Gary Hart: Out of Iraq...by 2055

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[DitzisDumpster] OUT OF IRAQ????Gary Hart: Out of Iraq...by 2055

 

 

 

 

Gary Hart: Out of Iraq...by 2055

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June 03, 2006

Gary Hart: Out of Iraq...by 2055

 

For many months, at least since President George W. Bush announced

that we would " stand down " in Iraq as quickly as the Iraqis " stand

up " , it has been a puzzle as to why we were building permanent

military bases in Iraq if " standing down " meant, as most Americans

assumed, getting out--withdrawing our troops.

 

The British occupied the newly-formed Iraqi nation from 1920 until at

least 1948, a mere 28 years. Within a few years after their

withdrawal, required by British public opinion, the Baathist party and

Saddam Hussein took over and governed, often with our assistance

(including during the Iraq-Iran war), until 2003.

 

If we are planning a long-term occupancy in Iraq, shouldn't the

American people be told? Our government is spending billions of our

tax dollars building permanent bases that it will not publicly admit

are being built. That is because our leaders do not want to confess

that " standing down " merely means withdrawing to garrisons outside the

troubled urban areas that we cannot seem ever to pacify.

 

Why not?, you may ask. Why not is because this was the French strategy

in Indochina, the British strategy in Iraq and other possessions and

occupancies, and a number of other colonial powers in a last-ditch

effort to retain a foot hold in their possessions. In every case, they

failed. The garrison, or fort if you will, simply became a big, fat,

tempting target for insurgents who refuse to accept token relocation

as a substitute for genuine withdrawal from the nation's territory.

 

In a government envisioned by James Madison, the Congress, a branch of

government equal to the executive, would be asking questions about our

strategy of stealth. But this Congress is Madison's worst

nightmare--quiescent, passive, emasculated, rubber stamp, and totally

abandoning its Constitutional duty of oversight of the executive.

 

The current Congress resembles most the Duma in the Soviet era.

It is quite simple. An enterprising reporter (remember those?) or a

member of the Republican majority in Congess simply asks this

question: " Mr. President, are we, or are we not, building permanent

military bases in Iraq, and, if so, why are we doing that if you are

telling the truth about the U.S. withdrawing its troops? "

 

It is probably best if you do not hold your breath waiting for this

question...or for the answer.

-- Gary Hart

Kittredge, Colorado

 

Posted by dmeyer at June 3, 2006 04:13 PM

Comments

 

The invasion and occupation of Iraq was never anything more than a

foolsh military adventure based on a neo-con wet dream. The longer

this debacle is perpetuated, the greater the danger. Look at what has

happened in Afghanistan since this folly was forced on us by

Bush-Cheney? Jack Murtha is right. Gary Hart is right. And yes, Pat

Buchanan was right. Gary Hart continues to articulate a 360 degree

vision of the global and national security crisis, and deliver a

viable strategy for managing it. As a security professional, I

strongly recommend his " The Shield and The Cloak: The Security of The

Commons. " The Bush/Cheney cabal has a 19th Century view of the world,

not a 21st Century view of the world.

 

Posted by: vaughan at June 3, 2006 04:40 PM

Has any reporter ever been able to question the President? We

generally see some blue haired Granny thanking him for being President.

 

It would seem this plan, the permanent bases to withdraw troups from

Saudi Arabia, and the huge Embassy, was circulating well before the

invasion, so if the Congress does not know about it, it is because

they don't want to know.

 

Mr. Hart is so right. From day one the Congress betrayed their

constituents and their duty. They surely know, though many when they

speak would make one hesitate to ask for information if they were

salesmen in a hardwware store.

 

Even as they are frantically building in Iraq, it seems they work

24/24, the feasibility of the entire projet is taking on the air of a

mirage in cement.

 

Congress and the Press are now like toy soldiers, defending no

one--most certainly not the constitution.

Posted by: marika at June 3, 2006 05:29 PM

 

The US mainstream news media carry the Bush/Cheney regime's water on

Iraq before, and it carries it even now. They do not even have to aks

the question to his face, the punditocracy could simply start

acknowledging it among themselves, but they won't -- because they are

complicit. Unfortunately, so does much of the leadership of the

Democratic Party. It is a disgrace. It was obvious, at least to anyone

who took the time to read a few pages of " Program for a New American

Century, " published in the 1990s and signed by all of them, that they

never intended to leave Iraq. And those US senators from the other

side of the aisle who lacked the political will to defy them with a no

vote back when it mattered knew this then, as they probably also knew

that there was a distinct possibility (if not a probability) that Hans

Blix was right and that there were no WMD. Much more courage has been

shown by Hagel, Scowcroft and others on the Republican side, including

officials like Richard Clarke and Joe Wilson (both Republicans who

they swift-boated), as well as principled resistance from Colonel

Wilkerson (Powell's top aide) and Gen. William Odom (Reagan's NSA). Unlike these heroic individuals, almost all of the US

mainsteam news media, and most of the opposition party's congressional

leadership (with the exception of Sen. Feingold (D-WI) and a few

others, have failed the country, and the world. By the same is true on

the issues of global warming, and the compromise of the electoral

process within the USA.

 

Posted by: richard power at June 3, 2006 06:26 PM

 

 

 

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