Happy Anniversary!
Can you believe it was one year ago today that Saddam Hussein was hauled out of a hole in Tikrit? That it’s been a year since President Bush got on television and declared, “In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over” ? That just twelve months ago, General John Abizaid, head of the US Central Command, said the capture had dealt the insurgency “a huge psychological blow” that would “pay great benefits over time”?
And that in December 2003 the commander of the 4th Infantry Division (which was credited with catching Saddam, although it was really some Kurds) declared the insurgency to be “on its knees”?
“Within six months I think you’re going to see some normalcy,” Major General Jay Odierno added.
That’s right; only one year. Seems a lot longer.
Courtesy of Blogs for Bush, you can celebrate by following links to reactions on the Right Blogosphere from a year ago. “Another crushing defeat for braying jackasses/democrats ,” says one. Clearly, the righties believed the capture amounted to vindication of the Iraq War.
Let’s see, what did I write a year ago? Here it is –
“We are not fighting for Saddam.” An article in today’s Los Angeles Times predicts that violence in Iraq is likely to worsen, and no one knows who is actually behind the insurgency.
“The systematic advance of the insurgent strategy has stunned many U.S. planners, who remain bewildered by the guerrillas’ command structure. The walls of Army tactical centers are inevitably filled with charts trying to trace cell members and their links to financiers, known affiliates of Hussein’s Baath Party, Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary fighters, hostile sheiks and other suspected subversives.
“‘The thing that is frustrating still is we’re not able to connect what’s happening,’ said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, who heads Task Force Iron Horse, operating out of Tikrit, Hussein’s home base.” [Patrick J. McDonnell and John Hendren, “U.S. Officials and Iraqis Agree That Conflict Will Get Worse,” The Los Angeles Times, December 14, 2003]
Most significantly, McDonnell and Hendren write that pro-insurgent Iraqis “dismissed the notion that their fight will diminish once Hussein is killed or captured, as U.S. officials hope. ‘We are not fighting for Saddam,’ one said.”
The Bush Regime faces a political danger, and one wonders if they are too stupid to see it. Right now they and their lapdogs in the news media are celebrating the capture of the Butcher of Baghdad, raising expectations that the Iraqi resistance will evaporate and that no more U.S. soldiers will die. What will they say if that does not happen? How will they rationalize Iraqi resistance to U.S. occupation if they can’t blame it on Saddam?
On the other hand, the Baghdad Blogger believes the capture will let the air out of the resistance. We’ll see.
Well, I guess we saw, didn’t we? The Mighty Coalition accomplished the huculean feat of hauling an old man out of a hole, and the insurgency got worse. Whoop-di-doo. Yet somehow Bush didn’t pay the political price he should have paid.
Juan Cole reports that seven U.S. Marines were killed in Anbar yesterday. Guerrillas detonated a car bomb at a Green Zone checkpoint. The U.S. is still bombing Fallujah. Much of Iraq lost electricity yesterday because of a fire in a power plant.
What a difference a year didn’t make.
December 13th, 2004 at 10:41 am
Those were the days. I remember back then people still thought that Iraq would be better off under American occupation than ruled by Saddam. They still thought the US would end the embargo that caused shortages at hospitals and a lack of electricity and drinkable water. People would ask, “Would you rather Saddam was still in power?” as a support for the war.
December 13th, 2004 at 1:55 pm
And it would only a matter of days before finding those pesky weapons of mass destruction.
December 13th, 2004 at 8:38 pm
One year ago, presidential candidate Howard Dean announced, to the disapproval of his handlers, that “the capture of Saddam has not made America safer.” A year later, his sentiment still rings true.
“With the arrest of Saddam Hussein, there is a new opportunity for the members of the former regime, whether military or civilian, to end their bitter opposition,” administrator L. Paul Bremer had proclaimed one year ago Monday. But all this is a distant memory. Today, violence rages in Iraq, predicted only to increase in the lead up towards elections.
As of Sunday, Dec. 12, 2004, at least 1,289 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,007 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said.
The war (that led to the capture) and its reconstruction diverted resources from homeland security, the hunt for bin Laden, but most alarmingly, it has created the threat that president Bush always insisted was lurking in Iraq .
more: www.politicalthought.net