It's like 150,000 soliders, when all you need is Allah.

The title of today's post comes from a song by Alanis Morissette. She sang it in reply to Nouri al-Maliki, the deft leader in Iraq who recently said:

"We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want,"

Does anyone else see the irony between being confident and having faith in God? How can you possibly “say in full confidence” that your government forces are prepared to take over the country yet leave room for God to interfere? Or is Maliki another leader who communicates with God?

This may be the cynic in me talking but Iraq is fucked. I don't think there's any viable military or political solution. Even if we withdraw all of the troops and the Iraqis are ready to take over, there will be no democracy -(which I think was one of the many excuses for invading the country in the first place and one of the more fortuitous obstacles impeding our attempts at "nation building"). As we have seen in many other countries around the globe at various times throughout history, democracy is something that cannot be forced upon a culture. Some Iraqis may want an open, transparent society, while others may want a moderate theocracy, and still others (namely al-Qaeda and its affiliates) would like an authoritarian theocracy. With several competing factions vying to establish the political ideology of the post-Saddam Iraq and seemingly little will to compromise, the diagnosis for the country is dire. Democracy is something that needs to be embodied by the people and it also needs to be something for the people. There is no way you can call Iraq a democracy without ridding it of al-Qaeda, which would ironically (and presumably) entail a more rigid method of a terrorist crack down. To rid the country of al-Qaeda would be to rid the country of its attempts to become democratic.

In 1939, the State Department (our own government! FDR nonetheless!) lauded Mussolini's Fascist achievements in Italy by claiming his government "brought order out of chaos, discipline out of license, and solvency out of bankruptcy." Those are some pretty nice words for a Nazi puppet regime. I can foresee a day when al-Maliki or some other stooge is praised in such a way for bringing "peace" to Iraq.

Basically what GWBush did to Iraq when he invaded, is not dissimilar to a drunken douchebag reliving his frat boy days by blacking out, sticking his balls on someone's chin, and brushing their teeth with his dick. Thanks to Michael Cera for the genius of that quote.

Patrick Henry once said, "Give me liberty or give me death." Well, the Iraqis are getting alot of death and very little liberty.

Millions of Peaches.

The case for impeachment against George Bush and Dick Cheney is incredibly strong yet incredibly unlikely. They've mismanaged an illegal war, lied to the American public, displayed incompetence in the reconstruction efforts of Afghanistan, Iraq, and New Orleans, among other things, all leading to dismally low approval numbers. (Sidenote, those 27-31% of people who approve of Bush's job performance, must really, really, really suck at theirs.) The Washington Post ran a great series of articles chronicling Dick Cheney's abuse of power and stranglehold on Beltway insiders.

If impeachment charges were brought against this administration, I think you would be really surprised as to who would not vote for it - every Republican (except Chuck Hagel) and Presidential Candidate/Junior Senator from NY, Hilary Clinton. If Bush and Cheney were ousted, Congress will hand the first female presidency to Nancy Pelosi. (She's third in line as Speaker of the House). Republicans don't want to hand the White House over to a Democrat, as it is. But to a woman? The only other vagina from California that frightens them more is her.

Republicans want to show that this administration is not the norm as far as Republicans go, which is why they will be positioning themselves farther and farther away as November ‘08 gets closer and closer. And for Hilary? If Nancy Pelosi becomes president she would steal all of the anticipation and excitement that the Clinton campaign is trying to build with the American public.

For Republicans, this could actually be a blessing in disguise. If they gave Pelosi the presidency, they could lay blame for the country’s problems on a female Democrat in the White House. If she does well, she will most likely run for election in the presidential campaign, pitting her against Hilary. Either way, this keeps the Clintons out of the White House – which is ultimately what Republicans want.