This is the headline from an AP article this morning. I felt my bile begin to rise… again… as I recalled similar headlines from March of 2003, as Saddam lit oil fires to reinforce his crumbling elite Republican Guard ringing the besieged city “like a bracelet”… To the reporter’s credit, he does point out that this is,” the largest show of Iraqi force since the fall of Saddam Hussein.”
Heh… Republican Guard… indeed the ironies abound. The best irony just is… and it is not subject to the aggrandizing celebratory spin and propaganda that we will inevitably see as the US basically attempts to expand their tiny “Green Zone” foothold in Baghdad… with Iraqi bodies. But, hey… this is Memorial Day weekend and I should be respectful of the hundreds of thousands of people killed or wounded on both sides to secure dwindling oil resources for future generations of Americans, and bring this little slice of “Democracy” to the middle east…
More irony… “We will establish, with God’s help, an impenetrable blockade surrounding Baghdad like a bracelet surrounds a wrist,” Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi said. Or… Baghdad Bob said… over two years ago at the behest of Saddam Hussein…
“I don’t think it’ll be a short war,” Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri told CNN (over two years ago)..”If the Americans will not stop this aggression, the war will continue for years. We’ll see a unified society, a unified army.”
Two U.S. soldiers died when their helicopter was shot down. Today. One U.S. pilot described the situation as a “hornet’s nest,” with Iraqis peppering helicopters with small arms and anti-aircraft fire from “all sides.” Two years ago.
Is it outside the realm of possibility that all of the oil which was mismanaged by America, and seemingly vanished might soon reappear as another “Ring of Fire” encircling Baghdad once again, except this time coming from the skies above…? Have a respectful, safe, and pensive Memorial Day… and appreciate the irony.
