New Huế Forward – Part II

(Pictured: Minard's Map)


You know, history isn’t always arcane.

It is not always disinterring some scrap of cloth or potsherd from a 6,000 year old burial site and trying to dope out what was going on in the long yesterday or parsing the shoulda-woulda-coulda of Napoleon and Moscow.

Sometimes just holding yesterday’s newspaper up to today’s light is like reading Toynbee.

The solemn promises of days gone by are not lost: All those yellowing newsprint corpses of the crises of our recent past are just sitting there. All dutifully transcribed, catalogued and shelved, but in the mad race to stay one lie ahead of the Subpoena Fairy our Dear Leader sometimes forget everything he said just moments ago.

Of course it helps when your followers are All RAM/No Hard Drive idiots who wipe their collective memories before toddling off to Republican Dreamland every night and awake -- refreshed and reformatted -- every morning, ready for the Moving Hand of Fox and Hate Radio to “Meme, Meme, Tekel, Upharsin” today’s Bright New Lies right onto their tiny trampled cerebellums.

So for example, on January 5th Ollie North – gigaconservative thug and He-Whose-Various-Treasons-Should-Still-Have-Him-Making-Big-Rocks-Into-Little-Rocks-In-Graybar-Fedland – actually broke ranks with the Dear Leader.

I tell you, the breakdown of discipline among the GOP fascisti is becoming downright shocking.

North said:

"Not one of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen or Marines I interviewed told me that they wanted more U.S. boots on the ground. In fact, nearly all expressed just the opposite: "We don't need more American troops, we need more Iraqi troops," was a common refrain. They are right."

and,

"A "surge" or "targeted increase in U.S. troop strength" or whatever the politicians want to call dispatching more combat troops to Iraq isn't the answer. Adding more trainers and helping the Iraqis to help themselves, is. Sending more U.S. combat troops is simply sending more targets.

So according to Ollie, the real problem with Iraq is the lack of Iraqi troops on hand to whom we can pass our burdens.

But…but…but we have “Iraqi troops”.

Legions and legions of Iraqi troops.

I know we do.

How do I know?

'Cause the Dear Leader told me so.

This from September of 2004:

Bush: “Let me first tell you that the best way for Iraq to be safe and secure is for Iraqi citizens to be trained to do the job.

“And that's what we're doing. We've got 100,000 trained now, 125,000 by the end of this year, 200,000 by the end of next year. That is the best way. We'll never succeed in Iraq if the Iraqi citizens do not want to take matters into their own hands to protect themselves. I believe they want to. Prime Minister Allawi believes they want to.”

That was a promise from the Commander-in-Chief to the American people in 2004. One massive, specific and solemn promise among dozens that helped him and his supporters mock his opponent and win re-election.

The unambiguous history of our times. A clear record of what we were guaranteed by the leader of our country during a time of war. All there in black and white.

A pledge that we were training up Iraqi troops at a furious rate.

A promise I know the Dear Leader kept because he

Kept.

Fucking.

Repeating.

It.

Over…
(Also from September, 2004…same debate but later in the transcript)

Bush: "There are 100,000 troops trained, police, guard, special units, border patrol. There's going to be 125,000 trained by the end of this year. Yes, we're getting the job done. It's hard work. Everybody knows it's hard work..."

And over…
(From October 8, 2004)

Bush: "My opponent says he has a plan; it sounds familiar, because it's called the Bush plan. We're going to train troops, and we are. We'll have 125,000 trained by the end of December. We're spending about $7 billion."

And over again…
(From October 13, 2004)

Bush: "The best way to take the pressure off our troops is to succeed in Iraq, is to train Iraqis so they can do the hard work of democracy, is to give them a chance to defend their country, which is precisely what we're doing. We'll have 125,000 troops trained by the end of this year."

An oath he wouldn’t dare renege on because changing one’s position -- showing any degree of inconsistency -- on these critical matters will cause us to lose the War on Terror!

