Left News and Views

Last week’s Time magazine had a feature called One Day in Iraq that examined the lives of six American service members killed on a day in April, one of whom was Jesse De La Torre of Aurora, IL.

“Our lives will never be the same,” his father, Aureliano De La Torre, whose grief is colored by the anger he feels over losing a son to a war he does not support, was quoted in the story. “Now that my son is gone, there is a vacancy in Iraq. Maybe the President would like to send one of his daughters over there to continue to fight in Jesse’s place.”

Over the past three days, 14 more “vacancies” were created. Maybe we could send Bush’s kids along with Cheney’s and any kin of Donald Rumsfeld.

As of yesterday, 3,495 American men and women have died in Iraq. And what have they died for? There are very few left who can truly answer that question. And, it takes nothing away from the courage and dedication of these fallen troops to say that their lives were wasted.

The slaughter is increasing because of the so-called surge, another in a whole string of botched, mission-less strategies that have been hatched by the bumbling idiots in the Bush Administration. I suggest that Bush and Company knew this surge wouldn’t work; they just wanted to gain another three months regardless of how many lives it cost. Evidence of this is that they are now discussing a so-called Plan B to roll out when Americans learn how badly the surge has gone in September.

In reality, it appears that we shouldn’t even have to wait until September. According to a story in today’s New York Times, three months after the start of the so-called Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city’s neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation.

According to the Times story, the American assessment, completed in late May, found that American and Iraqi forces were able to “protect the population” and “maintain physical influence over” only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods.

It goes on, when planners devised the Baghdad security plan late last year, they had assumed most Baghdad neighborhoods would be under control around July, according to a senior American military officer, so the emphasis could shift into restoring services and rebuilding the neighborhoods as the summer progressed.

“We were way too optimistic,” said the officer, adding that September is now the goal for establishing basic security in most neighborhoods, the same month that Bush administration officials have said they plan to review the progress of the plan.

Is this latest “way too optimistic” reminiscent of it’s going to be a cakewalk; we’ll be welcomed with open arms; we’re making remarkable progress; the insurgency is in its last throes, etc.

In reality, “way too optimistic” is a euphemism for Bush’s refusal to consider all reports that don’t agree with his rosy view of the war. And, because of his blind stubbornness, we are nearing 3,500 dead. If there is any justice in this world, someday he will be held accountable.