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archived: 14 - 20 Aug, 2005 Back Next UPDATED: August 16, 2005 SEVEN DAYS IN AUGUST August is becoming the cruelest month for neoconservativism. Cindy Sheehan has camped out near Bush’s Prairie Chapel Ranch, aka The Western White House, demanding to speak directly to the Commander-in-Chief in order to ask him why her son died in Iraq. Fox News and its professional apologists for Bush have pointed out that the president has already spoken to Cindy. What they do not report is that he was impolite, insensitive, uncaring and perfunctory in that meeting. Cindy Sheehan was shocked. She said the president acted like he was at a party. He was neither solemn, respectful nor presidential. She has stated that she is not going to be fobbed off by a brusque brush-off from Bush’s minions in Crawford, Texas, and she may follow him back to Washington if he does not agree to a face-to-face meeting with her this month. Cindy Sheehan has become a major media cause celebre, and her vigil has caused Bush’s poll numbers to plummet even lower. Bush is now as unpopular as LBJ was in March, 1968 when he announced his retirement from the presidency. Unfortunately, Bush has no such luxury, for he is obligated to serve for another three years and five months, unless he either: disappears, resigns or is impeached. For Dick Cheney, the possibility of impeachment is becoming more likely with every turn of the screw in the investigation of the CIA espionage case. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is encircling Cheney by interviewing key staff in the West Wing. The Grand Jury ends its term in October, when indictments in this case should at last become public. In order to distract the American people from the chaos raging throughout Iraq – especially within the Transitional Government where religious factionalism has broken out and launched a rampant conflict over Islamism, Sharia and the rights of women – we have been treated to the spectacle of third party negotiations with Iran over their nuclear research. In his latest interview on Israeli television, George Bush has threatened to use shock and awe military intervention if Iran does not acquiesce to his demands that they cease their nuclear research at once. At the same time, Russia and China have moved into position supporting Iran’s rights under international treaties and laws to develop their nuclear industry. At this point in time, there is no likelihood that the UN Security Council would sanction any military intervention against Iran for their nuclear program currently meets every criteria of international law. Immediately after hearing Bush’s bellicose threats against Iran, Gerhard Schroeder vetoed any German support for another Bush War. Almost as swiftly, a spokesman for Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, quickly removed Britain from any possibility of supporting another Bush-led military intervention in the Middle East. To make matters worse for Bush and Cheney, women’s rights activists in Iraq are decrying some of the terms of the still embryonic Iraqi constitution. On Face the Nation, Governor Howard Dean boldly and correctly drew attention to the fact that women in Bush’s Iraq may lose some of the rights that they had enjoyed under the reign of Saddam Hussein. The relegation of women’s rights in Iraq strikes a certain resonance with many neoconservatives like Judge and Mrs. John Glover Roberts, who are zealously engaged in the process of erasing the rights of American women to determine the time, the place, the circumstances and the outcome of their own pregnancies. Much more disturbingly, deep divisions are cracking open and exposing huge chasms between competitive factions within the US military. While there is still a gung-ho faction loyal to the ideology of the most radical extremists in the neoconservative White House, a huge anti-neoconservative movement is rising to challenge the rationale and the military “doctrines” of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. While the extremist faction clustered around Dick Cheney spearheaded recent moves to transform and to liberalize military doctrine governing the use of nuclear weapons, many officers of flag rank now question the wisdom of the latest changes which make the use of these awesome weapons much more likely. These concerned officers have recently devised machinations allegedly designed to discourage any new major military intervention conceived by the radicals in the Bush White House. In the past month, Donald Rumsfeld and flag rank officials under his command have announced a plan to reduce the number of troops in Iraq by early next year. However, military officials loyal to Vice President Dick Cheney oppose moves to reduce the number of troops. Furthermore, the Cheney faction is poised to launch a stunning aerial bombardment of Iran replete with nuclear weapons. The launch of the shock and awe nuclear bombardment of Iran awaits a defining, triggering event, i.e. any potential act of terrorism on American soil. The radical neoconservatives believe that America should swiftly pull the switch to give the planet a shocking trauma, and the new generation of nuclear weapons is precisely the switch that they wish to pull in order to jolt the world into forgetting about peace, trust and understanding and, simultaneously, to numb the global population to their continued onslaught on the world’s rapidly dwindling oil reserves. One week ago today, Brigadier General Kevin P. Byrnes, the head of Fort Monroe’s TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command) was unceremoniously removed from his post