As we have passed the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender I am fascinated by the actions of current Japanese Emperor Akihito as well as watching current Japanese Minister Shinzo Abe who seemingly fell short of apologizing or continues to attend shrines who honor the war criminals and the war dead instead of doing what we in the West call “doing the right thing.”
Abe went so far as to speak to the war dead thanking them for the sacrifice which he said helped created Japan’s present peace and prosperity.
That’s fascinating, I remember them doing their level best to destroy a third of all of Asia. To congratulate themselves on how those wartime actions, religious insanity and imperial motives are the reason why they are prosperous today is truly amazing.
So all you uninitiated forget about the Bataan Death March, the rape of Nanking and untold thousands of murdered Chinese and Korean people. So amidst politicians dredging up the past in a manner that suits them, pops up the devil himself, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
After spending a week unable to absolve his brother President George W. Bush of blame concerning the Iraq invasion and he started blaming the problems in today’s Middle East on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, I see a little of the Japanese emperor and the prime minister shining through. Some wag recently took Jeb on when Jeb said that his brother “W” didn’t get everything right in Iraq. Juan Cole tweeted that such a statement was like saying Custer didn’t get everything right at the Little Big Horn. Dubya’s Iraq invasion is simply the largest foreign policy screwup in American history. As Juan Cole also noted Dubya didn’t get everything right indeed. Now, in true fashion, Jeb is foisting the next great lie that his brother’s “surge was working.”
History tells us always pay close attention to what politicians are actually claiming. In 2006 the U.S. installed the Islamic Mission Party in control in Iraq. That Shiite dominated party was hated by both the Kurds and the Sunni as well as several other key groups in Iraq. The new prime minister was the universally despised Nouri al-Maliki. Al- Maliki was involved in a number of religious and political fronts since being driven out of Iraq by Saddam Hussein. Al-Maliki was very close to Dubya, when things got bad through 2006. When Dubya’s advisors, like James Baker, counseled him to just get out of Iraq, he got a second opinion from another man, General David Petraeus. Petraeus said that America simply needed to have more soldiers to fully control the country. And those who know history, know that General William Westmoreland did the same thing in Vietnam telling Lyndon Johnson all we needed was more troops.
Time out on the field. See kids, this is why I urge people to read history as it is ever so repetitive whether it’s the French, the British, the Spaniards or even the Soviets, the game always begins the same and ends the same.
Iraq fell into a civil war, and the American military under Dubya began to withdraw. Jeb Bush, aka Jebya!, has recently made a claim at the Reagan library that Obama and Hillary Clinton are to blame for the rise of ISIS. This is the guy who is the brother of the guy who used 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq and now says overthrowing Saddam Hussein “turned out to be a pretty good deal.” I ask you, pretty good deal for whom? The numbers speak for themselves — a minimum 100,000 dead Iraqis, half a million widows and orphans, 4,500 young dead Americans. 3,500 wounded warriors, a trillion dollars sunk into a country ravaged and a Mideast nation awash in war and blood. Again, who was it a pretty good deal for exactly?
This same brother in 2008 signed what’s been called an agreement between us and a representative of Iraq for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq by Christmas Eve 2011. The throwaway line apparently comes from 2009 when we closed our biggest POW camp, Camp Bucca. One of the prisoners released was future ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who told his former guards: “I’ll see you guys in New York.”
From time to time I spend a large part of my broadcast day talking about Barack Obama and the creation of his life. I assure you only a handful of people know the true story of Barack Obama’s life. He’s a fabrication, a will-o’-the-wisp, a ghost. But all the insanity we are witnessing in the Mideast, none of this is Obama’s creation. Why any rational person can continue to believe anything any Bush says about the tragic wars the U.S. has gotten itself involved in because of the Bushes is beyond me. Peter Paul and Mary sang “When will they ever learn?” and “Where have all the flowers gone?” When will the Republican Party learn, when will the American people learn, when will you learn? Whatever you do for the love of heaven don’t let any of those Bushes back in control of this country.
Sayonara.
Peter