Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

It is glaringly apparent that these mergers are producing nothing but manipulation of money.  All this occurs while the grinning president was racing around in Air Force One, desperately trying to get American citizens to trust Wall Street stock brokers and bankers to plunge their federally controlled Social Security money into private accounts.

The citizens, having witnessed the roller coaster Wall Street performances, quickly rejected Bush on that dangerously foolish idea.

But tragically the Iraq War debacle was Bush's monumental catastrophe.  No matter how hard Bush and his buddies proclaim that Iraq is better off today than before the "shock and awe" it is propaganda with over 4,600 U.S. service personnel returning in coffins, a fact kept off most TV news, and over 55,000 U.S. service personnel returning with injuries.  

The suicide statistics among those returning from Iraq soar  precipitously while the government seeks to keep a lid on what is really happening to them once they return to America, some in coffins, others to badly overcrowded military hospitals, fortunate to get any kind of reasonably meaningful care.

With all these tragic facts in evidence, what in the world are Republicans ranting about Iraq success for?

Peter Kogler in the Letter to Editors published in the Post Intelligencer on June 2, wrote the following:

"The news from Iraq is increasingly good and hopeful, so why are the media talking about Scott McClellan's denunciation of the Bush administration?"

A question might be asked of Peter Kogler:  

Mr. Kogler, if a nation attacked the United States, claiming before the attack that weapons of mass destruction were threatening their nation--and later it was discovered that the weapons of mass destruction scenario had caused the U.S. to be hit with a "shock and awe" bomb attack, killing all of your family and relatives, would you call that a "good and hopeful event"?

Mr. Kogler, do you watch any television news network but Fox?

Kogler later says in his letter:

"Bush has already been vindicated.  The war has already changed the whole dynamic of the Middle East in our favor.  Al-Qaida, that once powerful global network of death merchants has been decimated.  Iraq, once an enemy, is now a friend and ally."

Mr. Kogler, haven't you heard about Al-Qaida's woman warrior?  The Seattle Times on May 28 told all about her in an article by Elaine Sciolino and Souad Mekhennet that appeared through the New York Times syndicate:

"BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - On the street, Malika El Aroud is anonymous in an Islamic black veil covering all but her eyes.

"But it is on the Internet, where El Aroud, writing in French, under the name `Oum Obeyda' has transformed herself into one of Europe's most prominent Internet jihadists.  She calls herself a female holy warrior for Al-Qaida.  She insists she does not disseminate instructions on bomb making and has no intention of taking up arms herself.  Rather, she bullies Muslim men to fight and rallies women to join the cause.

"A Message of Hatred

"El Aroud is also well known to European intelligence officials as simple `Malika' an Islamist who is at the forefront of the movement by women to take a larger role in the male dominated global jihad."

There has been an increase in women carrying out suicide bombings.  The U.S. military reports that 18 women have conducted suicide missions in Iraq so far in 2008.

Mr. Kogler, where are you getting the information prompting you to write in you Letter to the Editors, "Al-Qaida, the once powerful global network of death merchants, has been decimated"?

I wish that was the case as I don't like to see anybody die.  But you are dead wrong.

Since the Iraq War, Egypt now has nuclear power.  Some claim that Iran is on the road to nuclear power as well.

Mr. Kogler, Could it be that Iran, seeing how the U.S. invaded Iraq without a provable cause, triggered Iran to thinking if it happened to Iraq, it could happen here?

Far from changing the dynamics of the Middle East, it has brought total destruction, chaos and fear.  With the latest estimate from Europe revealing that over 1.2 million Iraqis have died and 2 ½ million fled for their very lives to Syria, Jordan and Iran, could it be, Mr. Kogler, that you that are misled in facing the reality of what hell Bush's Iraq War has generated?

70 percent of the Iraqis have said they want the U.S. to leave their country.  Are you aware of that statistic, Mr. Kogler?  Do you believe in democracy?

Did it ever cross your mind, Mr. Kogler, that the foreign lease contract on Iraq's 63 out of 80 oil wells (where Iraq has a third of the world's oil) is the real reason the Iraqi government hasn't signed that lopsided oil deal that U.S. oil interest would love to see signed, because Iraqi citizens want control of all their 80 oil well and want the U.S. occupying force to leave?

Mr. Kogler, can you blame the Iraqis for wanting control of their own oil assets, which they had nationalized under Saddam Hussein?

Mr. Kogler, if you would venture beyond the current confines of Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity perhaps you might learn what is really happening in Iraq.