It's Fourth and Long...

If the Orwellian image of the American mission in the Middle East is not focused enough, then the thoughts I am about to write about may just blur the image a little more. This Administration hopes, in the words of Orwell, that "The very word 'war', therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say, that by becoming continuous, war has ceased to exist. ... War is Peace."

Over the six years that Bush has been in office, he has trotted out a series of bogeymen for him to hang his threat to American freedom and democracy on. There was Manuel Noregia, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden spouting threats against America, or Kim Jung Il being denied iPods. With the last threat to Middle East peace, Saddam Hussein, dead from his public execution the Bush Administration nominates as the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran.

In 2006 Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker reported “The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack.” Recently, the President said that kind of talk was just not true. But read the words Bush used in 2002 in the lead up to the Iraq invasion and compare to what Bush is saying in 2007 about Iran.

The Iraqi people cannot flourish under a dictator that oppresses them”
“Our struggle is not with the Iranian people. As a matter of fact, we want them to flourish.”

“Iraq is a land rich in culture and resources and talent.”
“The Iranian people are a proud people and they’ve got a great history and a great tradition.”

“Hopefully, this can be done peacefully.” (Prior to the Iraq invasion)
“I believe we can solve our problems peacefully.” (In speaking on Iran)

“All options are on the table.”
“All options are on the table.”

Like a stubborn coach calling the same plays even though his team is getting shellacked, Bush “stays the course” by refusing to negotiate, trying to get the rest of the world’s nations to denounce the latest bad guy as heading up the terrorism against the United States now and will pose a potential greater threat if allowed to continue. Just like they said about Iraq in 2002.

In Orwell’s 1984 logic gets turned inside out. In 2002, the success in Iraq would lead to democracy spreading to Iran. Now we are being told that the only solution to our problem in Iraq is to eliminate the threat from Iran. And if that isn’t convoluted enough, we are supposed to believe that somehow the Iranian leadership is aiding and abetting the Iraqis against American soldiers by supplying weapons.

Between 1980 and 1988, for those with a historical short-term memory deficit, Iran and Iraq fought a brutal and horrific war where Iraq unleashed biological weapons and millions of citizens from both countries died in what turned out to be a stalemate. The tales from that miserable period in the two countries history are deplorable even in the annals of warfare. Yet, we are told to believe that these two ancient enemies have somehow put their differences aside in a united effort against the soldiers of the United States?


If we were to suspend reality for a few minutes and using the information we witness daily on the TV and read on the internet and printed information, with 3,000 dead Americans and thousands more injured, and the deficit rising by the second, how would you suppose we are going to handle fighting and succeeding in Iran and Iraq. And don’t forget Afghanistan and that bin Laden guy.

Hey, Coach, time to punt.

Thanks to Countdown and Bushspeak: Bush and Orwell by Scott D. O'Reilly