Bush Made This Hellhole

Not one to listen to rational advice, Chimpie went ahead with his little Iraq adventure anyways. He always wanted to be a war president and would not be dissuaded. Colin Powell tried to tell him with with the pottery analogy – “if you break it, you own it” - “You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people. You will own all their hopes, aspirations and problems. You'll own it all” Powell told Bush. Apparently Bush doesn't know what an analogy is – so why would he listen?

Well he got to play warrior, even got to fly onto an aircraft carrier – that was really cool. It's hard to remember all the moments of fun – but it's easy to dismiss the costs – he may not even care. After all, frat boys don't look back. So how is it going in Iraq:

If the old saying that things need to get worse before they get better applies to Iraq, it's hard to imagine how much worse it can possibly get before that country returns to minimum normality. As leaders bicker and bargain over who should assume what ministry in the government.....the streets of Baghdad and other cities across Iraq are being littered with dead bodies.

A suicide bombing here leaves dozens dead and maimed. Trigger-happy assassins there riddle holes in people for reasons only the shooters and their employers know. Dozens of corpses turn up daily in alleys, handcuffed and shot execution style, with signs of torture on their bodies.

For people sitting in the comforts of their homes in any other county but Iraq, the reports and television footage from that place resemble scenes from a horror film about people inflicted with mass hysteria on a violent rampage just before the Apocalypse.

For the ordinary Iraqis, it is no movie, but a nightmare reality that began with the U.S.-led invasion of their country in March 2003 and it is spiraling out of control.

The odds of not surviving in the country are high.

Oh well, guess it's time to cut more brush or do some fishing. Vacation anyone?
Posted on The Human Stain