Phase III of the Neo Con

By Jack Random

Never has a leader of a great power been so consistently wrong as this our humble president from Crawford, Texas, by way of Kennebunkport, Maine.

It is the pinnacle of irony that our fearless president takes refuge in what he imagines will be his vindication in the future judgment of history.

History will record that George W. Bush was the most dangerously incompetent chief executive ever to ascend to power. That he was allowed a second term will be the lasting and indelible shame of a manipulable electorate, a flawed and corrupt electoral system and the ineptitude of the opposition party.

Contrary to the pronouncements of too many mainstream media voices, nothing that has been reinserted into the national debate in recent days is new. The Nazi analogy and the assertion that opposition voices are aiding a nefarious enemy were placed on the table shortly after the invasion of Iraq.

The arguments that are being trotted out as prelude to war on Iran are a simple repackaging of those used to justify the war on Iraq. The president is nothing if not consistent. Neither the policies nor the rhetoric will waver until he is returned to his Texas enclave, safely removed from the assertion of power. When you are driven by ideology, the results are irrelevant.

We are now in the third phase of the great neocon deception.

The first phase was the weapons of mass destruction smokescreen, a rationale that neocon Paul Wolfowitz dismissed with a wink and a nod. It was never the real reason; it was only what was necessary to pull Tony Blair and a handful of intimidated world leaders into the fold.

The second phase was a recurrent theme that, with the assistance of a cowed and conspiring media, was allowed to linger on well beyond its spoilage date: the illusion of progress.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s incisive observation that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes" will go down in history alongside General William Westmoreland’s infamous "light at the end of the tunnel" prophecy in Vietnam.

We have now entered the third phase of the neocon lie: the illusion of a powerful and nefarious enemy (jihad) that will justify the neocon prophecy of perpetual war.

It would be misleading to characterize this phase of the neocon propaganda campaign as a fall back position born of the desperation of failure for the White House warlords have invoked comparisons to the red menace of the Cold War and the fascists of World War II since that fateful September morn when opportunity was laid at their door.

Make no mistake: The tragedy of 9-11 was immediately perceived by the neocon circle as an opportunity to enact a predetermined vision of world domination and they seized it with both hands like a crazed child choking a helpless puppy.

When the neocons accuse the Iraq war critics of being historical revisionists, what they are really saying is: "We already sold that reality. It’s a done deal." But it is not a done deal for the neocons are neither the holders of eternal truth nor the final authority on history. Rather, they are the perpetuators of mass deception and popular mythology.

The jihadi extremists are not the red menace and they are not the fascist armies of World War II. The neocons are not making analogies; they are tossing slogans out like cluster bombs, hoping they find a target. The analogies are so patently absurd they hardly invite rebuttal.

Al Qaeda (remember them?) and their brethren in jihad are not a world power despite the administration’s best efforts to bolster their ranks and boost their appeal with fear campaigns and aggressive wars on Arab lands.

The jihadis are pawns in the game of international powers. We employed them in the Afghan war against the Soviet invaders and gave them safe passage to all corners of the globe. We are employing them again today. We invited them into Iraq just as surely as if we had hand delivered engraved invitations. This is not to say that Iraq is a jihadi war; it remains an imperialist war to plant a base of operations in order to usurp the valuable resources of an entire region.

With the Phase III neocon spin, our president can claim that the catastrophe in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates is not in fact his doing but the work of the all-powerful "terrorists."

It is a lie and no amount of propaganda or revisionism can prevent the truth from shining like a beacon of almighty light.

In this light, all of the Bush administration’s monumental failures can be reinterpreted as dogged determinism. Maybe we have not captured or killed Osama bin Laden because the neocons still need the face of terrorism. Certainly, we can never declare victory in the war on terror (as if such a "war" could ever be won) because then the neocon war footing would lose its ground.

As long as the neocons are in power, the war can never end.

Without beating a dead horse, Al Qaeda got lucky because our government failed to perform its basic functions with any semblance of competence. If we stop fighting aggressive wars, stop pushing Israeli aggression, stop occupying Arab lands, and start performing the basic functions of national defense (including the relentless pursuit of legitimate terrorists), we can be reasonably certain it will not happen again.

That is how we turn the tide and "win the war on terror" – not by succumbing to the neocon lies but by yielding to common sense.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, THE ALBION MONITOR, BUZZLE, PEACE-EARTH-JUSTICE AND COUNTERPUNCH.