Bush Lies to the Students of the Military

A 6 /27/07 address by Pres. Bush to the Naval War College in Rhode Is. put on another display of the double speak of his Administration. In a folksy cover that dulls criticism, he tossed platitudes like everyone should live in freedom and that’s why the US is in Iraq. Anyone want to believe that one? In an attempt to justify the Iraq occupation, he claimed the policy is supported by a vast number of allies including in Afghanistan. The implication that a large percentage of forces in these locations are from other nations is patently false. 90% + of the troops and expenditures came from U.S. appropriations. Given the audience, it was not surprising that no one raised the question asserting what is the accurate condition in Iraq that U.S. presence exacerbated the civil war that is stifling democracy in Iraq. He also continued the myth that Al Qaeda was driving that war when it is well known that the Shia militia is the driver and that less than 5% of insurgency consists of Al Qaeda operatives. Bush also provided false analogies to justify the hope that Iraq would be a democracy by comparing the situation there to post-WWII Japan.

Obviously, there is no comparison. Japan was occupied by the U.S. and was in full control vs. no control in Iraq. The U.S. provided Japan with a system of democratic governance by edict rather than by delegation as in Iraq. Moreover, Japan was and remains a racio-ethnic-socio-religious homogeneous country with no internal strife compared with Iraq’s multi ethnic/religious heterogeneity to the point of maximum hostility.

Feeding these perverse views are the typically spurious findings by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). On CSPAN, 6/28/07, a so called specialist on military affairs from the AEI claimed (falsely) that Al Qaeda which had virtually no presence in Iraq at the time of the U.S. invasion drove the insurgency when in fact the Shia militia was the driver starting with the bombing of the mosque. AEI contribution to Bush’s spurious analogies was evident when this specialist tried to provide an in- kind false analogy to justify the hope that Iraq would be a democracy by comparing the situation there to post-WWII Germany. As in the Bush distortion, obviously, there is no comparison. Germany was occupied by the Allied Powers which were in full control vs. no control in Iraq. Further, Germany had a prior system of democratic governance making the mistake of using it to elect Hitler compared with no democratic system ever present in Iraq. That Hitler dismantled Germany’s constitution and eliminated democracy in a fashion similar to Bush’s effort (see Scatablog, Third Reich Redux, 4/06) belies the fact that Germany still had well developed democratic institutions that locked back into place rapidly after Hitler was defeated. Moreover, like Japan, Germany was and largely remains a racio-ethnic-socio-religious homogeneous country with no internal strife compared with Iraq’s multi ethnic/religious heterogeneity to the point of maximum hostility.

Whatever ignorance there is among voters, the Bush Administration and its think tank lackeys will prey upon it.