Twelve years?

Rumsfeld has now said that the insurgency could go on for 5, 7, 8, maybe 12 years. Why not 10 years, 3 months, two weeks, five days and 11 hours? Or maybe 13 years, six months, two weeks, two days and 12 minutes? Why can't he be more precise? He wants us to believe that no one knows how long it will go on. Oh, yeah, until the Iraqi army is strong enough to take over. When will that be? No one knows. In fact, no one knows because the Bush/Cheney administration has no intention of ever leaving entirely. The plan was and still is to set up a Puppet government that will do the bidding of the U.S. This is why we are building permanent bases in Iraq, to make sure we will be able to control things if the Puppet Government doesn't behave properly. This is why there was not and is not any real exit strategy. Exiting was never a consideration.

I admit to not having a very clear idea of what this was all about. I initially overimplified by thinking they just wanted to steal Iraqi oil. Someone else recently suggested they could have bought all kinds of oil for the 300 billion we've invested (wasted) there. But the neocons didn't want to buy Iraqi oil. They might not have even wanted to steal it. What they do want is to CONTROL it. They want to be able to control not only Iraqi oil but all Middle East oil. They not only want it for themselves, they also want to be able to keep it from China, India, Russia, and others.

To this end they lied to get us into an unconstitutional, illegal, immoral and unnecessary "war." They have never told the truth about it and they continue to lie about it now. It is not going to be over in X number of years. It is not going to be over when Iraq has its own army as long as that army does not do what they are told. It might be over when the oilfields are exhausted or oil is replaced by some new energy source (not likely, of course, especially with Bush/Cheney and their heirs in charge).

It has been suggested by some that the Bush/Cheney administration should tell us the truth about Iraq. So why don't they? They can say oil is an absolutely necesary commodity if the U.S. is going to continue as it is. We cannot do without it. Others now compete for it. It is therefore in our national interest to control it. That is why we invaded a sovereign nation that was no threat to us or anyone else. We have to have the oil. That is why we have send our sons and daughters to die for it. Oil is very important for the U.S. economy and especially for the giant oil companies and others that are involved in this seeming disaster. So, you see, it's really not a disaster at all but, rather, a completely understandable and necessary enterprise. Of coure we could have, or still could, make a genuine attempt to find a better solution to the problem. But where's the profit in that?

So Mr. and Mrs. North America and all the ship at sea, now that you understand it, I hope you are satisfied with what we have done and what we need to continue doing. It's the American way.