Iriemon

Part of the consequence of a government that has made so many misrepresentations and misimplications as to something as important as starting a war is that you become suspicious of and distrust you own government’s actions.

Jan 2001. For years, the neocon media had been clamoring for action against Iraq. When the Bush administration took power, the neocons gained influential positions in the government in the form of Cheney, Runsfeld, Wolfawitz, and others.

After 9/11, the media was flooded with neocon reports about Iraq’s supposed involvement with Al-Queda, including reports of its involvement with 9/11 and the anthrax incident.

Our intelligence sources immediately connected 9/11 with Al Queda in Afghanistan. But the administration only used token forces for the attack on Afghanistan, initially only committing 5,000 troops. It had bigger fish in mind.

The 9/11 tragedy gave the neocon/Bush administration an excuse for Iraq. Even though all intelligence agencies, US and foreign, reported no evidence that Iraq was involved in 9/11 or corroborated with AQ, the Bush administration and its neocon element focused their attention on convincing the country and world to go to war with Iraq.

March 2003. UN inspectors had scoured Iraq for months but found nothing of the WMD our intelligence sources (later disclosed to be unreliable and dubious) said they would be. Several of our closest allies, including France and Germany, counseled against war, saying it was unclear that Iraq had WMD and inspections should continue.

Another nation taking that position was Russia, with whom we had been forging a new bilateral relationship, in no small part thanks to the efforts of Ronald Reagan who worked hard to establish an new relationship with the former Soviet Union.

The Bush administration, along with the UK, was desperate to show broad international support for its action in Iraq, and thus got the commitment of several states, including Georgia and Poland to commit a few thousand combat troops.

Should one suppose Georgia and Poland gave these commitments freely and with no strings attached?

Since taking office, the Bush administration has promoted an agenda which can be nothing but calculated to antagonize Russia. The Bush administration unilateral declared it was withdrawing from the ABM treaty the US signed with Russia, then over Russia’s heated objections, announced it was going to put missles in Poland and armed and trained Georgia and pushed for both contries to be part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Think how Americans would feel if the Mexicans asserted a border dispute with the US, and the Russians began arming and training Mexicans.

But having gotten military troop support from states like Georgia and Poland, the Bush administration unnecessarily put our nation in their debt.

Now America is paying another price for the folly of the Bush Administation’s determination to go to war with Iraq. Bush put America in debt to these countries to support its war in Iraq, and now Georgia is calling its chips. Backed by US training and weapons and knowing that it was owed big time by the Bush administration, the Georgian government provoked an action with Russia, and Russia responded as it said it would.

Bush has put America in a terrible but completely unnecessary conundrum. If we do not support Georgia, we look like an ingrateful country that is more than happy to call on other for help but doesn’t return the favor. If we intervene in Georgia, we run the risk of starting a hot war with the one nation on earth that can completely obliterate us.

Bush’s pride is at stake -- and his response is predictable. He has deterined to put the entire nation at risk of war with the only other nuclear superpower.

This is just one example of America paying a price for being misled by but still supporting this administration and the neocon warmongers. There are other prices we’ve paid and will pay. I seriously doubt this will be the last.

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Matthew 5:9