What If?

What if the United States had not invaded Iraq? How would things be different? After September 11th, we would have still attacked the Taliban. The focal point of the War on Terror would be the much less hospitable terrain of Afghanistan.It would now be the "quagmire" (ask the Russians, Brits, etc.) and the calls for withdrawal would still be heard. What about Iraq? There is no reason to not believe that Saddam Hussein would still be in charge. He would be competing for face time with Iran's President Imanutjob. The U.N. Oil for Palaces program would still be humming along nicely. The cat and mouse game of inspections and sanctions would be playing on. ( I'll take Hans Blix in the Tikrit Palace for $300 Alex. Oops No Sorry) The weapons of mass destruction that many believe were moved and buried in the Bekka Valley would be in Saddam's arsenal. With Saddam and President Imanutjob both working on nukes, one of them was bound to get lucky. Saddam's now forgotten progeny Uday and Qusay would be poised to inherit their father's lethal legacy instead of being an obscure trivia question. How these two, with their wealth, cunning and blood lust would have rewritten Middle Eastern history will thankfully never be known.
Today,Iran is stuck between two proto-democracies and has growing internal pressure. The current war will be fought even if we do pull our troops out. The only difference would be that the battles would be here against civilians and not in Iraq against our military.

Bush Lied

Bush lied troops died. Fine. All the intel from allies and even the Clinton administration on which the invasion was based years ago was manipulated by then Gov. Bush in order to pull off his scheme. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Ever. Those Kurds that died en mass during Saddam's reign died as a result of ... bird flu that's the ticket. The Twin Towers were brought down by the Bush administration with help from Haliburton and accompanied by black helicopters from the World Government and the Freemasons blah blah blah. Pick your favorite conspiracy. The fact remains we are in Iraq.
Despite the early mistakes and the best efforts of the Democrats. there may be light at the end of the tunnel that is not a train. Since the surge, the number Iraqi civilian deaths is less than half of the pre-surge total. The full complement of troops will not be in place till May or June which oddly enough is the same time the Dems in the House want to begin the retreat.
The race is now on to see if the troops can secure Bagdad and hold it before the Democrats can either pass their retreat in disgrace policy or Iran widens the war. With 30-50% unemployment and a young disgruntled population, Iran's current government can not hold on without building some national unity. Just as the European monarchs did when a large, young, redundant male population threatened , President Imanutjob of Iran needs a good war. The moves in Congress can only embolden him.

Vulture Culture

Vulture culture is now a way of life in America. The most obvious example is the Anna Nicole Smith fiasco. Howard K. Stern the lawyer/lover/leech (or am I being redundant?) found the perfect carrion-to-be and has been snacking away happily ever since. Even “sideshow Sidlin”, the judge who is allegedly shopping around for a TV gig pulled out all the stops in getting every range of emotion broadcast to potential producers. This guy makes Judge Ito of O.J. fame look like Supreme Court material. It would not seem out of the range of possibility to imagine the mother may have her sights on some kind of Texas -size Graceland in mind if she wins her daughter’s corpse. Even though she has finally been buried the fight goes on for possession . Possession of the child with the hundred million dollar potential is the new battle.
The vulture culture is predominate in politics as well. The anti-gunners in politics quietly wait in the background until a gun related tragedy occurs. Then they swoop in with ’common sense” measures which tighten the laws on only certain types of weapons or ammunition or even outlets for the “safety of the public”. ( Won’t someone think of the children?) They know that an incremental strangulation of the Second Amendment is more likely to be successful than an outright attack.
The most insidious manifestation of the vulture culture involves the current attempt to pull troops out of Iraq. The Left’s constant screaming tally of fallen soldiers in Iraq is the best tactic they have. Growing up during the Vietnam War I can remember the daily/weekly body count tally on the nightly news. But even during Uncle Walter’s broadcast the number of ENEMY dead was also shown. The number of the dead on the enemy side was always much higher than the US casualties giving some the impression that we must be winning. That kind of thinking will not be tolerated in the majority of newsrooms today In today’s news the only number that matters is the number of Americans that die. If they do give any other number it is the number of Iraqi troops or Iraqi civilians. The impression being that they are the only casualties. The US forces has decided, rightly, to not go into the “body count as a measure of success business “ala Vietnam. The only problem is that the media will rarely if ever report any positive news coming out of Iraq. This leaves the impression that our troops are being pummeled by a rag tag band of fanatics.
The solution? Well the early success of the surge is being under reported so that may be the hint that success is near. The troops need to fight an unfettered war. Taliban massing in a cemetery? Level it! Taking fire from a Mosque? Airstrike! The PC approach that has been employed so far is only prolonging the fight. To fight an enemy that knows no borders you must be willing to attack them where ever they are. Vultures be damned.