Bush Has a Plan - Really
May 26, 2004
By Kismet Oz

So Bush has a "war aftermath plan." He only waited until more than a year after "major combat" was supposedly over to fill in Americans about his plan. Could it be because his approval rating is fast approaching single digits?

During Monday's speech Bush was reading a teleprompter and looked like he was speaking words he didn't believe. He also struggled with pronunciation of about 20 words. He choked on Abu Ghraib twice.

He mentioned that Iraq has become the center of the "war on terror." Not a giant mental leap to figure out why that may be the case now.

He talked about giving Iraqis total sovereignty. Does he mean the US will accept who the majority of Iraqis choose? Not in a Texas minute.

For his speech Bush chose a site much like those of his other unchallenged love fests - the Army War College in PA where he was guaranteed applause.

He mentioned US torture of Iraqi "detainees" and attributed it to a few bad soldiers. What's he going to say when the guilt path leads to Rumsfeld? It's already led to the evangelical General he appointed months ago. How much further up the chain can Rumsfeld be?

Bush told the American people that a brand spanking new prison will be built to replace that nasty Abu Ghraib prison. Halliburton has lots of experience building prisons - take Guantanamo for instance. Any guesses on who's going to get the contract? There are over 100,000 people waiting in line for Halliburton jobs and to be sent overseas. Betcha out of work Iraqis don't get those construction jobs.

Bush failed to mention who gets control of Iraqi oil after the US is "gone." Is that because the US maintains control of Iraqi oil after June 30? Can you say "yep" with a Texas drawl?

He mentioned that the US will maintain its 138,000 strong force in Iraq for the foreseeable future. He did not mention the largest private military force in the history of America which is picking up the "slack" over there. There are highly paid mercenaries swarming all over Iraq... and they are accountable to no one. They are working for US taxpayer-funded contractors selected by the Pentagon.

Bush invoked the name of the U.N. as if he can just command them to forgive the US for usurping international law and get into Iraq to clean up the mess the US made.

He also laid out a bunch of lofty unachievable goals. Why? It is because he wants to be able to say - "I have a plan." He has a whole buffet of fall guys when his plan fails, but at least he can say he had a plan. God forbid anyone should say he didn't have a plan.

Meanwhile, a wedding party was blown to bits by the U.S. More prison abuse photos surface weekly. The person who blew the whistle on the prison abuse is in big trouble. The abusers get one year in prison with restrictions about as solid as Bush's hold on a bicycle.

In Bush's world all is well and that sounds good enough for him. If he's not re-elected, he'll be off the hook and it'll be Kerry's mess. If he is re-elected, he'll only have four more years and no re-election to worry about. With his simple mind, he can probably imagine it going either way.

The author has a BA in Political Science and is a graduate student. She is a freelance writer & publicist based in the Chicago area. Email oz_kismet@yahoo.com