The Pentagon Report Tells of US Failure in Iraq

Well, it can't be much clearer than this when our own pentagon releases a report saying that the US has been a failure in Iraq. In a huge mea culpa, the Defense Science Board admits that

• the war on terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased support for al-Qaeda
• made ordinary Muslims hate the US
• caused a global backlash against America because of the "self-serving hypocrisy" of George W. Bush's administration over the Middle east.

Yet George W. Bush goes right on as if everything is coming up roses. He thinks he has a mandate to ruin America. He thinks we voted for him to keep on doing his deeds of destruction. When he visited Canada, he bragged that the American people support him, especially on foreign policy, and he cited the election as proof positive. I hope there are some foreigners still left who know better. I hope they realize that most Americans are against Bush and his policies. We're not all idiots.

Will we as a nation ever wake up to the real issues as presented in this Pentagon report:

• American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended.
• American direct intervention in the Muslim world has elevated the stature of, and support for, radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the US to single digits.
• Muslims do not hate our freedoms. They hate our policies.
• Muslims object to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights.
• Muslims object to our long-standing, even increasing support, for what they see as tyrannies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states.
• In the eyes of Muslims, the American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy, but only more chaos and suffering.
• American actions have elevated the authority of jihadi insurgents and tended to ratify their legitimacy among Muslims.
• The US has zero credibility among Muslims.
• More than 90% of the populations of some Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are opposed to US policies.
• The increased mistrust of America in Europe, due to our invasion of Iraq, has weakened support for the war on terrorism and ultimately poses a threat to US national security.
• The US is perceived as arrogant, hypocritical and self-indulgent.

This is just about the worst case scenario, wouldn't you agree? Bush swaggering around everywhere, basking in this fantasy world he lives in. I don't think there is anything that can be done about him now. Nothing. That is what makes me so furious about the people who voted for him AND, of course, the election fraud which gave him a second term. The fraud is the worst pill to swallow. Oh, we'll count as many votes as possible, given that the electronic voting machines are not auditable. But this exercise, though important and essential, will not reverse the results.

I guess things haven't gotten bad enough for many Americans. Only then will we be able to come together and really insist on saving our democracy. Until then we are relegated to enduring the decline of everything we have accomplished in the last 50 years. I know for a fact that I am not the only one who is outraged, but I wonder why more people are not outraged. We need more outrage.

Well, of course, we will not give up. We will keep on protesting and being more and more vigilant. I know I wasn't paying enough attention until Bush was selected. So we're getting better and better at paying attention. And we are now a lot less naive, a lot less trusting. All that is good. We'll keep getting better at strategy, and we'll never again sit back and assume our government has our best interests at heart. What a joke!

The Pentagon report had an attachment, a document from Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary. It says:

Our military expeditions to Afghanistan and Iraq are unlikely to be the last such excursion in the global war on terrorism.

Well, we can't say we weren't warned.

[Click on the blog title to read the complete article by Neal Mackay for The Sunday Herald 12/05/2004.]

[To read the entire report of the Defense Science Board September 2004, click here: http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf. The file is 111 pages.]