under highly mysterious circumstances. “Doctrine” is a specialist term for defining and consolidating all tactical and strategic responses available to commanders in the battlefield. Doctrine defines what the military can and cannot undertake in wars, interventions and defensive maneuvers. Military doctrine determines the type of mission and the potential type of operation under any and every set of conditions. During the Clinton presidency, General John Shalikashvili transformed the US military approach to doctrine which now governs the scope, intensity and frequency of a broad spectrum of potential military responses under any conceivable combat situation. Since the inauguration of Bush and Cheney in January, 2001, all of the leading doctrine commanders in the US military have been replaced to make way for the neoconservative doctrines of more military interventionism in pursuit of the new American imperialism. John Shalikashvili was the first to go. In July, 2005, only one ranking expert in Doctrine Command remained. He was General Byrnes, and he became the last of the original generation of Doctrine Command experts to be removed by Bush and Cheney. But, General Byrnes’s abrupt removal has caused intrigue. General Byrnes was only three months away from his thirty-year retirement when he was sacked for allegedly conducting an inappropriate affair with a civilian. Curiously, General Byrnes’s divorce became final on the date of his removal from office. At first, this ironic set of circumstances appears to be highly suspect. However, when General Byrnes’s replacement was named, suddenly all became clear. The Bush-Cheney White House has a totally new agenda for Doctrine Commanders, and they have firmly implanted one of their most trusted loyalists as the new head of TRADOC. Lieutenant General Anthony R. Jones is well known to those who have followed the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. General Jones has a highly distinguished military record. However, last year he led the “investigation” into the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. His loyalty to the most radical concepts of neoconservative ideology – including the containment of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal to a group of military officials in Iraq – was convincingly demonstrated when the report that he released absolved, “senior US authorities,” (i.e. Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George Bush) from responsibility for the criminal abuses of prisoners of war that took place at Abu Ghraib. One week after the mysterious sacking of General Byrnes, there have been unsubstantiated reports circulating on the internet that describe the gulf opening up between the factions in the US military as a, “coup.” Apparently, there is a battle royale raging within the highest ranks of the US military that has pitted the jingoistic ideology of neoconservativism against a more Rooseveltian and Kennedyesque doctrine of reasoned diplomacy and responsible containment. Henceforth, neoconservativism defines itself as characterized by the cowardly Bush Doctrine of launching unprovoked and pre-emptive nuclear bombardments against non-nuclear enemies. Arising to oppose this cruel and aggressive form of military dictatorship, we now believe that there is concerned group of high-ranking American military officials determined to wrest control from those who fervently believe in the first use of our most advanced nuclear weapons to intimidate weak and defenseless peoples who happen to live in regions rich in oil, gas and minerals. For the time being, these men and women are silent. At some point, they will come forward with their account of the seven days in August, 2005. In the meantime, fewer people now support the war in Iraq than at any previous time, and fewer Americans support the policies of George Bush and Dick Cheney. The neoconservatives are cratering. Cindy Sheehan is demanding a presidential hearing. General Byrnes is walking away from Fort Monroe, and Americans are listening for the voices of reason to arise in a chorus from the US military just like they did during the ill-conceived wars in Korea and Vietnam. Sources
Abuse Inquiry Gets New
Leader
Someone Tell the President
the War Is Over
The Sunday Times / Michael
Portillo, Bush should show Iran some respect
The Sunday Times / David
Leppard, US warns of new attacks on London
The Sunday Times /
Britain keeps distance from talk of strike on Iran
The Sunday Times /
Bush ‘losing way’ in war on terror
Four Star Army General
Fired For Alleged Sexual Misconduct
United States Military
Forces Begin Coup, Top US General Arrested By Anti-Coup Factions,
Russian and Chinese Military Forces Go To High Alert / By: Sorcha Faal,
and as reported to her Russian Subscribers
Bush and the Bomb By
Marjorie Cohn __________________ Since 1968, Michael Carmichael has been a professional political consultant. Beginning as a Student Coordinator for Robert F. Kennedy, he has worked in five US presidential campaigns as well as over 100 major American political campaigns for federal and state offices. In 1985, he founded The Oxford Centre for Public Affairs in the United Kingdom. In 2003, he founded The Planetary Movement Limited, a global public affairs organization based in the United Kingdom. He has appeared as a public affairs expert on the BBC, European Business News, NPR and many European television broadcasts examining American politics and culture. In addition to his column for The Political Junkies, he is a regular contributor to the Moving Planet weblog. See: www.planetarymovement.org and http://planetmove.blogspot.com/
Last Update: 03/23/2006 |
