Bush's bogus history

Bush made his speech tonight, and compared the occupation of Iraq to the occupation of Germany and Japan after WW II. Josh Marshall points out how utterly bogus this comparison is.

The U.S. military entered Japan and Germany as defeated enemies, quickly set up effective Japanese and German governments, and never fought a counter-insurgency in either nation. The American military occupation in each country was short, and we ceased to government those nations.

But in both cases there was an outside threat that needed to be defended from. We weren't ready for either nation to rearm to defend itself, so our troops remained after those nations were otherwise in control of themselves. The Status of Forces Agreements (SoFA) in both cases acknowledged that our troops remained on their soil as allies against Communist governments, not as occupiers. In each cast the SoFA gave judicial control of American soldiers who committed a crime against civilians to the local government.

In Iraq the issue is not protection from an outside aggressor. It is a long-term American military occupation of a Muslim nation which we attacked with no provocation. Iraq is under no external threat that we are there to protect them from. That makes it a lot harder to justify any continued occupation.

Do Americans invade other nations involved in a civil war to protect them from their own violent people? Not unless, like in Haiti, Florida is threatened with an unsupportable wave of refugees. Even then, unless I am wrong we were invited in to Haiti, and got out as soon as we could.

Beyond not admitting that his invasion of Iraq was an utterly stupid move in the first place, and then admitting that it was done with too few troops, no occupation plan, and utterly botched ( apparently in large by Dick Cheney), what does Bush get out of refusing to shut down a failed war?

So far the only explanation that makes any sense is psychological. Bush is refusing to admit that the war in Iraq is, in fact, failed. The position to which he was assignment by the Republican Party - President - is sufficiently powerful to let him play out his personal psychoses using the American military.

For this Bush's speech writers hand him a speech filled with bogus history to read to the nation over TV. Bush is not sufficiently educated to know that it is bogus history and his speech writers are also very probably selected from among those who have also drunk the Republican Koolaide.

For this, some one hundred or so American soldiers and Marines die each month and the 'burn-rate' for American funds continues at about $3 billion per week, all borrowed from China.

Tonight's Bush speech is the most disgusting of a long series. Bush lies. GI's die. Then Bush has to move back to Dallas and try to replenish the old coffers, maybe even move to Paraguay. That's what it comes down to.