Bush Regime Chickens Come Home to Roost in Iraq

The Islamofascist movement sure doesn’t look like it’s losing in the “war on terror” vs. the U.S. and its various lackeys, clients, satrapies and allies-of-convenience (and Frenemies like Pakistan). Suddenly the Iraqi regime of Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has lost its grip on the Sunni regions of Iraq. This has occasioned quiet panic in the Imperialist corridors of Washington, D.C.

As well it might, since it is far too late to salvage this situation, and application of U.S. military power will only add more war crimes to the U.S.’ record while at best only buying time for Maliki. At this point the only way to minimize the suffering of the Iraqi people is partition of that artificial nation cobbled together by British and French imperialists long ago. But Maliki will opt for civil war to try and maintain his malign grip on the nation.

Obama is rushing arms to al-Maliki. Using his U.S.-supplied munitions, al-Maliki repeatedly bombed the hospital in Fallujah. Just like his U.S. patrons did before him, al-Maliki committed war crimes in that city as a matter of policy.

Obama says the seizure of Mosul and thousands of square miles of territory by the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” is a “wake up call” for al-Maliki. Vice President Joe “Anita Hill is a Lying Slut” Biden, Jr. even called Maliki to tell him this. [1]

Al-Maliki has been asking Obama for the past month to bomb Iraq for him. Imagine, a country’s ruler asking a foreign power to bomb his own country. Obama, so far, has declined. But he’s sending an aircraft carrier and missile-armed escort ships towards Iraq in case he changes his mind. [2]

Maliki has ordered F-16 fighter jets from the U.S. How his non-existent air force could fly and maintain these complex, advanced warplanes hasn’t been explained. Obviously Americans would have to be the ground crews, at a minimum. And I doubt if there are any Iraqi pilots trained on F-16s.

Obama has sent Maliki hundreds of Hellfire missiles, which are used by the U.S. in assassination operations by drones, and can be fired from other “platforms, which the New York Times claim the Maliki regime has strapped to the wings of small Cessna propeller planes! No explanation of how that works. [3]

U.S. officials, from Obama on down, are squeaking advice to Maliki in public, consisting of such fatuous remarks as “he needs to be more inclusive,” “he needs to form a unity government,” “only the Iraqis can sort this out,” and so on. It’s rather late for all that. Maliki has systematically persecuted the Sunni population, imprisoned them, arrested and forced their politicians and government officials to flee, purged the government of Sunni officials, cashiered competent Sunni generals and replaced them with incompetent Shiite cronies, brutally repressed Sunni protests, arrested and tortured Sunnis on a large scale, and generally behaved like Saddam Hussein’s mirror image. He started down this path as soon as GEORGE W. BUSH (remember him?) chose Maliki to be Iraq’s boss. Maliki was boosted into power BY the U.S. Maliki and his gang have embezzled billions of dollars and arrested any officials who objected.

It shouldn’t be a surprise (yet the U.S. imperialists seem surprised nonetheless) that the Iraqi army has turned out to be like the South Vietnamese army- a sham, a paper tiger, that has no motivation to fight. Four of its fourteen divisions evaporated like water on a hot tarmac before a mere 4,000 or so Islamofascist “fighters.” They shucked off their uniforms and threw away their weapons. And why not? They knew they lacked leadership and logistical support. Die for the dictator al-Maliki? No way!

But the Islamofascists won’t take Baghdad. That is bluster on their part. The city is far too huge, is largely Shiite now, and thousands there are breaking out their Kalashnikovs and joining ad hoc militias. The Sunni Islamofascists would meet their Waterloo if they were foolish enough to enter Baghdad. Unfortunately they aren’t foolish. They consistently show great tactical and strategic savvy, sad to say. This is true in Syria as in Iraq. At least the Kurds have officially taken over Kirkuk, so those oil resources won’t fall to the Islamic Terror State. (The Islamofascists are already murdering police and government workers in the cities they’ve seized. It’s as if Christian Identity terrorists took over a U.S. city and murdered postal workers who were Baptists.)

