Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Let’s give Iraq to U.N. and get out before more are killed

Subject: Welcome to Dien Bien Phu.

Does anybody remember the “nexus”? Last year, about this time the word came quite into vogue. Donald Rumsfeld started using it, then Dr. Evil himself, Paul Wolfowitz, and finally even Colin Powell invoked “nexus” to give a sense of gravitas to the situation.

They could have said “connection,” but that would be like calling a tempest a rain shower. A year later we find the tempest was neither shower nor overcast, but a conjuring act to inspire our natural fear, and invoke our historic prejudice.

I refer of course to the dog and pony show put on by this administration on the road to their war with Iraq. The nexus should have been the "bond, link, or tie existing between members of a group or series; the means of connection between things.” In the public’s mind, the impression of a nexus had been nurtured between the murderers on the four airliners, and Saddam Hussein, without anyone ever saying so. The nexus for George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell was Iraq and al-Qaeda. Congress bought it (gutless Democrats and kowtowing Republicans), the American people bought it, the U.N. rejected it, and we went to war anyway.

So what do we have to show for this “nexus” thus far? One al Qaeda leader received medical treatment in Iraq. Still no evidence of any collaboration between Saddam and the al Qaeda terrorists. None. Nada. Zip. Nothing.

What nobody has mentioned since the war began is this nexus as our reason for war, and now the seeming complete absence of it. My conservative friends keep telling me that George Bush knows something, he just can't tell us. They insist he would never start a war just to get even, or to attempt some cynical ploy to keep his poll numbers high, or to appear to be the firm leader in charge. No, George Bush had to have a reason!

Well, I’m sure he had a reason, but I’m equally sure it wasn’t the one expressed to the American people or the world.

Maybe his top advisors were shooting from the hip. Iraq has chemical and biological weapons and is giving them to terrorists. Iraq is working on nuclear weapons and will have one in a couple years. Our troops will be welcomed as liberators.

It was all wrong, it was all misleading, and I believe it was all very purposeful. Bush is trying to blame it on the CIA and other intelligence-gathering agencies. What we see in hindsight is the weakness of the evidence, the apparent desire to ignore that which contradicted, and to overemphasize any lead that supported the administration’s position.

What we have now is the usual claptrap, blaming the “liberal” media for not bringing out all the good things happening in Iraq. To a degree, they’re right.

Americans are a resourceful people and if anyone can rebuild Iraq it’s us. I’m sure they are getting the electricity on and building schools, and putting in lovely wastewater treatment plants.

But pardon us if we’re a little concerned about the ongoing murder of our troops. Excuse us if we’re just a little peeved about the men already lost in a war we did not need to fight. Forgive us for asking why we need to expend our resources here in what has become a magnet for disgruntled Muslims from all over the world.

George W. Bush, the brave draft dodger had somebody land him on a carrier so he could announce the end of hostilities, and as an aside, mention how much he missed flying. My thought at the time was that perhaps he could go back and finish his flying tour with the National Guard (he flew one year and owed five). When informed that various groups were assembling to attack U.S. forces he valiantly told them (from the exposed position of the oval office): Bring it on. And they have.

It seems Mr. Bush has about 25 percent of the voting population in this country no matter what he does (that number might be larger around here). These are the people who affectionately call him “W,” assume he is aware of a threat he’s not telling us about, think he’s a man of integrity, spend a lot of time thinking about their hatred of all things Bill Clinton, and are essentially politically brain dead.

Bush figures he can capture the other 25 percent with the $200 million in bribes about to be handed out by the major corporations and wealthy recipients of his governmental largesse. He will do this through a campaign of misleading statistics and scare tactics. It will be accomplished much like the scare campaign leading to the invasion of Iraq: half-truths, innuendo, outright lies served up to people who want to believe.

For anyone who has a loved one serving in Iraq, I believe your soldier is doing their duty following the legal orders of the President (again with the nod of a cowardly Congress). It is we, the American public who have failed them in allowing this to proceed as it has.

Mr. Bush’s “coalition” now consists of 150,000 Americans, 20,000 British, a Polish janitor, a Rumanian shoe clerk, a Czech streetcar operator, and a Scottish terrier named Bobbi.

David Gergen, former presidential advisor, thinks we ought to make the hard choice and insert more troops. He doesn’t think the war was necessary, but we can win with a greater effort. Sounds a great deal like the genesis of the build-up in Vietnam. Please, just another 100,000 men and we can win the hearts and minds of these people!

We owe Iraq NOTHING. The conflict has removed a dictator and put in its place great uncertainty about certain aspects of his former WMD programs. It has improved our security not one iota, while claiming the lives of hundreds of American heroes. We continue to expend great amounts of treasure while reducing services to our own citizens.

If the U.N. wants this mess, let them have it! Write in the sand, “No Saddam or we’ll be back,” but let’s get the hell out and use the military for our security, not George Bush’s poll numbers.

And let’s get rid of George Bush as soon as we legally can. He is not worthy of power. He should go back to drinking and running companies into the ground, the things he was really good at.

Timothy J. Parker
Peachtree City, Ga.