“Mission Accomplished” & understanding the Mission
Sometimes it just gets too be to much. The war in Iraq isn't about oil or WMD. It's about tribal politics. That whole chunk of the woods is Tribal and the biggest tribe in the woods are the Saudis. The biggest threat to the Saudis is/was the Baath party. The Baath party was an attempt to organize the Arab nations into one political group. This political organization would have been a major threat to the tribal structure, economically and socially. The protagonists of the Baath party were Asad of Syria, now dead and his son is an unknown and Hussain of Iraq. The Saudi's had neither the brass, the ability or the political will to crush the Baath party. They found their perfect dupe in George Bush and, as the cliché goes, about “politics...bedfellows....etc,” the right wing, fundamentalist Christian element of the Republican party.
The Saudis had neither the brass, the political will or the ability to do the job themselves. I wonder if even Bush knew what the mission was. He's simply watched “Lawrence of Arabia” far too many times.
The Mission was to bust up the Baath party. The Mission was Accomplished. The fact that G. Bush got to wear a way cool flight jacket with lots of zippers and fly in a jet was just a bonus. For him. For the 5000 +/- Yanks, etc, etc plus God knows how many Iraq's, etc, etc had to die, not such a great deal.
