Chris Floyd: Bush’s “Vision Quest”

2006-04-01

Richard Moore

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From: JFadiman
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 11:02:13 EST
Subject: Fwd: [THS] Chris Floyd: Vision Quest
To: •••@••.•••

if you look at it this way, it all makes ugly realistic
sense.

---<fwd>---
To: •••@••.•••
From: peter webster <•••@••.•••>
Subject: [THS] Chris Floyd: Vision Quest
Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2006 15:34:19 +0200

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12582.htm
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/167012/
   (w/live links to sources)

Vision Quest

By Chris Floyd

03/31/06 "Moscow Times" -- -- Once again we must take up the
cudgels for President George W. Bush, who is being
increasingly maligned for his alleged lack of strategic
vision in Iraq. This chorus of petty carping from partisan
dead-enders has been exacerbated of late by all the
hand-wringing media reports about "civil war" breaking out
among the ungrateful beneficiaries of the president's
selfless crusade for peace and enlightenment in the Middle
East.

These charges are, as always, pure bunkum. As we have often
noted here before, Bush is pursuing a remarkably effective
"win-win" strategy in Iraq, a highly flexible vision that is
even now ripening to fruition. The savage militias, ethnic
cleansing, mass murder, sectarian hatred and gruesome
tortures that are turning Iraq into a howling moonscape of
fear and chaos are but precision tools in the artful hands
of the Leader, as he patiently crafts the ultimate victory.

The war aims of the Babylonian Conquest have always been
obvious to anyone who concentrates on the operational
reality of the action, ignoring the ludicrous cornball about
democracy and security that Bush dishes out to gull the
rubes back home. The reality clearly shows that Bush had
three primary objectives in launching the invasion. First
and foremost was the transfer of large portions of the
national wealth of Iraq -- and the United States -- into the
coffers of his political cronies, corporate backers and
family members. Second was the frantic acceleration of the
long-running, bipartisan militarization of America, which is
now almost wholly dependent on war and rumors of war to keep
its heavily mortgaged economy afloat. Third was planting a
permanent military presence in Iraq to "project dominance"
over the strategic oil lands and serve as staging areas for
further operations in regime change and political extortion
as needed. ("Nice little country you got there, Abdul; too
bad if something, like, happened to it -- you savvy? Now
howzabout signing that free trade agreement already?")

None of these aims have been harmed in the slightest by
Iraq's death spiral into civil war. The Bush faction's war
profiteering and fraud -- on a scale surpassing anything
ever seen in world history -- has fueled a ruthless
political machine that, despite its growing unpopularity
with the U.S. people, now controls all three branches of
government and has overthrown the Constitution, openly
declaring that its leader is beyond the reach of "judicial
review, congressional oversight or international law," as
The Washington Post reported, rather belatedly, this week.
Swollen by the swag of aggressive war, the elite interests
represented by the Bush regime -- oil, military-related
industries and predatory venture capitalists like the
Carlyle Group -- have had their already inordinate sway over
American society and policy increased by several magnitudes.
They will remain ascendant for decades to come, no matter
what happens in Iraq, or in any U.S. election.

Indeed, the murderous chaos that will inevitably spill
across the region, and the world, from the collapse of Iraq
will only mean more boffo box office for the fearmongers and
warmongers of the Bush faction -- and even greater feasting
for their oil barons, already gorged on record-breaking
profits after just three years of bloodshed. The
whack-a-mole "Long War" gleefully envisioned by the Pentagon
will thus be extended indefinitely, bringing more
militarization, more draconian "war powers," and further
destruction of those pesky civil rights and constitutional
liberties that hinder the elites in their exercise of raw
power.

Civil war also enhances the prospect of permanent U.S.
bases. The Sunni minority, once the most vociferous
opponents of American occupation, now look -- vainly -- to
U.S. forces as their last-ditch protection against the
deadly militias of the Shiite majority. The Shiite-led
government relies on U.S. military might to prop up its
rickety state system. The Kurds (who are busy ethnically
cleansing their own enclave, as The Washington Post reports,
and imprisoning people for criticizing the corruption of
Kurdish leaders, as The New York Times reports) are happy
for the Americans to plant vast, minatory fortresses down
south to keep the troublesome Arabs in line. And so the
permanent bases are being sunk deep into Iraqi soil; the
Pentagon has already "authorized or proposed almost $1
billion" for bases in 2005-06, The Associated Press reports.

