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Ruminations of a "Seether"

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Message Jay Esbe
There's an Old Testament Biblical proverb which says "In many councils there is much wisdom". I'm still waiting to see that proven with Today's release of the Iraq Study Group report.

Let me be the first to admit it, I AM a "Seether"; I am one of those problematic people who has a simple answer to a problem of allegedly immense complexity, and who's angry beyond words that my solution is being ignored. Please allow me to provide a very brief synopsis of my solutions over the years:

1. Attacking Iraq: I said don't do it. I said the actual intelligence didn't support the allegations.

2. After attacking Iraq: I said we would lose for the exact same reasons the United States has lost almost all the post WWII wars it's entered into. I rightly predicted the sectarian violence and establishment of terrorism so long prevented by Saddam.

3. When it became apparent more than four long years ago that everything else I had predicted had quickly and sadly come to pass: My opinion was that we should get the hell out as quickly as possible; yes, "cut and run". Cut and run, or stay and die. Nothing's changed.

For a recent previous evaluation of the situation, you can find one here at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jay_esbe_061122_getting_out_3a_any_com.htm
And here:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jay_esbe_060901_fish_or_cut_bait_3f__d.htm


Iraq is the equivalent of a burning structure which can not be extinguished, and which is by all available measure, already a complete loss. There are men still being sent into the burning. Sent into a lost cause. Under these circumstance, there can be nothing more stupid, than getting a group of people together to discuss the burning structure's "future", with the goal of arriving at a "consensus" by "bipartisan" compromise. What was needed was NOT a consensus, but a quick and unanimous verdict; "We're losing, we can not win therefor...we must immediately cut our losses". The losses should nave been cut years ago, but rest assured, I will still be able to say this all again in two more years. By then perhaps another 2,000 troops will have died to establish........ruin, death, chaos, and "instability" in Iraq.

The Democrats now have exactly the problem their "wait and see" gutless positioning predictably got them; they are in a political trap of epic proportions. If they go against this "bipartisan" finding, and immediately pull the troops out of Iraq, they will be blamed for the inevitable ruin, death, chaos, and instability certain to follow a pull out. If they go along with the findings, they will be blamed for the inevitable ruin, death, chaos, and instability which will follow the ABSURD recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. You see what has happened? NO ONE TOLD THE TRUTH. Now, no one can.

There is no "solution". And reducing the number of troops in Iraq, is certainly going to get more of them killed, at an increased rate, than just "staying the course". No one is going to stand and tell the truth. Politics predictably rule here, and the end result is yet another truth about this situation: The "political solution" for Iraq is all wrong too; the political solution had to take place in the United States to effect a change. We thought it did through the mid-term elections. I didn't believe it would and now I'm quite certain it didn't. Before the new congress has even convened, the message sent by voters has been rendered absolutely null and void. The message sent, as demonstrated by poll after poll, was "GET OUT OF IRAQ". The message being acted upon is "we can save this thing". No you can't, but damned if you're not willing to let a couple thousand more of our kids die because you haven't got a pair of political balls and you value "bipartisanship" for political cover more than human lives or your country.

The only meaningful alteration to the existing policy in Iraq contained in the Iraq Study Group's recommendations, were to ask Syria and Iran for "help". This too is completely wrong; it presumes (and in fact incorrectly states) that these two nations are major contributors to "the problems". No they're not. At the most we know that the insurgency is made up of less than 5% "foreign fighters". And there is no evidence that either Syria or Iran are either providing any State aid, OR that either nation could control their borders any better than the United States (which has virtually no control). If those facts were not enough, common sense ought to tell anyone that no country wants a war on it's border. Common sense is an oxymoron today, just as it was 6 long years ago.

The next phase of ass-hat pontification regarding Iraq, is that "the problem" is that the Iraqis themselves, have "failed to stand up". Yeah, that's good. Attack and destroy an entire nation on fraudulent pretenses, then blame the people for not "standing up" and fighting each other in the manner proscribed by the fraud. Talk about adding insult to injury, can anyone point to the formal request by the Iraqi people that we attack their country and drive terrorists into their midst? I didn't think so.

So there you have it: More troops won't "win". If you can't actually identify the enemy, it doesn't matter how many more troops you have without a known target to shoot at. Leaving things as they are will result in more of the same. And reducing troops levels, that is just too stupid for words. Yeah, that's it; "we're not winning, let's take half our troops out and then see what happens".

One more time: GET OUT. GET OUT IMMDEDIATELY. There will be violence. "Al Qaeda" in Iraq (IE Sunni insurgents) will be dealt with in very short order. People will die. The very people the United States are ENABLING to terrorize the Iraqi people by it's idiotic presence. The very people the United States claim need to be stopped will then, and only then be stopped. Iraq will eventually find peace and a government which is in all likelyhood will not amenable to doing the bidding of the American hegemony who's corrupting influence caused the attack in the first place. If we are very, very lucky, we could then elect a President who won't refer to them as part of an "Axis of Evil" before attempting to expand the conflict even further. I doubt we'll be that lucky.

I don't like the fact that my predictions have been universally correct from the very beginning of all of this. But it was anything but difficult to predict. It required only a little time to read the de-classified pre-war intelligence for myself. If I could do it, they bloody well should have done it.

Lastly, let's talk about "Honor": That's not going to happen either. Not ever. The United States is now responsible for the deaths of more than half a million innocent people on fraudulent charges. We've engaged in torture and the most unimaginable acts of inhuman degradation. The mountain of lies told by Bush and the neocons ceased being mere allegations of lies long ago, the only resistance to the arguments that the lies were lies now being the weariness of it all; "let's not play the blame game". The United States stands before the world with it's reputation shattered and blood on it's hands. I intend to play "the blame game" and I insist that others do as well. It the closet thing we have left to "honor": Culpability and responsibility. Yes, I am angry. In fact, I'm "seething".
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Jay Esbe is a writer with a background in cultural anthropology and comparative religion and lives in Seattle Washington.
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