January 03, 2007

Bush and Malaki: A Common Incompetence


President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Al Malaki, both self-proclaimed "Uniters" of their respective homelands, have a little more in common this morning than they did a few days ago. Mr. Malaki has proven himself, and his so-called government, to be as inept and incompetent at building and conducting a Democracy as Mr. Bush, and his government, are at exporting one.

The decidedly partisan and disgraceful way that Mr. Malaki's government conducted the execution of Saddam Hussein has done little to "unite" the Iraqi people. In fact, the sectarian nature of the execution has probably hammered in the last nail on the lid to the coffin of any possible representative democracy taking hold in Iraq. The taunting of the condemned Hussein with shouts of "Moqtada", referring to the leader of Iraqs most deadly Shiite militia, has sent the Iraqi Sunnis into the streets in mass protest and has forever tainted Mr. Malaki's government with a rabid Shiite bias. The Sunnis will now feel that their interests will never be served by an Iraqi government with a Shiite majority. Any attempt to build a coalition government, based on the idea of cooperation and compromise, is now surely dead.

This morning there are reports that Mr. Malaki will not be seeking a second term as Prime Minister. In an article published Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal Mr. Malaki said that he wished he could finish before the end of his current term. A new term he said would be "impossible". The sectarian violence that has escalated to the point of civil war during his tenure shows no sign of ending, in fact, due to his mishandling of Saddam's execution, it will probably continue to escalate even further.


Mr. Bush, the great decider himself, has kept his own peculiar light well hidden from the world in recent days. He has made a great show of making it known far and wide that he is developing a new strategy for victory in Iraq. He has talked with generals, politicians, think-tanks and, presumably, God himself in his efforts to come up with a viable plan to win the war. His neocon svengali rats have long since deserted his sinking ship or been forced to walk the plank, and the few that remain are keeping quiet and collecting their paychecks. But will Mr. Bush come up with a strategy for victory? I doubt it. He will probably send in more troops which will alienate the Iraqi people even further, and the so-called Iraqi security forces will prove themselves to be loyal to sectarian leaders rather than a failing and farcical government.

Prior to 1945 the Middle-East produced less than 10% of the worlds annual oil requirements. Fifty years later almost half the worlds requirement came from the region. By the early 21st century oil from the Middle-East powers over half the worlds transport and by the year 2020, due to falling oil supplies elsewhere in the world, the Middle-East will account for 83% of the worlds stock of crude oil. This region has become vital to the interests of the world's economy. Iraq and Iran are two of the world's largest oil suppliers. Their oil fields will fuel the economic fires of the world for decades to come.

Under the pretext of liberating Iraq from a brutal dictatorship and bringing to it the guiding light of American-backed democracy, Mr. Bush launched a preemptive and illegal war with the sole purpose of securing the Iraqi oil fields and planting permanent American military bases in the region. The plans for such a war were laid long before 9/11 by the neocons and were implemented by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfawitcz before the smoke of 9/11 had cleared. Now that his smokescreen of exporting democracy is fast fading in the light of sectarian chaos, and his dreams of oil wells as far as the eye can see is also dying from a lack of strategy and will, what will Mr. Bush do now?

Mr. Bush and Mr. Malaki have, between them, made the future very cloudy indeed for the Iraqi people, for the whole Middle-East, and for the economies of the world that will come to depend ever more on the region for their survival. The sooner that both of these fools exit the world stage the better.

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingAs for Mr. Tony Blair? I am sure he'll ride off into the same rosy, and lucrative, American lecture giving sunset that has provided so well for ex-prime ministers over the years. Good riddance to the lot of them.