An All-American Nightmare: This Is What Defeat Looks Like

[marmar]

from TomDispatch:



An All-American Nightmare
This Is What Defeat Looks Like

By Tom Engelhardt


How about a moment of silence for the passing of the American Dream? M.R.I.C. (May it rest in carnage.)

No, I’m not talking about the old dream of opportunity that involved homeownership, a better job than your parents had, a decent pension, and all the rest of the package that’s so yesterday, so underwater, so OWS. I’m talking about a far more recent dream, a truly audacious one that’s similarly gone with the wind.

I’m talking about George W. Bush’s American Dream. If people here remember the invasion of Iraq -- and most Americans would undoubtedly prefer to forget it -- what’s recalled is kited intelligence, Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent nuclear arsenal, dumb and even dumber decisions, a bloody civil war, dead Americans, crony corporations, a trillion or more taxpayer dollars flushed down the toilet... well, you know the story. What few care to remember was that original dream -- call it The Dream -- and boy, was it a beaut!

An American Dream

It went something like this: Back in early 2003, the top officials of the Bush administration had no doubt that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, drained by years of war, no-fly zones, and sanctions, would be a pushover; that the U.S. military, which they idolized and romanticized, would waltz to Baghdad. (The word one of their supporters used in the Washington Post for the onrushing invasion was a “cakewalk.”) Nor did they doubt that those troops would be greeted as liberators, even saviors, by throngs of adoring, previously suppressed Shiites strewing flowers in their path. (No kidding, no exaggeration.) ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175464/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_interpretation_of_american_dreams/#more (story follows a brief intro)

[Downtown Hound]

1. This is something every American should read. n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

2. Engelhardt, The Interpretation of American Dreams

An All-American Nightmare
This Is What Defeat Looks Like
By Tom Engelhardt

How about a moment of silence for the passing of the American Dream? M.R.I.C. (May it rest in carnage.)

No, I’m not talking about the old dream of opportunity that involved homeownership, a better job than your parents had, a decent pension, and all the rest of the package that’s so yesterday, so underwater, so OWS. I’m talking about a far more recent dream, a truly audacious one that’s similarly gone with the wind.

I’m talking about George W. Bush’s American Dream. If people here remember the invasion of Iraq -- and most Americans would undoubtedly prefer to forget it -- what’s recalled is kited intelligence, Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent nuclear arsenal, dumb and even dumber decisions, a bloody civil war, dead Americans, crony corporations, a trillion or more taxpayer dollars flushed down the toilet... well, you know the story. What few care to remember was that original dream -- call it The Dream -- and boy, was it a beaut!

An American Dream

It went something like this: Back in early 2003, the top officials of the Bush administration had no doubt that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, drained by years of war, no-fly zones, and sanctions, would be a pushover; that the U.S. military, which they idolized and romanticized, would waltz to Baghdad. (The word one of their supporters used in the Washington Post for the onrushing invasion was a “cakewalk.”) Nor did they doubt that those troops would be greeted as liberators, even saviors, by throngs of adoring, previously suppressed Shiites strewing flowers in their path. (No kidding, no exaggeration.)

How easy it would be then to install a “democratic” government in Baghdad -- which meant their autocratic candidate Ahmad Chalabi -- set up four or five strategically situated military mega-bases, exceedingly well-armed American small towns already on the drawing boards before the invasion began, and so dominate the oil heartlands of the planet in ways even the Brits, at the height of their empire, wouldn't have dreamed possible. (Yes, the neocons were then bragging that we would outdo the Roman and British empires rolled into one!)

http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175464/

[bemildred]

3. LOL:

"Put any spin you want on that withdrawal, but this still represents a defeat of the first order, humiliation on a scale and in a time frame that would have been unimaginable in the invasion year of 2003. After all, the U.S. military was ejected from Iraq by... well, whom exactly?"

[Demeter]

5. Hubris

Excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.

hubris or hybris, the Greek word for ‘insolence’ or ‘affront’, applied to the arrogance or pride of the protagonist in a tragedy in which he or she defies moral laws or the prohibitions of the gods. The protagonist's transgression or hamartia leads eventually to his or her downfall, which may be understood as divine retribution or nemesis. Hubris is commonly translated as ‘overweening (i.e. excessively presumptuous) pride’. In proverbial terms, hubris is thus the pride that comes before a fall.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/hubris#ixzz1dFdgRgQN


Nemesis:

The inescapable or implacable agent of someone's or something's downfall... A Greek goddess unsuccessfully pursued by Zeus. But most of her actions are simply connected with retribution, the ‘unescapable’ punishment of human presumption.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/nemesis#ixzz1dFdPsJ4V

[saras]

7. wow, just coincidentally...

I was looking for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4s2zCTKw7M">Hammerheads, a song about Bush I.

And I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cfoGPy8IOA">Hubris and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMM61Y5CEU&ob=av2e">Nemesis.

Enjoy - one of the best things out of the eighties.

[KoKo]

4. K&R... Another incisive observation by Tom. Well worth the read.. K&R

[southernyankeebelle]

6. From the beginning I never believed we should have gone to Iraq. I will

alway believe that Cheney/Bush are murderers of innocent civilians and american soldiers in Iraq.