As George W. Bush prepares to open his 9/11-themed presidential library tomorrow, we should all pause to realize that the hell he unleashed on Iraq has not abated.
BAGHDAD — In what appeared to be a new phase in an intensifying conflict that has raised fears of greater bloodshed and a wider sectarian war, Iraqi soldiers opened fire from helicopters on Sunni gunmen hiding in a northern village on Wednesday, officials said.
The air attack was among clashes throughout the country between forces of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and Sunni gunmen that left at least 27 people dead and dozens wounded. The Sunni tribesmen were continuing a fight that began on Tuesday after the Iraqi Army stormed a Sunni protest encampment in the village of Hawija, leaving dozens dead and injured.
Several others were killed on Wednesday in explosions, including the detonation of a car bomb at a public market in the evening in a Shiite neighborhood north of Baghdad, and a roadside bomb attack on an army patrol in Tikrit, also in the north.
The deadliest battles occurred near Hawija and Sulaiman Pek, northern towns near Kirkuk, and battles were still raging in the early evening. In Hawija, the army shut off electricity, and troops shouted through loudspeakers, urging civilians to evacuate, witnesses said. Government helicopters also fired at Sunni gunmen on the ground in Sulaiman Pek.
Iraq was a miserable place before we invaded and, all criticisms of the sanctions regime aside, I still blame Saddam Hussein for most his country’s suffering. But pre-invasion Iraq was a paradise compared to what the people there experience today. The body count of Bush’s folly is like those billboards that calculate the growing national debt in real time. If we collected all the blood that has been spilled since Bush said “Fuck Saddam, we’re taking him out,” we could fill the 14,000-square-foot museum to the sky lights.
Remember this tidbit from Ron Suskind’s 2006 book, The One Percent Doctrine?
[George] Tenet and his loyalists also settle a few scores with the White House here. The book’s opening anecdote tells of an unnamed CIA briefer who flew to Bush’s Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending al-Qaeda attack, to call the president’s attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.” Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”
Almost 3,000 Americans lost their lives because Bush didn’t take that briefing (and many prior briefings) seriously enough. But he has made his library into a 9/11 museum annex that is supposed to excuse his decisions to use the 9/11 attacks to ram home the Patriot Act, terrorize the American people with color-coded terror charts and talk of duct tape and plastic sheeting and survival supplies. It’s supposed to excuse his decision to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq while leaving Afghanistan to the wolves. It’s supposed to excuse his decision to open the prison that cannot be closed in Guantanamo Bay and to make torture an official Justice Department-endorsed policy of the United States. It’s supposed to excuse the complete lack of post-war planning for the occupation of Iraq.
The only thing Bush ever touched that didn’t turn to shit is his wife.
I particularly enjoyed this:
In the “Decision Points” theatre, also the name of Bush’s 2010 memoir, guests can explore the behind-the-scenes thinking that drove Bush during the invasion of Iraq, the run-up to the surge, Hurricane Katrina and the financial crisis. Former White House chiefs of staff explain the options, and visitors pick from one of three choices. Then Bush appears on video to explain why he did what he did.
“Some of the problems President Bush faced were unexpected … Other problems were looming on the horizon before he entered office,” a sign says. “In each case, President Bush led by defining a vision, articulating principles, listening to others, weighing different options, and making decisions.”
The Comedy Channel or Saturday Night Live could have a field day parodying that display.
