"Don't Carpool with Nouri al-Maliki."

[DemBones DemBones]

The four essential paragraphs are near the end of the article:

But here on the home front, Levin, Clinton and other leading Democrats are determined not to be wrong-footed by White House attacks accusing them of stabbing America's fighting men and women in the back by questioning the surge's supposed success. On an hourly basis, the right-wing radio demagogues are accusing them of just such treachery. Flag-wagging and drum-thumping are traditional at Veterans of Foreign Wars' conventions.

In a rhetorical counter-move, the Democrats emphasize the failure of Bush's man, al-Maliki, to resolve Iraq's political divisions at equal speed. Amid their rather hollow assertions of confidence in al-Maliki, Bush and the Republicans recognize that al-Maliki is expendable and can be forced out, just as his predecessor was ditched.

Here's where al-Maliki should take a look at a dark episode in Vietnam not long before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November, 1963. A few weeks earlier in that same month a coup, code-named Operation Bravo Two, pushed by U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and the CIA, and executed by South Vietnamese officers led swiftly to the murder of South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem and Diem's brother.

Just as is happening today in Iraq the White House had concluded that their chosen man Diem had become an inconvenience to a political schedule that demanded "progress" , a feinted reduction in US troops pending the 1964 campaign year. Hence the coup and consequent demise of the bothersome Diem and his brother. Friendly witness claim that the Kennedys were deeply shocked at news of the murders.If so, it was akin to the shock of Henry II after the assassination of Thomas Becket. The killing of Diem committed the US more deeply than ever to blood stained years of "nation-building".

more at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08252007.html

I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers the murders of Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother. Will Iraq resemble Vietnam even more?

[DemBones DemBones]

1. Kicking for a new crowd. . .

:kick: