The General claims there is measurable progress in Iraq if you do
not count car bombs or sensational attacks or attacks outside of
Baghdad. Just as the White House cherry picked evidence to justify war,
the military will select facts to prove the security plan is working
when the soldiers on the ground know otherwise.
Like George
Tenet, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld before him,
General Petraeus has betrayed us, along with every soldier under his
command. His mission is not to secure victory in Iraq – a “victory”
that would only further secure America’s place in the annals of infamy.
His mission is to continue the chain of lies to perpetuate an illusion
of success that will enable the worst president in history to pass his
catastrophic war along to a new president.
In a spirit of
unbridled cynicism, the neocons that launched this campaign of
never-ending war are counting on a party of opposition so inept that it
will parlay almost certain victory into electoral defeat by stammering,
stumbling and falling on the word “peace.”
As witnessed by the
recent group debate-a-thon, the Democrats have become so conditioned to
aggressive posturing that they cannot oppose an unqualified disaster
and wholesale waste of life without ceaseless qualifications and
pontificating on the virtues of aggression in lesser wars (Afghanistan,
the Balkans) and potentially greater calamities (Iran).
General
Petraeus, the anointed savior of the Bush war strategy, betrayed us
from the moment he ascended to his post as director of the Baghdad
theatre of blood. He is not so much a commander as an illusionist, not
so much a strategist as a front man for a magic act.
Watch the
right hand while the left covers over a pile of fresh corpses, the
latest yield in an orgy of sectarian conflict, resistance and revenge.
Poof, the war is manageable! Poof, the violence has ebbed! Poof, the
Iraqi government is taking charge! Poof, the war is winnable!
It
is a dog and pony show (rated R for blood) but the players only come
out at night. It would be too easy to see through their masks and
detect their slight of hand in the light of day.
We started
the wrong war for the wrong reasons and we continue to fight only to
cover the lies and the greed that placed us in the center of a sinking
hole.
Nothing could have empowered our enemies more than a dim
witted, poorly planned and poorly executed war of attrition on foreign
terrain and nothing will continue to empower our enemies more than a
march of lemmings over the Arabian cliff.
As the surprisingly
frank Senator from Alaska suggested in the presidential debate, Osama
bin Laden must greet every dawn with a prayer of thanks to George W.
Bush.
The warlords, who have never faced an enemy on the field
of battle, think it amusing to throw accusations of betrayal and
treason at those who acknowledge the reality of defeat but who was more
loyal to the troops: the officers who advised General Robert E. Lee
that the war was lost after the slaughter of Gettysburg or those who
advised him to press on?
To those obstinate holdouts that
still support this cowboy commander and his calamitous war, wake up and
smell the battlefield. The air is filled with deadly fire, toxic smoke
and the scent of scorched flesh. It is filled with foreboding and a
promise of further horrors beyond our immediate view.
Wake up
because it is you that enable the horror to go on. Your blind
allegiance and false patriotism is all that stands between the lies of
victory and the beginning of reparations. Your irrational support is
all that props up a failed war president.
The Democrats, with
their pandering and posturing front-runners, will not stop this war or
the wars to come unless the people demand it with one voice.
JACK
RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND
GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE
APPEARED ON THE ALBION MONITOR, PEACE-EARTH-JUSTICE, THE NATIONAL FREE
PRESS, PACIFIC FREE PRESS, LEFTWARD, DISSIDENT VOICE AND COUNTERPUNCH.
SEE RANDOM JACK: WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM
Writings 
The lies to launch war have been supplanted by the lies of war itself. The trail of lies is as long as the trail of Iraqi blood and tears. The lies of weapons of mass destruction, Al Qaeda connections and Middle East democracy have given way to the lies of civilian massacres, the lies of military heroism, the lies of Abu Ghraib, the lies of the Samarra mosque bombing and the lies of progress in securing Baghdad. 
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