Iraq: Bush has a plan, and it's workingAsia TimesNov. 03, 2006 |
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"If you listen carefully for a Democrat plan for success, they don't have one. Iraq is the central front in the war on terror, yet they don't have a plan ..." - US President George W Bush, campaigning for Republicans in next week's congressional elections. So, does the Bush administration have a plan for Iraq, and if so, is it working? The answer to both questions could well be "yes". But it's not a plan that Bush could publicly boast about, despite the fact that it's working like a charm. This is how things are shaping up in Iraq (see image below), according to US Central Command itself, which keeps a "chaos gauge" to measure Iraq's progress from chaos to peace. According to the New York Times, the "gauge" was shown as a slide at a classified briefing on October 18. Unfortunately for the benighted Iraqis, the gauge is moving steadily in the "wrong" direction: away from peace and into the "red zone" of chaos. So how is it that the Bush plan can be said to be working? Easy, if the plan is ... chaos. Asia Times Online columnist Spengler has pointed out that chaos is probably the best option for the Bush administration, not only in Iraq but in the region (see How I learned to stop worrying and love chaos, March 14, 2006, and Mistah Kurtz, he clueless, May 11, 2004). Mark LeVine writes (The chaos theory in action, April 6, 2004): "It is chaos that makes this whole [post-invasion Iraqi] system possible. Without the chaos, Iraqis would not allow the country to be sold off wholesale, or allow the US troops to remain after the June 30 'transfer' of sovereignty." A strategy of fomenting chaos makes perfect sense in a twisted sort of way: a stable, autonomous Iraq means oil will be pumped, bringing down international crude prices, and that's the last thing the Bush administration's backers want. Who are the administration's backers, and who has a hotline to the presidency, via Vice President Dick Cheney? Big Oil. Consider these well-known facts: Consider too that oil-industry behemoth ExxonMobil this week announced third-quarter earnings of $10.49 billion, largely on the backs of US consumers paying high prices for oil. This is the second-biggest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded US company. Better not brag about your plan before the elections, Mr President. (Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd.) |