Non-Delusional Reality for Douglas Feith

Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith is the neocon who was tasked
with cooking up the false "intelligence" that President Bush used to
deceive the US public into supporting an illegal invasion of Iraq. With the
US military now trapped in the Iraqi quagmire, Feith wants the US to
attack Iran.

President Bush falsely claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction, that Iraq was linked to the terrorist attack on the World Trade
Center, and that Iraq would give weapons of mass destruction to
anti-American terrorists. Senior members of the Bush administration terrified the
US public with prospects of mushroom clouds going up over US cities.

Having been proved 100% wrong about Iraq, the Bush administration now
claims that the nonexistent WMD are in Iran, or maybe Syria. During
recent weeks the Bush administration worked overtime to terrify the US
public into believing that Iran is building nuclear weapons and missiles
with which to destroy American cities.

To ward off yet another gratuitous and illegal US attack on a Muslim
country, Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and US experts
such as Gordon Prather have exposed the Bush administration’s false
claims. But the Bush administration ignores factual truth. Bush has his own
"truth," a delusional "truth" independent of all evidence.

Israel’s rightwing Likud Party regards Feith as one of its own. The
Jerusalem Post described Feith as "a staunch supporter of Israel" (Dec.
12). In an exclusive interview Feith told that paper that despite the
intercession of Britain, France, Germany and the IAEA against a US attack
on Iran, the Bush administration has not ruled out taking military
action against Iran.

In other words, the neocon Bush administration has already decided to
attack Iran and Syria. The only question is what kind of lie can Bush
use to get away with it.

But first Bush has to take over the IAEA, which has steadfastly refused
to go along with Bush’s propaganda against Iran. According to the
Washington Post (Dec. 12), the Bush administration has been tapping the
telephones of the head of the IAEA, M. ElBaradei, hoping to find damaging
information with which to frame, blackmail, or taint him as an Iranian
ally.

Unable to find or to manufacture any evidence against ElBaradei, the
Bush administration is using an orchestrated campaign of anonymous
accusations in an effort to oust the IAEA director and to replace him with a
US puppet. The problem is that ElBaradei is more highly regarded than
any member of the tainted Bush administration, including President Bush
himself. So far Bush cannot find anyone anywhere in the world,
including our British puppet, who is willing to be associated with the Bush
administration’s disgraceful intentions.

The important unanswered question is: why do the neocons with their
proven record of duplicity and delusion still hold the reigns of power in
the Bush administration? Why isn’t Feith in prison? Martha Stewart is
in prison for "lying" about a noncrime. Feith’s lies have killed
thousands. The Iraq war is based entirely on neocon lies. The war is costing
the US a fortune it does not have. The war is producing US casualties
comparable to those of the Vietnam war and has killed a minimum of tens
of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

The neocons have destroyed Iraq’s infrastructure, alienated the entire
Muslim world and made the US the most hated country on the planet.

What does Douglas Feith think the effect would be on Shi’ite Iraq of a
US attack on Shi’ite Iran? The only reason the US army in Iraq has not
been totally destroyed is the wait-and-see attitude of the majority
Shi’ites, who expect to take control of Iraq once there is an election. If
the US attacks Iran, the Iraqi Shi’ite clerics will not be able to
maintain their neutrality toward the US occupation of Iraq.

The current Iraqi insurgency is drawn from Sunni ranks. Sunnis comprise
only 20% of Iraq’s population. Yet, Sunnis have tied down 8 US
divisions while inflicting horrendous casualties on US troops. If Bush
escalates US aggression in the Middle East, he will create a larger insurgency.

Imagine the US casualty rate if the Iraqi insurgency was drawn from 80%
of the population. The temporary Shi’ite insurgency of the minor
cleric, Al Sadr, caused tremendous US consternation. What would be the US
casualty rate if, instead of sitting on their hands, all the Shi’ites had
joined the insurgency?

Iran covers almost four times the area of Iraq and has more than 2.5
times the population. If Bush attacks Iran, he will create an insurgency
there as well, one that could spill over into Pakistan, Jordan, Saudi
Arabia, and Egypt.

Bush’s war is achieving a Shi’ite unity that will redraw Middle Eastern
boundaries and eliminate secular Muslim governments. Shi’ite unity will
merge with the anti-American terrorists and drive all Western
expatriates out of the Middle East. Indeed, the departures are already underway.
Israel will be isolated, exposed to the consequences of its aggression
against the Palestinians.

Fox "News" and right-wing talk radio crazies misinform us that we are
kicking terrorist butt, but in non-delusional reality, we are unifying
Islam and ending forever Western influence in the Middle East.

December 14, 2004

Dr. Roberts [send him mail] is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for
Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He
is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former
contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of
the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good
Intentions.

Copyright © 2004 Creators Syndicate

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