Kirwan Articles 

The Cabal has much to Answer for

October 2003

The buzz from Washington is over the actual state of conditions in Iraq today. Washington says: "the glass is half-full." The opposition says: "that the glass is half-empty." The facts on the ground would tend to contradict both assessments. "The glass" has been shattered, and putting Iraq back together again will be a major task, and one that can only be undertaken once the USA and its fraudulent coalition has completely withdrawn from the area.

Their weapons - consisted mostly of 1980's vintage small arms, outmoded and outgunned tanks, and a lot of shoulder-held rocket and grenade launchers. None of which was ever much of a threat to the forces that attacked Iraq. Basically we beat the hell out of a nearly unarmed nation.

Yet despite the overwhelming military superiority of "the coalition" - our planners were so inept that they failed to consider the most basic conditions of the war in that place -mainly the desert itself. At no time did the architects of this policy ever entertain the idea of any real opposition to our plans to seize Iraq. In fact they went so far as to bribe general officers of the Iraqi Republican Guard to guarantee that resistance would be minimal. Still we destroyed the infrastructure of the country, and permitted, if not actually condoned, the looting of the entire governmental bureaucracy, as part of the defeat of Saddam. But with all that military firepower the planners managed to overlook the most obvious element in the "war." The sand and the heat that ate one hell of a lot of our equipment, and took a major toll on the troops trying to "fight" in those conditions. Even 6 months after war operations ceased, Cheney and Rumsfeld are still in denial about the lack of planning, and the lack of accountability for their errors in the approach to this slaughter that we're still calling a war.

First we were told that when Saddam's regime fell, there would be jubilation: "celebrations in the streets", and that we would be welcomed as liberators. Didn't happen. Then we were told that with the murder of Saddam's sons the tide would soon turn and we 'would capture Saddam himself in a few days - then all could finally begin a return to civilian rule.' Again this did not happen, partially because of the Israeli style massacre of the four people, in which Saddam's sons died.

At the time of this murder, only about one American soldier was dying every day or two. That number has increased to two a day now, and the general level of random violence has increased substantially, in key locations.

Token freedoms now exist, but the price of those freedoms include night raids on civilians, the bulldozing of ancient plots of land and homes, along with the random violence that has killed thousands of Iraqis. All of that was introduced by the chaos of war that we brought to Iraq, without even being asked to come in.

Now we're being told that "Saddam is in Syria," so obviously we must go there and destroy that country in order to "get" the dreaded and mysterious "Weapons of Mass Destruction" that were and are nowhere to be found. It is not only all that has happened in Iraq that is at issue, but also it now appears we want to continue with regime changes in a number of other countries in the region. Just how dumb does the Bush Cabal really think the world is?

No one asked for Pax Americana. No nation or group of nations has any interest in seeing an unleashed America playing the role of world-bully, just because we can. This recent behavior brought about by the Bush Cabal, is not only dangerous and counter-productive - it is impossible for us to complete in any practical way, as we are at-our-limit monetarily. Already our great-great- grandchildren will have to pay for these aggressions, as we have long since run this nation so deep into red ink, that there will be no way out for many decades.

Enter Israel - that little-nation-that-seeks-destabilization everywhere the sun might set. If "we" can't or won't undertake the attacks that will affect the regime changes, seen by Israel since the 1970's as necessary to their vital interests; then they will use their military might and weapons to do it for us. Of course this will drag us deeper still into the tar baby that is this war over resources, in the Middle East and the world.

One wonders when the people of the United States might have an opportunity to have a voice in these "grand plans" that were made for us, behind closed doors in the offices of the Vice-President, and in the Pentagon? We are being told that these people are doing what's best for business, and therefore what's good for the American way of life. Nothing could be further from the truth. We've lost in excess of 10 million jobs, and over 65% of our major corporate entities are based on criminal methods of doing business. We've had no open investigations of any of the crimes that these people have overseen on their watch - and we've yet to see any relief in sight, for most Americans, despite two major tax-cuts that were billed as "the answers" to all our domestic problems.

Part of the point and purpose in any election is to discuss the directions and policies of the nation. But that no longer happens due to the ownership of the media, who control what is said and reported, by those who are responsible for reporting on the facts, inside the USA. And of course there will be no investigation of that fact either.

We have seen the power of many corporations break with all conventions, and exceed all civil and legal boundaries, in their naked lust for power. We have watched while corporate officers are not charged, for their contemptuous theft of their employee's savings, or for the destruction of decades of honest business endeavors. Instead we see that these corrupt and deceitful friends-of-the-president, retain their properties, as well as their ill-gotten gains instead of being sent to prison for the rest of their natural lives.

The world will remember all those people that we killed, but failed to count in Iraq and Afghanistan. The world will remember all the damage that our planes and missiles did to the lands and to the civilians, as well as to the "enemies of America" at the time. While we may not know the numbers, or the names - we will pay dearly for all that carnage one day. We're already beginning to see it, in the shift of the currency from the US dollar to the Euro, whenever the purchase of oil is involved in the world at large. That's just one way that we're going to see changes for our hostile treatment of the other inhabitants of this planet. Pax Americana may well become the disease that killed the "American Century."

We've already exhausted our treasury, put the solvency of our states at risk, de-funded education, medicine, and social services of all types and varieties - including stripping the very soldiers we sent into Harms' way, of medical benefits for their service to "us." In addition we've tolerated the out-sourcing of jobs, the demolition of manufacturing as an industry, and the wholesale off-shore nature of tax-shelters for the wealthiest businesses and corporations who came into being because of the opportunities they enjoyed as Americans, and now no longer want to contribute anything to the nation that enabled all they have become.

We have watched while our constitutional rights were stripped away and thrown to the wolves of paranoia, and the dictators of public fear - all in the name of preventing Terror. We have made a mockery of the courts, the legal system, and our own way of life. How much more can be taken from us? Perhaps only time will tell. But in the meanwhile, please remember that "the glass" is neither half-empty, nor half-full - "the glass" has been shattered . . .