Baghdad or Stalingrad

Stalin had his purges
And Bush has his surges
As the Unitary Exec
Strutting on deck
What matters the losses
They know who the boss is
Again we are stunned at the sheer incompetence matched only by the arrogance of this administration. They cannot get it right whether it is the Katrina recovery or the war in Iraq. As the losses mount in Iraq, our unitary executive has changed the strategy from maneuvers we do best to filling up Baghdad with US forces. If he had had the courage to go to war or the energy and intelligence to at least learn how to fight a war, Bush might have discovered that we have become the easy targets. We have canalized our forces into a hot Baghdad instead of a cold Stalingrad. Military strategists aim at making the enemy become canalized to lead to a “battle of annihilation.” We speak of Cannae in ancient times, or perhaps Tannenburg in WWI. We whisper “Iraq” today.

In this era, indirect fire weapons are plentiful and the perfect weapons to attack the “Green Zone.” We have canalized ourselves willingly if not eagerly. Puppet generals pretend that this can result in victory. Rockets and mortars are the new weapon of choice for the enemy and who could have thought? Well, just about everybody experienced in the military on both sides, that’s who. Well maybe not the ideologues. Ideologues find intrinsic rewards in the “good fight;” in the crusade and some banner under heaven. Now if they actually committed their bodies to battle, we could give them high grades for courage if not wisdom. In truth, they have neither. The Vice President (newly estranged from the Executive Branch of government to some tree of his own) sought and acquired five deferments from Vietnam service because he “had better things to do.” Worse yet, we are building Bush’s Baghdad Palace in the 104-acre embassy that has already cost in excess of $1 Billion and is not complete. I hope that it has lots of helicopter landing pads. Recall the last helicopter from Saigon? You don’t have to wait for the helicopter to know the White House East is a target and disaster in process. We have spawned an un-Military-Industrial Complex that Eisenhower could not have imagined. We have no industry, just consultants and cheap imported labor.

We have been embarrassed by a new low in world opinion of our wonderful United States based on repeated evidence of torture and “extraordinary rendition.” We see Guantanamo as a national black eye that is so offensive that even the most conservative Supreme Court in history is unable to justify or support it. We see an Attorney General that has soiled the merit system for appointment of federal attorneys and have witnessed, in our lifetime, the unwillingness of politicians of the ruling party to avert the takeover of our nation and the timidity of the opposing party to do any more than whisper about the Mad King George. In the sixties, we had people in the streets and politicians understood that, but today, the demonstrations are tame and ineffectual. We have seen our government abandon our soldiers and their families. There should be no need for Fisher House or the Soldiers Project, but we need them and others because our administration has “other priorities” just as Cheney in the sixties. The president recently even had the gall to reduce a military raise from 3.5% to 3% despite the fact that approximately 20% of soldiers qualify for food stamps. He does not support the troops. He screws the troops while saying that he supports them.

Awake from your sleep and rise up in anger. Don’t take to the gun, but take to the pen and the electrons and join up virtually if not on the streets. We need to stop the insanity and to tell our hired hands (elected leaders) where we need to go. Stalingrad and or Baghdad are not where we need to be. Halliburton may be making a killing, but so is a determined and newly enabled enemy at the Green Door. There is no princess behind that door in the Green Zone, but more death and destruction of our American families and the growth and prosperity for our politically connected corporations. Again, it is time to cherish people over corporations, and it must stay that way until corporations undergo anusectomies without anesthesia.

If you were still stewing about the comparison of Baghdad to Stalingrad, perhaps you would like Dien Bien Phu a little better.
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Peace,
George Giacoppe
27 June 2007