Bollettino


LI feels it ought to put out a little reminder of the stakes tomorrow, in terms of human lives. As if our readers -- hey, we now average 100 per day -- didn't know what this site was about. The LA Times runs a story on the upcoming war crime that Bush and Allawi are plotting against Fallujah. Interesting, the U.S. press line is that Allawi, that oh so independent soul, is pressing the assault. The U.S. press can only accommodate one dark skinned leader at a time in Iraq – so you hear very little about the more popular interim president. But… well, al-Yawer disagrees with sheering the meat off the bones of hundreds of Iraqis via terrorbombing and such. Obviously, he’s a terrorist stooge himself, and not a freedomloving Iraqi:

“Allawi's speech Sunday seemed aimed at preparing the Iraqi public for an onslaught in Fallujah, Allawi warned of civilian casualties, saying that if he orders an assault, it would be with a "heavy heart."

"But I owe, owe it to the Iraqi people to defend them from the violence and the terrorists and insurgents," he said. Commanders have estimated that up to 5,000 Islamic militants, Saddam Hussein loyalists and common criminals are holed up in Fallujah.

He did not give a deadline for how long he would give negotiations with Fallujah's city leaders in which he demands the handover of foreign fighters.

In a position that appeared to contrast with Allawi's, the country's interim president said a military assault was the wrong solution, according to an interview published today.

President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim, told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas that dialogue must continue and that insurgents "want nothing but a military solution, and the continuation of bleeding among Iraqis."

The Bush planning in Iraq is catastrophic in a characteristic way: it marries means that are at odds with its goals. Thus, the goal of liberating and democratizing Iraq, and paying outselves for the liberation out of Iraq's oil money. Thus securing the country and disbanding an army that was not in U.S. control. Etc., etc. In this case, the goal of making sure the Sunnis get a vote, and that the vote cements the legitimacy of an American friendly Iraq government, is being pursued by killing Sunnis and destroying the major Sunni city. We've seen the oddest self congratulation on the pro-war blogs about how well the U.S. did against Sadr in Najaf, which ignores the polls (U.S. sponsored polls) that showed how Sadr's popularity went up in all segments of Iraqi society after that triumph. This is what is peculiarly "no' reality based about the Bush approach -- it is the invisibility to the world outside a small, self-selected circle of conservative media and political types. In this monad, everybody watches Fox news all the time, and it is paradise.

Crime is one thing. Take the Bush gang's energy policy -- that is a standard Republican big business rip off with which we are all comfortable. But this is the gang that couldn't terrorbomb straight. Stop the Bushies before they kill again, as they try to instantiate their unique program of winning friends.