Remember Shock and Awe ?

[kentuck]

Sometimes it is helpful to reflect back on events that are still in play and are affecting our lives every day. Who does not remember the massive bombing campaign on Baghdad and surrounding areas? The night skies lit up like the biggest 4th of July event you had ever seen. Some watched in horror as others watched with glee and nationalistic pride. Some wondered how many were killed by these bombs?

But before Shock and Awe, there were the charades of going to the UN and making demands. Our Secretary of State showed photographs which "proved" Saddam was making WMDs. That was a turning point. Our gung-ho President advised all the inspectors to leave Iraq. After all, they were finding nothing. They had found nothing for years. At the last minute, Saddam agreed to let them search wherever they wished. Bush said, "Too late!" And the bombing began.

They marched thru Iraq to Baghdad quicker than diarrhea thru a goose. They passed many weapons caches on the way. But they did not have time to secure them or to destroy them. Once they took Baghdad, they would have cut off the head of the enemy, they thought. They even staged an event where they had a few of Chalabi's people surround the American GI's as they toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein.

But it was to early for our Commander in Chief to declare victory. It was a few months later that Saddam was supposedly pulled out of a hole and captured that the President was feeling victorious. He would stage a big photo op aboard an aircraft carrier. He would fly in himself, in full flight gear, and strut across the deck of the carrier, bathing in the praise of his subordinates. Above his head, they placed an extra large banner which said, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED".

But it wasn't "accomplished". Here we are a couple of years later bogged down in one of the greatest blunders of military history. The Commander in Chief has not strutted aboard any aircraft carriers for some time. His Party has lost the House and Senate, mostly because of his decision to go to war and their decision to stick with him. But, he will be gone in a couple of years and the next President will have to deal with his fantasy.

[donkeyotay]

1. Keep reminding everyone of how we got into this mess

The right is forgetting that they insisted on this war. They are in the process of shifting blame to the Iraqis themselves and to the Left domestically. As usual, the Right is blameless. They would have us forget the miserable lead-up to the current disaster, from the 2000 election, the Pet Goat Education President, the Office of Special Plans, the blowing through the UN process to avert war, the media psy-ops to build up the pressure on the American people, the ultimate lie manufactured about a nuclear threat, and the premature ejaculation of "it's too late to stop now."

Bush wanted his war and got it. Many Republicans wanted this war, and the nation is stuck with it. They should look no further to place the blame.

[leftofthedial]

2. WE (the American public) were the targets

of "shock and awe"

[Greybnk48]

3. I haven't sung the "Star Spangled Banner" since that day

because of the words "and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air." I know the words relate to another battle, but the image that comes to mind when I hear that are the mushroom clouds over Baghdad, and the thoughts of all the people killed and maimed. It was sickening, or as one British paper put it "Shocking and Awful."