The New US Secretary of Defense: A Man with No Legs
Hah! Not even two weeks after my December 5th blog, and my predictions have come true!!! Robert Gates appointment by Bush to the US Secretary of Defense position is now revealed for what it truly is and shows who is really running the war in Iraq. Robert Gates, as we all know, is one of the esteemed members of the brainy Iraq Study Group. We and he have now seen this once much-hyped report, in which he played an important role, vaporize faster from the political landscape in Washington DC than a snow flake on a hot day in hell. So what does this mean for the credibility of the new Secretary of Defense and what kind of clout he is going to have in the declining years of the "W. Administration". Well, I would say it is obvious........"Nothing". As I predicted back in early December, the joy of the Democrats and the public in seeing someone who appeared to be rational and open minded and have a pragmatic and new view of what is taking place on the world stage, was misguided because this appointment was all about "looks" and had nothing to do with substance. "Yes", the Democrats and the American public got the pleasure of seeing Rumsfeld kicked out of office and "yes" they got the pleasure of seeing someone they thought would be honest with them about the war effort, and "yes" they thought they were actually going to get someone who would look at the Iraq debacle with "fresh eyes" as the Bush Administration put it; but what they didn't realize is that without any clout at the roundtable Gates is nothing but a showhorse and will have absolutely no influence or impact on anything. As I predicted, he will be relegated to "puppet status" and, if he is not smart enough to "get out while the getting's good" will no doubt suffer the "Colin Powell syndrome" where a very smart and well meaning guy and his stellar reputation are used as toilet paper to wipe the butts of misguided and illegal policies decreed by Dick Cheney, the smarter and more powerful of the dynamic duo working in the White House.
How do I know this? Well, just take a look,only someone on the street smoking crack could miss this. What is the big talk going on with regard to revising our strategy in Iraq now. Does it include any kind of troop withdrawal? "NO!" In fact the word on the street is that troop levels will be increased! What a joke! This is a meaningless gesture to show the world that the US WILL NOT BE DEFEATED by some pipsqueak bunch of dirty rebels. Tell me, what terrorist or other human being on the planet, for that matter, is actually going to believe this? How reminiscent of the Viet Nam days when the answer, when even in the face of total chaos and obvious defeat was evident to all......was to throw more young men into the meat grinder. The only people who believe this strategy for Iraq are Dick Cheney, the punitive industrialist and ultimate "cold warrior" that Eisenhower warned us about, John McCain, a now discredited bootlicking Bush Syncophant who once had an independent mind, and George Bush, a petulant non-thinker and knee jerker who does not read or understand history. Listen, the British in colonial days had 400,000 men stationed in the area and they couldn't keep things from spinning out of control. What impact would an additional 25,000 US troops mean or even another 50,000 troops? And let me ask you....where are these troops going to come from? All you Iraq war supporters out there, I can tell you. Better get ready to have your sons drafted and thrown into the meat grinder because that is the only place they CAN come from. And if you are a person of low income, those kids will disproportionately come from the kids in your ranks, in your schools, and in your homes.
Will there be any regional dialogs with other countries in the Middle East? Well, maybe the powerless ones, but not the ones who are the perpetrators and financiers (meaning Syria and Iran) of much of the trouble in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. So much, for the administrations "fresh look" at the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East. So what is Gates going to do now that everything he stands for and that is in the Iraq Study Group report has been completely repudiated by the Bush Administration? Well as I predicted, and as I predict today, the next two years will be ones of lots of meetings in the Pentagon with top brass, lots of studies of troop strength and equipment, lots of visits to army bases, very little visibility by the new Secretary because he will be soooooooooo busy (doing what? well doing nothing, because a showhorse is not hired for his speed or intelligence, he his hired as window dressing and no one wants the window dressing to do or say anything that might distract from the clothes it is wearing). If there are any press conferences with the Secretary, I would be surprised because what is he going to say? The first questions will be why are none of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group being considered.....and what can he say to that!
