First the blame for all the problems in Iraq went to al Qaeda. Once that theory was debunked, the administration aimed the blame to Iran. Now look at what is happening:

There is no evidence the Iranian government is stirring trouble in Iraq, a U.S. general said on Monday, playing down suggestions that Tehran will retaliate for U.S. backing of Israel’s war on Hizbollah.

“There is nothing that we definitively have found to say that there are any Iranians operating within the country of Iraq,” Major General William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, told a news conference.

U.S. officials have previously said the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hizbollah might encourage Tehran to make mischief in Iraq to pressure the United States, which has some 130,000 troops in the country.

So why does our government keep looking for scapegoats to lay all the blame on when it comes to Iraq? Simple – they don’t want to tell you where the real problem is. That problem is coming from within. It involves people, who are Iraqis, who do not accept democracy or our presence. They will fight not only us, but also the Iraqi citizens who support us.

Basically it comes down to all the ingredients being thrown in for a civil war. Perhaps this is why the administration used these scapegoats. Look at some simple facts.

1. The last thing Bush wants is a civil war. This would mean a reauthorization for the war, that is sure to fail. It would then most likely lead to us having to withdrawal from the region and let them fight it out within.
2. Al Qaeda was the first good stooge. Blaming al Qaeda for the problems kept building that 9/11 and Saddam link that the administration so badly wanted and lied about. While many of us know the truth, there are still many in the country who believe Saddam was involved in 9/11. In other words, using al Qaeda for the blame of what is happening in Iraq served a political purpose more than anything.
3. We want a reason to attack Iran. Saying Iran is causing the problems in Iraq could provide the administration with a reason to do some attacks within Iran without extra authorization from Congress. Simply declaring Iran as an enemy of our cause in Iraq would be authorization enough. The problem lies in people in our Congress (namely Democrats) and citizens here asking the tough questions and would want to see evidence of such involvement by Iran should Bush take action against them.

Now that there are no significant outside forces causing problems within Iraq, we must look at the situation as a civil war, plain and simple. Look at one story just from today:

As American forces conducted a new security sweep in western Baghdad on Sunday, five apparently coordinated bombings in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood on the city’s south side killed at least 57 people and wounded 148, an Iraqi government official said.

The death toll could rise, the official said, as emergency workers searched for victims in the rubble of an apartment building that collapsed as a result of the bombings.

The attacks, which killed civilians in a largely residential neighborhood, were the deadliest in the capital since the American military dispatched new forces here more than a week ago to quell a surge in killings and kidnappings by sectarian militias and criminal gangs.

Also Sunday, American and Iraqi soldiers searching for people who had been kidnapped raided Iraq’s Health Ministry early in the morning and arrested five bodyguards, military and government officials said.

This is not a story out of the ordinary. In fact, this is the same kind of story we read about every single day. It is Iraqis fighting and killing Iraqis. It is civil war and Bush won’t say that because of number one above.

Failed policy in Iraq? No – it is a cluster fuck policy in Iraq and this cluster fuck is costing us dearly. Our troops should come out, Rumsfeld should be fired and Bush and Cheney should be put on trial for war crimes. This is why our standing in the world is so damaged and our respect is gone. This is why more terrorists are forming and planning strikes.

Look at the news last week of the foiled plot in the U.K. Did you notice anything? It was in the U.K. Same place as the attacks last summer. They didn’t plan to attack France, Germany, Russia or any other country. They wanted to attack the U.K. Why? Because they are our number one ally in Iraq. It was Bush and Blair that planned this invasion of Iraq. It was these two that exaggerated any thread Saddam may have had and created new threats.

Simply put, this is how the failed Iraq policy and the foreign policy as a whole has made us less safe. Oh and one other thing. That tired old excuse of “we haven’t had an attack since 9/11”, well Clinton didn’t have another attack since the first WTC bombing. The wingnuts start brining up things such as the Cole bombing to disprove that. Well if that is the case and those can be included in their analogies then every time we loose a soldier in a roadside bombing in Iraq or Afghanistan then we can say those are attacks on the U.S. Even though it isn’t al Qaeda attacking us in Iraq, it is, as Bush puts it, terrorists. So we have had 1000’s of attacks against the U.S. since 9/11. Playing games of semantics when our countries safety and the lives of our soldiers are on the line is really helping our enemies. The fact that idiots like Cheney take to the podium the day after Lamont wins and says he is helping al Qaeda is another example of this politicking and it must stop.

Bush, Cheney and all their little cult followers yell they want unity in this country, yet they are the biggest dividers. They need to grow the fuck up and act like adults. We can only have unity if both sides agree and are willing to make compromise. As these people have shown, either it’s their way or your an unpatriotic, terrorist lover. They are the true enemies of America.