Details...Details

Tom Friedman, the New York Times Op/Ed Columnist and Middle East maven said this morning that the problem in Iraq was not that we had invaded “too soon. We actually invaded 10 years too late.” By using the words “invaded too soon” I assume he meant the BushMen’s unnecessary preemptive strike. He then goes on to explain that the UN’s sanctions over the last ten years only destroyed an already beaten down society which lead to the upsurge of a bunch of ignorant, impoverished, fundamentalist youths who are now the ragtag insurgents causing chaos and death in the region. With all the intelligent analysis going on by pundits and writers about how the US got involved in the mess in Iraq, how come one detail is always left out? How come no one ever mentions that when George Bush Sr. was head of the CIA, the US was so cozy with Saddam Hussein and the bin Laden family that Daddy WarBush hired Saddam Hussein as a CIA paid assassin. Another detail we hear precious little about is that the US armed Iraq to the teeth to protect our oil interests in Iraq. Those arms and weapons are now being used against us. How did we get where we are in Iraq? We got there because the Husseins and the bin Ladens were welcomed with open arms into our middle east foreign policies by Bush Sr. That is, until they started to intrude on our plans for their oil. We did go to war, Mr. Friedman. Remember the little show of power that resolved nothing in 1991? It was called the Gulf War. So you’re saying that we should have gone back to Iraq in 1994 and finished the job? What a stupid idea. Clinton was elected in 1992. By 1994 he was beginning to have a positive impact on promoting peace in the world. The “International terrorists” (not Iraq terrorists, they were called international terrorists) who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 were convicted in 1994, Israel and Palestine signed an accord in 1994, the IRA declared a cease-fire in 1994. That would have been a perfect year for the USA to go back to Iraq and finish the job Bush Sr. left undone. Wrong. The perfect way for the USA to have dealt with its relationship with Iraq would have been not to crawl in bed with a corrupt regime in the first place. But thanks to the Bush family, we did go to bed with dogs. And guess what? We got fleas. Big surprise. I think I’ve figured out the White House strategy on the Rumsfeld problem. He has too much info (read, knows where the bodies are buried) on all his White House cronies, so he’s not going to get fired. But the WH knows Rumsfeld's nature is to be wildly insensitive, to always make the wrong decision, and to turn a photo-op into a sound-byte nightmare. The WH is going to let him destroy himself. Watching Rummy's scandalous performance with the troops in Iraq yesterday, three quotes are proof the White House is going to let him twist in the wind. They’ll leave it to an outraged populace to demand his resignation. "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” "Now, settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here." "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up." He says it himself. The war Rumsfeld has is the war he designed. He sees no reason to protect our soldiers with anything, they’ll get blown to smithereens anyway. He’s an old man and he’s way past it. Better resign, Rummy, before an angry mob of soldiers' moms descends on Washington and demands your balls on a pike.