Iraq War: ‘Strap Yourself To The Tree With Roots, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’
Buy me a flute/And a gun that shoots
Tailgates and substitutes/Strap yourself
To the tree with roots/You ain’t goin’ nowhere
– BOB DYLAN
Looking back over the long arc of the war in Iraq – a misadventure that shows no sign of ending any time soon — the predominant themes are the arrogance and ignorance of a presidential administration that has done virtually everything wrong and gotten very little right.
The result is that well into the fifth year of the war there are two enormously significant and diametrically opposite things going on.
The good news is that the Surge finally is reaping benefits.
U.S. deaths total 30 two thirds of the way through October, a pace that could make the toll for the month one of the five lowest for any month in the war. Iraqi civilian deaths stand at about 450, a pace that could make the toll for the month the lowest since the onset of the civil war with the February 2006 bombing of the Golden Dome in Samarra.
The bad news is that the very purpose of the Surge has been fatally undermined.
The Surge was initiated to give Iraqi factions breathing room to work out their differences and move toward an Iraq unified enough and stable enough that U.S. troops could leave in substantial numbers. But that will not be happening because of a tin-horn central government that exists in name only and a U.S. occupation leadership that is unable to grasp the social, economic and cultural barriers standing in the way of democratizing Iraq in any real sense of that word.
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18 Responses to “Iraq War: ‘Strap Yourself To The Tree With Roots, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’”
[...] House Iraq War: ‘Strap Yourself To The Tree With Roots, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ » This Summary is from an article posted at The Moderate Voice » Domestic and international news [...]
[...] War: ‘Strap Yourself To The Tree With Roots, You Ain’t Goin … Shaun Mullen created an interesting post today on Iraq War: ‘Strap Yourself To The Tree With Roots, You [...]
I also think that we ain’t goin’ nowhere.
No matter what happens, a new reason will be found why it’s crucial to stay. When the promise political reconcilitation evaporated, the reason morphed into just reducing violence and making friends, Should the level of violence rise again or should the death toll rise, new high faluting reasons for staying will be found (check Iran, fight AQ in the regions, whatever). It’ll always be something, and judging by the size of the US embassy, it was always meant to be something. The same group that has supported our presence in Iraq will continue to do so, no matteer what happens.
Until Bush leaves office, nothing will change.
If you’re going to blame the Democrats, though, an explanation is in order of just how they are supposed to override a presidential veto and overcome Republican obstructionism. Cutting off funding can’t be done, because no exit strategy worth the salt of reason can get all the troops and equipment out in an orderly (not pell-mell or reckless) fashion before the funds run out.
There is no point in asking for an exit strategy, either. Bush doesn’t want one, and the Democrats can’t order the military to draw up a realistic one, because no one knows what the situation will be when Bush leaves.
It’s a horrible situation.
Bush will claim a personal victory for getting us stuck in it and keeping us stuck in it as he rides off to Crawford and fund raisers for the Republicans. The hard part, dealing with the consequences and taking the blame for whatever goes wrong, will be left to the poor shmuck who will succeed him
Once again, Bush Jr. will have screwed things up and got off scott free.
Sometimes I understand why the religious believe in an afterlife, It’s the only place you can expect a fair deal.
BTW, I note that the casualty numbers don’t include those among the private armies. How could they? So many of them are foreign naationals, in spite of Prince’s calims about how true blue his outfit is.
domajot:
You are thoughtful as usual.
As someone who relentlessly looked ahead while most of my newspaper reporter and editor peers looked back, I am in the process of shifting my focus to what happens post-Bush since there is damned little that is going to happen between now and January 2009.
The Democrats have been part of the problem from the outset and they also have been part of the solution. They now control both houses of Congress and may well take over the White House, but I see very little to indicate that they are prepared to end the war.
I don’t want to hear about a lack of veto-proof majorities and the litany of other excuses apologists are making for the puh-thetic Democratic pushback against the war. I want bold statements, bold ideas and bold action.
Shaun,
“I want bold statements, bold ideas and bold action.”
So do I, but I don’t want reckless action.
While keeping one eye on Iraq, I keep the other on the situation at home, and the thrid on the US position in the world. (My fourth eye is scanning the skies despertely for a sign of where salvation lies for us).
Re Iraq, I think it’s vital that there be a doable plan for exit ASAP.
Re the home front,: I think that political hatreds have gotten completely out of hand, and that building a meaningful consensus on major issues should be a priority goal before things disintegrate to a point of being beyond repair.
The challenge is to integrate Iraq with consensus.
A tall mountain to climb, and maybe it’s too tall to climb. I still look for someone, anyone, up to the challege, however.
The conclusions of the ISG in ’06 convinced me there was no easy way out of Iraq. Bold statements have been made by Pete Stark, Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucinich and a host of others- but they have been painted as anti-American or anti-Bush fanatics. Everyone is impatient with this war, and everyone with any brain cells left has given up on the Iraqis to reconcile. We are only going to get out when there is enough pressure on Republicans to join with the Democrats to take us out. They are bound and determined to stick with the president, regardless of the results at election time. My guess is they will play the surge as an unqualified success and laud our newly-emerging status as victor.
You may not think the Democrats have been effective- but they are the only party making any meaningful attempt to reduce our presence or establish timelines. What is your other option? Stick with the status quo for 10-20 years and hope the Iraqis evolve towards democracy?
