The Path to Iraq

Now with the Bush-apologist Path to 9/11 behind us, I'm thinking of pitching a new idea to ABCDisney: The Path to Iraq. It would go back to 1990 when Senate Democrats oppose Bush 41's courageous decision to eject Saddam Hussein from Kuwaiit and proceed to 1991 with the Democrats' demand that the First President Bush not carry the First Gulf War to Baghdad. Feeling the pressure from Democrats already running for 1992, Bush 41 and his war council, including Def Sec Cheney and Joint Chiefs Chair, Powell reluctantly back accede to the demands from the Democrat party. In the war's aftermath, the U.S. ingloriously agrees to European demands that only mild sanctions be applied to Saddam Hussein. More interested in health care and Monica Lewinski, and not in that order, President Clinton largely ignores Iraq while Saddam Hussein skirts the sanctions and re-assembles his stockpile of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Although international weapons inspectors had been required by the U.N. as a condition of the cease-fire, Saddam doesn't co-operate with them and finally ejects them from Iraq, meaning the West is left without a means of verifying Saddam's compliance with U.N. resolutions to disarm.

Thankfully, after eight years of neglect, the year 2001 brings with it the Bush-Republican Restoration. George H.W. Bush's first son, George W. re-takes the throne, er Oval Office. Immediately the new Decider of a president begins to implement the policy proposals put forward by the Project for a New American Century, an organization formed in exile during the Clinton years by devout conservatives such as William Kristol and Max Boot. These proposals call for regime change in Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, in order to spread freedom and democracy across the Middle East. The new president first attempts a strategy of diplomacy, trying to force Iraq to allow the weapons inspectors back in the country. But Saddam Hussein, lured into complacency after eight years of Clinton appeasement refuses to re-admit the inspectors. Reluctantly, but with the support of former members of the PNAC--many of whom are either sprinkled through the new administration or heading up media efforts--Bush 43 launches an invasion of Iraq, but with only a limited number of American troops due to the restrictions demanded on the use of military force by Senate Democrats and the mainstream media.

Despite these restrictions, the war initially goes well, American forces occupy the country to a friendly reception while getting the electricity turned back on and toppling the Saddam statute to the cheers of Baghdadies and Americans alike. Unfortunately, the low number of troops allowed into Iraq for the war are far insufficient to subdue the country, prevent looting, civil breakdown and locate Saddam's illicit weapons. The detailed post-war occupation plans put forward by the Pentagon and State Department have to be shelved in order to stamp out the budding insurgency. Soon, Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis begin warring against each other as well as with the occupying American army. Bloodshed spreads throughout Baghdad, while many parts of Iraq disolve into hostile territory of ousted Sunni remnants from the Saddam Baathist party and religious Shiite separatists.

Once again, a noble American military effort is bungled by the Democrat party opposition and the media. Americans at home gradually tire of the turmoil in Iraq and express that discontent against the President's party in the mid-term elections of 2006. A lame-duck President Bush 43 is left with no other choice than to slowly withdraw the number of American troops in Iraq, paving the way for a new group, known as Al Qaeda, to emerge in the former Saddam Hussein stronghold and begin destabilizing regimes across the Middle East, sparking conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, a Shiite sect, and endangering the American-friendly regime in Afghanistan. What's worse, the bungled Iraqi war has resulted in renewed friendly ties between Baghdad and Tehran, giving Iran cover to produce nuclear weapons to be used to wipe Israel off the map.

A new Democrat president takes office in 2009, thereby encouraging the formation of a new anti-American, anti-Israeli coalition consisting of China, Russia and Iraq-Iran. Unwilling to engage in World War III, the Democrat president allows the new superpower to control all Middle East oil and gas prices in the U.S. shoot up to $2.12 a gallon, precipitating a quick rise in inflation and an economic recession.

How am I doing so far?