Bush made no mention of the downing of the helicopter during his State of the Union speech. But he did address the very issue that has made the war's privatization a linchpin of his Iraq policy — the need for more troops. The president called on Congress to authorize an increase of about 92,000 active-duty troops over the next five years. He then slipped in a mention of a major initiative that would represent a significant development in the U.S. disaster response/reconstruction/war machine: a Civilian Reserve Corps.
"Such a corps would function much like our military Reserve. It would ease the burden on the armed forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them," Bush declared. This is precisely what the administration has already done, largely behind the backs of the American people and with little congressional input, with its revolution in military affairs. Bush and his political allies are using taxpayer dollars to run an outsourcing laboratory.
The State of the Union Policy Initiatives are highlighted further on the White House web page. But, interestingly, there is no mention in the State of the Union Policy Initiatives about the Civilian Reserve Corps.
Scahill need not have bothered to remind us that
Further privatizing the country's war machine — or inventing new back doors for military expansion with fancy names like the Civilian Reserve Corps — will represent a devastating blow to the future of American democracy.
But when the President and his Administration talk about escalating the so-called, "War On Terror" (SCWOT), it's important that we know what they mean.
According to the New York Times,
the Bush administration has authorized the American military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of a new strategy to weaken Tehran’s influence in the Middle East and to give up its nuclear ambitions.
In the same article, Bush Allows Force Against Iranian Agents In Iraq, David Stout goes on to report that
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was to hold a news conference at the Pentagon this afternoon. In the meantime, an overriding question was whether the administration had indeed adopted a new, more aggressive approach toward Iranians operating in Iraq.
And according to Dafna Linzner of the Washington Post, in her article, Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives In Iraq,
The new "kill or capture" program was authorized by President Bush in a meeting of his most senior advisers last fall, along with other measures meant to curtail Iranian influence from Kabul to Beirut and, ultimately, to shake Iran's commitment to its nuclear efforts. Tehran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful, but the United States and other nations say it is aimed at developing weapons.
The administration's plans contain five "theaters of interest," as one senior official put it, with military, intelligence, political and diplomatic strategies designed to target Iranian interests across the Middle East.
So as the fighting in Baghdad intensifies, and BushCo wratchets up the ground forces, the reality is a deepening of the direct conflict with Iran, both against their agents in Iraq as well as against their proxy forces throughout the region.
Today Alternet picked up Robert Parry's article, The 'War On Terror' is Really The War On Our Republic. After decrying the years of lies, increase in government secrecy, erosion of human rights and civil liberties, and the military buildup, Parry concludes by saying,
But the bottom line for Bush's "war on terror" is that it won't just cost countless lives and hundreds of billions of dollars; it also is doomed to fail, at least as presently constituted. If it lasts much longer, it is certain, too, to deliver a death blow to the noble American Republic.
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