I hope I can take your words at face value, Mr. Mullen.
For the last six months, I have penned that this blog really ought to shift from its heavy focus on what the Bush administration is or is not doing…….because this fact has been patently obvious for the same length of time (since April)………Bush is not going to do anything substantially different in Iraq………….AND it has now been subsequently proven ample times there are not enough votes to force any different outcome. So, unless Joe Gandelman wants to continue with the noticeable lack of participation on this blog by non-Dem, non-left posters, it would indeed be logical to shift the coverage.
For instance, did this “balanced blog” make any mention that the Dems ran from the more stringent provisions in FISA legislation?…….and that the Dems ran from the Turkish resolution?…….and that Niki Tsongas barely captured a winning margin in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, a tally well down from Kerry’s usual margins?
If I were a liberal Democrat, I might just wonder a bit if my favorite pastime of bashing the Bush administration is really all I need to do to accomplish what I want?
It seems to me that bashing those who bash Bush or bashing the authors of posts one disagrees with or the managers of sites one doesn’t like is as useless an acitvity as all the bashings that preceded. That just opens to door to another round of bashing.
Every post has a topic that is open for
comments and discussion. The personalities of posters or commenters is never the topic.
No blog should be confused with a group therapy session. .
It’s not. But it’s certainly part of the process. And vociferously disagreeing with the totally inept policies of this administration is not necessarily “Bashing Bush”. How would you prefer dems frame the issue? Perhaps “Bush is a terribly incompetent leader who has done more to damage our nation than any other leader in the past few decades…. But I’d love to sit down and have a beer with him”?
We are a lot closer to having enough votes to form a different outcome than we had in 2006 wouldn’t you say? You do realize that was one of the biggest turn arounds in a parties electoral prospects in US history right??
Was it accomplished by talking about what a swell if misguided guy Bush is? Because if you honestly believe that you must have slept through the election.
With 2008 approaching, which GOP candidate with any chance of getting the nomination is repudiating Bush’s policies? None, zero, nada, zip.
So though you may decry the lack of courtesy in our discourse, which is ironic considering the people we are talking about, you can’t honestly argue with the results.
Great Dylan quote. I love The Basement Tapes – and the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo. I’ve got nothing to add to the substance of your comment, just a kudos for the lyrical reference.
Elrod:
And you certainly don’t need a weathman to know which way the wind blows.
Not sure I know exactly what you are saying here, but I think what Shaun Mullen is getting at, in part, and for sure what I am countering with is the assessment that the political mileage to be gained from now by merely repeating the mantra George Bush is evil…..and accomplishing little else…..may NOT produce what you would like in 2008.
The Niki Tsongas example ought to be a bit of a hit to the political smugness quotient. That belies the assumption that Dems can ride anti-George Bush into an ’08 landslide.
And if those Iraq statistics happen to continue to go down, Iraq won’t be the barn-burning issue for the regular voter in 2008 that it was in 2006.
I’m just contending that this blog ought to get onto some cutting edge issues (what exactly are the Dems accomplishing) and get off the stale-dated issues (Bush sucks).
CO – The Right and many Democrats condemned the Carter adminstration for incompetence and naivette. Is it any different with this gang of incompetents? If the Right can still criticize Carter, whats wrong with Democrats and Independents calling out the folly of Bush and Cheney?
“(what exactly are the Dems accomplishing)”
What they are trying to accomplish is to clean up the mess made by others, with only obstructionists to deal with, and no help whatsoever.
What they are NOT trying to accomplish is to create another mess that is equally bad.
The President today made a speech to commemorate the latest supplemental spending bill! His speech was an affront to human decency.
It was a tirade preaching to Congress what they should do and what they need to do.
First he spills the milk, and then he admonishes Congress for not financing the cleanup fast enough!
And it’s all for the troops, you know, for the troops.
No, Mr. President, it’s for the consequences of what you did with the troops and to the troops.
Yay, fewer folks are dying. But the fact still remains that after 4+ years the capital STILL doesn’t have water and electricity running. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the surge has worked when there is law and order, water and power for the people of Baghdad. Until then its just Enron style juking of the stats to make things look good. The kind of thing ineffective mid level managers do to keep from getting fired.
If Baghdad tomorrow turned into a pro-democracy paradise it would still not have been worth what we and they have gone through. And considering its not going to do that for the forseeable future, the situation is that much more damning for those that brought it about.
If we’re still paying 10 billion dollars a month, losing 2 or so kids per day, and there is zero progress on the political front one year from now the GOP will be hunky dory?
Err… OK
[...] But a Google search using the keywords surge, success and Iraq shows that these revelers are going to have a bummer of a hangover: This is because of the 30 pieces that I read using those keywords, only three noted that the very purpose of the Surge has been fatally undermined, which puts its “success” in an entirely different light. (Incidentally, one of those three pieces was by Yours Truly.) [...]
[...] But a Google search using the keywords surge, success and Iraq shows that these revelers are going to have a bummer of a hangover: This is because of the 30 pieces that I read using those keywords, only three noted that the very purpose of the Surge has been fatally undermined, which puts its “success” in an entirely different light. (Incidentally, one of those three pieces was by Yours Truly.) [...]