"Forward the Light Brigade! Was there not a man dismay'd? Not tho the soldier knew...Someone had blunder'd: Their's not to make reply, Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die: Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.

"Cannon to the left of them, cannon to the right of them, cannon in front of them...Volley'd and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell,... Boldly they rode well. Into the jaws of death, Into the mouth of Hell rode the six hundred."

From the "Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Alfred Lord Tennyson's emotionally stirring poetic account of the Charge of the ill-fated Light Brigade (the 17th Bengal Lancers in India on October 25,1854) is and apt and, sadly, vivid parallel of the fate of our loyal troops immersed in the Iraq War. Had only the Bush administration, with particular reference to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, read and, most importantly, understood the human tragedy of misdirected and poorly planned acts of revenge and false patriotism. So far, almost three thousand dead Americans have paid for their shortsightedness and continuing folly in the face of critical planning error and failure.

Fascism At the Door of American Democracy

Very few can doubt that at present, an organized gang, loosely referred to as the Bush administration, is running this country. But even more dangerous, there are serious indications that, under their governance, America is slowly coalescing into a Fascist State. And strange as it may seem, the Iraq blunder may offer an opportunity to avoid the unthinkable.

There are powerful elements within this presidential administration that advocate the bestowment of the powers of a king upon the office of the president. Such a moral insult would virtually knock out the crucial underpinnings of the Constitution of the United States.

One of the most vital tenants of our Constitution is the granting of Habeas Corpus. When President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act on October 17th, all Americans lost their constitutionally granted protections against unlawful arrest, imprisonment and right to legal representation.

This act gives the president and the military the power to arrest and detain individuals without court order, or without allowing access to legal representation, or without having access to evidence to be presented against them, or anyone he or the military declare to be a UMC (Unlawful Military Combatant). And just who can be declared a UMC; anyone the president or the military so declares. That includes you and me.

Money, Lies and Videotape

The Iraq war is a mess and the situation in Afghanistan - steadily worsening. The Iranians are well on their way to joining the North Koreans as the newest member of the, supposedly restricted, club of nuclear armed states. And these states, with the inclusion of Syria and Venezuela, have now formed a loose but determined diplomatic alliance against the United States.

To add insult to injury, the count of America dead in the Iraq War is rapidly nearing 3000, and the critically wounded over 45, 000. Added to which we have an ongoing battle over the amount of Iraqi dead due to the war, which an outside study places that figure at approximately 650,000. However, the Pentagon and the Department of Defense estimate only 30, 000.

However, they have been reporting the finding of a mean average of 180 bodies per day (in and around Baghdad alone) for the last 4 months, and simple math for a 120-day period renders a figure of 21,600. The Department of Defense and published Pentagon estimates would indicate that 72 percent of the total Iraqi deaths in this war occurred in the last four months: July through October 2006. The visible evidence outweighs such a ridiculous claim.

In the middle of this chaos we have a leader, who now denies ever preaching, "staying the course" as a war strategy in Iraq, even though he has been recorded saying exactly that, on camera, at least 29 times. And worse yet, apparently, he does not know the difference between  ‘insurgency’ and ‘terrorism’; President Bush labels them the same.

The GAO (General Accounting Office) estimates that we are spending approximately $4 billion dollars a month in Iraq, in a war that has cost to date in excess of $350 billion. So what are we getting for such expenditure?

It has recently been announced that the Pentagon cannot account for over 14,000 weapons supplied to the Iraqi Security Forces; they've simply disappeared. Or as the report from the Inspector General's office states, nearly one of every 25 weapons bought for these forces is missing; along with instruction manuals and spare parts to repair them.

Adding insult to injury, while Bush administration supporters continue to rail about the $8.3 billion Iraq ‘oil for food’ UN scandal, they are noticeably silent and turn a blind eye to the question of - the missing $8.5 billion paid to independent U.S. contractors for work to be done in Iraq? According to the GAO, there is absolutely no tangible evidence that the work was ever done and, if executed, was completed satisfactorily. The money is just gone!

The Making of A New Saddam

One of the most significant acts of this administration after the success of the initial invasion of Iraq was the placing of Ambassador L.Paul Bremmer in charge of the administration of that country, and the transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government. In fact, his assignment to this critical post was a disaster paralleling, possibly even greater than, making Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense.

On a Sunday October 3, 2004, because he saw a questionable link to area unrest brought on by a weekly newspaper published by the followers of Cleric Muqtada al Sardr, Proconsul Paul Bremmer forcibly shut down the weekly publication.

Up until that very moment, al Sardr, who had a following of no more that 600-750 followers (most of them making up his Madhi Militia), had constantly promised armed violence in opposition to American occupation of Iraq, but continually backed down.

