Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda henchmen were decimated after 911. They’d sacrificed some of their best agents in the well-coordinated devastating attack at the heart of America, its financial empire. Osama was already deep underground and prepared to stay there for as long as five years while plotting his next spectacular assault and letting the Americans play out their part of the post-attack script.
The Bush Administration, eager to carry out its own grand Mideast strategy, accepted their roles with neo-Con glee. They declared an ill-defined “War on Terror.” And though Osama and most of his agents were from Saudi Arabia, determined that Iraq should be included in an “Axis of Evil,” omitting the oil rich Saudi Sheikdom.
Osama probably couldn’t believe his ears upon learning that Bush intended to attack Iraq. An attack on Afghanistan was expected and prepared for. But, Iraq. Why Iraq, he asked those around him. No one had an answer, but they all realized al Qaeda didn’t have a very strong cell in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Osama and Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein weren’t exactly on speaking terms.
Someone brought up the name Zarqawi, and though Osama mistrusted the over-eager sycophant, he allowed a lieutenant to reached out to him. Zarqawi did have a few agents with him in Iraq. Though still unsure that Bush would rewrite the script so much better than he, Osama began envisioning an insurgency that would bring down the American giant.
His plan was aided by the Bush Administration’s determination that Osama was indeed backing an Iraqi insurgency. In fact, Zarqawi, by dropping Osama’s name among the Sunnis, had managed to gather a small al Qaeda-like force. He was able to cause just enough trouble to attract some press coverage and the attention of the Bush Administration’s propaganda team.
The team was looking for a way around the lack of WMD’s in Iraq or Hussein’s fingerprints on 911. Zarqawi and his alleged al Qaeda connection were perfect. They couldn’t have written a better script. Osama certainly hadn‘t.
American propaganda made Zarqawi’s force seem bigger and stronger as the weeks passed. It had one unappreciated success, beyond hoodwinking a larger share of the American public. That success was that it was forcing Osama to check his financial records and count noses. As far as he knew, he didn’t have any sizable force in Iraq.
He called Zarqawi and was told that “thousands of al Qaeda minions were marching on Bagdad as we speak.” Osama made a note: Send Zarqawi more Ritalin.
But the Bush administration continued its regular reminder of al Qaeda’s threat to America via the Iraq War. Osama figured he may as well take advantage of the Bush Administration’s propaganda. He began issuing video and audio tapes full of anti-American messages. It drove American de-coders crazy trying to figure out the hidden orders to Osama’s Iraqi ‘minions.’ This search was made more difficult by their non-existence.
Now Bush, having created a Tar Baby cannot now let it go. He’d like to, but can’t. Sought of how Spitzer would give back those trysts with a prostitute or Clinton, his with Monica. Like Spitzer and Clinton, doing so is impossible for Bush. They, by fact of nature and time, he by dreams of faith and values. He’s a Republican whose innate political insecurity forces him to talk loud and boastfully.
Dissent was unpatriotic, he said. Over there and not over here. Honor our troops. But having declared war on al Qaeda which was obviously “fighting” the U.S. to a standstill in Iraq, Bush and his neo-Con advisors could not walk away. The Tar Baby was stuck fast.
Five years and more than 4,000 American lives later, the Tar Baby could not be dropped. Osama is taking a vacation from the hard work of managing an insurgency not of his making or intent. Insurgency really aren’t his cup of tea. Terrorists blow things up and hide. Revolutionaries foster insurgencies.
In fact, we don’t know who is backing the insurgency. It could very well be Saudi Arabia, which has its own reasons for hating the Sunnis and would prefer a Shia Iraq. And China and Russia could be pumping into Iraq the resources needed for the insurgency. Then again, neither France, Germany nor Japan, for that matter, may be willing to let America walk into the Middle East and grab a huge chunk of the world’s oil supply.
Back in Osama’s hole, he realized that since he didn’t control the insurgency, he couldn’t end it. Iraq was becoming a bother for the world’s most wanted terrorist and for its most dedicated terrorist fighter, George Bush.
Now how do we turn this war off before American interests are damaged beyond repair and one of our many enemies or friendly rivals makes major gains in the oil-rich Middle East.
How can Bush drop the Tar Baby?
