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The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End (Hardcover)
Peter W. Galbraith

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"The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End" is another must-read about how delusional and inept the Bush Administration is in the Middle East.

Written by seasoned foreign policy diplomat and Iraq observer, Peter W. Galbraith, it makes clear that in dealing with Iraq, Bush and his crew are like second graders trying to solve advanced trigonmetry problems.

Galbraith, the son of famed economist James Galbraith, is a proponent of the "three state solution" to the Iraq quagmire, even though that will, admittedly, not solve all of the current sectarian violence (as in civil war). However, it will, in essence, recongize the reality of the "broken pottery" that the Bush Administration has caused by invading the nation to begin with.

This is a reflective, passionate book that is both knowledgeable and personally compelling.

Galbraith comes off as an adult who sees reality, compared to the ignorance, arrogance and childish foreign policy of the Bush Administration. In fact, this is the book that was the source for the recent re-emergence of the pre-war conversation in which Bush revealed that he did not know that there were Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

On August 15, Bush dismissed the idea of partitioning Iraq as "like pouring oil on fire."

Galbraith, who is a strong advocate of the Kurds, observes, "What was clear, however, was that Iraq was not a factor in the war on terror. It was predictable, and predicted, that the war would result in the collapse of Iraqi institutions, and that, unless the U.S. provided security, the result would be chaos. Chaos, as the Administration knew well, is the swamp in which terrorists breed. But the Administration made no plans to provide security in post-Saddam Iraq."

In a recent New York Times commentary, Galbraith stated the case for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the three-state solution clearly and concisely: "Yes, a United States withdrawal from the Shiite and Sunni Arab regions of Iraq would leave behind sectarian conflict and militia rule. But staying with the current force and mission will produce the same result. Continuing a military strategy where the ends far exceed the means is a formula for war without end."

But the Bush Administration is unlikely to pursue Galbraith's proposal. Why?

Because now, having exhausted all possible lies and excuses for invading and continuning to occupy Iraq, they are finally outing the truth, at least momentarily.

On a Sunday, August 13th appearance on "Meet the Press," RNC Chairman justified the continued U.S. loss of life and billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars spent by saying: "Imagine a failed state on the second largest oil reserves in the world."

The truth will out.

Even though the Bush Administration is creating a cauldron for terrorism, even though it unleashed forces that may result in a radical Shiite "crescent" from Afghanistan to Lebanon, the Bush Administration felt the control of a natural resource dear to the hearts of Bush and Cheney was more important than the lives of Americans and Iraqis. We are just so much collateral damage in global petro-politics.

Of course, the next shoe hasn't yet dropped. The Bushes probably didn't care that pro-Iranian Shiites are gaining ground in Iraq. That's because Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush and Rice all thought that they were going to manipulate American public opinion into bombing Iran -- and taking de facto control of their oil reserves.

It hasn't worked out that way yet. Right now, the Busheviks are treading water, hoping to hold both Houses of Congress in the fall elections.

Then, if both the House and the Senate stay Republican, the Neo-cons will set the Middle East ablaze by finding a reason to bomb Iran.

And the terrorism that will be the blowback will put all our lives at risk.

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