Madness

George W. Bush today insisted that the invasion of Iraq was justified, that Saddam had terrorist ties and that WMDs may still be found:

"Knowing what I know today, we still would have gone on into Iraq. We still would have gone to make our country more secure... He had the capability of making weapons. He had terrorist ties... We all thought we'd find stockpiles of weapons. We may still find weapons. We haven't found them yet..."

Still reporting from Iraq (amazing they haven't deported him yet), Richard Fisk says the bloody reality of war is being turned into a fantasy as a new web of post-war lies is woven.

"Much of Iraq has fallen outside the control of America’s puppet government in Baghdad but we are not told. Hundreds of attacks are made against US troops every month. But unless an American dies, we are not told. This month’s death toll of Iraqis in Baghdad alone has now reached 700 - the worst month since the invasion ended. But we are not told....

...watching any Western television station in Baghdad these days is like tuning in to Planet Mars. Doesn’t Blair realise that Iraq is about to implode? Doesn’t Bush realise this? The American-appointed "government" controls only parts of Baghdad - and even there its ministers and civil servants are car-bombed and assassinated. Baquba, Samara, Kut, Mahmoudiya, Hilla, Fallujah, Ramadi, all are outside government authority. Iyad Allawi, the "Prime Minister", is little more than mayor of Baghdad. "Some journalists," Blair announces, "almost want there to be a disaster in Iraq." He doesn’t get it. The disaster exists now...

What, indeed, are we to make of a war which is turned into a fantasy by those who started it? As foreign workers pour out of Iraq for fear of their lives, US Secretary of State Colin Powell tells a press conference that hostage-taking is having an "effect" on reconstruction. Effect! Oil pipeline explosions are now as regular as power cuts. In parts of Baghdad now, they have only four hours of electricity a day; the streets swarm with foreign mercenaries, guns poking from windows, shouting abusively at Iraqis who don’t clear the way for them. This is the "safer" Iraq which Mr Blair was boasting of the other day. What world does the British Government exist in? 

Take the Saddam trial. The entire Arab press - including the Baghdad papers - prints the judge’s name. Indeed, the same judge has given interviews about his charges of murder against Muqtada Sadr. He has posed for newspaper pictures. But when I mention his name in The Independent, I was solemnly censured by the British Government’s spokesman. Salem Chalabi threatened to prosecute me. So let me get this right. We illegally invade Iraq. We kill up to 11,000 Iraqis. And Mr Chalabi, appointed by the Americans, says I’m guilty of "incitement to murder". That just about says it all."

Fisk isn't the only one having trouble accepting the surreal manipulation of reality. Eric Margolis compares Bush to General Custer and concludes that "Bush & co. have ruined America's good name around the globe. George W. Bush has become, quite possibly, the world's most detested political leader. Only the brain dead could call this grand failure a successful national security policy."