The Mental Masturbator

Happy Anniversary

Five years after the start of the atrocity that is the American occupation of Iraq, Dick Cheney sums up the whole situation nicely: “So?” Needless to say, I hate this man. Let’s give that quote some context:

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.

CHENEY: So?

RADDATZ So? You don’t care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

Ok, let’s just dispense with the fact that to a certain extent ruling by opinion polls is not always the best idea. Whatever, the fact is this a democracy, and the leaders are supposed to respect the will of the people. Bush&co think they are temporary (I hope) dictators. They don’t really understand what a president is supposed to be, or they do and they don’t care. I’ve got to give them credit for ballsiness, and audacity though. They’re certainly bold. But their intentions are sinister, and their whole secretive, violent, double-speak way of ruling is inimical to a healthy democracy.Speaking of things that are inimical to a healthy democracy, a foreign occupying army is certainly on that list. That’s why this whole Iraq situation is more than just a failure. It’s more than just a bungled plan. It’s a fundamentally flawed idea. It’s like saying let’s cool down this room by lighting a big bonfire. It’s like saying lets bring peace and happiness and freedom to people by bombing them and telling them how to live. How people can miss the fundamental contradiction in that “plan” I will never know.I could rant like this for hours, but it wont change anything. I’ll just leave you with some statistics that highlight the extreme immorality and waste of this whole misadventure:

• Almost 4000 Americans dead
• 100,000 - 1 million innocent Iraqi civilians dead (there is no definitive count of this number)
• 2 million refuges
• 2.5 million Iraqi’s displaced internally
• Over 600 billion tax dollars “spent”
• mission accomplished

So?