Ask #Bush Why The #IraqiMilitary Won’t Fight

Federalism, Foreign Policy, Iran, Iraq, Nationhood, Neoconservatism, Pseudo-history

“Ask Bush Why The Iraqi Military Won’t Fight” is the current column, now on Praag.org. An excerpt:

… The ineptness of the reconstituted Iraqi Army is nothing new. In 2006, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton demanded to know when the “Iraqi government and the Iraqi Army would step up to the task.” “I have heard over and over again, that the government must do this, the Iraqi Army must do that,” griped Clinton to Gen. John P. Abizaid, then top American military commander in the Middle East. “Can you offer us more than the hope that the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Army will step up to the task?”

Indeed, the War Party is in the habit of thrashing about in an ahistorical void—or creating its own reality, as warbot Karl Rove, George Bush’s muse, is notorious for saying. The neoconservative creed as disgorged by Rove deserves repeating:

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

The lowly “you” Rove reserved for “the reality-based community” (guilty).

Curiously, a military that has done nothing but flee before the opposition ever since the Americans commandeered Iraq, had fought and won a protracted war against Iran, under Saddam Hussein. The thing we currently call the Iraqi military has been unable and unwilling to fight the wars America commands it to fight.

Why?

For one, Bush’s envoy to Iraq, Paul Bremer, made the decision to dissolve the Iraqi Army and civil service, early in 2003, with the blessing of Bush at whose pleasure Bremer served. Bush’s minions viewed the dissolution of the Iraqi Army as part of the “De-Ba’thification” process. …

… Another dynamic is at play in the region besides the Sunni-Shia divide. It is that between the forces of centralization and the forces of decentralization. …

Read the rest. “Ask Bush Why The Iraqi Military Won’t Fight” is now on Praag.org

#TulsiGabbard Is Not A Total Ass

Democrats, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Military

Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is an Iraq War veteran, who serves on Armed Services Committee. She is also a Democrat, which usually comes with the presumption of asininity. This woman, however, is not a complete ass. Here she touches on some of the themes of my current WND column as to why the Iraqi military would not fight, although she eventually stalls:

WOLF BLITZER: Because you make a good point. There’s – the Kurdish fighters, they have their own separate militia. The Sunni – Iraqi Sunni fighters, they have their own separate militia. There’s the Iraqi Shia. They’re largely backed by Iran. They have their own separate militia. They’re all pretty – pretty dedicated. The weakest link seems to be the central Iraqi army, which the defense secretary of the United States says simply has the – lacks the will to fight, yet the United States keeps supporting that weakest link, the central military of Iraq. That’s a problem from your perspective, isn’t it?

REP. TULSI GABBARD (D), HAWAII:: Yes, Wolf, it is a problem for a few different reasons. One is, this is a strategy that’s proven to have failed, not only recently, but really even through the Bush administration when we had Maliki in charge, we were providing weapons and money and resources to this Shiite-led government that persecuted the Sunnis, completely left them out, and really created the situation that we see today where you have ISIS taking advantage of the oxygen that this policy has created where the Sunni tribes essentially have been driven into the arms of ISIS for protection. This is the problem that I see with the current offensive that’s happening right now heading into Ramadi. This is being led by the Shia militia who named this offensive attack a name that is extremely incendiary and offensive specifically to the Sunni tribes. So this is only going to make the sectarian divides deepen. This will make matters worse. And ultimately, again, this will push the Sunni tribes closer and closer into ISIS’ arms, at the end of the day strengthening ISIS rather than defeating them.

For the rest, she’s an energetic interventionist, so a bit of an ass after all. But then so are most Republicans.

(Source: CNN.)

More #WomenInTheMilitary Equals More #Welfare Programs

Feminism, Gender, Military, Welfare

Capt. Courtney Wilson was unhappy in her duties until the military “just threw resources at me,” she told Babbling Brooke, “news” anchor at CNN, a job description that entails promoting the notion that “We … want more women to enter the forces,” to quote Brooke Baldwin.

Waxed Wilson: [The military] stepped up and they gave me amazing resources there like do you want biofeedback, do you want to do yoga, medication, therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, just threw resources at me and I could not be happier with the service that I received. It absolutely — it gave me my life back.

BALDWIN: Wonderful. That’s wonderful. We know that and want more women to enter, you know, the forces. So I guess what would your message be to women wanting to sign up today?

WILSON: I would say, be authentic. I think that I spent way too much time caring about what other people thought and what type of leader they wanted me to be rather than understanding that I was competent and I was good and to just be myself. I wish that I had been more authentic.

BALDWIN: Quickly, I know you’re out now. What’s next for you?

WILSON: So I actually started my own fitness business. And I’m going to Babson College in Massachusetts to get my MBA. So hopefully open up a nonprofit gym that focuses on young women, and just getting them to understand the value of fitness and see how strong they are and lo for that to be led by female veterans.

BALDWIN: I love that idea. I love that idea.

WILSON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Captain Wilson, thank you so much. Thank you so much for your service to this country …

HERE.

Personally, I won’t be happy until my tax dollars go toward more than just “biofeedback, yoga, medication, therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy” for the women in the military. What about dolphin therapy? I hope we bought Captain America a pet as well.

Dumb, Duplicitous Techno Geeks On #Facebook

Etiquette, Intelligence, Internet, Technology

Techno geeks can be such dumb f-cks (a good honest word when used sparingly). This is especially so when they know nothing but technology. And it is all the more so when they routinely underestimate those of us who manipulate technology to our own ends quite adequately, but do not worship it.

Every idiot knows that one can remain a Facebook Friend with a former pal, just to keep up appearances (otherwise known as duplicity), while barring them from one’s Timeline and from other forums. Don’t you love cretins who think this fatuity is uncommon knowledge?

Most of this writer’s interactions on Facebook are for the purpose of furthering the work done and are with people interested in this work. But mistakes have been committed in cultivating shallow, two-faced friends (who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, to quote Oscar Wilde).

Enough said.