When a TV reporter recently asked Vice President Cheney how he reconciled U.S. policy on Iraq with the fact that two-thirds of Americans oppose the war, he shrugged his shoulders and arrogantly replied, “So?”
Cheney said “the ups and downs” of popular opinion are not his concern. He went on to say that, more importantly, the “surge” is working.
But it’s a mistake to judge the success or failure of the surge, a military tactic, in isolation from the overall war strategy of which it is a part.
If the strategy in Iraq is to run a war that makes America a safer place, then the surge, as part of a failed overall strategy, is also a dismal failure. Terrorists who were nowhere to be found in Iraq are now operating there, and the multi-billion-dollar cost increasingly undermines a secure life for more and more Americans.
If the strategy is to simplify the quest of U.S.-based multinational oil monopolies to control world supplies and jack up prices and stock value, by grabbing Iraq’s oil, all for the “low” cost of 4,000 American dead and countless Iraqi dead, then the strategy, with its accompanying tactics, including the surge, might be seen as a temporary success.
The point is that the people of the U.S., the people of Iraq and the people of the world reject this unthinkably evil strategy and all the tactics that are a part of it. They reject both the Dick Cheney strategy (the war itself) and the Dick Cheney tactic (the surge).
Cheney remains arrogant as he navigates overseas ports in an opulent yacht given to him by an oil-rich sultan who has participated in the corporate ripoff of Iraqi oil. For Cheney, war and death are all part of going out to make a buck. Let him enjoy his cruise while he can. The day is coming when the people will end the Cheney pleasure cruise and all such cruises taken at their expense.
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