General George Casey, outgoing commander of "Coalition of the Willing" forces in Iraq today surprised some by going on record as disagreeing with the Commander-in-Chief's troop escalation gambit. The President has repeatedly stated the need for 21,500 more troops to be deployed as soon as possible. Casey, who has been nominated for the post of Army Chief of Staff, told the Senate Armed Forces committee that only half that number were needed.

After watching this Administration try and fail to wage a war on the cheap - by ignoring former Army Chief of Staff General Shinseki's recommendations of an occupation force of "several hundred thousand" troops for success in Iraq - John McCain (R-AZ) very nearly got out of his seat and bitch slapped General Casey. Well, not really. But he did say this:

"I'm not certain five additional brigades in Baghdad and one more in Anbar province are sufficient to do the job," said McCain. "I am certain, however, that the job cannot be done with just two additional brigades, as you, General Casey, had advocated." ~ via

Currently there is no word of whether the now mythological Civilian Reserve Corps will be ready to support the 21,500 troops the President wants to send into Baghdad and Anbar province in the coming weeks, and according to the Congressional Budget Office, an additional 28,000 troops will be necessary to support the expanded mission. That means 49,500 service members - not 21,500 - will join those already deployed without a timetable for disengagement, and without a plan for victory.

Details. Details. Details.

Labels: Civilian Reserve Corps, Gen. Shinseki, General George Casey, Surge

1. “U.S. Diplomat Resigns Over Iraq Policy”

“(Reuters) - A senior U.S. diplomat based in Athens has resigned in protest at the Bush administration's policy on Iraq, State Department officials said on Thursday…Brady Kiesling, 45, political counselor at the embassy and a foreign service officer for about 20 years, sent his resignation decision to Secretary of State Colin Powell by fax on Monday, The New York Times said.”

His reason? His letter of resignation said:

“We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners."

Very nice.

Next up is my second favorite.

2. “Pentagon Contradicts General on Iraq Occupation Force's Size” (NYT reg. req.)

The Department of Defense - you know, the civilian guys who “run” our military - refuses to tell our Congress – you know, our representatives in D.C. – how much of our tax dollars are going to be needed for a war and occupation in Iraq. The DOD says that our general’s estimate – you know, the guys who are going to have to fight the war and occupy the country – is way too high. They’re telling Congress not to worry about it because hey what the hell do generals know about how much it costs to fight a war? And besides, we’re going to use Iraqi oil to pay for it – not American taxpayer dollars! Ha. I love that part at the end.

No, they’re not fucking kidding.

But wait…seriously…there’s more! (Honestly I never get tired of that bit).

Apparently the general, our friend Army Chief of Staff Shinseki, also has no idea how many troops it’s going to take! No, really – the DOD says he’s full of shit. Yep, sometimes you have to wonder where they get those crazy generals. What do they know anyway?

And finally, my most favorite story of the night. This one is from BuzzFlash, via JOHO:

3. “Ari Gets Laughed Out of the White House Briefing Room”

I really can’t describe it better than BuzzFlash:

“Ari just drew himself up with imperious indignation and said something like "you're implying that the President is buying the votes of other nations and that's just not a consideration" or words to that effect...And guess what happened? The whole press corps, normally sheep, broke out in laughter... sweet, derisive laughter. They kept on laughing as Ari turned on his heels and strode out. Sheesh.”

Too difficult to imagine? Strain your noodle no more! Watch it here on C-SPAN (RealMedia).

Fast forward up until the counter reads 28 minutes and watch from there to the end. Absolutely priceless.

Labels: Ari Fleischer, Colin Powell, dod, Gen. Shinseki, iraq

George W. Bush is not dumb. Nor is he a slack-jawed buffoon. He is, in fact, an excellent orator. This is not observed by the vast majority of us because we are plebeians not privy to the real George W. Bush. His true persona is reserved for the share holders of America Inc.

Case in point: His recent address to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI). Bush used the opportunity of a dinner sponsored by that most prestigious of “right-wing think tanks” to outline his administration’s long term foreign policy goals (28 min. RealMedia or transcript).

