[NYTr] Landau: A Faith-Based War

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Ed Pearl

Progreso Weekly - Jul 25, 2007
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=65&Itemid=1

A Faith-Based War

By Saul Landau

Washington DC made its reputation around the world as the city where nothing
succeeds like failure -- take Bush and Wolfowitz as examples. Few "realists"
tell the truth, especially in matters of public policy. But President Bush
has discovered a new way around truth: faith. He has faith that the U.S.
military will win in Iraq despite the impressive array of facts that would
cause less fervent believers to waver. His style of operating -- classify
everything and don´t talk to anyone but absolutely loyal reporters and God -
contrasts sharply with the Nixon-Kissinger era.

Nixon recorded his criminal conversations, which showed he knew about the
cover up of the 1972 Watergate break-in. During the early and mid 1970s, Dr.
Henry Kissinger served Nixon and then Gerald Ford as combined Secretary of
State and National Security Adviser. He invited the mainstream press to
regular "background briefings." Kissinger used these sessions, as the late
Larry Stern of the Washington Post explained to me in 1975, "to weave a
seamless web of lies and truth so the media would not have a clue as to what
he was really up to." For example, Kissinger swore he had not ordered the
CIA to destabilize Chile just as he gave orders to destabilize Chile. A 1975
Senate Sub Committee under Frank Church (D-ID) proved Kissinger lied.

The legendary I. F. Stone advised reporters not to attend such briefings --
unless, he said "you want to hear lies." A New York Times reporter in the
1970s said Kissinger phoned the Washington editor of the Times at 5 p.m. and
advised him on which story to use as the next day´s lead. And Max Frankel
usually followed K´s advice.

An apocryphal story had desperate reporters hiring a Washington psychiatrist
to pose as a reporter and helping him obtain press credentials. After
attending several K backgrounders, the shrink told the assembled reporters:
"Look," he said, "when Kissinger folds his hands like a Viennese school boy,
or toys with his eyeglasses or rubs his hands along his thighs, you should
also see these as evidence of veracity. When he opens his mouth to talk he´s
lying."

Today´s key liars have lower IQs, but the White House and Republican
establishments have inundated the obsequious media with wholesale
prevarications especially after 9/11. During all of 2002 and until the
invasion of Iraq March 2003, Bush, Cheney, Rumfeld, Rice, Powell et al
inundated Congress and the media with lies to justify a war that God told
Bush he had to start with Iraq and indeed, keep the U.S. military in a
seemingly endless and futile bloodletting operation since then.

We expect the Pope to claim the Catholic Church as the sole mediator of
salvation, as he did in early July, while U.S. dioceses paid hundreds of
millions of dollars to people who had suffered sexual abuse from their
saviors. But when Bush assured the world "the fight in Iraq can be won" --
after admitting that the al-Maliki government that he created had failed to
pass basic tests -- only the truly ghoulish could laugh. (AP July 14)

Candidate Bush promised not to "nation build." True, his unabated aggression
has built nothing. He swore to find Osama bin Laden, but instead steered the
military away from the alleged fiend of 9/11. He and Cheney claimed
innumerable times that Saddam Hussein had -- and was collecting -- serious
weapons when intelligence reports before and since showed none.

Indeed, intelligence reports show Al Qaeda did not exist in Iraq until Bush
invaded. Instead of weakening fundamentalism in the region Bush strengthens
it. The media, however, continues obsequiously to report Bush´s "blame"
theory in which Iranians bear responsibility for deadly weapons used against
US troops. Bush also made verbal slaps at Syria for refusing to close the
Damascus airport "to suicide bombers headed to Iraq." These verbal
fusillades belong to Bush´s faith since the facts show that the largest
number of suicide bombers come from Saudi Arabia, a country Bush faithfully
calls an ally.

The most ridiculous faith based claim centers on the U.S.-created Iraqi
government. Bush officials -- and Hillary Clinton -- blame this puppet for
the problems confronting U.S. forces. How can we withdraw our forces, asks
Bush rhetorically, when the Iraqi government, that he created, does not meet
key "benchmarks" that he created as congressional demand? On July 12, Bush
reported "mixed progress" on 18 targets that the Maiki government was
supposed to meet. Under sharp questioning from reporters, pointing to
contradictions and problems in his stance on Iraq, Bush clung to faith.

