Status of Forces Agreement [SOFA] in the insulting Treaty our departing Administration has tried to force the Iraqis to sign before they leave office [which is not a Treaty because Treaties have to be ratified by Congress and because the Acronym isn’t manly – SOFT]. You know the terms. Our soldiers are immune to Iraqi Law and we stay there forever in 50+ bases [that aren’t Bases because they are enclosed by Iraqi fences]. In return, we give them access to their own money in a New York Bank. And Iraq then becomes a potential stepping off point for a War with Iran. What is amazing about this outrageous insult is that it clarifies the reason for the war – an American foothold in the Middle East. No more fantasies of pulling out some benevolent motive for this debacle. It’s down to a power play motivated by greed and American hegemony. It has pissed off the Iraqis something fiece, as any fool might expect. Amazing Hubris to think the Iraqis would fall for such a thing, even suggest it.
Bush warns Brown over plan to cut Iraq force
President tells UK to avoid rushing into troop withdrawalsGeorge Bush flies into London today with a warning for Gordon Brown not to announce a timetable for a British pull-out from Iraq, and expressing deep scepticism about the Prime Minister’s high-profile strategy for bringing down world oil prices.
The stern message to the Prime Minister was delivered during an exclusive interview with The Observer, and contrasted with praise for Tony Blair whom Bush is scheduled to meet for breakfast tomorrow ahead of talks in Downing Street. Bush said Blair had never been his ‘poodle’, but a leader who shared his view that the world is in an ‘ideological struggle’ and that ‘ultimately freedom has to defeat the ideology of hate’…
Why do I think that Bush isn’t going to get anywhere with Gordon Brown? Oh yes, I remember. The British threw Blair out of office for cavorting with Bush, and replaced him with Brown because Bush couldn’t push Brown around. And then there’s, "Bush said Blair had never been his ‘poodle’, but a leader who shared his view that the world is in an ‘ideological struggle‘ and that ‘ultimately freedom has to defeat the ideology of hate‘." Something about the metaphor of freedom defeating hate bothers me. For one thing, Bush doesn’t seem like much of a champion of freedom what with his ideas about habeus corpus, torture, and unwarranted domestic spying. For another, hate is defined as:
1 a: intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury b: extreme dislike or antipathy: <had a great hate of hard work>
which defines his feelings about his enemies to a tee. But it’s just hard to imagine that he still thinks that people will be swayed his talking points like "the world is in an ‘ideological struggle’ and that ‘ultimately freedom has to defeat the ideology of hate’." Karl Rove said recently on Fox News:
"… the creation of the democracy in the historic center of the Middle East with the third-largest oil reserves in the world. If we have a functioning democracy in Iraq, that’s an ally in the war on terror, a counterweight to the mullahs of Iran and to Assad in Syria, this will create a very hopeful center of reform and energy for reform throughout the Middle East."
which is a much more honest assessment of our Iraq policy. Bush doesn’t seem to get it. He has no personal currency anymore.
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