Rats Leaving Sinking Iraq

So, the Brits and the Danes have announced
withdrawals from Iraq:

-British troop numbers in southern Iraq will be
reduced from 7,100 to 5,000 "by late summer",

-Denmark says its force of 460 troops, serving
with the British in the south, will be out by
August but will be substituted by "four
surveillance helicopters and civilian advisors".

Several other nations participating in this brutal
neo-colonialist venture which was always doomed
to failure, are also considering either pulling out
or scaling back their involvement, among them:

-Lithuania (53, said to be "seriously considering"
withdrawing in August with the Danes with whom
they serve),

-South Korea (2,300 and plans to halve it by
April, under domestic pressure to withdraw totally
by the end of the year),

-Poland (900 and the Polish president says they
will stay no longer than December),

-Bulgaria (120, extended until 31 March 2008).

The plans of
-Australia (1400),
-Georgia (800),
-Romania (600)
are currently unknown.

Not surprisingly -for no people likes being
occupied- the news has been welcomed in Iraq.

The official reaction from America is that these
new developments are signs of success!!

-Condi Rice played down the British pullback,
saying it is consistent with the US plan to turn
over more control to Iraqi forces:
"The British have done what is really the plan
for the country as a whole, which is to transfer
security responsibility to the Iraqis as the
situation permits. The coalition remains intact
and, in fact, the British still have thousands of
troops deployed in Iraq",

-A National Security Council spokesman said that
Bush views Britain's troop cutbacks as "a sign of
success" in Iraq and "While the United Kingdom
is maintaining a robust force in southern Iraq,
we're pleased that conditions in Basra have
improved sufficiently that they are able to
transition more control to the Iraqis",

-The Danish PM said, after speaking to GW Bush,
that GWB expressed "both understanding and
satisfaction that the situation in Iraq makes it
possible for Denmark and Britain to reduce their
numbers of troops".

Have you noticed something?
All this is happening at the same time Bush is
frantically trying to find 21,500 extra troops to
send to Baghdad!!!
Now, if these other members of the Coalition of
the Killing were really keen to stay on or to help
their mates in Washington, surely they would
offer their troops to the Americans??
Not a word of it! Clearly, they wish to get out:
The rats are leaving the sinking Iraqi ship
while they can.....
And there are no indications that these countries
will reassign the people pulled out of Iraq to
Afghanistan where Bush & Co have used almost
intimidating language in order to drum up more
troops.

This will also be very helpful ammunition for
those in the American Congress who want the
troops out and indeed Senate majority leader
Harry Reid wasted no time in saying:
"There can be no purely military solution in
Iraq. At a time when president Bush is asking
our troops to shoulder a larger and unsustainable
burden policing a civil war, his failed policies have
left us increasingly isolated in Iraq and less
secure here at home".

The official US reaction of "signs of success"
sounds uncannily like the words of Saddam
Hussein's minister of information back in 2003 -
remember?
He was telling international journalists:
"The infidel Americans will be massacred to the
last one and stand no chance at all against the
heroic Iraqi armed forces and will never get
anywhere near Baghdad" - at the same time as
American tanks were rumbling up to the front
door of the Baghdad hotel where he was speaking
- remember now?

The situation is strikingly similar, that of a
deranged leader being out of touch with reality
and the wishes of the majority of his own people
but stubbornly clinging to his sick hallucinations.

As for the neo-Cons' fantasies about the American
troops eventually returning home victorious and
with honour, having liberated Iraq, defended the
world, and made America a safer place - words
fail me, they really do....
As they did recently when GWB said on a TV
show that "the Iraqis owe the Americans a huge
debt of gratitude".
Almost like saying to some hapless victim whose
good legs you have just deliberately amputated:
We did this out of compassion and because we
are super-compassionate we will give you a
free pair of artificial legs.

But the nightmare-scenario often referred to
by many American politicians, that "If we do
not finish the job [whatever that may mean] the
terrorists [whatever that may mean] will follow
us home", is highly likely to materialise -
and who could blame them, after the unspeakable
death and destruction you brought to Iraq??
Should they follow you home, it would be a
perfectly normal, healthy human reaction, and I
for one hope that they will and they do, and wish
them every possible success in their endeavours
which, as opposed to what you did to Iraq (and to
Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine, and to Islam
in general), would be both wholly justified and
richly deserved.