Dr. Rice's Latest Nonsense Assessment On Iraq

Former Chevron Board Of Directors member, and now Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rica has offered another nonproductive bit of political disinformation in now claiming that the insurgency in Iraq is "losing steam" politically and militarily. Yet just like her absurd 2003 comments on Sunday morning talk shows in which she raised the issue of a "mushroom cloud" unless American quickly invaded Iraq, her comments are more silly cheeerleading for an unpopular policy in Iraq that is down to 34 to 38% support in some polls.

Yet even if one accepts the premise of Dr. Rice, what evidence of Iraq improving is very difficult to find. In July 2003, 48 American soldiers lost their lives. And in July 2004 and July 2005, 54 American soldiers each lost their lives. This is no sign of military situation improvement. And the number of insurgents was miscalculated at a mere 12,000 or similar number, when in fact 50,000 insurgent fighters have been killed in the last 18 months, proving a much larger pool of insurgent fighters actually exist. And a majority pool of antiAmerican sentiment also exists in the widely unpopular Muslim governments that offer some support to the U.S. including Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan.

Just this weekend, a large demonstration against the lack of essential services in Iraq took place. With a government that cannot even provide running water, electricity, enough food, cut unemployment from up to 70% levels, or provide a viable police or military to provide for basic public order that is basic for any orderly society, are certainly bad signs. As of yet, the work to even write a viable constitution for this government appears to be a daunting task, let alone the ability to rule the country with a viable government. The mainly Sunni insurgent fighters may not have popular support among the mainly Shiite government. But the government is hardly effective when it has difficulty even writing a constitution, when so many social problems for Iraq remain. In nearly every regard, the population of Iraq is now worse off than during the years of U.N. sanctions and the theivery of Saddam Hussein.

There is a stubborn streak in the American conservative community to always dismiss any critical view of military strategy failures as unAmerican. Yet this is the classic limited reasoned argument of the conservative community to stubbornly adhere to policies that fail despite all evidence to the contrary. NAFTA has been nothing but a human suffering failure for both the U.S. and Mexico, yet conservatives supported an extension of this logic with CAFTA and now a newly proposed MidEast "free trade" agreement. And in wars like Korea or Vietnam, some failed military policy was stubbornly adhered to.

The far more effective Gen. MacArthur was replaced for political reasons with a far less effective general who drove American combat deaths way up in more fruitless hand to hand combat situations when the power of American bombers and the new introduction of jet aircraft was far more successful against the North Korean and Chinese communist forces. In Vietnam, Gen. Westmoreland stubbornly adhered to a failing military strategy that lost not only in Vietnam, but pulled down Laos and Cambodia as well. And the classic example was General George Custer in the wars with the more radical tribes of the Native American Indian community. Custer refused heavy equipment such as gattling guns, and suffered a complete defeat at the battle of Little Big Horn.

Conservatives and neoconconservatives rejected all concerns that Iraq would be a difficult situation despite all MidEast history to the contrary. The state of Israel under the states of Judea and Sumaria have had 2,600 years of conflict with warring neigbor states. Dr. Rice's role is hardly to reflect accurate information about Iraq, but to act similar to old Soviet Union newspaper Pravda, which would act as a government mouthpiece for policies that are failing. Dr. Rice is loyalist to the Bush Administration that will lawyerly promote their goals no matter the cost to the American public of the failings of this administration.