How can he sleep at night?

It is beyond my imagination how George W. Bush can sleep at night. His mega debacle in Iraq has caused the death of 3,455 US troops since he began his war. The number of Iraqi deaths has to be in the hundreds of thousands.

The lowest numbers for Iraqis killed by Bush's war come from Iraq Body Count, which counts a death only if it has been listed in at least two public reports; they claim between 64,351 and 70,49 deaths. The highest numbers come from last year's Johns Hopkins/Lancet study; they claim over 655,000 deaths. In looking at the low count, one has to ask how many deaths have gone unreported because bodies were vaporized in attacks like Shock And Awe and the pulverizing of Fallujah. One also has to ask how many deaths were not reported by the two million Iraqis who have fled to Syria and Jordan and beyond or by the two million Iraqis displaced within their own country.

Everyone with eyes at least ten percent open has long known about the Bush cabal's WMD lies and their endless attempts to construct a Saddam connection to Al Qaeda and 9/11. (Now the evidence is on the table that Bush's own National Intelligence Council told him in January 2003--two months before he attacked Iraq--what would result from attacking that country, namely that Al Qaeda would THEN join Saddam's gunmen and militant Islamists to conduct terrorist attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq.)

So the status quo is 147,000 US troops stuck in the midst of a vicious sectarian civil war in an Iraq that is really three countries (with one of them, Kurdistan, flying its own flag), a torture-justifying Attorney General holding on to an office tainted to its core, a billion US dollars going up in smoke every four days, and too many Democrats in Congress looking for (or not looking for) a lost spine.

76% of Americans say this war/occupation is going badly. If this means the other 24% (about 54 million adults) believe it is going well, we are in a state far beyond sad. However nothing should be surprising when polls suggest that about fifty percent of Americans do not believe in evolution (see Sunday's Washington Post). On a flat earth, visibility approaches zero.

The wimps cave in

I just read this CNN headline: "Democrats pull troop deadline from Iraq bill."

For over three months, they did not give in. But this morning the Democrats of craven bent have kowtowed to His Majesty The Decider, because he keeps shouting that Democrats who are against his insanely immoral war and occupation do not support the troops.

On top of this cave-in, the wimps--the nicest word I can come up with at the moment--plan to "pledge to renew their fight this summer by seeking to attach timetables to subsequent war financing measures." Oh yes, "pledge" and "seeking" and "subsequent."

What is the superlative form for "wimps?"

Democrats, starting with Harry Reid, could have pushed hard and constantly to remind the American people that the best way to support the troops is to bring them home. Instead they are wimping out. And that is colossally pathetic.

After 500 years of oppression

Speaking to a continent-wide meeting of bishops in Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI said the Church had not forced itself upon the native people of the Americas. He said, "In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture."

It is absolutely beyond my comprehension how he said this. Spain tried to justify the Conquest--from Columbus on--by claiming it was bringing eternal salvation to the "heathens." At that time, Catholic universities in Europe were teaching that Indians were natural slaves. (They based their teaching on Aristotle in the 4th century B.C.E.) The heathens had to be subdued so they could be saved, and in the process countless Indians died while mining gold and silver that would adorn not just the mansions of Europe but also its cathedrals and shrines.

Indeed, many church leaders railed against this born-to-slavery teaching and the atrocities of the Conquistadores, most notably the Dominican bishop Bartolomé de Las Casas, who spent a half century on both sides of the Atlantic defending the Indians. Among his voluminous writings were the long "Account of the Holocaust of the Indies" and "Sixteen Remedies for the Pestilences Destroying the Indies." At one point, he wrote to The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V that if the conversion of Indians to Christianity "could not take place without their death and destruction as has happened till now," it would be better "for them never to become Christians."

500 years later, today's liberation theologians have to continue to cry out for historical honesty and justice for native peoples.

About my skunk language

My recent reference to members of the Bush cabal as skunks would not, I think, sit well with the average Bible-reading Christian. For one thing, it seems to fly in the face of Jesus' challenge for us to love our enemy. But that same Jesus--it's in chapter 13 of Luke's gospel--called King Herod "that fox." I think one can simultaneously love and reach out to one's enemy and still call a fox a fox--or a skunk a skunk

In the meantime, there is an abundance of very strong language in the Bible that fits these past four years of the cabal's invasion, bombing (don't forget Fallujah) and occupation--and the ensuing 3,387 US troop deaths. I could sit here and type quotes literally all night, but here are just a few examples:

The prophet Isaiah (in chapter 3): "What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?"

The prophet Micah (in chapter 3): "Is it not for you to know justice...you who tear the skin from off my people, and their flesh from off their bones?"

The prophet Amos (in chapter 5): "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies."

Jesus (in chapter 6 of Matthew's gospel): "You can't be enslaved to both God and wealth." (read "God and oil profits.")

Seeing Iraq beneath the fog

Most Americans, like most of the rest of the world, know about the Bush cabal's crriminal duplicity in attacking and occupying Iraq. But most Americans still harbor lots of misconceptions about that devastated land. They would understand a lot more if the major media spent less time droning on about drunk celebrities and more time interviewing people who know the real score. (For example, Fawaz Gerges, or MIr Rosin, or Rajiv Chandrasakaran--who has pulled the veil off of Baghdad's "Emerald City," the fairyland Green Zone set up to be run by Bush loyalists, no matter what their talents or lack of same.)

Here are a few of the less known facts:

* Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, does not represent a united Iraq. He was the deputy leader of the De-Baathification Commission of the Iraqi Interim Government. That commission purged Baathists from the military and government, a leading reason for the present mess. Maliki continues to purge Sunnis,

* Iraq is becoming a land ruled by warlords. (One has to ask if these warlords will come to control Iraq's oil.)

* Iraq's Al-Qaeda is a local phenomenon, not an integral part of Bin Ladin's wide network.

* Fallajuh had long been a calm city. US forces destroyed it. Once again, the Bush program alienated moderate Muslims and spawned new terrorists. (By the way, some 70% of one billion Muslims worldwide see the US occupation of Iraq as a Crusade.)

* Bush's "surge" is only fanning the flames. Withdrawal of US troops does not have to bring about total chaos. An orderly withdrawal (Gerges emphasizes "orderly") could begin right now, and a wide agreement could bring in neutral Muslim forces as US forces departed .

Bush's fourth anniversary

In less than an hour, today's brutal anniversary will have passed--four bloody years since George W. Bush's slickly choreographed, color-coordinated extravaganza was staged on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln off San Diego. The Navy Viking made two fly-bys for the cameras before landing, and then The Decider, decked out in his flight suit, did his grand entrance.

A quick change into a regular suit and tie and there he was, posing in all his glory under that huge banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished."

Oh yes.

And since that sad, gimmicky circus wrapped up, 3,213 American troops have been killed in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed. Two million Iraqis have fled to Jordan, Syria and beyond, and another two million are displaced in their own country. The civil war rages, while the dollar cost for the US is heading for a half trillion.

The Senate and House of Representatives have voted to turn the tide and start bringing the troops home, but on this very day, the emperor stubbornly wielded his veto. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson said it well: "Being stubborn is not foreign policy."

Clearly now for all to see, the emperor has no flight suit.