 Intelligence: The Human Factor (Securing Our Nation) By Patrick Lang Editor: Larry C. Johnson |
by Larry C. Johnson
Does George Bush hum Sam Cooke’s lyrics from “Wonderful World” (i.e., “don’t know much about history“) when he comes up with ill-conceived and incorrect analogies? Take for example his latest foray into the history of World War II. For starters he prematurely marked the anniversary of the end of the Second World War with Japan. Japan surrendered on 2 September 1945.
President Bush spoke this earlier this week at the Naval Air Station in San Diego and said: “As we mark this anniversary, we are again a nation at war. Once again war came to our shores with a surprise attack that killed thousands in cold blood.”
Having played the 9-11 card he said that like the Second World War, the US now faces “a ruthless enemy” and “once again we will not rest until victory is America’s and our freedom is secure.”
Drawing on World War II for solace to excuse the debacle in Iraq was also employed in June of this year by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who told members of the Senate and House that we faced setbacks in World War II and we should take that into account in our current war of terrorism. CONT. BELOW:
So, if World War II is the benchmark for our current effort than why have Bush and Rumsfeld botched things so badly? Consider these facts:
The United States and its allies in WWII defeated the Third Reich, Italy, and Japan in 1364 days (that covers the period from 7 December 1941 until 2 September 1945, when Japan signed the surrender documents). Of course that required a massive mobilization of our society to defeat these enemies, a dramatic expansion of the U.S. military forces, and a solid international coalition.
How goes it in the war on terror? For starters it is taking a lot longer. One thousand four hundred and forty nine days (1449) have elapsed since the attacks on 9-11 (today’s date, 31 August 2005). Why is it that our grandparents managed to defeat two major Armies in three combat theatres, but we still cannot find and finish Bin Laden?
Bush continues to insist things are going well. So how de we measure progress? If expanded insurgent activity in Iraq and regrouping Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan is progress then things are on track. If our continued failure to meet recruiting levels for the U.S. military counts as progress then we are moving ahead.
If the fact that international terrorism attacks have skyrocketed since 2003 (we have gone from 203 significant attacks in 2003 to almost 700 significant attacks in 2004) then we are winning.
Perhaps the time has come to call the Bush Administration on its persistent happy talk and delusional thinking (e.g., the insurgency is in its last throes). There is an enormous gulf between their public spin and the truth on the ground.
Bush’s comparison with World War II raises several uncomfortable questions:
Why was the United States able to defeat two of the most powerful military forces in the world simultaneously in 3 and 1/2 years but today cannot control, much less defeat, an Iraqi insurgency led in part by remnants of a third rate military power?
Why is Osama Bin Laden, the man who planned and authorized the 9-11 attacks still on the loose and planning more mayhem?
Why is our “coalition of the willing” coming apart at the seams?
One answer is that Bush talks tough but doesn’t take these threats seriously. In World War II we not only believed we were at war but we acted like it and organized ourselves to fight it. Not so today.
In the Second World War we had General George C. Marshall running the war effort.
Today, there is no one in charge.
Don Rumsfeld does his thing and the CIA does its things. In addition, very few Americans are being asked to make any sacrifice in this effort.
As we approach the fourth anniversary of the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001 it is time to ask ourselves why George Bush does not take the threat of terrorism as seriously as Franklin D. Roosevelt did the threats of Nazi and Japanese fascism. Instead of taking frequent vacations George Bush might want to spend some time actually dealing with this threat rather than offering empty speeches.
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Why is it that our grandparents managed to defeat two major Armies in three combat theatres, but we still cannot find and finish Bin Laden?
Devastating.
And we did know where he was. So …
Let us not forget that while the parents and grandparents of Americans were fighting the axis powers, W’s grandfather was was doing lucrative business with them.
Bush is able to use this analogy, even though it is so repugnant to anyone with a modicum of intelligence, because he knows who his audience is. His audience is the American people, the majority of whom don’t know shit about WWII or whats happening today. He uses this analogy because until now he has been getting away with it and everything else.
Fortunately, I think people are starting to wake up. The news coming from Iraq simply cannot be spun any more, and once Bush’s lack of a reaction to Katrina becomes common knowledge, it will only get worse for them. So hopefully, the few remaining real journalists in the MSM will actually question Bush and others when they make these absurd analogies to what great men like FDR and Truman did to what they are doing. But I’m not holding my breath.
you might have been able to draw some similarities to mesopatmia.
F’ing A Larry! I had the privelage of spending the drive from Austin to Crawford this weekend with a young Iraq War Vet that is against the war. I was going/he needed a ride out to Camp Casey. He was at the base I believe in Masul where the mess tent was bombed and several soldiers were killed. In the 15 months he was “forced” to be there, his based was bombed or attacked 800 times!!! Going swimmingly hey George?
Larry, what can we do as ordinary American citizens to get this nutcase out of office? What will it take?
but fear itself.
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
Not a trivial exhortation from Roosevelt, it underscored the importance of making plans from the perspective of strength, not in reaction to threats.
Yesterday was the bleakest day for mortality in Iraq: hundreds, perhaps a thousand, dead from panic, from the false rumor of a bomber.
That stampede follows the defensive style of Bush’s leadership: a mania of amplified fear, flight from the actual problem, a self-inflicted disaster far worse than the threat.
The President advocates fear. Security is not on the table. The eternal need for security is.
Roosevelt didn’t need frightened people to need him. With “frankness and vigor” he led the people to the great challenges he knew the country could surmount. Roosevelt made that exhortation almost a decade before Pearl Harbor — in 1932, in his first inaugural address.
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Maps Europe
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Maps Pacific
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Rebuilding Europe
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The Present Situation In Germany – 1945 ◊ by Allen W. Dulles
16,112,566 – Number of U.S. troops that served in the conflict
671,846 – Number of U.S. wounded
U.S. Deaths: Battle: 291,557; Non-Battle: 113,842; Total In-Theatre: 405,399
Approximately 70 million people fought in the armed forces of the Axis and Allied nations.
The Soviet Union lost the most soldiers, more than seven million.
In 1948, the U.S. created the Marshall Plan to help rebuild war-torn Europe. Eventually, 18 nations received $13 billion in food, machinery and other goods.
Irag adventure has no comparison with World War II
Bush ain’t FDR
General Myers ain’t General MacArthur – Eisenhower – or Patton.
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The Towers were attacked by some guys with knives.
On the question of sacrifice for this war, it may be more accurate to say there is no shared, declared sacrifice. But the increased poverty rate this year and every year of Bush, the increase in people without health insurance this year and every year of Bush, are all sacrifices, all resources being used for war instead of at home, not to mention that the people who are over or near the poverty line are more apt to be sacrificing their young in Iraq.
The people of New Orleans and elsewhere devastated by Katrina are sacrificing their homes and lives because those resources are not as readily available, especially the National Guard troops in Iraq.
And finally it is future generations who will be sacrificing for this war, as it is estimated today that the Iraq war will double the federal deficit for the next decade.
I applaud this of which you have said. You are absolutely correct. Thank you for such insight and truth. Simply put, Thanks so much…