“When the infidels come they will never leave”. That is what Osama said in the 90’s when our government solicited Saudi Arabia to help fight Iraq prior to the first Gulf War. Well the actions of the U.S. and the U.K. are making it look more like Osama was right all along:
The Pentagon has revealed that coalition forces are spending millions of dollars establishing at least six “enduring” bases in Iraq – raising the prospect that US and UK forces could be involved in a long-term deployment in the country. It said it assumed British troops would operate one of the bases.
Almost ever since President Bush claimed an end to “major combat operations” in Iraq on 1 May 2003, debate has focused on how quickly troops could be withdrawn. The US and British governments say troops will remain in Iraq “until the job is done”. Yet while the withdrawal of a substantial number of troops remains an aim, it has become increasingly clear that the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are preparing to retain some forces in Iraq for the longer term. The US currently has around 130,000 troops in Iraq; Britain has 8,000.
Major Joseph Breasseale, a senior spokesman for the coalition forces’ headquarters in Iraq, told The Independent on Sunday: “The current plan is to reduce the coalition footprint into six consolidation bases – four of which are US. As we move in that direction, some other bases will have to grow to facilitate the closure [or] transfer of smaller bases.”
First Bush said we are not in the business of “nation building”. Well that has since proven to be false. Now he intends to have bases built in Iraq to show the Muslim world that we are there to stay. This will do nothing but help al Qaeda recruit even more into their masses and provoke the Middle East as a whole into hatred of the west.
We need someone to just grab Bush by the shoulders, shake him a few times and say “you really are a dumb fuck”. Even better – we need a Congress that will tell Bush “you had your chance, now your gone”. He has not done a single thing to make us safer, even with shredding civil rights. Instead, he is doing everything possible to provoke more violence and keep this war going for the rest of our lives.