READING THE PRESS ON IRAQ

Thomas Riggins

Reading the June 8, 2007 issue of "The Week" reveals how completely out of control Iraq is. "The Week" is a magazine that gives snippets of opinions from the national and international press. Here is some of the reportage on Bush's "surge" and the war in general.

The New York Times reported on a government study that shows that Iraq is Al Qaida's best training ground, much better than Afghanistan because of the urban environment. Perfect, the US is responsible for providing the best training conditions for urban terrorists. Soon to be seen in a city near you (or maybe your own).

The Palm Beach Post has figured it out. It editorialized as follows; "The United States has to be in Iraq to fight the terrorists, who are in Iraq because the United States is in Iraq." The Post concludes we should get out.

The San Antonio Express-News is on the slow track to nowhere. This paper said a withdrawal would be a defeat for the US (so what, its wrong to be there in the first place, anyway we are already defeated, it just hasn't sunk in yet) and would leave behind "chaos". Chaos is what we already have. This paper wants to give Bush more time for his surge to provide "measurable security progress."

Meanwhile, The Los Angeles Times reported that US generals in Iraq don't think this summer surge will achieve any of the goals Bush said it would. Therefore they are going to "redefine success." Somebody should alert the good folks at the San Antonio Express-News that "measurable security progress" isn't likely to be in the new definition of "success."

Andrew Sullivan was reported as having written, in "The Atlantic.com" that intelligence reports that Bush had before the invasion of Iraq told him an invasion would be "an al Qaida recruiter's dream." Sullivan opined that, "Al Qaida surely never had a more helpful man in such a powerful place."

Finally, while Bush continues to help out al Qaida and weaken the US defenses against another terror attack ( the above mentioned New York Times report also revealed, according to "The Week" that "Al Qaida is starting to use terrorists trained in Iraq to carry out missions in other countries")-- the dunderheads at "The Weekly Standard" have concluded, if columnist Frederick Kagan is any example, that al Qaida actually wants the US to withdraw.

Every report indicates that that is the last thing they want. They are slowly destroying us and they are growing and recruiting new members every day we stay. Kagan thinks they want us out so they can build a base for themselves in Iraq. If the Standard crowd could understand what they read in the press, they would have figured out that al Qaida already has a base in Iraq and is now exporting terror to other countries from it.

So is Bush nuts to stay in Iraq? The real reason we are there is for the oil. So, the so called "war on terror" is just a lot of infantile claptrap to occupy the minds of the American people and the press. We will, I think, eventually withdraw from Iraq. It will be as it was in Vietnam. The Iraqi people will drive us out.