November 5, 2003- It's Real Now

Ever since hostilities started in Iraq back in the spring, this operation has looked more like some kind of Hollywood Mini-series or movie or some such shit than it has looked like an actual war. When the whole thing started, the American troops roared into and across Iraq with a speed never before seen in modern warfare. As the whole Western world watched in amazement, the Americans sped across Iraq all the way to Baghdad without confronting much of any real resistance at all. You saw virtually none of Saddam's armed forces opposing the American advances, instead, you saw them surrendering to the Americans in droves. Whenever the American came into a town or city, you sw them welcomed as conquering heroes by the ecstatic population. People were dancing in the streets and surrendering iraqi troops has big old smiles on their faces, and none of this looked like a real war at all. There seemed to be little or no opposition to the Americans anywhere throughout Iraq. Then, the war was over almost as fast as it began. America came, America saw, America conquered, and that seemed to be it. Since then we have had the post war period on Iraq, and that too has seemed rather surreal at times, nothing like a military operation. We have seen America losing the control that they gained from the war almost as quickly as they assumed it, and there have been increasing attacks upon American troops as time went on. Even this has not really seemed like an armed conflict, principally because the pentagon has had all sorts of answers and spin control for everything that has gone on in Iraq. They have treated the deaths of American soldiers like it is an inevitable evil, and that any and all iraqi opposition strikes were essentially meaningless because America was in control. The picture painted was not unlike a picture of any American city, that6 violence is on the streets of these cities, and that people die from that violence and not much can be done about it. The Pentagon has done all that they can do to make this whole Iraq thing not look like a war. They have continually insisted that America is firmly in control of the situation in Iraq and that America would prevail, and all that balderdash. The Pentagon and the White House have constantly downplayed the threats that the American troops face in Iraq, making it seem like they are not involved in a war, but rather like they are Pigs working in the inner city or something. When you hear Pigs that work the inner cities of America talk, they always say that they have a safety zone from all the chaos at their headquarters, that no bad guys can get at them there. The Pentagon has adapted that very same mentality in Iraq, especially when it comes to Baghdad. The Pentagon has insisted that the American troops are lots safer than anyone thinks because the American have established a safety zone around their headquarters, and as long as people are there, they will not get harmed. They have said that the troop fatalities have all come when troops have left the "green zone" as they call it around their headquarters. The Pentagon has repeatedly said that the Iraqi opposition is not sophisticated enough, organized enough, well- financed, etc. To be able to get at the US troops in the green zone. So, according to the Pentagon, all that they have to do is to expand that zone as far as they possibly can and that will enable them top secure Iraq. Everything is nice and neat and easy like and nothing like a war, because the Pentagon has not really considered the Iraqi opposition to be at war with them because they just do not think that this opposition has what it takes to wage war against America and that it will be merely a matter of time before America gets rid of them entirely. So it has seemed more like some kind of Police action than an actual war. However, that has changed drastically these last few days. Suddenly, the opposition has ratcheted up their offense by more than a notch or two. A few days ago, an American helicopter was shot down out of the air by a shoulder-fired heat seeking missile and sixteen Americans were killed instantly. This was one of the acts that the Pentagon said that the Iraqi opposition was incapable of doing. Another of these acts was the attack on the Al-Rasheed hotel, which is where a lot of the top American military people stay at in Baghdad, no tents for them. One of the deputy Secretaries of Defense from the Pentagon narrowly escaped death from this attack. The Pentagon expressed surprise that the opposition could be so organized as to coordinate an attack like that on the hotel, and they expressed similar surprise that the opposition could shoot down an American helicopter. So while they were trying to figure out just how these things happened, the Iraqi opposition shot missiles into the American military headquarters right in the middle of the green zone and caused significant damage. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the Iraqi opposition forces have become sophisticated enough to be able to plan, coordinate, and execute military maneuvers that pose a real threat to the American forces and the American military headquarters as well. Now this has become a real war. The question is what is America going to f do about it, and there seems to be no clear answer to that question, just as there have been no clear answers to most of the questions that this Iraq operation has brought up. Now America is starting to realize that they are not just fighting a bunch of ragtag fanatics, but that they are fighting a real war against a real army. That army is now proving that they are indeed capable of getting at the Americans no matter where they may be at, and that no Americans are safe anywhere in Iraq. What The Pentagon and the White House thought would be an easy cakewalk in Iraq is starting to turn into a full blown war more and more every day. As always, the Pentagon seems to have no plan in place to deal with this, and the result is going to be that American lives will be lost more and more. Is America truly ready to fight a full-blown war in Iraq is what needs to be found out.

