Nothing Can Be Done About Iran -- For all the bluster, the truth is the Bush Gang checkmated themselves.
by August Keso, March 10th, 2006 As Yogi Berra so famously said, "This is like deja vu all over again." Condi "The Scowl" Rice made her way to Capital Hill, so that she could inform Congress that it would be best they forgot that time not so long ago, when the administration claimed Iraq to be the number-one challenge to the United States, was determined to develop a nuclear weapon, and a huge supporter of terrorism. She and the Bush administration knew it was all one humungous whopper, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that the rhetoric was the key to going to war. "Scowl" is now making the very same claims about Iran.
The difference, of course, is that regarding Iran, it is likely the truth. Well, mostly.... Nobody thinks a nuclear Iran, especially one being ruled by Islam's version of James Dobson or Pat "Hit Man" Robertson, would be a good thing. Their current nut-ball ruler would probably come up with some whacked-out policy, like preemption or something. How nuts is that?
Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or M. Ah-Mad for short, is permanently looped, as was "Shotgun" Cheney the day he blew the lawyer's face (as Dirty Harry once said) "clean off!" Still, Shotgun was temporarily mentally impaired due to alcohol consumption, whereas M. Ah-Mad is permanently mentally impaired due to syphilis-induced psychosis or something. Besides George W. Bush, M. Ah-Mad is the last person on the planet anybody wants to have a finger on the trigger of a nuclear missile.
The tragedy in all this, however, is that this entire Mid-East situation is a nightmare of the Bush administration's making. Wasn't long ago, Iran had an elected moderate leader. The Islamic version of "Focus on the Family," i.e., the Iranian religious leaders who actually rule the country, were themselves growing less bellicose. Then, Bush started making his foreign policy by channeling John Wayne, with speeches like, "Well, pard'ner lemme tell ya, yer part-o-the evil axis of evil" -- and the mullahs started speaking in tongues again.
No, Iran wasn't a perfect partner and friend in the world community but it is likely after 9/11, the right kind of carrot-n-stick approach (come out into the world community with your hands up and ready to talk serious turkey or we're comin' in) might have convinced them the time for real change had arrived.
Iran played a small part in 9/11 -- supposedly anyway -- by allowing members of al-Qaeda to move freely across their borders. But theirs wasn't any larger a role than was played by the United Arab Emirates, a country Bush had insisted upon surrendering our very own ports to. So, if persuasion worked so miraculously with a country whose government officials enjoyed going on hunting trips with bin-Laden in Afghanistan, why didn't they bother trying that approach with Iran? Who knows, but they didn't. Instead, they went all John Wayne on the mullahs and sent them into a Pat Robertson-like meltdown.
To further complicate matters, the Bush administration invaded the WRONG country altogether when they stormed Iraq. A person could literally have put a blind fold on and thrown darts at a map of the Middle East, and had a better chance of hitting a country with more ties and connections to both 9/11 and al-Qaeda than Iraq had. Yet, George "Yer Fer Us, er A'gin Us" Bush absolutely, positively needed to have his war with his daddy's nemesis. So, instead of finishing the fight in Afghanistan and then going after -- diplomatically and/or otherwise -- Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, or Iran, countries that all had at least a little something to do with al-Qaeda, he invaded the one country in the region that had no substantial ties to either 9/11 or al-Qaeda.
So, now, when the US really, for really-reals, needs the availability of the military option to halt and contain a real threat from a real madman, M. Ah-Mad in Iran, it can't use it even if the US wanted to. Why? The military is bogged down fighting an elective war in Iraq. The military is stretched thinner than an Olsen Twin. Sure, Bush can bomb Iran if he just can't help himself. Nothing to stop him from doing that, but it would be one very stupid move which, sadly, makes it almost likely.
Any military option employed against Iran will further, if not completely, destabilize Iraq. Iraq's Shia population or a substantial portion thereof, will feel spiritually compelled to fight against the US. Iran, which all ready has a significant number of direct supporters in Iraq, could easily create havoc on US forces inside their neighboring country.
