This administration can’t abide competence. They value loyalty above all else; disagree with them, and you’re out. Since no one is perfect, competent employees/minions are guaranteed to point out a mistake sooner or later. And boom–they’re gone. The rest of the minions quickly learn the lesson, and they either quit or dutifully stop pointing out mistakes.

You can have competence or you can have blind obedience, but you can’t have both. Bu$hCo(TM) chose blind obedience. Authoritarian regimes can’t last very long for this exact reason.

like I said, Cheney drinks blood and feeds off the souls of dead babies. trust me, it’s true. his adventure in iraq provides him with what he desires most – souls to devour.

a side benefit is that he, and everyone around him in the gubmint get huge amounts of money from the war profiteering. Halliburton is just the tip of the iceberg. Where do you think all those billions that got lost in Iraq went? They didn’t just vanish into thin air! they vanished into the pockets of the supremely evil fuckers in the white house, and all the donors and other connected kstreet fuckers.

katrina wasn’t a fuckup either. they wanted it that way because they are evil, don’t care, and got at least a month’s worth of souls to eat out of it.

look at every ‘fuckup’ in this light, and you will see that this is all very calculated chaos. they set it up so that the money/soul siphon will continue for many, many years.

if cheney can play up the absurd armageddon angle to bush, then it benefits him even more.

blegh.

This is the worst part of American history in my lifetime. Everything Amercia stands for has been severley damaged in the eyes of those outside the USA.

AA Breakdown

But I still think the primary reason for both the initial invasion of Iraq (which, remember, was in the works before 9/11) and for the complete lack of concern about the ensuing clusterfuck was the 2004 presidential election. Commander Codpiece knew exactly what image he wanted on the campaign posters because War Presidents always win re-election. The current plans for Iran surely involve some strategic thinking about how the American people won’t want to change horses in the middle of the stream and will therefore go for a Giuliani or a McCain. No matter how soul-rapingly hideous the stream in question.

These wars often happen because of a nexus of interests which collectively form a crosshairs. One example is the “Suez Crisis,” in which Nasser’s Egypt was invaded by Israel, France and Britain. Factors of this conspiracy? Brits mad that Egypt nationalized the canal after the UK had handed it over (as Egypt had perfect right to do), French suspect that Nasser supports the Algerian resistance, Israel wants to nab the Sinai. Different aims achieved by the same hostile act.

Same ol same ol in Iraq. Zionists want to destroy a major anti-Israel dictator (on America’s nickel, better yet), Bush wants to keep war fear, which saved his presidency, going, big oil and military outsourcees hear the dinnerbell. Best of all, Iraq was prostrate so it was going to be a cake walk.

Ther doesn’t have to be one reason — in fact, the more reasons, the more interests that want it to happen. Just don’t expect our leaders or the corporate media to ever give them.

(My feeling is that this situation will continue for the remainder of the US occupation, short or long term. And then after the US leaves, the new regime will wipe their collective a**** with the the Production Sharing Agreement.)

I do not think this chaos is accidental. It is part & parcel a result of the Bush Jr. Republicans’ only way of selling the war to America.

The propaganda by which this war was sold explicitly was based on assuring Americans that small forces would be adequate, that the occupation would be short-term at most, and that there would in essence be no need for a post-invasion security effort.

Rumsfeld et al were of course stupid, arrogant and insane in their planning for, say, not even having enough troops to guard Saddam’s weapons depots throughout the country.

But Rumsfeld, above and beyond his fantasies of how Iraqis would welcome and love us, and how technology would conquer all, was highly aware as were his political bosses that this war simply could not be sold to the public if it were admitted to be as large and long lasting and as difficult as any moderately sober and non-anaesthetized military officer could have seen.

These kinds of stupidities aren’t new. Mao Tse Tung neither intended (directly) to cause nor benefited from the ‘Great Leap Forward’ which may have starved some 20 million or more Chinese to death.

Had Saddam Hussein only invaded the disputed sliver of Kuwait in which the slant-drilling had taken place, it’s likely that Gulf War 1 wouldn’t have taken place either (though yes it might have).

But because Iraq is in chaos, legislation promoting PSAs makes sense. No other ME nation is permitting PSA arrangements, but no other ME nation is in chaos yet.

So, is this chaos just accidental?

You know, I’m mostly with Mikey on this one. Even if this Administration does have some evil plans, and I believe that they do– don’t give them too much credit in your minds.

They have already done a huge amount of damage, and they will do more. But, I don’t think they are evil geniuses. They might be evil retards. They also just might be Ultra-Mean-Nutty-Right-Wing retards.

In all seriousness, I have considered arguments for this interpretation. I understand the argument. I understand that it is physically possible.

The fact that I am not convinced by the argument (yet) does not mean I am genetically or ideologically capable of accepting it should either more evidence or a stronger argument emerge.

While it is a fact that throughout history, politicians have pursued real policies completely at odds with the stated public purposes of those policies, it is *also* a fact that throughout history, politicians have made huge miscalculations, contradictions, and errors, even with respect to their own selfish interests.

Although at no point do these people avoid their own self interest to the point of honor or altruism, the Bush Jr. crew would simply have been better off even in the basest fashion by having a well functioning Iraq in which they controlled the oil, and that oil was able to be produced and sold regularly and in a secure fashion, whereas now the pipelines are continually being attacked & even severely damaged.

So, although your argument may be right, it is not the case that those of us yet unconvinced by it are unaware of your argument, nor unwilling to consider it, nor incapable of accepting it should it ever be demonstrated.