Meanwhile incessant blowhard militarist John “Permanent POW” McCain is attacking Obama for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq. (Obama couldn’t get Bush-installed Iraqi boss Nuri al-Maliki to give immunity to U.S. troops for crimes they would be sure to commit, thus Obama withdrew U.S. military forces on the timetable set by Bush. The GOP doesn’t seem to “remember” this. And the Democrats are too craven to remind them. And of course the U.$. media won’t tell people, except for a mention in the 20^th paragraph of a single story- literally the only mention I’ve come across.) No word from any Democrats blaming Bush for installing al-Maliki. Instead we have lame Obama regime advice to al-Maliki to “be more politically inclusive.” Is that a joke? Maliki has systematically persecuted the Sunnis for several years now, including even branding the erstwhile Sunni Vice President a “terrorist,” arresting his bodyguards and forcing the VP to flee. He has waged virtual war (and now actual war) on the Sunnis, gunning down Sunni protesters, and with the uprisings of Sunnis he provoked (which the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” Islamofascists have taken advantage of) Maliki has been bombarding Sunni cities, especially targeting the hospital in Fallujah for the past six months, waging U.S.-style war against the civilian populace.

The U.S. military laid the groundwork for a regime of secret police torture and repression when they occupied Iraq. A former Colonel by the name of James Steele, a sinister, Gestapo-like character, was brought in by the U.S. commander in Iraq, General David “My Mistress is My Biographer!” Petraeus. Petraeus knew Steele from El Salvador in the 1980s, where Steele was in charge of training Salvadorean military death squads. Steele brought his methods to Iraq, setting up and supervising Shiite terror units that rounded up Sunni “suspects” for torture. Steele reported directly to Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld. The gory story is told in a (non-U.S., naturally, since U.S. media don’t practice journalism, they practice propaganda) documentary available on youtube.com. So the “democratic” government of “respect for human rights” that the U.S. claimed to be installing in Iraq was just another brutal torture dictatorship, as per the usual U.S. habit. The U.S. is very experienced in setting up such regimes. [4]

Hence it is extremely disingenuous for U.S. officials, from Obama on down, to prattle about “inclusiveness” and “respect for all groups” and yada yada yada. Obama’s latest cynical bit of propaganda is his statement that U.S. troops invaded Iraq so the Iraqis could have a better future. If you go back to Colin Powell’s pack-of-lies UN speech before the Iraq invasion, and all the fear-mongering anti-Saddam diatribes by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, etc., claiming Iraq was an imminent threat to the American populace, you get a reading on the deep sea depths of Obama’s mendacity. And considering the numerous, documented atrocities by the U.S. against defenseless Iraqi civilians, and the huge Iraqi death toll, Obama’s absurd claim is stomach-churning.

In any event, Al-Maliki hasn’t been content with packing the military hierarchy with unqualified cronies and loyalists and purging the so-called “security forces” of Sunnis. In addition to being “Prime Minister,” he also appointed himself Minister of Defense, Minister of the Interior, and National Security Adviser. So he’s a one-man band of repression, controlling the men with the guns- the army and secret police (aka “security forces” in the parlance of contemporary political euphemism). But silly Americans lecture him about “inclusivity” and “unity.” That’s as fatuous as intoning “Assad must go.” Or saying Israeli “settlement” building is “unhelpful” to an imaginary “peace process.” Or slamming Russia for “destabilizing Ukraine” when it was the U.S. that helped overthrow the government there, causing a schism in the country. Who are such ridiculous rhetorical shows supposed to fool? The U.S. political elite increasingly performs for itself in its own Theater of the Absurd.

The U.S. media is wringing its hands over the “loss” of the city of Fallujah, which the U.S. regards as a U.S. “victory.” (“Part of American military history” the anchor of CBS TV “news” intoned reverentially June 12^th. Actually part of the history of U.S. military war crimes, the destruction of a city, systematic attacks on hospitals etc., and the attempted extermination of all males in their teens and older, what the U.S. calls “military age males.” This in retaliation for the killing of four Blackwater Company goons. So the U.S. outdid the vengeance the Nazis took on the Czechs for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, the wiping out of the small town of Lidice and its entire population. That was only a few hundred deaths.) We’re also getting stories about how hard it is on American soldiers who invaded and wrecked Iraq (and killed a minimum of over 100,000 Iraqis) to see their effort go down the drain. Pity the poor imperialist warriors.

