Columnist Ruthe Deskin: A suspect ‘victory’ in Iraq

Ruthe Deskin

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2003 | 8:14 a.m.

There are all kinds of ways to say it -- cut bait, throw in the towel, bow to the inevitable, or just say "Uncle."

They are all means of getting out of an intolerable situation, and intolerable is certainly what the "victorious" war in Iraq has become.

Each day another young military man or woman dies at the hands of a militant group, to which human life means nothing. Americans are becoming more frustrated with the situation as they are fed propaganda by the White House.

Our intelligence has been woefully inadequate in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and other nations affected by the military actions taken by the United States and its allies.

At this point, top officials are floundering around in a sea of distrust, fear and ignorance. Daily we are spoon-fed the pablum passed out by government officials from the president on down.

When high-ranking American administrator L. Paul Bremer says, "We have never hidden the fact that we have security problems in Iraq," one wonders why all those "known" facts were so carefully concealed when our leaders told us Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

I never thought I would see the day when I would admit to embarrassment for Secretary of State Colin Powell, who appeared before the United Nations and adamantly declared knowledge of the weapons.

We got into this quagmire ignoring the lessons of Vietnam. It won't be easy to extricate ourselves from this grievous situation.

Officials say it might take 500,000 U.S. troops to secure all political targets in the area. That might be an inflated estimate, but the billions of dollars required to conduct the peacekeeping effort, or guerilla warfare, is a sure thing.

Don't even ask where the money is coming from for those efforts.

A professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno, once warned, "If you want to make an enemy, get that person obligated to you in some way." Could that be why these "redeemed" countries hate us so? Maybe we should think about a graceful retreat with a last salute and a, "Here, it's all yours."

Clark County Recorder Frances Deane claims she's not "a politician, I'm just a person and I want to get my side of the story out."

Reminds me: If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is a duck.

I'm having trouble making up my mind about our newest Las Vegas councilwoman, Janet Moncrief.

Is she just incredibly naive, the victim of maneuvering by a group of political has-beens or wannabes? Or is she one sharp cookie running as fast as she can?

Give her a chance. Time will tell.

They have referred to Las Vegas as Sin City.

The more I see of the new Las Vegas the more convinced I am that we are trying to live up to that reputation.

An example would be the new show "Zumanity," which opened on the Strip to mixed response.

The show takes freedom of expression to the limit.

It's definitely not recommended by old prudes like me.