Bush says "stay the course" —but there is no course to stay.

The war is lost already. The "new" Shiite government in Iraq has already formed a de facto alliance with Iran.

Bush will eventually withdraw from Iraq; there is no other choice. Predictably, Bush will call an ignominious retreat a victory. Reminded that his policy was not merely wrong but wrong-headed, Bush will resort to the Thom Friedman defense: What does being right have to do with anything?

Days before he offed himself, history's other great liar —Adolph Hitler —was positioning non-existent divisions which he hoped would defeat the Russians. The Russians, by that time, were just a few blocks away from the bunker. But —What does being right have to do with anything? A question that only the dead wrong would ask.

The US position is untenable. US troops are confined to small areas inside Baghdad. In the year 2003, CNN would report:

More importantly, the U.S. control over Baghdad is going to tighten very considerably in the next 24 hours.

—CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, U.S. Military Continues to Move About in Baghdad Suburbs, Aired April 9, 2003 - 01:00 ET

Things have changed. The US is no longer free to roam about the city. Frustrated US forces are reduced to killing, murdering civilians. This is stark reality compared to the pie in the sky promises of "Democracy" served up just prior to the invasion. By the time Paul Bremer would arrive, he was already faced with what was called a "security problem". He was, in fact, already in the midst of a guerrilla war against an illegal occupation.

The coalition of the willing' —bribed or coerced to begin with—has all but melted away. Japan —never a combatant —has washed its hands of Bush's dirty, evil little war. My remaining surprise is that Blair has managed to hang on so long. What's left of that coalition —if coalition it is —now has sole possession of what one Middle Eastern writer has called an 'opened Iraqi grenade '. It is in danger of blowing up in Bush's face.

When everyone else has gotten out, who remains but another war criminal, Tony Blair, to aid an increasingly despised US? Will even Blair so risk his government? Even if we were prepared to wage a guerrilla war, such a war is already lost.

Che Guevarra wrote a near definitive treatise on "Guerrilla Warfare". The US has already broken rule number one: win the hearts and minds of the people. Let's review how Bush and the US have gone about trying to win "hearts and minds". Clearly —John Bolton's charge was not to represent the US position to the UN; rather, he was tasked with subverting the UN from within. Moreover, the Iraqi people hate Bush and he has no friends among the some 300,000 who make up the military force of the "new" Iraqi government.

On another front: what has become of the US relationship with Europe when Bush and his criminal junta have repeatedly insulted and humiliated Europeans? Spain, Australia, and the UK have suffered humiliating backlash and deadly attacks on their own soil. What now could possibly motivate Europe to stick its neck out for Bush? And what of the Iraqi people? They are largely without running water, utlities, police protection. There is little or no security.

If Bush should attack Iran, the "new" Iraqi government, allied with Iran, would turn those 300,000 troops against the U.S. in a heartbeat. Bush is already losing a war of attrition and not even Bush can get away with increasing troop strength sufficient to deal with a guerrilla war of that magnitude.

Bush will withdraw and perhaps sooner than we think. It'll make the US withdrawal from Viet Nam —a mad scramble for helicopters atop an embattled US embassy —look like Dunkirk. Look at the map. How will Bush withdraw from Iraq if it makes of Iran an enemy? Iran guards the Straits of Hormuz —the only way in, the only way out. It will be a humiliating, world-changing experience in which a spoiled frat boy will fall and the the US will forever lose its pre-eminence on the world stage.

But we have the GOP leadership to thank for installing an illegitimate "President" and we have the GOP rank and file to thank for supporting the coup d'etat! We have FOX to thank for having written the musical score —a "whoosh" designed to match the slick animation of tanks and explosions. Gee! Wasn't war cool? And thanks, of course, to the FOX scriptwriters for this year's best work of trashy fiction.

Bush cast himself in the role of tragic hero; but Bush is no hero and the results are only tragic. Greek drama, moreover, requires a "hero" better than ourselves. Clearly, Bush is miscast. The true tragic "hero" makes of suffering a catharsis in which misery is made positive and suffering redeems our worst flaws. Bush, however, is the embodiment of hubris and it has lead him to a reckless disregard of human life and nature itself. The die is cast and Bush will fall victim to a dialectic that he himself has set into motion.

The third act has already begun.

State of emergency declared in Baghdad

The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew today after insurgent gunmen set up roadblocks in central Baghdad and opened fire on US and Iraqi troops just north of the heavily fortified Green Zone.

With just two hours notice, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki ordered everyone off the streets of the capital. US and Iraqi forces also were engaged in firefights with insurgents in the dangerous Dora neighbourhood in south Baghdad.

The fighting along Haifa Street near the Green Zone, the site of the US and British embassies as well as the Iraqi government, was unusual in its scope and intensity.

There have, however, routinely been clashes along the thoroughfare, making it so dangerous that a sign at one Green Zone exit checkpoint warns drivers against using the street.

As the state of emergency was announced in the capital, a car bomb ripped through a market and nearby petrol station in the increasingly volatile southern city of Basra today, killing at least five people and wounding 18, including two policemen, police said.

A bomb also struck a Sunni mosque in the town of Hibhib northeast of Baghdad, killing 10 worshippers and wounding 15 in the same town where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed earlier this month, police said.

At least 19 other deaths were reported in Baghdad. ...

Mahathir: Bush, Blair must be punished for war crimes

2006/6/23

By Pauline Jasudason KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, AP

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a frequent critic of the war in Iraq, on Thursday called U.S. President George W. Bush and his Australian and British allies "war criminals," saying they must be punished for crimes against humanity.

He also said Bush had "demonized Islam." In a speech accompanied by photos of alleged torture and war crimes in Iraq and in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mahathir exhorted global leaders to "summon the political will" to try Bush, his advisers and allies in an international court.

Mahathir, who led Malaysia for 22 years until stepping down in 2003, has frequently criticized Washington's Middle East policies.

During his speech, a slideshow titled "The War Criminals" showed pictures of Bush, his advisers, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Australian leader John Howard and others.

"Bush and Blair and any leader, present or future who wage wars must not and should not be addressed by any honorific," Mahathir told a crowd of some 1,000 at a public forum organized by the private Perdana Global Peace Organization, which he heads. ...

Yep! If you've paid taxes, you've helped enable Bushto murder tens of thousands of people —innocent people —known by Bush and his criminal junta to have had nothing whatsoever to do with 911:

The cost of Bush's aggression, both in money and lives, has turned America into a nation of war criminals

Faced with mounting civilian carnage, both from war crimes committed by demoralized and broken US troops and from the raging civil war unleashed by Bush's ill-fated illegal invasion of Iraq, the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee has decided to waste another $50 billion to continue the lost war for five more months. Our elected "representatives" are so in thrall to the powerful military-industrial complex that no amount of American shame, pariah status and military defeat can shut off the flow of taxpayers' funds to the merchants of death.

Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing hard-pressed US taxpayers $300,000,000 per day! These wars are lost. Yet, imbecilic members of Congress are in the process of funding the war for another year. Multiply $300 million by 365 days and you get $109,500,000,000. These are not the full costs. The huge figure does not include the destroyed equipment, destroyed lives, and long-term care of the maimed and disabled. ...

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The Existentialist Cowboy