Incompetent Nincompoops! How we lost Iraq. Or maybe it works out well this way for some?

Idiocy, or bumbling brilliant boondoggle?

The only halfway competent thing that the Bush 43 Administration does is overthrowing governments, including our own, starting with Florida in 2000, the ridiculous HAVA bill with its unverifiable and hackable electronic voting machines as 'upgrades,' which shoves future cheating into the jaws of 2000's defeat and debacle, and the 2004 Ohio irregularities. Perhaps the neglect of New Orleans, the loss of a major Democratic city, now leaves Louisiana a safer Republican stronghold was a passive let-it-happen overthrow...

Then there is the overthrow of the Taliban, who seem to be making a comeback in Afghanistan. Somehow, our allies allowed Bin Laden to escape, allowing the 'Long War' against 'Terror' to continue indefinitely. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hamid Karzai is more like the Mayor of Kabul than the President of Afghanistan.

Other overthrows include the various eastern European 'color' revolutions, several of which are now unraveling, as well as Haiti, which stands, and an unsuccessful coup that we backed against Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. We probably played a role in 'ousting' Syria from Lebanon with Harriri's mysterious assassination.

Obviously, toppling that statue of Saddam Hussein in 2003 was most significant, but to what end? Who stands to benefit from this overthrow? Iran! They got rid of Sunni rival and warmongering neighbor Saddam. Their Shiite neighbors in Iraq get a lot more power than they've probably ever had, including control of southern oil fields and ports, and with Iraq being the home to many, if not most Shiite holy places, Iranians have freedom to infiltrate Iraq under religious cover.

Who was behind the Neo-cons' vision of flowers and candies greeting the US soldier liberators and oil funding the reconstruction of Iraq? Iranian backed and Iranian intelligence-connected Shiite Ahmed Chalabi! Remember 'Curveball'? The unreliable drunk falsely describing weather stations as mobile weapons labs? He's Chalabi's close relative (brother or brother-in-law)! The neo-cons have been conned! Or maybe not...

This is sort of like how Bush in 2001 looked into Putin's eyes and saw into his soul that he was a good man. Condi Rice, a so-called Russia/USSR expert, is Bush' foreign policy brains. Now we are in a chilly war with Russia. Perhaps all that Condi Rice knows what to do with Russia is deal with them as a Cold Warrior.

Certainly, our military-industrial complex does a lot better facing off against large nation-state-enemies like Russia and China than we do against cells of terrorists using the Internet, money changers, and messengers to enable the bombing of buildings, planes, and public spots. It is especially hard to fight terrorists with deep and enduring links to our 'friends and allies' in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan!

The only WMD attacks against the USA have their origins in the US military! The most publicized attacks, 2001's anthrax attacks against Democratic Senators and media outlets, have their origins in US weapons labs. Yet these attacks were used to rush through the mysteriously prepared so-called-Patriot Attack, er Act, that was so long that Congress wasn't even able to read it. Miracle how such a huge document was ready so soon, a couple of weeks, after the plane bombings of September 2001. These anthrax attacks were also used to justify beating the war drums against Iraq, since at the time it was intoned that: 'only Iraq could have the capability do such an attack.' Months later, the genetic strain for the anthrax was traced to US weapons labs, developed in the USA, and the trail of this terrorist seems to have gone cold.

Other such WMD attacks include spraying biological weapons on San Francisco, in New York City Subways, and, I recall, St. Louis, in the 1950s and 1960s, to test how biological attacks would work. Supposedly, this secret research was done for defensive purposes, but the line between defense and offense is not always so clear... Many people in SF fell ill due to these tests, as hospitals filled up with people suffering from pulmonary problems shortly after the tests. Much of the testing was supposed to be done with 'benign' bacteria, none of it happened with the consent or knowledge of the public, some of it led to actual illnesses, which the public health community was not notified about at the time. It took decades for this research to be quietly disclosed through research and dogged Freedom of Information Act requests.

All this to say, maybe the US was played by Iran to invade Iraq, or maybe the US is really in cahoots with Iran... It was several people in the current Bush administration with connections to the Iran-Contra Scandals in which the neo-cons, using Israelis and Saudi Arms dealers to arm the Iranians with missiles and aircraft parts against Iran's enemy and our ally at the time, Iraq. Strange all the internecine alliances and enemies in the mid-East. The Bushes are close with the House of Saud and the House of Bin Laden, both of which are supposed to be enemies of Iran. It defies logic. There is also some evidence that Bush 41 and the Reagan campaign worked with the Iranians to delay the release of the US hostages in Iran to ensure Carter's defeat and Reagan's election.

Before the US invasion of Iraq, I hoped that the US would create a new stable ally in Iraq, one that could be a counter-balance against Saudi oil power, especially if Al Qaida takes over neighboring Saudi Arabia. It would also give the US a reliable base from which to invade Saudi Arabia should terrorists take over the Saud regime. In addition, with our foothold in Afghanistan, we have Iran almost completely straddled.

The only clear winner in this mess seems to be Iran, Saudi Arabia, OPEC, and the oil companies enjoying windfall profits, military contractors, the burgeoning military-intelligence budget and powers, and military service providers like Kellogg Brown and Root, Booz Allen, Blackwater Security, Halliburton, and the private military investment consortium, the Carlyle Group. The later two firms' growth benefiting many Bush and Cheney family and friends with the nexus between rising energy prices and demand for military products.