Dropping Bombs from30,000 Feet and other Poems
Chalmers Johnson in the Blowback series of books (Blowback, Nemesis and Sorrows of Empire as well as The End of the American Empire) documents that the US is a dying empire comprised of military bases. When the fall of the Berlin wall did not lead to a peace dividend and the system scrambled to find the next enemy to preserve the astronomical sums spent on defense, Johnson realized that the cold war represented the passage of the British Empire to the United States. Furthermore, we were following the path of other empires (British,French, Spanish, Dutch and Roman. We had acquired unsustainable debt, had farmed out our industrial base and were involved in endless and devastating wars. The works of Chalmers Johnson and also Chris Hedges make it clear that the American Empire is headed for collapse, and that the likely outcome will be the loss of the American Republic. These wars are the dying gasp of an Empire that has lost it way, lost it’s productivity and is lashing out militarily to preserve it’s hegemony.
Rather than reflect on why Osama Bin Laden engineered 911 (the quintessential example of Blowback as a result of many members of the Bush administration’s in the covert arming of Islamic Fundamentalists in the Afghan war in the 80s Bush instead chose this as an opportunity to implement the plans of the Project of the New American Century (PNAC).
These NeoCons saw the US as the only superpower with an unstoppable army. Their philosophy was that it was their duty to use this force to obtain whatever they wanted to control or overthrow by force any country not toeing to their dicta. For years prior to George W Bush’s election the NeoCons / PNAC had had plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq and control the stupendous prize of Iraqi oil. The represented the 2nd greatest pool of oil in the World. After an obligatory belated and feeble attempt to hunt down Bin Laden, they turned their attention to what can only be described as a Maffia-like takeover Iraq. This was achieved by generating a totally fictitious causis belli (Weapons of mass destruction, and Saddam Hussein connection with Osama Bin Laden.)
It was clear that UNSCOM and Scott Ritter had found and destroyed all the weapons of mass destruction, and that Iraq was on the verge of being declared clean by the inspectors Hans Blix and Muhhamed Al Baradi, and hence able to control and develop her own oil resources. Clearly after 12 years of what ex-president Bill Clinton bragged was the tightest embargoe in history. This embargo and protracted bombing after Gulf War I was responsible for the deaths of a half a million Iraqi children. Clinton’s secretary of state when questioned whether she thought this was worth it. Considering the US decimation of the Iraqi economy it was clear were Iraq free to develop her own oil resources, there was no way American or British oil companies would be involved.
Consequently, Bush kicked the successful UN inspectors out of Iraq, and after publicly receiving a smallpox vaccine as a public relations stunt (implying Saddam had germ warfare capabilities), he and his administration (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Perle and Bremer) launched an illegal war of aggression on Iraq.
The war was, as Ian Masters characterized it, a rapid victory followed by a slow defeat. The initial assault on Baghdad took only a few days.
Paul Bremer ultimately took over the control of the Iraqi economy. As Viceroy for Iraq, order # 1 on May 23, 2003 mandated the deBathification and discharge of the Iraqi predominately Sunni army. This along with outlawing labor unions and privatizing the Iraqi economy effectively irreversibly destroyed the country. Shia leaders were put in charge. They excluded and persecuted Sunnis leading essentially to sectarian warfare and ethnic cleansing that left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced.
Bush’s Iraq war was a war of aggression. According to International Law occupiers have no rights. Only responsibilities to protect the infrastructure and provide security to the persons occupied. Clearly the US had no exit strategy when they occupied Iraq and built the largest Embassy in the world in Baghdad. Their plan was to steal it by force.
The magnitude of this crime rally staggers the mind. Although Saddam was a dictator (and remember he was funded by the CIA to the tune of over a billion dollars behind congress’s back when we were using him to fight Iran). Alan Friedman documents this in his book The Spider Web . Remember that the Bush I administration was funding Saddam up to Gulf War I when he became Hitler incarnate.
In addition to being immoral and illegal and clearly a war crime the invasion of Iraq by George W. Bush will go down in history as one of the greatest strategic blunders ever. We must always be cognizant of cause and effects. Clearly Bush II turned Iraq over to the Shia with close ties to Iran. Although Iran had cooperated with US intelligence after 911 and desired better relations with the US. Bush and Cheney declared Iran as part of the Axis of Evil and verbalized their intent effect regime change in Iran and dozens of other countries in the middle East.