And if Iraq cracks apart completely -- the "three-state
solution" proposed by Leslie Gelb, doyen of that bastion of
bipartisan Establishment wisdom, the Council on Foreign
Relations -- why, so much the better. It will be much easier
to wangle basing agreements, oil deals, insider investments
and those all-important arms contracts out of weakened
mini-states struggling for survival than from a strong,
unified nation looking out for its own interests.

As the gates of hell blow open in Iraq, the marvelous
adaptability of Bush's strategy becomes apparent. When the
promised "cakewalk" did not materialize, Bush shifted to the
near-genocidal fury of the Fallujah assault and the
systematic tortures of Abu Ghraib. When these tactics failed
to quell the resistance, Bush gave the Pentagon the
greenlight to arm, infiltrate and manipulate militias and
terrorist groups, even to the point of goading them into
action, The New Yorker reports. If you can't have cake, then
chaos might serve your turn just as well.

Civil war looks like a profitable gambit for now -- except
for all the pointless suffering, of course. But Bush has
never cared about that. A true visionary, he keeps his eyes
on the prize, on the only kind of "victory" he has ever
sought in Iraq: loot and domination for his ruthless clique.
Whatever happens next, they've already won.

Annotations

'If You Start Looking at Them as Humans, How Are You Gonna
Kill Them?'
The Guardian, 29 March, 2006

Fear Up Harsh: The Iraqi Civil War in Context
Empire Burlesque, March 28, 2006

Opening Statement of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul
Wolfowitz
House Armed Services Committee, Aug. 10, 2004

Testimony on Denying Terrorist Sanctuaries: Wolfowitz, Pace,
Brown
U.S. Department of Defense, Aug. 10, 2004

Pentagon granted authority to pay, equip foreign forces
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 30, 2004

Seymour Hersh: The Coming Wars
The New Yorker, Jan. 17, 2005

The Salvador Option
Newsweek, Jan. 14, 2005

Leslie Gelb: The Three-State Solution
New York Times, Nov. 25, 2003

Children of Abraham: Death in the Desert
Empire Burlesque, March 19/27, 2006

Redirecting Bullets in Baghdad
New York Times, March 26, 2006

Bound, Blindfolded and Dead: The Face of Atrocity in Baghdad
New York Times, March 25, 2006

Court Case Challenges Power of President
Washington Post, March 26, 2006

Civil War? What Civil War?
Salon.com, March 23, 2006

A Government with No Military and No Territory
TomDispatch.com, March 9, 2006

The Battle for Baghdad 'Has Already Started'
The Independent, March 25, 2006

30 Beheaded Bodies Found; Iraqi Death Squads Blamed
New York Times, March 27, 2006

Extended presence of U.S. in Iraq looms large
Associated Press, March 21, 2006

The Supplemental Pentagon Spending Bill: Eternal Funding for
a Never-Ending War
CounterPunch, March 27, 2006

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo to British Adviser Says
New York Times, March 27, 2006

Kurdish Officials Sanction Abductions in Kirkuk
Washington Post, June 15, 2005

US audit finds 'spectacular' waste of funds in Iraq
Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 27, 2006

Free Press Stumbles in Kurdistan
Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2006

Death squads operated from inside Iraqi government,
officials say
Knight-Ridder, March 12, 2006

What Bush was Told About Iraq
National Journal, March 2, 2006

Iraq's death squads: On the brink of civil war
The Independent, Feb. 26, 2006

Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Empire Burlesque, Aug. 27, 2004

Darkness Visible: The Pentagon Plan to Foment Terrorism is
Now in Operation
Empire Burlesque, Jan. 25, 2005

Into the Dark: The Pentagon Plan to Foment Terrorism
Empire Burlesque, Nov. 1, 2002

Requests for Iraqi Base Funding Make Some Wary of Extended
Stay
Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2006

Abizaid says U.S. may want to keep bases in Iraq
Reuters, March 15, 2006

Hillary Clinton, War Goddess
Antiwar.com, Jan. 23, 2006

Cost of Rebuilding Shifts to Iraqis
USA Today, March 24, 2006

US Has "Black" Torture Chamber in Iraq
Deep Blade Journal, March 19, 2006

U.S. Plans New Bases in the Middle East
Washington Post, March 22, 2006

How Abu Ghraib Lives On
Time, March 6, 2006

Ring of Fire: The Fallujah Inferno
Empire Burlesque, Nov. 19, 2004

CIA Vet: Proof Bush Deceived America on War
TomPaine.com, Jan. 13, 2006

Copyright © 2006 The Moscow Times. All rights reserved

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