In October 2004, Sadr issues a conciliatory statement promising not to oppose the occupation with violence, after the CPA leaked the fact that it had prepared a warrant for his arrest. Wise leadership on our part would have stopped here and settled for an armistice of opinions with not actions. Bremmer however saw matters differently. His foolish decision seriously rivals that of General George Armstrong Custer’s, when he decided to divide his troops at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.

Bremmer's closing of Sadr’s newspaper was a slap in the face to a man who was, at best, a poor imitation of his revered father ( a cleric for whom Sadr City was named). The violence that followed in the teaming Shi'a slum on the outskirts of Baghdad was a direct result of Bremmer's actions, as Sardr called on his followers to stop protesting and to start shooting:

"There is no need for demonstrations, as your enemy loves to terrify and suppress opinions, and despises people," Sadr said in a statement from his office in Kufa, south of Baghdad. "Terrorize your enemy, as we cannot remain silent over its violations," he said.

From this point on Muqtada al Sadr's power and social influence began to rise at an astounding rate. In the two years since that moment when his newspaper was shutdown, he has become so powerful that his followers’ number over 10,000, his well-armed Mahdi Army (militia) now numbers an estimated 10,000. And is estimated by regional experts, that al Sardr now controls the loyalty of 3 to 5 million poor Shiites (who benefit from the social services his organization provides) throughout all of Iraq. And he couldn't have achieved what he did -without the able, if unintended, assistance of U.S. Ambassador Paul Bremmer.

Sadr has become so powerful in fact, that the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al Maliki, was forced to confer with, then include him in the government via his party to gain even a semblance of peace. Sadr's party now holds 30 seats in the Iraqi Parliament (giving them 14-15 percent control), and he controls 3 vital government ministries.

On October 20, 2006, black-hooded gunman of the Mehdi Army boldly seized the major southern Iraqi city of Amarah (population 750,000), ousting the local security forces trained by the Americans. al Sadr was clearly flexing his regional muscles.

For his 14 months of work in Iraq, and his dubious achievements on behalf of the Unites States government, on December 14, 2004, Ambassador L.Paul Bremmer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush.

The U.S. Soldier's Dilemma

For American servicemen and women serving in Iraq under what seems to be unending redeployments, the question is no longer "When are we going home?”   More frequently it is an openly expressed lament of  "What the hell are we doing here?"

The Pentagon now admits that, on average, one out of every 100 soldiers serving in Iraq is being counseled for various stages of depression and severe sleep impairment.  It is time to bring these brave men and women home.  There is simply nothing more for them to accomplish there, other than to be targets of opportunity and local hated in a regional shooting gallery.

Iraq's Coming Chaos of Unparallel Proportions

On November 1, 2006, there was leaked a Pentagon report indicating that Iraq was rapidly heading toward a state of chaos. The report has now been confirmed as legitimate

Success in Iraq of any kind, in any way shape or form, comes down to Iraqis and their militias. Any strategy to slow down, stop or reverse the ongoing transition to absolute chaos doesn't have a ghost of a chance of working, if the plan does not have control of the militias as central to its theme. And there are only two means of controlling the well-organized militias:

(1) Outnumber them with an overwhelming force on the ground, and maintain the occupation for at least 2-3 years. This strategy would require a minimum of 750, 000 troops.

The overwhelming fear often expressed toward this approach, is that Iran will effect a cultural annexation with the Shia dominated south. This has already happened without the formality of open declaration.

(2) Organize the splitting of Iraq into two countries; one half Shia, and the other half 'Sunni and Kurd', then divide the oil revenue between the two states.

The idea of splitting the country into 'three' states will not work. Once the Turks detect even a hint of a sovereign Kurdish state on their border (particularly one with oil wealth and the ability to become a trading and future military power), they will without hesitation invade. The action will end as an occupation and, eventually, through prolonged occupation, annexation of the territory. NATO will be powerless to stop them.

Once this geographical separation is imposed the two factions can be controlled, because they become fixed targets that can be 'punished' from the air without resort to ground troops. At this point, both sides have something to lose (a defined state of their own with a lucrative oil revenue) and, virtually, nothing on the horizon to gain as a preferable alternate. And the Iraqis themselves will quell any outside agitation from foreign terrorist elements.

Over a period of time with such a status in place, all factions may decide to remain a unified country - in essence, a United States of Iraq.

America - Take Warning and Wake Up!

For America to remain the Constitutional government our forefathers intended it to be, no president of this Republic can ever be allowed to have 'absolute' powers' - even in times of war. Allow this to happen; out of fear or for whatever reason, the net result will be a slow painful death that will end with our nation's demise as a Constitutional Democracy.