The timid democrats were finally emboldened to challenge Bush when he remonstrated Congress on June 12 for having the audacity to debate a withdrawal, saying it had no business dictating policy on the war. Guess that means it’s none of the American people’s business either. The shot was fired across the bow, and within hours, Congress answered back, by passing a resolution, mostly along party lines, to set a withdrawal target date of April 2008. (Speaking of dictating, Bush had twice previously said “if this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator,” once on December 19th 2000 and similarly again on July 27th 2001. Somehow the mass media missed the significance of the remarks, given the way things have played out in this administration. They were precursors to be sure, but hindsight doesn‘t mean much now does it?)

     As the remonstrator was scolding Congress and putting the lipstick on the pig, he pulled out his trusty syntax shooter and fired off over 30 shots of “al Qaeda.” When the smoke cleared, there wasn’t a single fact left standing. W shot holes through every one. All that was left standing was fear...just how he likes it.

     We’ve heard this refrain ad nauseam, the mythical pre-9/11 linkage between al Qaeda and Iraq, that bin Laden and Saddam were in cahoots. Not true. What is true is that the Bush battle plan, which began and ended with “Shock and Awe,” drew al Qaeda into Iraq like disappearing honey bees are drawn to Texas bluebonnets. If that was the Bush war plan, to draw al Qaeda out into the open in Iraq, then wow, I for one am impressed. Oh, and according to independent sources, al Qaeda has been growing ever since.

     Bush is playing a version of Texas hold ‘em, feigning a winning hand. He keeps challenging Congress to keep dealing, $12-billion a month because he’s sure he’s going to win an exit strategy…which is to prolong our presence in Iraq long enough for him to exit the White House in January 2009, leaving his mess behind for someone else to clean up. Then, as sure as Texas oil wells are running dry, he and his neo-con cohorts will carp from the sidelines about how badly the war he handled so badly is being mishandled.

 
     Whether our troops go or stay, the pipedream “envisioned” by Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz-Feith et al of an Iraq cloned in the image of the US, awash in oil revenue ,with democracy spreading from it like oil on water in in the region, has devolved into a civil war that threatens to engulf the entire region. Adding coincidental tension to the region, the Taliban is causing havoc again in Afghanistan, and Pakistan seems to get more unstable by the day.

     Here’s a “vision” more in keeping with the way things have developed. The insurgent momentum coupled with an impotent Iraqi government is pushing things toward partition. Iraq is dividing into 3 parts, something that is already apparent. Some American politicians think it may be the best answer anyway, since unification seems increasingly impossible.

     To the north, there would be a new Kurdistan, unless of course the 140,000 Turkish troops already camped out on the border have something to say about that.
The South of Iraq would become the Shiite Islamic Republic of Sadr, closely allied with if not a satellite of Iran, unless the Syrians or the Saudi’s object in a forceful way.

 
     And in between, right in the center would be a new fundamentalist nation. As when Vietnam fell and Saigon was re-named Ho Chi Minh City, Baghdad would be known as al bin Laden City, and it would be the capitol of the Islamic Republic of Iraqaeda.