Another Trip Down Memory Lane


Last night I caught Countdown's Worst Person in the World Segment (the gold medal went to Rush Lamebone), but second place: Congressman Jo Bonner blaming the Iraqis for Operation Enduring Clusterfuck--"We may look back and say we gave it our best shot and we did everything we could do to make it a success. And at the end of the day we could not make people accept the gift of freedom."--jogged my memory.

Fortunately, Counterpunch has a decent enough search engine, and without too much trouble I was able to find the article in question. It's from Chuck O'Connell, and was written on the eve of the invasion (published March 19, 2003). In it, he offers a set of predictions. Some are a bit off the mark; however, it seems O'Connell simply didn't realize the depths of Team Bush ineptitude. Others are, no pun intended, dead on accurate, and O'Connell lists the one I remembered as "Number 5:"

Iraq will not be rebuilt into an affluent middle class nation. Oil profits will flow to a small upper class and the mass of people will be forgotten by the prowar crowd and the government that waged the war to save the Iraqi people from Hussein. Eventually the misery of the Iraqi people will be blamed on the Iraqis themselves.

Actually, I have no idea where the oil money is flowing...but he's right about it NOT going to the Iraqi people, who might have more pressing concerns, like trying to cross the street without getting shot or blown up (or worse). For that, they've got us to thank, even as some like Bonner look to blame anyone...but themselves.

O'Connell also foresaw the "demonization" of Iran (of course, now that's part of the "flight forward," um, for lack of a better word, option, pushed by the petulant neocons, who refuse to recognize reality. And he correcctly assessed that there would be no resolution to both the Kurdish and Palestinian questions.

I think it's worth a look, particularly in light of the situation today.