The Stuff That Power Dreams Are Made Of
The Republican dream world of Washington DC is about to celebrate the service of its lapdog White House Correspondents’ Association membership with an event hosted by impressionist Rich Little, believing that last year’s host, comedian Stephen Colbert, went too far roasting the president. Is the rough, tough White House press corps exuberantly drinking the disbelief suspension flavored with a sprinkling of Red State kool-aid? Or, is there another explanation? Trusted senior White House advisors think that they can fix the American presidential image problem by consulting with public relations executives, but how does one explain the new and approved reputation to those residents of Bint Jbail, Lebanon, who continue to await promises of reconstruction support to be met?
At least they have a place to build homes when the assistance arrives. Thanks to the Crawford Kid’s Crude Crusade, many Iraqi women have to rely on the husbands of their neighbors for support - in trade for certain services rendered.
Such appears to be the sort of understanding of the Iraqi ruling clique concerning the recent arrangement governing the control of Iraqi oil by the federal government, but that isn’t necessarily so with those with the weapons in that land. The Kurds, for example, already appear to be withdrawing from any agreements involving the United States government:
Kurdish soldiers from northern Iraq, who are mostly Sunnis but not Arabs, are deserting the army to avoid the civil war in Baghdad, a conflict they consider someone else’s problem. I joined the army to be a soldier in my homeland, among my people. Not to fight for others who I have nothing to do with, said Ameen Kareem, 38, who took a week’s leave with other soldiers from his brigade in Irbil and never returned. He’s a Kurd, he said, and he has no reason to become a target in an Arab war.
Even those nations in the region not directly involved in the Iraq imbroglio appear to be having some difficulties quaffing the Bush brand of firewater:
Lebanese journalist Michael Young, the opinion editor of the Daily Star in Beirut, noted, “The problem is the Americans failed.”
Others who lack the faith, such as most residents of Southwest Asia, will lead to even bigger problems for George W. Bush - they are rejecting the very democracy he offers. “Bush’s arrogance has turned people off the idea of democracy,” says Larry Diamond, co-editor of the Journal of Democracy.
There is a growing awareness that the basic problem confronting the developing world today is not an absence of democracy but an absence of governance. In that vein, someone needs to rouse the Congress and point them in the direction of their duty. The New York Times expressed the necessity for such a direction in an editorial published on January 22, 2007, saying, President Bush’s refusal to come up with a serious policy on Iraq means that the Democrats will have to goad him toward one.
One would expect that the newly-dominant party in the Congress would be leading the charge now that they have regained the upper hand there. But, sadly, one notes that it is instead the long-awaited sense of public responsibility in Congressional Republicans where the anti-White House leadership appears to emanate. Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-Me), John Warner (R-Va), and Norm Coleman (R-Mn) offered legislation expressing disagreement with Bush’s plan. They have the support of Blue Dog Senator Ben Nelson (D-Ne).
Said Collins, “I am very skeptical that this surge would produce the desired outcome. We’ve had four other surges since we first went into Iraq. None of them produced a long-lasting change in the situation on the ground.”
But the most out-front foghorn sounding the klaxon is yet another Republican Senator, Nelson’s partner Chuck Hagel (R-Ne), who refutes the administration claim of the Congress’ lack of troop support, saying that as a soldier in Vietnam in 1968, he “would have welcomed the Congress of the United States to pay a little attention as to what was going on.”
Hagel at least seems to have remembers why America has a legislative branch, proclaiming:
“We’re Article 1 of the Constitution. We are co-equal branch of government. Are we not to register our sense of where we’re going in this country on foreign policy?”
Leading from behind the mob is one of those quaint American customs, but it does work occasionally. With all the opprobrium being directed at The Deciderer over Iraq, is it any wonder that the Oval Office expects to do an end-around of their opposition by changing the topic they will present to the American people now that the previous one of staying the course isn’t playing well with them? Since fear isn’t working as it did in the past, it’s time to switch to Blue Sky Energy Pie.
But as keen observers note, this isn’t going to work well either once the specifics of his new energy policy are examined. And yet, a means to fund just such a program has been at hand all along - if the Bush administration has only opened up their eyes. On this topic, the Congress is already on the job, led by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.).
Dorgan said:
“The companies that have these contracts are benefiting from a mistake and laughing all the way to the bank. We need to make it clear we’re open for business only to the companies that will work with us in good faith to make this right. It’s our responsibility to decide to make this right on the behalf of the American tax payers.”
Someone needs to! Working with a spendthrift government weakens that good faith and trust so vital to those who have been providing the funds for the Iraqi Oil Rustlers to the point that they aren’t willing to pay-to-play any longer. That’s why they are dumping US T-bills as fast as they can at a time when China is reducing their foreign exchange T-bill account. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and economics professor at Columbia University, said in an interview, “There will be a significant sell-off.”
That deteriorating good faith and trust has even infected the US puppet nominally heading the Iraqi government, who sought - unsuccessfully, as it turned out - to take control of the situation in Iraq away from George, but Dubya passed on that option.
Maliki should have known better. After all, he lives in the land of temporary marriages, and is supposed to know how that game is played. A woman cannot terminate a temporary marriage before it expires unless the man agrees.
George is the man, Nouri. Just ask him. You now know what that makes you.