In the end, there is little truly substantive that can be done about Iran. The Bush administration's foolish Iraq policy has effectively caused them to checkmate themselves! Oh, of course, there is the usual Bush administration macho chest-thumping going on. Bush has already given his standard foreign-policy-by-John-Wayne speech to Iran, "Gonna -- gonna gitcha Mahmood Ahmadine...Ahmad...jad...can't get fooled again!" Dick "Duck! I've Gotta Gun" Cheney has offered his trite lip-snarling "don't make me take Iran on a hunting trip," speech and now, Scowling Rice has added the administration's standard, "We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran.... This is a country determined to develop a nuclear weapon...and is the central bank for terrorism," pre-war talk to Congress.
Incredibly enough, Rice might be right -- this time. Problem is they used that very same rhetoric in order to invade a country about which none of it was true. Now, when the scenario is possibly real and there is an actual madman, M. Ah-Mad in Iran, doing all he can to acquire nuclear weapons, all the Bush administration can really do about it is scowl, snarl, and make like John Wayne. And, that's about all they can do because now they've been checkmated by their own Iraq War.
As Yoggi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else."
Remember When Bush Administration Said Rebuilding Iraq Would Cost Taxpayers 1.7 Billion Dollars?
by August Keso, March 9th, 2006 Remember when the Bush administration claimed rebuilding Iraq would only cost the American taxpayers $1.7 billion? Well, few people do, and Republicans and the administration would prefer it to remain that way. Of course, as everyone knows now, the war costs have exceeded $250 billion. Well, destroying a country, slaughtering more than 30,000 of its people and forcing it into civil war don't come cheap. It's a lot of "hard work" and costs money. Lots-n-lots of money!
The American people should have seen coming the incompetence that is BushCo. Long before Bush managed to completely bungle Katrina, before anyone heard of Michael "Doin' a Heckuva Job" Brown, there was Andrew Natsios.
"Our guest tonight is Andrew Natsios," Ted Koppel, onetime Nightline anchor said, "administrator of the Agency for International Development, the lead agency that is responsible for rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq. Mr. Natsios was manager of Boston's 'Big Dig,' the largest public works project in American history."
Boom! Right there the alarm bells should have been sounding. The "Big Dig," for those not aware, is America's, if not history's, most mismanaged road construction project. Just ask the lucky chubs in Boston. Huge cost overruns, leaky tunnels, and every other imaginable problem -- all part of the "Big Dig's" legacy! And the guy responsible for that is who Bush put in charge of rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure.
Koppel: All right, this is the first. I mean, when you talk about 1.7, you're not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is gonna be done for $1.7 billion?
Andrew Natsios: Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution, I do, this is it for the US. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries who have already made pledges, Britain, Germany, Norway, Japan, Canada, and Iraqi oil revenues, eventually in several years, when it's up and running and there's a new government that's been democratically elected, will finish the job with their own revenues. They're going to get in $20 billion a year in oil revenues. But the American part of this will be 1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this.
Okay, so Natsios and the Bush administration were off by a "few" BILLION. Well, $248.3 billion to be exact, but for a "ballpark" figure -- not...er, bad. True, not close as when Bush and Republicans claimed the Medicare Plan had 25 million participants. The real number is 5 million, so they were only off by 20 million on that. Though not great, they have gotten better -- 248.3 billion versus 20 million, that's improvement.
In fairness to Bush and Republicans, when the administration was claiming rebuilding Iraq would only cost $1.7 billion, they might have meant only the cost of Bush's propaganda program. That has cost the American taxpayer $1.6 billion, which is 0.1 billion dollars less than the original Iraq War cost estimate. If they did mean the cost of Bush's Iraq War propaganda program and not rebuilding Iraq itself, they were only off by a smidge...and for government estimates that would really be pretty damn good!
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