The Fog of War and Truth

Another bomb exploded in southwestern Iran late Friday near a site where 11 members of the Iran Revolutionary Army were killed recently. Iran blamed the United States for the first blast, but the U.S, gave no response. It appears the provocative moves have begun in Iran. Real or imagined, the Bush Administration is in search of their lost chord, the incident.    

The recent charges by George Bush that Iran was behind the IED’s have been doubted by Military and CIA Officials. What’s really interesting and verified is that we have given ample supplies of weapons and munitions to insurgents indirectly? In an attempt to once again to hide behind the skirts of a falsehood, Bush tries to convince us that we’re fools once again. Let’s give this a little thought, would you want a country completely out of control right next door?  I’ll tell you what, there seems to be tall tales beginning on schedule here. With the second carrier group soon to arrive off the coast of Iran, watch for some real provocative maneuvers and maybe a “Gulf of Tonkin” incident. For those that don’t recall, it was what we found later a falsehood of an attack by a North Vietnamese Naval vessel that began the Vietnam War.

It’s time to quit the crap with this Administration. We support our troops, let’s bring them home, get the region involved there to settle the Iraq problem (after all they have the biggest buy in a stable Iraq) and quit the terrorism crap connection. We need to stabilize Iraq and assure that the shipping lanes remain open to allow the flow of oil. Our brave troops are ducking bullets in a civil war. Do we support our veterans, hell yes; a recent Zogby poll showed that 72 percent of soldiers currently serving in Iraq believe we should get out of Iraq within a year.  We agree.

And, where in the hell is Bin Laden? You know the Saudi that used 15 of his fellow Saudi’s to kill over 3000 Americans? My last count was that Iraq killed no American in a terrorist attack prior to 9/11? We’ll let’s tell the CIA where he is so George Bush can “smoke him out”, or wait, he doesn’t care? Well George he’s in them there hills where they’re preparing the spring offensive in Afghanistan. That’s another story best left for this spring.

The bottom line is simple. It’s time for Americans to stop George Bush from plunging this region into a ring of fire. The surge will not work. As in Vietnam when you build a discredited State, or corrupt government, there’s no chance of success. Remember the Nam, that silly corrupt South Vietnam Government. President Johnson was shocked to here that the primary reason for the VC (Vietcong) was to save the homeland from the invaders. Diem was blown away by the CIA, Kennedy said we’re out of Nam, a month later he’s gone and while his casket rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue President Johnson was meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff reversing Jack’s decision. Well, that’s another story. You need a strong popular state to assure success, and we don’t have one in Iraq.

Gorilla wars are simple, the first test in “The Art of War” is you must, absolutely must have Intel. As in Vietnam, we do in Iraq; however once again they’re in the forces that are supposed to be on our side. They are in the Iraq Army like the ARVNS were in the Nam. Whether you walked the villages of Vietnam or streets of Baghdad also, you didn’t and don’t know who the Vietcong were or who insurgents are.  Also in “The Art of War” remember one should always pick the terrain as to where to do battle. You can bet that the Neoconservatives (The New American Century) will say hey, look, things have gone a bit quieter now with our surge. Yet we all know when you do battle with a formless foe, they’re just waiting to adjust to their next phantom strategy. It’s elementary in a gorilla war. It’s the calm before a storm. In the end, they’ll be more targets and more deaths. The formless own the terrain and will pick and choose the battles.

Military experts were stunned when those SUV’s passed through those three checkpoints. The insurgents dressed in U.S. Military Garb with ID’s, entered where Americans where meeting with Iraq Officials regarding the new surge snatched up those laptops, killed one American on site, assassinated four more Americans and then disappeared into the night. It’s called good Intel. They were really after those laptops, however, nothing has been said what may have been on those hard drives. The seamless execution and the goal, points to some very good Intel.

Back in the Vietnam, they called it, “Search and Destroy” that really meant; walk around until you were ambushed. Sounds a bit like Iraq, only they call it patrolling and IED’s. Seventy percent of our casualties are the result of IED’s in Iraq. In the Nam the VC hauled an AK47 and a bag of rice. Meanwhile our grunts lugged around 40 pound packs in 100 degree temperatures. Jeez, a lot of grunts said they’d make a lot of noise to scare VC away from company sized patrols. Didn’t work, the VC would lay in waiting (picking the terrain) in a killing zone, hit us hard and in minutes be racing down speed paths before our troops even hit the ground. IED’s are similar, but only better, they’re formless and faceless. The frustration of fighting ghosts also leads a high constant high level of stress for troops that spills over into the killing of countless innocents.

Enter Iran, the distraction. One thing George Bush knows is that his “splurge” will not work. However, the surge has really always been about Iran. The problem is, he doesn’t know how yet to unleash his firepower from those carrier groups and from land based aircraft. Remember, he said there’s no plans to invade Iran, however, he never said there were any plans to bomb them. Bombing is the only option; we have no boots to put on the ground in Iran. Invading is out of the realm of possibility, but a relentless bombing campaign is.  

One thing he does know is he “must” strike Iran to get American minds off the continuing failure in Iraq. Anyone on planet earth knows that if you attack Iran, the consequences are unknown beyond that fact that chaos will prevail in the region. But George has no alternatives and the dice will roll.  The only question that remains is; will Americans allow him to do this? It’s that old saying that comes to mind; fool us once, shame on you, fool us twice, shame on us all.