The answer to that question is most likely no. Ever since this all started in Iraq, President Bush has looked at it all like it was going to be very easy for the USA to just waltz into Iraq and oust Saddam and take over. He never even considered things like what he was going to do to rebuild and govern a post-war Iraq, or how long the American troops would be needed, or really anything with the exception of how his pal and mentor, Mr. Businessman was going to make all sorts of money from Iraq's oil riches. That part of things he had figured out to the smallest detail before he engaged the troops, but everything else seemed to get short shrift from Bush. It was like he did not care about anything other than Mr. Businessman profiting and everything else was but an afterthought to him. America has paid a large price for this shortsightedness on Bush's part as the loss of control over the Iraqi people has demonstrated. Now America is finding out just what they are really up against, and Bush is in deep shit over it all. He has to figure out things like how to fight a war with troop morale at low levels and an all-volunteer force that did not sign up nor wants any part of all this shit. Yes, they have been trained in the fine art of fighting war, but how much of that did they really retain, because they were more interested in learning a trade or going to school than they were about learning how to kill. Now, they have no choice but to kill, and kill plenty, because their Commander-In-Chief has made them all targets with his "bring 'em on" talk, and the opposition is indeed bringing it on. Bush said that shirt because he felt that he had no real opposition, so he could taunt them like that. If he had thought things through like he should have, he would have realized that it was going to take some time for any Iraqi opposition to galvanize themselves and get properly ready to wage war and all that because they were oppressed under Saddam and they had to be clandestine in all that they did, but once he was gone, they could operate openly, and they had to learn how to shift gears into that mode.the guerrillas that were attacking the Americans previously to now were just hardcore zealots and fanatics that had no organization or support or anything really, and their attempts were doomed to failure. The real opposition used that time to lay low and organize themselves and plot and plan their strategy, something that Bush did not do. While they planned, these other two-bit goofs were executing all these failed attacks and doing all sorts of stupid shit. The real opposition wanted that because they wanted America to think that they were up against a bunch of bumbling idiots that could not do anything. They knew that all the egomaniacs like Bush and Rumsfeld would go bragging and blathering on about how superior they were and how there was no opposition to them, and grow complacent in the process. That is exactly what happened. So the real opposition was able to come right out once they were ready and make a huge statement to America and show them that they were the real ones that America had to worry about and that these other dudes were just pretenders. The real Iraqi opposition knows, just like everyone else in the world, that America has no battle plan in Iraq, and they do which gives them one huge advantage over bigger, stronger America. The USA had no clear battle plan in Vietnam either, and the Viet Cong did, and that is why the Viet Cong won the war and America lost. And it is much harder to come up with a battle plan on the fly once a war has started than it is to come up with one before the war starts. The Iraqi opposition had a battle plan worked out long before America came storming in, and we are starting to see the beginnings of that now. Their plan is to let America know that they are not safe anywhere in Iraq and that combat is liable to come at them anytime from anywhere. Now America has been caught back on their heels and they have to regroup and re-plan. Once that starts, that is when the petty bickering and squabbling amongst the Pentagon brass and the White House begins. People at the Pentagon will have one certain political agenda in mind while the White House has another, and they end up fighting over it and that grinds the American military to a standstill as these two sides are at loggerheads over whatever. That is a big reason why America lost in Vietnam, because there were so many people at the top of the Warmongering pyramid that had different agendas on what they wanted that war to be, and those differing agendas led to stagnation and eventual defeat. Since there is so much more money around in this war then there was with Vietnam, the political infighting is sure to be much worse as everyone tries to get the war to be profitable to their interests first. Fighting the war one way will enrich some Pentagon Pig's buddies over another Pentagon Pig's buddies, so those buddies that get left out are sure to whine to their Pentagon connection about it, and that connection will try and get things done differently so his pals can profit more. Since this war is so tied into Big Business and profit margins, the fighting over the monies allocated promises to be fierce. None of these special interest groups gives a flying fuck about the American troops or the American people, all they care about is making as much money for themselves as they can. They see this war as being about business and money, not liberation or any of that nonsense. Since they have the ears of the Pentagon and White House people that are running this war, the differing opinions they al have are sure to create gridlock amongst the Generals and others running things, and that will do nothing except tilt things in favor of the opposition in Iraq. That will ensure that America is going to be in for a very long, protracted, and costly war where many of their troops will be killed. Things may not have looked like a real war thus far, but they are going to look like one from now on , rest assured of that. Things are as real as they get in Iraq now, and they are going to get much worse. That is the grim reality that America is going to have to face for many years to come. The USA has gotten themselves into a real war, a war that they are not assured of winning buy any means. If there is no cohesive battle plan drawn up in a hurry, America is doomed to defeat, for if they go back to political wrangling over everything, that will send more of their troops to certain death than any Iraqi opposition dude could ever do, and the only way that the Iraqi opposition can hope to win this war is to make America defeat itself, and making them have to come up with battle plans on the fly is a good way to start towards that, and that bodes ill not just for America, but for mankind as a whole.