'Three Strikes and We're Out'

Tom Harper moved to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula from Northern California about a year ago. He blogs at WhoHijackedOurCountry?

Let’s see, what are some of the predictions we were hearing three years ago? In February 2002, a column in the Washington Post predicted our Iraqi invasion would be a cakewalk.

It was urgent that we invade Iraq because: (1.) Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction. (2.) Iraq was connected to the 9/11 attacks. (3.) Saddam Hussein was conspiring with Osama bin Laden. Strike Three!

Then just a few weeks after the war began — “Mission Accomplished!”

“A cakewalk” plus “Mission Accomplished” plus “the insurgency is on its last legs” equals death to thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

Whew! That’s a lot of wrong predictions. If any private company based its marketing plan on such topsy-turvy predictions, they’d be out of business before they knew it. Any individual who reeled back and forth like this from one wrong analysis to the next would probably end up either bankrupt or in jail. Or dead.

When George W. Bush did it, he got re-elected. When did our “leaders” become so unaccountable? The war on Iraq is either: The most inept undertaking our government has ever attempted; or part of a Neocon master plan that has nothing to do with Weapons of Mass Destruction or democracy in Iraq or any of the other phony “reasons” we were given.
The misplaced paranoia after the 9/11 attacks has laid the groundwork for everything from the Iraqi invasion to the Patriot Act to Bush’s recent domestic spying scandal. We haven’t caught Osama bin Laden but we’re sure doing a nice hatchet job on our civil liberties, and draining our treasury.

I live near the Canadian border (a 90-minute boat ride from Victoria, B.C.). Our local economy could be jeopardized by the new passport regulations which will take effect in 2008. All American citizens returning to the U.S. from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean will be required to have a passport.

The Ferry run between Port Angeles, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia, is a large part of the economy in this region. Reduced travel between these two cities could devastate the local economy when those new rules take effect.

Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden — six foot six and hooked up to a dialysis machine most of the time — can’t be found anywhere.