George W. Bush has announced that the U.S. forces will hunt down and kill Iranian operatives working within the borders of Iraq. Clearly, Mr. Bush feels that he has the right to make such an announcement because he is the ultimate sovereign ruler of Iraq. There was no need to consult Iraqi officials on issues related to the Iraq-Iran relationship and how American actions might affect it. America and its president are sovereign in Iraq, and if America’s president decides that he will have his forces kill Iranians in Iraq, his word trumps any concerns of the elected Iraqi government.
Of course, Iraqi citizens may then question the validity of the professed sovereignty of their elected government. Iraqis may decide that their government is not truly sovereign and thus be emboldened to strike against the occupying American forces.
It is not the Congress, which is emboldening Iraqi insurgents, who above all wish for American withdrawal and return to a sovereign Iraq. The Congress is trying to facilitate a sovereign Iraq, which ultimately must work out its own destiny, even with internal violence (a civil war) which America itself experienced in its formative history.
Iraqis are not only emboldened by the U.S. president and military, but they are provoked, insulted, harmed, assaulted, killed, and their wishes disregarded.
Robert Gates has already become another Yes-Man for Bush, taking a position completely contrary to that of the Iraq Study Group on which he once served. The Iraq Study Group determined that there was no military solution to the problems caused by the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. Gates has taken the position that a military solution is not only possible, but that it is a dire necessity and that failure to enact a military solution will be catastrophic for America.
There is already a catastrophe in Iraq for millions of people. The American public is increasingly aware of the catastrophic impact of the Iraq fiasco on American prestige in this world, on the American military, on the U.S. budget, and the American public wants to end the debacle and accept that a tragedy has already occurred and prolonging it will only intensify it. There is no possibility of reversing and denying that an American-caused catastrophe has occurred and that American interests have been harmed by the unwise actions of the President, Vice-President Cheney and their cabal.
This war was always about oil, and America still does not control the flow and distribution of Iraqi oil, but still is attempting to gain that control. Iraqi insurgents know this full well, and this knowledge emboldens them to fight the occupation, fight the puppet government, and even to fight one another for their piece of the prize. Sunnis are not fighting Shiia over religious practices and philosophy. They are fighting over access to the riches of their nation, and simultaneously attempting to deny those riches to America and America’s puppets.
It takes a lot of boldness to battle world’s most powerful military. Iraqi boldness is a result of Iraqi victimhood. In this age, victims who fight boldly are called "terrorists" and even those who fight guerilla and asymmetric warfare against military targets are also called "terrorists." Bush has created huge numbers of such people and has emboldened them by victimizing them. And Bush has no intention of reversing course, because the prize is so valuable that to not attain it will be the final catastrophe for his administration. And for a few days (when the statue of Saddam Hussein fell) Bush and his minions thought victory was at hand. Victory was never close and cannot be attained by military means.