President Bush has a major speech to make this week on Iraq, one that will undoubtedly overshadow his State of the Union speech several weeks later. The President will unveil his strategy, which is expected to entail new political, military and economic steps to win the war.

There is strong indication that he will call for a surge or escalation of at least 20K more troops in Iraq.

Look at the changes made or to be made:

Militarily, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has been replaced by Robert Gates.

Moreover, Generals Casey and Abizaid, both of whom have been opposed to an increase in troop numbers, have been replaced by General Petraeus and Admiral Fallon as Iraqi Field Commander and Central Military Commander (Iran and Afghanistan) respectively. The latter are both proponents for the escalation of our war efforts in Iraq.

Politically, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is now saying that he is willing to suppress any illegal militia activity, regardless of the sectarian origin. Is this to include Shi’ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr? He is now willing to consider benchmarks. Did I say benchmarks?

Diplomatically, Director of Intelligence John Negroponte is being moved to the State Department next in line under Rice. Negroponte will be replaced by retired Admiral Mike McConnell, an experienced military intelligence officer. Also, US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad is being named US Ambassador to the UN replacing John Bolton. Khalilzad will be replaced by Ryan Crocker, experienced diplomat currently US Envoy to Pakistan.

Economically, Bush plans to earmark more funds for infrastructure reconstruction efforts.

Thus Bush continues to emphasize a military solution to his Iraq quagmire, a strategy that has already failed, and that the American people, in my view, will be most skeptical, mirroring the heavy anti-Bush Iraq War statement made in the election in which Bush took a “thumping”.

The President has to show in his speech that suddenly he has become competent and that there is yet hope.

This time there will be much needed Congressional oversight. Cherrypicking will no longer work. Propaganda will be minimized. The truth will be forced out.

There will be no place in his speech for his incessant cheerleading. Substance now really matters. This will be his biggest sales job ever, since he has to leap over his history of failures with a presentation based on substance, not fluff.

Let us hear what he has to say, on Wednesday. I for one will be listening very intently!

Saddam Hussein was indeed a heinous individual, therefore he has been hanged for being convicted of killing 148 Shi’ites. So is George W Bush, yet he has not yet even been impeached!

Sounds like a radical, un-American, unpatriotic statement for me to make, does it not?

Before jumping to conclusions, let’s give a little more thought about this, a little bit of an historical review.

Saddam is alleged to have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his own people, his enemies, Persians (Iranians) and Kurds alike in the 1980’s during the Reagan administration, and in early 1990’s during the George H W Bush administration.

During the 1970’s, the Kennedy years, we were responsible for the overthrow of the elected Iranian government headed by Mossadegh, inserting our choice, Shah Pahlavi as dictator, leading to the Islamic revolutionary takeover of that country in 1979.

During the Reagan administration in the 1980’s, we allied ourselves with Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war, supplying Saddam with weapons, including WMD (poison gas), and military equipment. The gassing of “his own people” and the Iranians (Shi’ites) was done with our war materiel. Does anyone nowadays ever refer to our complicity to the very crimes against humanity that our politicians rail about today on a regular basis?

This now leads up to our current President, George W Bush. In his self-initiated Bush Iraq War, he has been responsible for the deaths of civilians, civilians of a nation that was not an imminent threat to us. Moreover, his actions let loose contrary forces, in which we have also been involved militarily, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands more, not to mention our own more than 3000 dead and 7 times that many seriously injured.

Now shall we talk about culpability? Shall we talk about crimes against humanity? Could it be that George W Bush may be as culpable as Saddam? I think so! I’ll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions. But it ain’t very pretty folks!!!

Note: The facts I have presented here are well known, and can be accessed readily from Wikipedia, as well as many other sources.

The appeal has been lost, Saddam Hussein hangs before January is over. Of course, it’s right and is just (is it…really?). He ill-treated his own people…once we had managed to get him in power. Accused of oppressing and even slaughtering Kurds and Shiites, waging war on Iran …all with weaponry, wink and a nod we had provided; went to war with Kuwait (once he’d advised us that was his intent and to which we promised turning a blind eye before taking our troops to assist the Kuwaitis) and then the inhabitants of that country were punished, by the West, with years of sanctions. Sept. 11, 2001 happened…nothing to do with Iraqi’s, by the way…several nations were enraged by and mourned the loss of almost 3,000 souls of varied nationality. To this heinous act a confession of sorts was made by one Osama Bin Laden. Not an Iraqi, did not live in Iraq, though oddly enough was leader to what is now considered to be an unholy band of assassins which we helped set up and encourage with Afghanistan to combat attempted invasion by Russia. We made a half-hearted attempt at revenge by shipping sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers to Afghanistan amidst macho promise to get the man…and others…responsible for this terrible deed and bring them to justice while greater plans were in the pipe stream to squelch terrorism further in…Iraq???

But wait a minute…what did Saddam Hussein and Iraq have to do with Sept. 11? Saddam had been a dictator imposing fear to many..but not all..his people, some destruction and terrorizing of his countrymen with, perhaps, a touch of paranoia and, perhaps, lived a life-style that left westerners cold but, refresh my memory, when did he last attack a Western nation, commit an act of aggression against us? There were many official “reasons” offered for an attack on him and his country, many others conjured up, unofficially, by those who opposed this pre-emptive strike and believed it to be wrong but which went unheeded. More than five years later Bin Laden is still roaming the all-concealing mountains (so they say), there does seem to be a handle on stemming the resurging poppy/drug problem but the Taliban are returning in large numbers; Iraq is a total mess with Iraqis slaughtering each other…it‘s a civil war which did not exist before we of the West arrived and the rest of the region is in turmoil; religious violence and destruction has now reared it’s ugly head; we now mourn more Western lives lost in this battle than we did in New York City on that frightful September morning. For many the world no longer turns on it’s axis but around what goes on day by interminable day in Iraq. And in less than thirty days a proclamation will come forth…”The Dictator Is Dead! Long Live…….???” Sometimes it IS “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t…”.

Quite a number of years ago I was a fan and supporter of Colin Powell. At one time even hoping he’d run for the Presidency. I wasn’t alone…many people had immense admiration and support for this seemingly thoughtful, somewhat compassionate man.

His initial opposition to the pre-emptive attack on Iraq was welcomed, both by many of his fans and those who did not believe this to be a just course of action. And then…inexplicably…he caved to the demands of his office, his boss or both. Many, certainly myself among them, watched in disbelief and horror when he made his presentation to the U. N. and the many who respected, had faith in this man didn’t only wane…it pretty much was tossed into the trash along with his previously good name.

So today, when it was announced he would be first up on “Face The Nation” (the first interview he has given in a year) I wanted to see what he had to say for himself. Wish I hadn’t bothered…in fact, about half-way through I switched off, nothing restored but angrier than I’ve been in some time. Of course I may be wrong in thinking that what he says today gives some voice to how he really believed those few years ago. In which case, why on earth did he cave? Why has it taken those years, too many lives, a country’s destruction and far more unrest there than existed before we ever attacked for him to publicly voice what so many…including, perhaps, himself believed at the time. Now…when he is in no position to be effective as he once could have been; when position, status, perhaps ambition had him detour from the person we thought he was and could have been more. Would the real Colin Powell please stand…or does he even have difficulty remembering which he is?

Today, far too little much too late for who could believe the “real’ Colin Powell could not, did not, see this coming when he first resisted any idea of this “war“.