Today while driving around I couldn’t help but remind myself that there are still two wars going on, we still have hundreds of thousands of our troops in harms way, and we don’t hear much about this due to the collapsing economy. Of course, what most in the news media don’t want to talk about is the effect the war in Iraq has had on our economy, considering that every penny used to pay for this war has been borrowed. It was clear as our recent election approached that the rest of the world was ready to abandon the US as a reliable “world leader” had we been stupid enough to validate the “Bush Doctrine” by electing John McCain. It is also clear that had McCain been elected there would have been no agreement with Iraq to extend our presence there beyond the 31st of December of this year. Evidently this agreement was signed during the latter part of this week by the Iraqi’s and I doubt there will be much discussion of the agreement in our so-called “mainstream” media – which, if you’ve read many of my posts you know that I consider them to be nothing more than a euphamism for a propaganda machine for the republican “right.”

The reports I’ve heard of this agreement are very interesting to say the least. I really do hope there is a thorough discussion of it in the US so that the people of this nation can get an even better understanding of the magnitude of Bush’s failures. This, to me, is so important because I’m still hearing the republican mouthpieces going on as if they consider the Obama presidency nothing but a short term blip in their plan to take over our government on a permanent basis – and to completely destroy it as it was intended to function by our founding fathers. First of all, I heard one top level Iraqi diplomat say that if Obama had not been elected there would not have been an agreement, because the Iraqi’s essentially don’t trust Bush and Company – as the saying goes – “as far as they can throw them!” This agreement calls for a date certain for ALL American troops to be out of Iraq. I suppose that Bush considers it a victory that the date is by the end of 2011, but the irony of the Iraqi’s putting a timetable on the man who said there would never be a timetable is a bit striking. And, yesterday I heard Dana Perino, the President’s spokesperson saying that this has been made possible because of our “victory!”

Her saying that was only further evidence that these people will never stop with the spin and the lies. I could give a long discussion on my confusion over what they might call victory, but I’ll leave that for another day. The second thing that I found interesting about this agreement was that it was being almost totally dictated by the Iraqi’s as the deadline of the UN charter supporting our “occupation” approached. It will be most interesting to find out what all President Bush and his cronies agreed to in an attempt to get something done before he leaves office. And I’m sure that Bush is trying to dictate to Obama how he will proceed with the withdrawal of our troops, and I can only say here that I believe Obama will respectfully do this as he sees fit and not according to any agreement made by a lame duck president who has proven himself incompetent. As I’ve stated before, I believe it is incumbent on Obama to empower whoever is in charge of the Justice Department when January 20th finally gets here to fully investigate everything that has gone on in Bush’s administration – especially relating to this war – and this final agreement is no exception. The good news to me is that our troops will be coming home and the Iraqi’s will finally be on the spot to solve their own problems.

The third and possibly most significant thing I’ve heard about this agreement is that the American contractors and the American troops will be subject to Iraqi law once December 31st rolls around. THIS IS VERY SIGNIFICANT!!!! For example there are about 175,000 “contractors” in Iraq by the estimates I have heard. This includes the Blackwater “security” forces that ambushed 17 Iraqi civilians about a year or year and a half ago. They were not prosecuted because when the Civilian Provisional Authority (CPA) of Paul Bremer set up the “rules” for this occupation after the fall of Saddam, they said no Americans would be subject to Iraqi laws. Well, as I’m sure you can imagine, this hasn’t set well with the Iraqi’s that Americans can murder Iraqi civilians and then be flown out of the country and face no prosecution. I have read several books on this war and I believe it is safe to say that THE IRAQI’S ARE NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS!! In fact, I think they are so unhappy about it that the Blackwater’s and the Halliburton’s and the Bechtel’s might just not feel so welcome there if they are subject to Iraqi law. And if you’re not sure what that means there’s a book about Moqtada al Sadr – I’ve read it but can’t remember the author and I’ve loaned it out – that can give you a good idea of what these contractors might be up against once they are no longer protected by this provision (In fact, in the case of the Blackwater “contractors” who killed the Iraqi civilians, it was argued by Blackwater that they were not subject to American laws either – further angering the Iraqi’s who wanted them held accountable for the 17 murders – and rightly so).

Just this last “change” in “conditions on the ground” could bring our troops home faster than most people think – because if all these contractors decide that it’s not worth the money (and make no mistake about why they’re there – the “contractors” are making about 5 times what our troops are making for providing “support” services – all so that the American public can be deceived into thinking that we “only” have 150,000 troops “on the ground”) we will either have to replace them with military troops or get our occupying troops out of there. I think that under an Obama presidency the latter of the two choices is the most likely. And when you really think about this – “The war in Iraq” – who are we fighting. How can you be liberating a country from itself? The logic of this is so ridiculous that it makes me even crazier that I feel I need to be writing this. And it gets me to my last point – the why we were there in the first place – OIL!!! And the irony of that is that whoever Bush wanted to have control over the oil is highly unlikely to have control over the oil. This can’t be said for certain, because the Bushites are cagey about pilfering things from governments – they are pilfering US taxpayers out of 700 Billion as I speak – but I have heard several reports that the Iraqi’s are looking toward the Chinese as a major trading partner when it comes to their oil. I suppose some American companies might profit in the pumping of the oil, but in the end, I believe that even the oil aspect of this misadventure will be a catastrophe.

So, we finally have an agreement for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and the republicans can’t blame the Democrats for stopping the funding as they should have done two years (and over 1000 American lives) ago. Iran is far more of a world “player” than they would have been had we just allowed the sanctions to take out Saddam Hussein peacefully – although the Shia majority is now in control which is in a sense “democratic” – the Chinese are likely to benefit from the vast oil reserves in Iraq – and the middle east is far less stable than it was prior to the war. I’m sure that Obama’s presidency has given people all over the world the hope that the US will finally take the role of a Moral leader for peace in this world – but GW Bush has created circumstances that are daunting to say the least. I always thought that once an agreement for the timed withdrawal of American troops was finalized there would be massive celebrations across this great land. Yet, I’m not hearing much celebrating. But the incompetency of the Bush administration has been across the board – and the truth is most Americans are just trying to figure out how to make it to the next paycheck – if there is one. As I said earlier, I can’t wait to see the details of this agreement – I suspect it will put the final exclamation point on how pathetic the Bush administration has been – and, of course, they will try to “spin” it as “victory.” The only victory I see from Iraq is the demise of the republican party!