"I believe that the military strategy we have is going to work, that´s what
I believe," he told a reporter. A few asked him tough questions related to
discrepancies between his previous statements on Iraq -- from "Mission
Accomplished" in May 2003 to "we´re making some progress in securing
Baghdad" in 2007. Bush relied on the word "believe," using it 21 times
during his one hour press conference.

Bush forced tests on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Then Bush announced
that Maliki got an F for failing to get legislation addressing amnesty and
ensuring "that revenues from Iraq's oil resources are distributed equitably
among Iraq's ethnic groups." The U.S. marionette also flunked the exam for
"establishing a strong militia disarmament program to ensure that security
forces are accountable only to the central government and loyal to the
Constitution of Iraq [and] providing Iraqi commanders with authority to make
tactical and operational decisions, in consultation with U.S commanders,
without political intervention, including the authority to pursue all
insurgents and militias." Maliki also could not overcome the benchmark
calling for him to ensure "that the Iraqi Security Forces are providing
even-handed enforcement of the law."

What does a failure do? In Maliki´s case, he rebelled -- verbally and
briefly. Responding to Bush, Maliki claimed Iraqi forces were competent and
U.S. troops could depart "any time they want." A Maliki spokesman charged
Bush with embarrassing his new ally. He said the U.S. military violated
human rights and treated his country like an "experiment in a U.S. lab." He
was of course correct.

Maliki´s insubordination lasted a day. Yassin Majid, a Maliki adviser,
explained that the Prime Minister was misinterpreted and the United States
should continue to bolster Iraqi security forces "side by side with the
withdrawal," which should not happen right away. (AP July 16) Al-Maliki
pleaded that his government needed "time and effort" to meet Bush´s
benchmarks, "particularly since the political process is facing security,
economic and services pressures, as well as regional and international
interference." But he had "full confidence that we are able, God willing, to
take the responsibility completely in running security if the international
forces withdraw at any time they want."

Such flimflam disguises facts and conclusions reached by the conservative
establishment last November 13 when "members of the bipartisan Iraq Study
Group ...listened to President Bush give what one panel member called a
`Churchillian´ vision of `victory´ in Iraq and defend the country´s prime
minister, Nouri al-Maliki." (Woodward WP July 12) Bush actually boasted that
"A constitutional order is emerging."

"Later ... CIA director Michael V. Hayden ...said `the inability of the
government to govern seems irreversible.´" According to Woodward´s report,
Hayden "could not point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn
this thing around. The government is unable to govern," Hayden concluded.
"We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is
balanced, and it cannot function." The Iraq Study Group suggested that
unless Maliki showed "substantial progress" on security and national
reconciliation Bush should withdraw support.

The James Baker-Lee Hamilton led commission of the Washington elite
represented a clear message: Bush´s policy threatened the interests of the
powerful and wealthy. Bush stuck to "faith." In January, he announced his
troop escalation to bring military victory.

Unlike Kissinger, CIA Director Michael Hayden spoke directly. "We have
placed all of our energies in creating the center, and the center cannot
accomplish anything." Hayden´s bleak appraisal coincided with what most
observers gleaned in visits to Iraq. Bush blames Al Qaeda -- as he once
blamed Saddam Hussein. But Hayden told him that Iraq´s Ministry of Interior,
"uniformed death squads, overseers of jails and torture facilities," share
responsibility for the daily violence.

Bush´s faith in the "surge of troops" resembles the Rabbi from Chelm´s
belief in straw. When he saw the town barn afire, the rabbi ordered his
flock to throw straw on the flames. He dismissed the doubters because his
overriding faith in God reinforced his judgment. The straw caused the flames
to abate, momentarily. The rabbi smirked. But seconds later they leaped ever
higher. "More straw," screamed the rabbi. "More troops," screams Bush. The
establishment that contributed to his campaign now wrings its collective
hands and worries about its fortunes -- if the US stays in Iraq or pulls
out -- as the Rabbi of Chelm presides in the White house.

[Saul Landau´s new book is A BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD. His new film is WE
DON´T PLAY GOLF HERE. Get it from roundworldmedia at gmail.com.]