Bush's Failed Policy of Kill, Kill, Kill

By Robert Parry
October 6, 2006

On March 30, 2003 – 3 ½ years ago and only 10 days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq – I solicited assessments from a few trusted military analysts and wrote that “whatever happens in the weeks ahead, George W. Bush has ‘lost’ the war in Iraq. The only question now is how big a price America will pay, both in terms of battlefield casualties and political hatred swelling around the world.”

The article, entitled “Bay of Pigs Meets Black Hawk Down,” argued that one of Bush’s most egregious miscalculations was his assumption that the Iraqis wouldn’t fight a foreign invader. Like the wishful thinking in the Bay of Pigs disaster (Cuba, 1961), U.S. policymakers assumed an invasion would be welcomed, not opposed.

And, like the Black Hawk Down fiasco (Somalia, 1993), Washington misunderstood the cultural dimension of a foreign conflict, relying too heavily on “leadership decapitation.” In Iraq, capturing Saddam Hussein and killing his two sons didn’t stop the insurgency; instead, it may have cleared the way for more effective anti-U.S. leadership.

Our March 30, 2003, article said, “Without doubt, the Bush administration misjudged the biggest question of the war: ‘Would the Iraqis fight?’ Happy visions of rose petals and cheers have given way to a grim reality of ambushes and suicide bombs.”

The article added: “But the Bush pattern of miscalculation continues unabated. Bush seems to have cut himself off from internal dissent at the CIA and the Pentagon, where intelligence analysts and field generals warned against the wishful thinking that is proving lethal on the Iraqi battlefields. …

“Instead of recognizing their initial errors and rethinking their war strategy, Bush and his team are pressing forward confidently into what looks like a dreamscape of their own propaganda,” refusing to turn back “no matter how bloody or ghastly their future course might be.”

The article – though unpopular amid the heady war fever of March 2003 – looks almost prescient 3 ½ years later. Indeed, in the wake of recent bleak U.S. intelligence estimates on the Iraq War and Bob Woodward’s book, State of Denial, our dire analysis may even have become Washington’s “conventional wisdom.”

But the enduring tragedy of Bush’s “mother of all presidential miscalculations” is that his underlying theory for addressing the problem of Islamic militancy hasn’t changed. It is still a strategy of “kill, kill, kill” – get revenge for 9/11 even against Muslims who had nothing to do it – and that is likely to continue, if not expand, after the Nov. 7 elections.

And, just as the Iraq War debacle was predictable 10 days into the fighting, so too is the end result of Bush’s vision of waging “World War III” against Islamic militants amid the one billion Muslims spread around the globe.

The deeply troubling prospect is this: If Washington follows the “kill, kill, kill” strategy in what Bush’s neoconservative advisers like to call the “clash of civilizations,” the United States will lose.

America will bleed itself dry of available troops; it will spend itself into bankruptcy; it will transform itself into a grotesque caricature of what the United States once was. It will strip its citizens of their constitutional rights; it will imprison suspected “terrorists” and “sympathizers” without trial; it will spread death and destruction around the globe.

Yet even after sacrificing the very freedoms and respect for human rights that Bush claims are despised by al-Qaeda terrorists, the deformed United States will still lose the war. Bush’s strategy of “kill, kill, kill” will even accelerate the process, much as the Iraq War ignited more Islamic militancy.

Deep Descent >>>con

Link Here

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ:
2737
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ:
20468

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS (MINIMUM):
43799 And the other 200 odd thousand

Why should you hear about body bags and death, its not relevant you old cow, you dont have a friking mind to worry about that is your troubleAttacks in Baghdad Kill 13 US Soldiers in 3 Days

Thirteen US soldiers have been killed in Baghdad since Monday, the American military reported, registering the highest three-day death toll for US forces in the capital since the start of the war.

LinkHere