Fool Me Once

May 8, 2007

Today, in the Washington Post, in an article entitled September Could Be Key Deadline in War Jonathan Weisman and Thomas E. Ricks wrote about the most recent clash between Democrats and Republicans over further funding of the war in Iraq.

To me, it all brought to mind the old saw "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Isn't that the bromide, the old saw, George Bush made a fool of himself with when he, with his usual clipped and grunting reticence, tried to repeat it in Nashville in 2002. But what new bromide would one have to invent to describe the number of times the Republicants have fooled America on this war in Iraq?

Once again, under the guise of a "new direction" in Iraq under General Patraeus' plan, the Republicants are trying to fool America.

Why am I so skeptical? Is it because the war was started with a lie resulting from the constant hammering and intimidation of the intelligence agencies by the vice president and his minions and given full throated urgency on the world stage by Colin Powell?

Is it that the war was further sold with a lie that it would not last long? "I doubt six months," was Rumsfeld's prediction of its length.

Is it the further lie sold to America by the camp-followers of the Republicant Party that the cost of the war would be picked up by Iraq's oil revenues? The costs currently run into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

And now, after four years of war in Iraq and nearly 30,000 casualties, a small percentage of which are attributable to Afghanistan, we are told we have a NEW plan, a surge, an escalation of the war under a new general.

Well, let's talk about this new plan. General Pataeus' plan has been memorialized in a writing. It is called Army Field Manual 3-24 (FM 3-24), In it, on page 25-sections 1-67 and 1-68, the details of the troop density levels for effective COIN (COunter INsurgency) operations are given. "Most density recommendations fall within a range of 20 to 25 counterinsurgents for every 1000 residents in an AO." To repeat, the minimum troop density level is 20 counterinsurgency troops-that's us- to every 1000 inhabitants in the AO (Area of Operations?). This figure includes the host nation’s military and police forces.

The total population of Iraq, according to the 2007 CIA Fact Book is approximately 27.5 million. Twenty-seven and one half million divided by 1000 times 20 equals 550,000 troops for all of Iraq. And that's the minimum. The maximum would be 687,500!

The population of Baghdad is approximately six million which means we should have, again, at a minimum, 120,000 counterinsurgency troops for Baghdad alone!

We have nowhere near this many troops in Iraq or Baghdad, even if you take at face value the Republicants' padded numbers of completely trained, tested, and more importantly, trusted host country troops and police. And I don't think it's an exaggeration to describe the Republicants' padding on this score as being akin to the padding that it would take to turn a 12-year-old boy into a Anna Nicole Smith look alike.

Scant wonder I and a growing majority of Americans are skeptical, but still the rabid right, which pretty much describes the entire Republicant Party, is content to be fooled, again. But the growing majority of Americans are no longer willing to play the fool. The growing majority of Americans now want real, reality based, answers to the most important questions of our times from the party that lied us into this war- the Republicant party, an unholy camorra, if ever there was one.

I started this piece searching for a new bromide to describe the number of times the Republicants have fooled America on this war in Iraq, but I think it more appropriate to pass along not a new bromide but an old admonition about fooling the American people from the last true Republican:


"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." -Abraham Lincoln



And for those few members of the Republicant Party who put country before party I'll pass along another quote from old Abe:

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”