in Iraq, Chris, we’ve made enormous progress.” Well, here is today's "enormous progress": at least seven Iraqi children killed at school, new fighting at the holy city of Najaf (where a US helicopter has been shot down), 54 unidentified bodies discovered in and around Baghdad.

Here is Cheney's overall "enormous progress" to date:
*3,075 dead American troops
*Officially 23,114 wounded American troops, but up to 100,000 estimated
*Hundreds of thousands, possibly over 600,000, dead Iraqis
*1.6 million Iraqis displaced in their own country. (UN)
* Almost 2 million Iraqis now refugees outside of Iraq (UN)
*The Iraqi police and army infiltrated by sectarian militiamen
*40% of Iraqis without work
*Water, sewer and electric service a shambles

Senator Dick Durbin hit the nail on the head: ""To have Vice President Cheney suggest that we have had a series of enormous successes in Iraq is delusional,"

Yesterday Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher compared Cheney to "another... war spokesman, Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, better known as 'Baghdad Bob.'" Remember him? That guy's delusion was sad comedy. Cheney's delusion is sheer madness.

A slight change in nomenclature

The Decider has changed his name -- slightly. He now calls himself The Decision Maker. Maybe he now also merits being called The Definition Maker. This is because we have never before had a Decision Maker reigning in the White House who could be defined as one who makes devastating and deadly decisions against the will of the majority of the American people, the majority of Congress, lots of conservative Republicans, highly respected generals, and just about everybody who thoughtfully watches the news on television (unless they only watch Fox News.)

It is time to recall the definition of megalomania: "obsession with the exercise of power, especially in the domination of others."
(Tonight on MSNBC's Countdown, Richard Wolffe informed us that The Decision Maker even has the presidential seal on his mountain bike.)

It is also time to set the wheels of impeachment turning.

Webb's response to Bush

I'll make an exception tonight and forego any comments of my own. The following is part of Virginia Senator Jim Webb's rather brief response to Bush's long State of the Union speech:

"The president took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs.

"We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable - and predicted - disarray that has followed. The war's costs to our nation have been staggering. Financially. The damage to our reputation around the world. The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism. And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.

"The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq."

Oh come on, Maliki

What next from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki? He is overseeing a Shiite takeover of the non-Kurdish two-thirds of that non-country called Iraq. (The Kurds say "Kurdistan" and fly not the Iraqi flag but their own Kurdish flag.) And now Maliki has come up with this ziinger: he wants the US -- currently spending a billion dollars every four days on the Bush war and occupation -- to provide a lot more equipment. Then, he says, "I think that within three to six months our need for American troops will go down dramatically." (Uh huh, and that crunch you hear is hell freezing over.)

So let's see now. The Iraqi military has been infiltrated by Shiite militia members. The police are even more infiltrated by same militia members. So we should further arm these guys so that they can continue to stoke the civil war. And once they have hit the Sunnis so hard that the Saudis jump into the ring, we will have reached total chaos.

George W. Bush has dug a colossasl pit with no good exit. George McGovern at least has a sensible exit: Get out within the next six months, starting now.

The crux in four sentences

Sometimes someone can put the crux of the matter into a small nutshell -- the matter here being The Decider's desperate 20,000 troop "surge" in Iraq. Today Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times did just that with these four sentences:

"Once again the White House is seeking military solutions that are likely to rebound and hurt us. Sending more young Americans into that maelstrom may well have three consequences: inflaming Iraqi nationalism, bolstering Shiite and Sunni extremists alike, and killing more young Americans.

"A U.S. military study in 1999, recently declassified and in the National Security Archive, concluded that even 400,000 American troops might not be able to stabilize a post-Saddam Iraq. The study emphasized the importance of diplomacy to engage Iraq’s neighbors."

I only wish that Kristof had said "WILL rebound and hurt us" and "WILL have three consequences." Because the writing is already on the wall.

Plan Bush - ditto, ditto, ditto

Well, I caught the Decider's speech on the re-run tonight. He did look at bit humbled, even admitting - gasp! - that mistakes have been made in Iraq. But under it all, the core remains - stubbornness clearly continues to rule. So the man is going to send 20,000 more troops to join the present 132,000 US troops there. That obviously makes 152,000. Back in June, 2004, he had 140,000 US troops there and the situation just got worse. So, in effect, the Decider-in-Chief thinks he will make a real difference now in this bloody Sunni-Shia civil war by adding 12,000 more troops than there were in June '04. Almost nobody, including a growing number of Republican senators, thinks this is going to work. Many analysts believe that it will make things worse, providing more targets to the insurgents. (By the way, to put the 20,000-troop surge into perspective, one commentator points out that New York city has 37,000 police officers.)

Bush also rattled his sword at Iran and Syria, just at the time when every attempt at dialogue is urgent. Just how much damage can one Decider do in a day?

He's gonna do it

Just about everyone seems to be convinced that King George's speech to the kingdom tomorrow night will proclaim a new "surge" of troops being sent to occupied and civil-war-torn Iraq.

Can anyone even imagine a more stubborn president? (Can anyone even imagine a more stubborn human being?)

Is he simply afraid to admit defeat? Or is he stalling so that he can just dump his mess in the lap of the next president?

The majority of the country just voted in November against this gargantuan Bush debacle that is now turning into a clone of Vietnam. A poll released today says that support for his handling of Iraq now stands at 28%. But the Decider is also a Surger.

In a saner world, he would be impeached tomorrow.

King George the Mad

Clearly King George has gone over the edge. Again. Mad in his lust for power (or maybe just plain nuts), he now has slapped the people of these United States with a "signing statement" that allows him to open anybody's mail. As usual, he cites his generic "war on terror." But in the suspected case of a potential terrorist act, he of course could have a search warrant in his hand in the blink of an eye. This delusional man apparently cannot envision himself outside the role of a medieval monarch. Why in the name of all that is sane cannot the courts or the Congress put the brakes on this unitary megalomaniac?

It is widely proclaimed in the capital city that impeachment is out of the question. It should not have been out of the question when His Majesty launched his illegal, immoral, horrific Iraq war almost four years ago. It should be of the utmost urgency now. before he can send 20,000 or 30,000 more troops into the deadly valley of a barbarous civil war.