Fool Us All Again

I’ve had a post on hold for a day or so concerning Robert Gates, but I should probably finish it now, especially since Prof. Marcus has noted that some of us (me included) aren’t noting the fact that, according to this Raw Story link via Marcus’ site, Gates has said that we’ll have troops in Iraq for “a long time.”

This is not surprising, coming from a Repug insider like Gates who, as Wikipedia noted, was in a position to know exactly what was going on in the Iran-Contra scandal and also advocated bombing the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the ‘80s, which is so completely in violation of U.S. law and simple standards of human decency that it almost does not need to be pointed out (almost).

I hope we’ve all come to realize by now why we can’t get a straight answer from Bushco about anything concerning the Iraq war (Gates's indefinite musing is typical), and that is because they don’t know how long it will take for them to take control of as much oil as they can.

That is all that this misbegotten, sickening tragedy will ever be about to them.

Not the wasted lives of our service people, killed or maimed from this horror, nor the same for other coalition forces, nor the same for innocent Iraqis. Not the almost surreal cronyism, arrogance and incompetence of the administration responsible for this epochal calamity. Not the potential for regional civil war throughout the Middle East that has been borne as a result of all this. Not our ruined prestige on the world stage as a beacon of freedom, liberty and human rights.

Not any of that, and more.

Bushco and the Repugs will never capitulate to anything. Their confrontational carping and nay saying reached a crescendo when they were out of congressional power, and it continued even after they seized control of all branches of our government. Now that one of those branches is thankfully out of power again, why should anyone think this time will be any different (especially when they will be so ably aided by our lapdog corporate media and a coterie of chicken Democrats then as now)?

That is why, as disturbing as Gates’ comments are to me, they are still totally unsurprising.

Dubya said it earlier this year; cleaning up Iraq will be the job of the next administration. And Gates will do everything in accordance with that expectation. And the 109th Repug-controlled Congress will do everything on orders from their White House handlers to ramrod Gates’ confirmation through, especially now out of spite because both Bolton and Rummy have been forced out.

And the congressional Repugs, as always, will comply in total subservience as usual.

Because (as the song goes), you know that the hypnotized never lie.

Update: Also, courtesy of Lukery at Wot Is It Good 4, this choice item from Democracy Now:

The number of private contractors in Iraq has now reached about 100,000 -- the most ever used in a U.S. military operation. Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root is one of the largest contractors in Iraq. It has more than 50,000 employees and subcontractors working between Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. Blackwater USA has more than 1,000 employees in Iraq. Dyncorp has about 1500 employees there.

He's right - THIS should be a headline instead of the latest celebrity trash, but our corporate media will think we're too stupid to notice.