Ultimately, this war is a Cheney/Bush initiative and the Secretary of Defense has no place in it because Cheney is the true Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of State, and the President of the United States all rolled into one. Genius that he is, Dick Cheney, by taking the puppeteers role behind his dummy Charlie McCarthy Bush, has all the power and none of the ignominy that will disgrace Bush in his legacy. Cheney will just fade into history as another vice president....and who cares about those. Bush will, however, be tarred for his stupidity, arrogance, fascism, his willful elimination of crucial American rights and ideals, and corruption, much of which can be laid directly at the feet of Dick Cheney. Both Gates and Bush are simply puppets and the sooner elections come and sanity can be restored to America, the better. I just hope we can hold out and sustain no more significant damage....but two years is a long time for a Machiavellian thinker like Dick Cheney; and I have to say, I am not terribly optimistic about our chances.
How do I know this? Well, just take a look,only someone on the street smoking crack could miss this. What is the big talk going on with regard to revising our strategy in Iraq now. Does it include any kind of troop withdrawal? "NO!" In fact the word on the street is that troop levels will be increased! What a joke! This is a meaningless gesture to show the world that the US WILL NOT BE DEFEATED by some pipsqueak bunch of dirty rebels. Tell me, what terrorist or other human being on the planet, for that matter, is actually going to believe this? How reminiscent of the Viet Nam days when the answer, when even in the face of total chaos and obvious defeat was evident to all......was to throw more young men into the meat grinder. The only people who believe this strategy for Iraq are Dick Cheney, the punitive industrialist and ultimate "cold warrior" that Eisenhower warned us about, John McCain, a now discredited bootlicking Bush Syncophant who once had an independent mind, and George Bush, a petulant non-thinker and knee jerker who does not read or understand history. Listen, the British in colonial days had 400,000 men stationed in the area and they couldn't keep things from spinning out of control. What impact would an additional 25,000 US troops mean or even another 50,000 troops? And let me ask you....where are these troops going to come from? All you Iraq war supporters out there, I can tell you. Better get ready to have your sons drafted and thrown into the meat grinder because that is the only place they CAN come from. And if you are a person of low income, those kids will disproportionately come from the kids in your ranks, in your schools, and in your homes.
Will there be any regional dialogs with other countries in the Middle East? Well, maybe the powerless ones, but not the ones who are the perpetrators and financiers (meaning Syria and Iran) of much of the trouble in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. So much, for the administrations "fresh look" at the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East. So what is Gates going to do now that everything he stands for and that is in the Iraq Study Group report has been completely repudiated by the Bush Administration? Well as I predicted, and as I predict today, the next two years will be ones of lots of meetings in the Pentagon with top brass, lots of studies of troop strength and equipment, lots of visits to army bases, very little visibility by the new Secretary because he will be soooooooooo busy (doing what? well doing nothing, because a showhorse is not hired for his speed or intelligence, he his hired as window dressing and no one wants the window dressing to do or say anything that might distract from the clothes it is wearing). If there are any press conferences with the Secretary, I would be surprised because what is he going to say? The first questions will be why are none of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group being considered.....and what can he say to that!
Ultimately, this war is a Cheney/Bush initiative and the Secretary of Defense has no place in it because Cheney is the true Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of State, and the President of the United States all rolled into one. Genius that he is, Dick Cheney, by taking the puppeteers role behind his dummy Charlie McCarthy Bush, has all the power and none of the ignominy that will disgrace Bush in his legacy. Cheney will just fade into history as another vice president....and who cares about those. Bush will, however, be tarred for his stupidity, arrogance, fascism, his willful elimination of crucial American rights and ideals, and corruption, much of which can be laid directly at the feet of Dick Cheney. Both Gates and Bush are simply puppets and the sooner elections come and sanity can be restored to America, the better. I just hope we can hold out and sustain no more significant damage....but two years is a long time for a Machiavellian thinker like Dick Cheney; and I have to say, I am not terribly optimistic about our chances.
