Some Lie. Others Define a Solution.

[tw]

Very long because it cites reports from Charlie Rose, Nightline, Washington Post and too many other responsible news sources. News reported without administration spin.

A study just delivered to the White House and reported in the Washington Post on 2 Oct page A16 notes

... the Bush administration is doing a poor job of influencing Muslim and Arab public opinion, an administration advisory group said yesterday in calling for fundamental changes in the U.S. public diplomacy program.

Others say "a sharper message will mean little unless administration policy changes on essential issues, notably the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A great majority of Muslims and Arabs say the Bush administration favors Israel to a fault and are troubled by the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq."
How bad has America popularity fallen due to George Jr?

Fifteen percent of people in Indonesia, the country with the largest number of Muslims, have a favorable view of the United States, compared with 61 percent early last year, the report said. Elsewhere, only 7 percent of Saudis and 3 percent of Spaniards hold a "very favorable" view of the United States.

And Spain is suppose to be a strongest supporter of George Jr's "War on Terrorism". Exactly what happens when lying by a US administration becomes normal (as Nixon demontrated 30 years ago). Suddenly the extremists rally around their (lying) leader as world opinion plummets.

Get outside of administration spin to discover poor and dropping American credibility everywhere internationally.

Now that the 'official' war is considered over, American retired military commanders are returning to criticism of this administration's self serving political agenda that is getting us deeper into the hole. Retired military personel note no exit strategy, no strategic objective, no comprehensive plan to solve the problem, and a pig-headed attitude that even keeps American allies from providing assistance.

Charlie Rose rearraigned his schedule this week because Jessica Mathews of the Carnigie Endowment for International Peace just returned from Iraq with stunningly bad news about what we are doing in Iraq. An entire show dedicated to what she and Jeffry Sacks (of Columbia U) had to say.

Look. No one can win a war against politically inspired violence. It is not happening now that Sharon restarted the intafada. It did not happen in Somolia. It is not happening in Chechnya. It could not happen in VietNam. It did not happen in Algeria. Until reasons for political violence are removed, then an organized military response is doomed to failure. History says that repeatedly and too often. And yet George Jr would fight Iraqi politically inspired violence in some mythical belief that "god is on our side" or that "we are righteous".

Did we not learn from VietNam? Did we not learn from WWII? How to get Germany restarted? Put the Nazis into positions where they can get the country working again. Then Germany recovered. But in Iraq, we removed everyone who had any Baath party relations. That means we fired all teachers. We destroyed all forces for law and order - army and police alike. We fired anyone who could get the electricity turned on. Then when widespread violence and looting occurred, our glorious leaders denied it was happening. They still deny that Baghdad museums were looted even though 10,000 items remain missing include 29 irreplaceable artifacts. Remove administration spin. Irrecoverable damage was done to Iraqi museums because the military did not have enough people or people properly trained to stop the violence - due to direct orders from Rumsfeld who refused to listen to knowledgeable military personel.

No wonder all this violence did not happen. If the administration admitted it was happening, then they would have to admit they did not listen to those who know how to get the work done. Rumsfeld admit he was wrong?

BTW, Billy Kristol of the New Republic (a major right wing Republican insider) openly says he believes Rumsfeld handled this post war occupation quite badly. Maybe a message from the conservative camp that Rumsfeld's days are numbers. Kristol was only restating the obvious.

American leadership is in outright denial just as we were in the days of Henry Cabot Lodge and Gen William Westmoreland - when another war was fought due to administration lies and without any exit strategy. When we fought a war against politically inspired violence.

Some Americans have news sources so myopic as to only hear administration rhetoric. Fact remains that Iraq will not support law and order IF the country is not run by its own governmenet; by Iraqis. Jessica Mathews kept making the same point. For some reason, top administration officials (all with extensive oil industry background) will not permit a provisional Iraqi government. Apparently this short sighted decision was made before the Iraqi invasion started. And they still don't get it. She says what so many are saying. Outside of Baghdad, Iraq is in chaos where a local government does not exist. Others note the only place with any law and order is where the Kurds kept Saddam out and maintained their own government - a democratically elected one.

Mathews makes another important point. We have a centralized bureacracy in Baghdad (Bremmer) who has no idea what is happening in the provinces, has no staff in those regional capitals, and it totally dependent on military people, untrained in that task, to perform civilian functions. Too many others who have been to Iraq - in the field - are saying the same thing. A centralize bureaucracy that is out of touch with the countryside AND may have no real plan to build an Iraqi government. Instead, all is being done without any Iraqi representations or input. Only a puppet government exists. No wonder even the electricity could not be restored. Those who made the electricty work were Baath party members - and therefore could not be trusted? Too much politics from Washington rather than pragmatic solutions.

The naiviety goes farther. Somehow we have an administration that is short of man and materials in the field (as many as half the Bradleys are down due to shortage of spare parts), desparately needs international troops and support, demands international money, but refuses to concede control or planning to anyone in exchange for that assistance. This George Jr administration must be fools to think anyone will offer troops or support without massive US concessions. But that is exactly what George Jr is demanding. Just another point made by both Jessica Mathews and Jeffry Sacks. And yet the US needs that option to get out. We don't have the troops necessary to cover troop rotations beyond March. But even Pres Anzar of Spain refuses to provide assistance and blunty says why. George Jr is not listening. He has this political agenda; reality be damned.

In addition to the $87 billion is another request for $55 billion. All for a nation that was not going to cost America anything because oil was going to pay for it all. Just another lie? Sounds like that Senator was correct when he put the real figure at about $419 billion. That would be more money for Iraq than the entire annual Defense Dept budget! Let's not loose perspective of how much Iraq is taking out of America - its jobs, infrastructure, education, etc. We are currently spending $350,000 per soldier per year to "liberate" a nation that did not want to be liberated, is not even permitted to start building a government, that was suppose to be able to pay for its own rebuilding, that needs more American money than all the countries of Africa combined, AND that is not able to export oil because of repeated oil pipeline attacks. A nation so entrenched with politically inspired violence and embedded with munitions that the quagmire will continue for years.

[continued in next post]