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[Better Dead Than Red]

It seems that the Iraq study group report has hit the dirt, right out the gate, and ain't going anywhere. It's no real surprise...

The group was commissioned purely as a face-saving gesture in advance of the election, and Bush had no intention of listening to their recommendations, regardless of their nature. As I've stated time and time again, here- as far as Bush is concerned, the only thing that's "real" in this world, is whatever exists within the few centimeters of his remaining brain tissue. Due to his solipsism, Bush is innately incapable to understanding, or even acknowledging, anything that is external. He's vaguely aware of the world about him, but from his viewpoint, the world in which you, I, and about six billion others live in is nothing but a pretty filmstrip that occasionally shows him some unpleasant stuff (but it doesn't faze him, because the real world to him is about as substantial as a John Wayne Movie (probably less so.))

It's just as well, really. The commission's basic job was to figure out ways to haul Bush's ass out of the fire, before his term expired, so he could secure a legacy slightly less bloodstained than that which is certain to dog him, for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, such a plan doesn't exist. Faced with an impossible whitewashing job, the commission issued forth a slew of recommendations which, if followed to the letter, might delay the inevitable american defeat in Iraq long enough so that it will land in the lap of Bush's successor.

But this ain't enough for Bush- he likes killing people- and well, anything that gets in his way of killing more people before he leaves office just ain't cool.

But Bush isn't alone in the rejection of the Iraq Study group. I, and a good portion of the american antiwar majority have found serious flaws- Primarily, that the ISG report was ostensibly commissioned to find a way to "win" in Iraq. It is written from the viewpoint that our invasion and occupation of Iraq was a good and decent thing, and the only thing that's gone wrong over the past three and a half years of horrific bloodshed is that we made a "few key errors."

Paradoxically, the right wing has condemned the report for diametrically opposed reasons- that the report doesn't guarantee "victory". They see the report as a touchy-feely thing that fails, because it doesn't call for the carpet-bombing of the entire middle east.

Now- the lynchpin here, between the right and left condemnation of this report, is that key term:

"Victory."

When you watch the corporate news, over the next few weeks, I want you to watch how often that word comes up- "Victory." Because apparently, that's how they've been instructed to define the only outcome of the war. For example, the other day, CNN's anchors, to a man, described that Bush was "disappointed with the progress towards victory in Iraq."

Amongst those conservatives who decry the report, this word "Victory" heralds great things in their minds- flags waving, burger kings opening in Damascus, and the Rush Limbaugh show being simulcast in Beijing. To them, this word is like a diamond- a bright, shining, high-condensed lump of everything they hold dear: the world-spanning ideology of Neconservatism, the legacy of Reagan's "truimph" in the cold war, the idea that everything that's wrong with the world can be solved with a few bombs and a few million dead brown people.

They have endowed this word, in relation to the horrific situation in Iraq, as the be-all and end-all of their ideology, and in the wake of their crushing defeat in the last election, they hold to this word, as a drowning man grasps at any straw to save his life.

The only problem is that, despite its power, "Victory" is only a world- three syllables, 7 letters, and a dictionary definition.

As long as our policy in Iraq is held hostage to this word, people are dying, our tax dollars are being wasted to the tune of 200 million a day, and so on, and so on (you know the drill.)

And that's the fatal flaw in the ISG report: There cannot be any "victory." This is a basic, fundamental fact that we, as a nation must grasp- we have lost in Iraq, and there is no way we can win.

This isn't defeatism- it's reality.
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Better Dead Than Red!