On Monday March 17, in victorious celebration of the fifth anniversary of the "three-week cakewalk" attack he masterminded and cheered for, Vice President Cheney bravely visited the rubbled residue of what was once the thriving city of Baghdad.
The trip was made in secret, because advance announcement was thought to be "too dangerous". Reporters were ordered not to report Cheney's schedule or location until after his departure.
Cheney arrived via Britain's Mildenhall Royal Air Force Base, making the flight to Baghdad while safely encased within a heavily armored stainless steel Airstream executive travel trailer cabin securely strapped in the hold of a C-17 military cargo plane.
The specially constructed travel trailer was delivered to Al Anbar, or Baghdad International Airport. The ten-mile trip to the "heavily fortified" 4 square-mile Green Zone was made by military helicopter, with the fearless Cheney wearing a helmet and body armor. The flight was escorted by a large number of helicopter gunships. Additional gunships circled over downtown Baghdad.
Cheney spent almost all his time in Baghdad within the Green Zone, where he was briefed on "progress". However, on Monday evening, Cheney daringly ventured about one mile outside the Green Zone, for an extremely important meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Cheney made that short trip in a convoy of armored Humvees with darkened windows. The convoy was protected by additional armored military vehicles, manned by gunners and equipped with bomb-detectors. Helicopter gunships circling overhead provided additional protection. Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers stood guard along streets that had previously been swept for explosive devices. Streets along the route were closed and protected by concrete barriers and rolls of concertina wire.
The reason for this dangerous foray outside the Green Zone? The current crude oil differential between the $1.50 per-barrel cost of production and the $117 per-barrel value on spot markets. Cheney made this dangerous expedition to urge Iraqi leaders to quickly approve a law that will allow American oil companies to take over Iraqi national resources for their private gain. As a result, Iraq will be stripped of the ability to pay the multi-billion dollar costs of reconstructing the destruction America inflicted and now refuses to pay to rebuild.
Cheney's presence was quickly followed by that of John McCain, whose trip was also undertaken in secret, for briefings on gains in security in the country.
Those "gains" were affirmed by comparisons with a similar trip by McCain a year earlier, when he purchased a rug in an open market near the Green Zone.
A year ago, news photographers took pics of McCain as he proclaimed by personal demonstration that Americans could "walk freely" around Baghdad.
Those photographers were ordered to only take close-up shots, so as not to show that McCain was protected by about 100 heavily armed American soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships.
This year, McCain wasn't allowed to visit the market, because of "markedly deteriorated security conditions". The market is now controlled by Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi militia.
American-supported Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Miliki is similarly protected. While venturing to headquarters of the Dawa party, located one-half mile outside the Green Zone, Maliki customarily travels along streets cleared of all people by soldiers waving guns in the air. Maliki rides in one of six identical bullet-proof vehicles with blackened windows, protected fore and aft by American Humvees, all led by four black armored cars, each with three machine gunners projecting from roofs.
Similar security concerns affect operations at the American embassy in the Green Zone. But constructive solutions to lessen violence are not being sought. Instead, increased levels of protection against escalating levels of violence are being sought.
Embassy employees had been sleeping in trailers protected by walls of sandbags.
No more. That is now forbidden. Employees are now required to sleep in blast-resistant structures. All embassy personnel are required to remain under hard cover at all times, except for "mission essential" reasons. Outside activities undertaken for those essential reasons must be sharply limited in duration.
Personnel have been ordered not to leave reinforced buildings unless absolutely necessary. On those occasions, employees are required to wear body armor, helmets, protective eyewear and other protective gear.
Long-term, the State Department has a better plan. Saddam Hussein's palace will be vacated. Despite hundreds of construction defects, the department recently accepted construction of the "hardened" embassy compound.
This 27-building complex, constructed on 104 acres by a Kuwaiti contractor using slave labor imported from the Philippines at a cost of $736 million, including $144 million in change orders, is "heavily fortified" and will, according to Ambassador Ryan Crocker, provide " some added protection".
Added protection is undoubtedly necessary and prudent. In the three weeks following Cheney's heavily protected visit, four Americans died in shellings of the Green Zone. At least 14 non-Americans have also been killed there, and at least 17 American soldiers were wounded. Helicopters, military vehicles and buildings have been destroyed.
A spokesperson for the State Department, America's bastion of truthfulness, commented on reports of rocket attacks:
"I'm not aware of any."
During his visit, Cheney reacted in his uniquely delusional fashion, by expressing admiration for the "phenomenal" improvements in security. He expressed a number of other similarly delusional conclusions during his visit:
... "great progress" has been made in both security and governance...
"... significant progress in the last ten months..."
The invasion five years ago and efforts to install "democracy and stabilize Iraq" ... was a "successful endeavor".
There we have it. According to Cheney, the five-year goal of bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq has been accomplished. Personal safety, and such basics as food, electricity and drinkable water be damned.
As these insane pronouncements were uttered, explosions occurred. In Kerbala, a female suicide bomber killed fifty people and wounded dozens more. Near the Green Zone, bombs killed four people and injured thirteen.
Cheney deceitfully implied these isolated, last-throes dead-ender attacks were carried out by people associated with al-Qaeda:
"... it is pretty clear that there was a link..." between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein before the invasion.
Three days later, the Pentagon issued a report stating there is absolutely no proof whatsoever of any significant operational link between al-Qaeda and Hussein, who actually were bitter enemies. This latest report confirmed conclusions contained in dozens of previous studies made over the past five years.
General Petraeus begged to differ as to the cause of the violence. He proclaimed "... Iranian-provided, Iranian-made" rockets were being used to attack the Green Zone. They were launched by groups trained and funded by the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Apparently Petraeus views these attacks as yet another indication of America's "phenomenal progress". During congressional hearings, General Petraeus informed Senator Lugar:
"We have our teeth into the jugular..."
Whoever the enemy of American-style Iraqi freedom and democracy is, Cheney ignored all traces of reality and vowed to press ahead:
"I think... it's very, very important that we succeed."
... US forces will not quit before the job is done..."
"... our objective here is victory..."
The terms "succeed", "job" and "victory" were not defined. These terms have never been rationally defined, either by Cheney or by anyone else in a position of authority in Washington. All we know for certain is that these terms don't refer to bringing genuine freedom and democracy to the long-suffering people of Iraq.
Perhaps the "job", after five years of war, at a cost of over 4,000 American soldiers killed, tens of thousands wounded and $500 billion dollars, is securing the Green Zone, where American personnel will continue to be viewed as enemies and hated by the people of Iraq.
Perhaps "victory" means stealing Iraqi national resources by American oil companies.
Perhaps "success" is the term for America's destruction of the infrastructure of Iraq, with the deaths of hundreds of thousands and displacement of millions more.
Or perhaps that term "success" refers to the bankruptcy of America, the destruction of its middle class and loss of trust worldwide.
Sane and rational Americans need to understand what the insane and delusional Vice President cannot understand or accept:
America has decisively and conclusively lost the gratuitously waged war against Iraq. After five years of efforts so costly in blood in money, there is no other sane and rational explanation for America's inability to even secure its embassy against attacks that occur almost daily.
America is the loser.
The winner?
Iran, the self-proclaimed enemy of America. Iran, whose President Ahmadinejad recently traveled from the airport to downtown Baghdad without special security precautions to conduct what Iraqi Prime Minister called "friendly, positive and full of trust" talks.
Almadinejad's sane, rational and absolutely correct explanation for this glaring contrast:
"I am welcome in Iraq. The Americans are not."
azchuck
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