How do I know that inconsistency would lead to defeat?

'Cause the Dear Leader told me so.

From September 2004 (all emphasis mine).

Bush: The only consistent about my opponent's position is that he's been inconsistent. He changes positions. And you cannot change positions in this war on terror if you expect to win.

So because sweet, sweet History tells me that the Dear Leader’s men have been cranking out Iraqi soldiers like cheeseburgers at the Billy Goat Tavern during the lunch rush (because any deviation from that promise would Lead to Defeat) I know that…

…we had 125,000 Iraqi troops trained and ready to “stand up” by the end of 2004.

…we had 200,000 Iraqi troops trained and ready to “stand up” by the end of 2005.

And if we follow that metric, we must have had around 300,000 Iraqi troops ready to “stand up” by the end of 2006.

So by my cipherin’, as of about a week ago we were supposed to have a third of a million Iraqis under arms – more than enough by a factor of more than 2-to-1 to take over for the 140,000 American troops currently bleeding and dying in Iraq.

Which should be happening any day now.

How do I know?

'Cause the Dear Leader told me so.

From September, 2004.

Bush: “And so the best indication about when we can bring our troops home -- which I really want to do, but I don't want to do so for the sake of bringing them home; I want to do so because we've achieved an objective -- is to see the Iraqis perform and to see the Iraqis step up and take responsibility.”

See, it’s all part of George Bush’s Plan for Victory.

You didn’t know there was a Plan for Victory?

Well there is.

How do I know?

'Cause the Dear Leader told me so.

From September, 2004.

Bush: “We will succeed. We've got a plan to do so. And the main reason we'll succeed is because the Iraqis want to be free.

“I had the honor of visiting with Prime Minister Allawi. He's a strong, courageous leader. He believes in the freedom of the Iraqi people.

“He doesn't want U.S. leadership, however, to send mixed signals, to not stand with the Iraqi people.

“He believes, like I believe, that the Iraqis are ready to fight for their own freedom. They just need the help to be trained. There will be elections in January. We're spending reconstruction money. And our alliance is strong.

“That's the plan for victory.”

A plan he kept repeating...
(From October 8, 2004)

Bush: "Our plan is working. We're going to make elections. And Iraq is going to be free, and America will be better off for it."

A plan his Vice President also repeated,
(From October 5, 2004)

Cheney: We've made significant progress in Iraq. We've stood up a new government that's been in power now only 90 days. The notion of additional troops is talked about frequently, but the point of success in Iraq will be reached when we have turned governance over to the Iraqi people; they have been able to establish a democratic government. They're well on their way to doing that. They will have free elections next January for the first time in history.

We also are actively, rapidly training Iraqis to take on the security responsibility.

Those two steps are crucial to success in Iraq. They're well in hand, well under way. And I'm confident that, in fact, we'll get the job done.
…

And how do I know this Plan to Victoriously Stand Up Hundreds of Thousands of Iraqi Troops so that We Can Stand Down is working?

Because the Dear Leader told me so.

Actually his Vice President told me in this exchange between Himself and John Edwards on October 5, 2004

CHENEY: Classic example. [Edwards] won't count the sacrifice and the contribution of Iraqi allies. It's their country. They're in the fight. They're increasingly the ones out there putting their necks on the line to take back their country from the terrorists and the old regime elements that are still left. They're doing a superb job. And for you to demean their sacrifices strikes me as...

EDWARDS: Oh, I'm not...

CHENEY: ... as beyond...

EDWARDS: I'm not demeaning...

CHENEY: It is indeed. You suggested...

EDWARDS: No, sir, I did not...

CHENEY: ... somehow they shouldn't count, because you want to be able to say that the Americans are taking 90 percent of the sacrifice. You cannot succeed in this effort if you're not willing to recognize the enormous contribution the Iraqis are increasingly making to their own future.

We'll win when they take on responsibility for governance, which they're doing, and when the take on responsibility for their own security, which they increasingly are doing.

History, bitches!