While I think our animus toward Iran is misplaced and does not take cognizance of our destruction of a viable Iranian democracy in 1953 when Kermit Roosevelt and the CIA overthrew Mossadegh we in effect got rid of Iran’s greatest enemy, Saddam and hence ended the Iran-Iraq war for the Iranians.
So the end result of Bush and Cheney’s imbecilic plan was the Saddam was disposed of and Iran was handed Iraq on a platter.
Not only that, Iraq was a first world country. It had viable infrastructure, academic institutions where women were respected, and it was non-secular. Bush bombed the country back to the stone age. In addition, the Bush barbarians are guilty of culture-cide. They allowed the vandalization of priceless artifacts dating back to the beginnings of civilization. The infrastructure of the country was destroyed. Hospitals, sewage treatment plants, power generating plants,etc; Much of the country was reduced to rubble.
The sectarian civil war in divide and conquer tactics further destroyed the fabric of the country. Sectarian strife was not present before the invasion. There was considerable intermarriage. With debathification, , Shia were pitted against Sunni. Neighbor hoods were ethnically cleansed and walled off from each other. Families that had been close were forced to flee—to neighboring countries and abroad.
Al Queda, contrary to the outright lies used by the Bush administration as causis belli was not present in Iraq. However, our involvement there was a magnet to attract fighters from all over the middle east
It should be kept in mind that covert backing of radical Islam has been a key element going back to the Afghan war when we trained over 200,000 mujahedeen fight the Russians.
More recently ISIS beheadings have served as the bait to get us to resume fighting in Iraq and Syria. What is overlooked is that the CIA funded these people and used them to attack Assad. John McCain in a visit to Saudi Arabia expressed his appreciation of these groups. So what we are seeing is another example of Blow Back. And the head general of this group was a general in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Although we spent billions training the Iraqi army, when confronted by Isis, these soldiers abandoned their materials and evaporated into the populace.
So simple stated the current carnage in Iraq and Syria is a direct consequence of the illegal, immoral and imbecilic policies of George W Bush and the NeoCons. It’s a fine mess you’ve created George W.!!
The following poems poems summarize many of what struck me as key events from the invasion of Iraq to present including the administrations of Bush and Obama. I view Obama as Bush II as he retained essentially all of Bush’s military and economic advisors. While it was thrilling to finally have a black man elected as president, Obama’s performance has been hugely disappointing. Although he ended some but not all of the most egregious Bush policies, his record on surveillance and drone warfare, and the persecution of the presss has been even worse that under George W Bush.
The poems are followed by contextual messages. Although I have written many academic articles while pursuing research on RNA tumor and Lentiviruses, this is not an academic document. While the media coverage in this country is abysmal, there has been a renaissance of superb books on these subjects, so I have referred to a few of these. Much of the material has been suggested by my avid following of Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez’s DemocracyNow, initially as broadcast on Pacifica’s KPFK and later on FSTV on the Dish Network. More recently I watch programs or podcasts on my computer. I started listening to the first broadcast on KPFK on February 16th, 1996. And have listened or watched almost every day since. I have found the program and others (e.g. Ian Masters, Blasé Bonpane, Margaret Prescod) among others as sources of accurate information. For further information on any subject go to www.democracynow.org, or search the archives of Ian Master’s Background Briefing at www.ianmasters.com, or visith the KPFK website, click on audio archives and choose program of interest. In addition, a Google search will produce much information, but which will have to be critically evaluated.
In addition I am a proud supporter of CodePink. These courageous and creative women (and men) were in Bagdhad prior to the Bush’s Shock and Awe Campaign where in he sent a message to the world and middle east that if you don’t do what we want this is your fate. In addition, Medea Benjamin and the CodePink ladies have the preternatural ability for pop up in the middle of speeches and hearing and point out falsities of the president and his staff members. They are what the Israeli’s consider “Nonviolent Terrorists”. And I am certain they strike fear in the hearts of politicians whenever they appear. My admiration is boundless.