Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” – President Codpiece

There's only one thing you should be thinking about today. It's
been 3 years since “Mission Accomplished” was uttered by Bush as he
stood on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Three years and look where we are today.
There have been 2400 soldiers killed
and, depending on whom you quote, tens of thousands of wounded and maimed, with
things getting worse by the minute. In fact, it's so bad that Bush is sending
“The Fixer” in to do something about it. James Baker III is going
to study things on the ground. We're way past the point of “studying,”
wouldn't you say?

The generals
certainly think so and have now said so. Then they were swiftboated
by the Republicans.

The whole sorry state we find ourselves in today in Iraq didn't
have to happen. There were plans
to go in and warnings about what would happen, but nobody listened or cared.
When Bush and the White House Iraq Group received news they didn't like, they
either ignored it or solicited other information that would back their case.
We've been told that now by several people on the inside, now retired. Tyler
Drumheller is just the latest.

The weakness and ineptitude of Bush and the Republican leadership
have led to so many failures, but nothing compares to Iraq, nothing. Via
Kevin Drum, there's more infuriation on top of the injuries and deaths,
the weakness, failures and incompetence. Over two years ago, Jim
Miklaszewski reported that Bush could have gotten al-Zarqawi, but didn't, something I remember vividly.
But as Drum states, no one could confirm the story on the record. Well, somebody
finally has done just that and it's more ammunition in the weak leadership department,
as if we needed anymore. However, it's beyond the pale to revisit this after
all the carnage al-Zarqawi has wrought. It once again proves that the Republicans are not only incompetent when it comes to our national security, but unfit to command in the dangerous world in which we now live.

The United States deliberately passed up repeated opportunities to kill the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before the March 2003 US-led invasion of that country. (snip) The claim, by former US spy Mike Scheuer, was made in an interview to be shown on ABC TV's Four Corners tonight. Zarqawi is often described as a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, whose supporters masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Mr Scheuer was a CIA agent for 22 years – six of them as head of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit – until he resigned in 2004. He told Four Corners that during 2002, the Bush Administration received detailed intelligence about Zarqawi's training camp in Iraqi Kurdistan. Mr Scheuer claims that a July 2002 plan to destroy the camp lapsed because “it was more important not to give the Europeans the impression we were gunslingers”. “Mr Bush had Zarqawi in his sights almost every day for a year before the invasion of Iraq and he didn't shoot because they were wining and dining the French in an effort to get them to assist us in the invasion of Iraq,” he told Four Corners. “Almost every day we sent a package to the White House that had overhead imagery of the house he was staying in. It was a terrorist training camp . . . experimenting with ricin and anthrax . . . any collateral damage there would have been terrorists.” During the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, Zarqawi's presence in the north of the country was used by US officials to link Saddam Hussein to terrorism. US 'allowed Zarqawi to escape'

The above headline should read: Bush allowed Zarqawi to escape so he could
use him to tie Saddam to terrorism.

Bush and the neocons had such a weak case for
war that they had to let Zarqawi live another day to prop up their plans for
preemption.

Bush's leadership was so weak that Bush preferred to let a murderous madman
live, because our president didn't have the courage to deal with the real questions
and reality
on the ground in Iraq. So instead, he and the Republican leadership concocted
a tale around Saddam and terrorism and anything else they could fabricate to
prop up their plan for war, including inferring that Saddam and 9/11 were related,
which brings us back to Zarqawi.

“Mission Accomplished”? Baby, is that a codpiece in your pants or are you just happy to be at war? When Bush landed on the aircraft carrier the Republicans got absolutely misty.

LIDDY: Well, I — in the first place, I think it's envy. I mean, after all, Al Gore had to go get some woman to tell him how to be a man. And here comes George Bush. You know, he's in his flight suit, he's striding across the deck, and he's wearing his parachute harness, you know — and I've worn those because I parachute — and it makes the best of his manly characteristic. You go run those — run that stuff again of him walking across there with the parachute. He has just won every woman's vote in the United States of America. You know, all those women who say size doesn't count — they're all liars. Check that out. (via Atrios)

Three years later men and women are dying in Iraq with no end in sight. We've
built permanent bases and the largest embassy on earth. Major combat operations
aren't even close to being over in Iraq. With Bush's weakness and the failed
leadership of the Republican Congress, Iraq is going to look like this for months
to come. They need a new phrase, new marketing. Time for Tony Snowjob to get
crackin'. President Codpiece needs a new slogan.

UPDATE: Mahablog has more on the al-Zarqawi story.