As a long time foreign affairs and international relations junkie, my final analysis of those goals is this: Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Pax Americana is no fantasy. The Bush administration is doing everything in its considerable power to ensure a global hegemony the likes of which have never been known. Following the war in Iraq, the U.S. will maintain instantaneous force projection capability throughout the world. Put simply, we will be able to deploy a significant number troops to any nation on Earth within 24 hours, and their support units will already be in place. Never before has a single nation had such power.

On its surface, this doesn’t seem a bad thing. With this type of reach, our country will be safe from any who oppose it. It becomes troubling, however, when one considers the converse: None who oppose our nation shall be safe.

If American domestic policy was a model for the world - if it did in fact represent the greatest freedoms of the world – I think most Americans would go along with the Pax Americana plan. But this is not the case. Let’s face it, America has some problems.

I could make a laundry list here of cases in which the U.S. government has over-stepped its bounds - either intentionally or otherwise - to the detriment of law abiding citizens like you and I, but I won’t. We all know how badly our government can screw-up sometimes. I’m also not going to say that any other government does everything better than ours. No such government exists. The question is, if every government is flawed, which one is best deserving of the title “ruler the world”?

The answer is none of them. No one nation should ever rule this world. Not even America.

Despite this, the goal of Pax Americana is nothing short of world domination by a single super power. It is a vision of sustainable global stability, if not global peace, under the watchful eye of the United States. The Bush administration, and those who support them, believe that the United States can be a benevolent dictator to the world. But they need Iraq first.

To this end, the administration has been struggling to convince both the international community, and the citizens of the United States, that America can be trusted to act as custodian of one of the largest oil fields ever discovered, and then walk away once a democratic government is in place in Iraq. The administration points to Germany and Japan, and our occupation of those nations after the Second World War as proof of our abilities of self-restraint. It’s an argument not without merit, but it does not apply here.

Iraq is not Germany, and it is not Japan. Neither of those nations had the ethnic and religious diversity of Iraq. Neither of them presented the long term challenges of security and factional conflict that Iraq will. The United States occupied Germany and Japan not only to protect the world from their militaristic aspirations, but also to protect those nations from being consumed by an expanding Soviet Union. We will have no such role in Iraq. Instead, the task of the occupation forces will be to keep Iraq from exploding into a million pieces before a stable government can be established. This is not World War II, this is Bosnia in the desert.

President Bush and his top generals, namely Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Shinseki, have assured us that the U.S. will “stay in Iraq as long as we have to, and not a day more.” But who will decide when it is safe to leave Iraq on its own? America will. When we have decided that Iraq is safe for democracy, we will withdraw most - but not all - of our troops just as we did from Japan and Germany. From that point on, we will pay Iraq for the privilege of hosting whatever U.S. troops remain, just as we do with Germany and Japan to this day. In short, the American military will have a permanent home in the Middle East.

Pax Americana is a brilliant plan. This whole world domination thing really has potential. And yet, it just doesn’t smell right.

Something’s rotten in the state of domestic policy. If we’re going to be benevolent dictators to the world, then that means we’ll be able to protect American freedoms here at home from all manner of threat. All manner of exterior threat that is. That’s the problem with the neat and tidy Pax worldview. It allows the most powerful government in the world to become that much more powerful. And all the while that government is chipping away at the basic freedoms of its own citizens.

This blog is filled with examples of how our rights as individual citizens are being stripped away. These instances are not separate from the role the U.S. is seeking to play on the global stage. At this point, our foreign and domestic policies are more intertwined than ever before.

Make no mistake, our government is still reacting to September 11, 2001. As a matter of fact, I think they're just getting started. Day by day the administration is moving to curtail more of our freedoms and enforce newly minted laws. It’s like a well oiled machine; Humming and spinning, its power grows with each press conference and with every news broadcast.

Be careful, world. A sleeping giant has just awoken, and the administration of George W. Bush is at the helm.

Labels: 9/11, aei, Gen. Shinseki, George W. Bush, iraq, neocon, new american century