CBS reported Obama “has been presented with a range of options” for bombing or invading Iraq (which would be the third U.S. invasion of Iraq in 23 years). Obama put on his Hamlet act again, as he did with Syria, saying “all options are on the table.” Simultaneously talking out of the other side of his mouth, Obama rules out a U.S. ground invasion. I guess it depends on what “all” means, like his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton once said it depends on what “is” means. Most people know what these words mean- sorry that these two products of elite Ivy League universities (and a Rhodes scholar in Clinton’s case) don’t.

Instead of teasing the militarists in America with hints of attacks he has no intention of launching, which only makes them madder, it would be nice if Obama would be honest for a change and say “there’s not much we can do.” But that would be “weak.” American presidents are expected to pound their chests and bellow like He-Men, because America is the Most Powerful Nation on Earth. American jingoists- and there are millions of them, contrary to the delusions of leftists- refuse to recognize that American power has limits, that being able to blow up the world or put men on the moon does not mean one’s nation is omnipotent. Oh, and they believe the Vietnam War was lost because of a stab-in-the-back by the pro-Commie U.S. media, with an assist from traitorous draft dodgers.

1] Reported by U.S. Gov’t radio propaganda network NPR, June 12^th.

2] The missiles on the ships are Tomahawk cruise missiles, highly accurate ground attack weapons the U.S. has used to blow up such targets as the only pharmaceutical plant in Sudan (Bill Clinton committed that crime) various other civilian and military targets, and “terrorists.”

The U.S. broadcast media has repeatedly blared the news that the “aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush” is being sent. U.S. propaganda media usually don’t state the names of the carriers when they announce that U.S. carriers are being sent somewhere. I don’t know what grotesque motive they have here. That Bush is Bush the Elder, who attacked Iraq, as his son did after him. The U.S. corporate propaganda media also just told us that Bush the Elder went skydiving. This is part of an ongoing propaganda campaign to put a rosy glow around him, as they have already done with the fascist mass murderer Reagan.

The elder Bush is a career criminal, deeply involved in U.S. terror operations in Central America and Colombia, a key figure in the Reagan regime’s criminal Iran-Contra conspiracy as vice president, and who later as president issued pardons to his co-conspirators to block their prosecution by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, whose outrage over the pardons was and is mostly blacked out by the U.$. media.

There is voluminous evidence of the criminal history of the Bush clan, documented in books such as one by Kevin Phillips, and video documentaries available on youtube.com. The Bush family stole two presidential elections, surely a historically significant fact. The two Bushes who (so far) became presidents are both members of the sinister ruling class secret society Skull and Bones, based at Yale University (CIA U.), as is John Kerry. (Thus did the bourgeoisie, in 2004, give the American people a choice between two members of the same secret ruling class cabal for president. Heads they win, tails we lose. They must have loved that coin toss.) Yet another Bush, Jeb, who as Florida governor oversaw the theft of Florida for his brother George in the 2000 presidential election, is now being bruited about as presidential material for 2016. Greg Palast has extensively exposed the criminal machinations of the GOP in Florida in that election.

Prescott Bush, George H.W. Bush’s father (the last president Bush’s grandfather) was up to his eyeballs in financial dealings with the Nazis. The Bush family then was quite racist also. Again, well-documented by others.

One more important thing to mention: the elder Bush was also CIA Director, before he was VP. In that role, he helped the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet murder Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt with a car bomb in Washington, D.C. He helped smuggle the bomb maker, an American fascist terrorist, Michael Vernon Townley, into the U.S. A week after the murder, the CIA planted a piece in Newsweek, that revolting criminal rag, “clearing” Pinochet of the murder. (This was in Newsweek’s “Periscope” column and attributed to the CIA.) Of course that was a lie- and not even plausible that one week after the murders the CIA could know for sure it wasn’t the obvious suspects who did it. There was also a Pinochet scheme to murder then-Congressman Edward Koch (later a right-wing mayor of New York City) for annoying him. The CIA knew about the plot and deflected it, but never told Koch or the FBI etc. that the Chilean fascists were trying to murder him, telling Koch only that he should be careful.

3] The NY Times calls this “a short-term fix” by the U.S. “U.S. Airstrikes Could Help in Reversing Insurgent Offensive, Experts Say,” June 14, 2014, page A10.

4] See the revealing Guardian/BBC Arabic documentary “James Steele: America's mystery man in Iraq,” at youtube.com, for a peek at the fascist underbelly of U.S. imperialism that the U.S. media blacks out. The story of Steele’s crimes against humanity in El Salvador and Iraq are detailed therein.