If it weren’t so pathetic, it would be
hilarious.
A farce.
Yesterday, in
the first of a two-day dog and pony show, a bunch of pompous,
self-serving, pontificating, lying, wise-cracking, smart-ass, quipsters
staged a phony hearing before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign
Relations committees on the Follies Bushé, the Iraq War.
The star of
the show was General David H. Patraeus, the commander of US forces in
Iraq. In the spotlight, Pataeus and his sidekick U.S Ambassador to Iraq,
Ryan C. - what a crock of sh * t - Crocker, resembled characters out of
central casting, the over-decorated military leader and the Waspish
career diplomat.
Replete with
public auditions for the next president of the United States, including
that ingénue-not Hillary Clinton, Mr. Roberts wannabe, John McCain, and
America’s latest matinee idol, Barack Obama, the production continued
for hours and concludes today.
In this
theater of the absurd, members of Congress
are in search of answers as to what to do about the mess America finds itself in
Iraq to
which there are, for the moment, none.
Who wrote the
script? Get these lines delivered deftly by General Patreus:
“Progress while real is fragile but reversible.” “The Champagne bottle,”
he told Senator Evan Bayh, “has been pushed to the back of the
refrigerator.” Da!
Seven months
since Patreus’ last performance on the Hill, when “the surge” was the
latest in a laundry list of ideas pitched to solve our Iraq problem,
nothing much has changed. The Iraqi’s are no closer to reaching the
political solution the surge was meant to give them time to reach, nor
are they capable of protecting themselves.
Patreus
recommended that consideration of any new withdrawals of American troops
be delayed until the fall making it likely that little will change
before Election Day. Did anyone expect anything would? The way forward,
General Petraeus said, should be “conditions-based,” his style more
Jimmy Stewart than John Wayne swagger.
His
recommendation would leave just under 140,000 American troops in Iraq
well into the fall. Since the start of the war 4024 American soldiers
have lost their lives and the figure for those wounded ranges from
30,000 to 100,000.
Five years
after the start of the debacle, which Senator Obama correctly pointed
out has lasted longer than the great wars of the Twentieth Century,
World War I, World War II and the American Civil War, the essence of
Patraeus’ message was that the US should not think of leaving Iraq for a
long while. He cited the continuing sectarian and intra-sectarian
violence, and, more dramatically, Iran’s growing role in its neighboring
country, as a real threat to Iraq and world peace.
Meanwhile,
Iran said Tuesday it is making rapid progress on plans to enrich
uranium.
A new theater
of absurd operations?
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