Iraq is engaged in a full-fledged civil war. For those remaining defenders of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, who argue that the United States needs to stay put in order to prevent civil war, it's too late. It's here, in all of its brutality and ugliness.
The violence is not only engulfing Baghdad -- home to approximately one-fifth of Iraq's population -- but Basra, Iraq's second city and its only port. In the north, there is violence in Kirkuk, in what has been, until now, the relatively unscathed heartland of the Shiite south, as well.
What is unfolding in Iraq is a staggering tragedy. An entire nation is dying, right in front of us. And the worst part of it is: It may be too late to do anything to stop it.
There you go, folks. The war that the powers that be insist isn't a civil war really is one, no matter how much the White House would rather you believe that everything is going just swell.
Bush wanted to solve the Middle East "crisis," as he called it, and all he's done is make it worse.
And what of Bush's legacy? Buckley said he doesn't have one, and well, he's right in that Bush doesn't have a good one. Some in this country believe he has a legacy, but it's more of a "death and destruction" sort of thing...not noble at all.
James Wilcott said it best:
The war crimes of the United States compound by the minute, the hour, the day. I predict that George Bush, upon leaving office, will be the most despised president in American history. He will have his core support, the clotted, stunted brains that collect at sites like Lucianne.com and Powerline, but he will enjoy no Reaganesque orange sunset afterglow (or Nixonian self-rehabilitation), so deep, lasting, and tragic is the damage he's done, a damage abetted by a craven, corrupt political class and a press that even now, as the full dimensions of the disaster unfold before us, is unable to sound alarm, so accustomed as they've become to their role as sponges and clever snots. History will not forgive Bush or the United States, nor should it, for raising and destroying the hopes of the Iraqi people, and presiding over the dissolution of their nation into a failed state.
Now, I'm hesitant to agree with his statement that history shouldn't forgive the United States because when governing under its core principles, it's the desirable nation. Plus, the United States isn't our government--it's us, and I'm not ready to take the blame for this government's actions. What can any of us really do? What is trumpeted as "democracy" to other nations is not really democracy to us. Those out there with venomous hatred dripping from their fangs, shouting at us to do something--protest, revolt, at least do something!--don't realize how things actually work in the USA now. Thanks to the Patriot Act, anything can--and will--land us in jail if we dissent openly. Revolution? Not on your life. Civil war is coming to this country again, and soon, if things remain in the same direction they are currently going. Obviously, people can tolerate only so much corruption from their government. However, the majority of this country has been through it all before (Nixon), so perhaps their tolerance level has grown. The young adults of this country...a lot do care about the shape our country is in, but just the same, many aren't eager to risk giving up comfortable lives to bring in change. And finally, today's adolescents have grown up on Britney Spears and the "gimme-gimmes" ("give me what I want now"), and unfortunately, only a blessed few give any thoughts to politics. Most would rather sit back in their designer jeans, listen to their iPod, snap their gum, and bemoan that "being President looks awfully hard!" There's our future Americans.
And here we are. Honestly, some of us are trying to change the country. We don't enjoy being looked down upon by the rest of the world as a result of having Chimpy McChimp as our leader. We tried voting, but that doesn't seem to work anymore either, thanks to Diebold's electronic voting machines, and unless something is done about the security issues on those things, we may see no end to the corruption that's in Washington, DC.
So some of us turn/turned to blogging. The internet is the last place for freedom of speech that we really have, and even that is trying to be taken away from us through many underhanded means, but we'll keep going because people need to know the truth. Because when we write, we finally feel free.
Ever seen or read 1984? A Clockwork Orange? Think they're scary? Trust me, folks, they've already happened here. Unexplained and unwarranted violence is creeping up everywhere--not just in major cities--because people are becoming desperate and bored. Our government is doing everything in its power to keep us from wanting to conspire against it. Hell, for quite a while now, to attach the word "conspiracy" to anything can get you a lifetime in prison. The concentration camps for minorities and homosexuals from V for Vendetta are merely a thought away.
Welcome, all, to the new USA, and it is Bush's legacy.
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