Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Another sticking point has been the contract for the 80 Iraqi oil wells.  The U.S. wants 63 of Iraq's oil wells open to long term lease with foreign investors, giving U.S. priority in negotiations.  That would leave Iraqis in complete control of only 17 of their 80 oil wells.

Looking back regarding how the Iraq War began, it was a simple one, two, three approach that brought Baghdad to this kind of loss of many of what Iraqis feel are their sovereign rights.

It all began when in his state of the union message Bush solemnly declared that the U.S. had proof that the Iraqis not only had weapons of mass destruction, but also that Saddam was developing nuclear power.

Colin Powell went before the UN with documents allegedly verifying that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons.  He obtained this phony information from infamous international con man Ahmed Chalabi.

Proudly flags were now flying, and war planes were ready to bomb Iraq which had even erroneously been linked to the 9/11 attacks to Iraq, for which no genuine proof whatsoever existed.  

The usual gullible element of the citizenry that had helped the totally inadequate George Bush become a White House resident cheered him on.  The U.S. must not fall victim to Saddam, a man that the U.S. had coincidentally been supplying with an endless array of weapons to fight the Iran-Iraq War.

They named this Iraq War attack like some sinister horror flick, "shock and awe".  The genuine shock to any honest U.S. citizen with any conscience was to think about the innocent Iraqis; men, women and children who were suffering and dying, their country's infrastructure being demolished due to a horrifying hoax.

This destruction was perpetrated by a White House resident who has publicly admitted to drinking heavily until he was 40.  Add a vice president who suffered a series of heart attacks, which obviously hadn't helped his brain's blood flow.

How any thinking person could vote for more of the same the second time around is a major mystery.  It also calls into question the validity of daring to call this superpower a Christian nation.

Bush's explanation to Tim Russert about the fact that the Iraq War was launched on non-existent weapons of mass destruction threatening the U.S. was as simple as a simple-minded reply could be.

Bush said, "Well, I thought there were weapons of mass destruction!" or words to that effect.  

After the rush to the Iraq War was proven a hoax where the alleged merits and accompanying dangers were concerned, Bush switched from the Iraq War being a conflict to save U.S. citizens to one being conducted to spread democracy and freedom in that nation and ultimately throughout the entire Middle East region.

Tell that to the 600,000 to 1 million Iraqis who are dead.  Tell that to the 4,702 military casualties, tell that to the 30,247 who were wounded and came back to the U.S.A.  Over 2 ½ million Iraqis fled for their lives to Syria, Jordan and Iran during the conflict.

With our national debt rapidly approaching $10 trillion and our dollar descending sharply in value, George Bush has left any successor in office with a horrifying legacy to dig America out of, a herculean task that Gore Vidal estimates will take well beyond any succeeding president and many years beyond that; in all, 100 years.

While he flounders at a 27 percent rating at home and is the subject of scorn throughout the world, this same George Bush seeks to lock in U.S. control in Iraq for years to come, perhaps as many or more as Gore Vidal and others estimate it will take to extricate ourselves from the frightful mess into which he, Dick Cheney and their neoconservative allies ensnared America.