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John McCain is spiking the ball in the end zone.
McCain, who is trying to ride the improved security situation in Iraq to an improved standing in the polls, took shots at several Democratic candidates, including Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), for their suggestion that the United States should begin withdrawing its forces from Iraq soon.
“Is that the same Sen. Clinton that said she had to suspend disbelief in order to acknowledge to that the strategy of the surge was succeeding?” McCain said in reference to Clinton’s statement that the United States should stop trying to intervene in a “civil war” in Iraq. “Clearly, it’s succeeding. You would have to suspend disbelief to believe that it’s not.”
McCain later said Clinton’s support for a phased withdrawal from Iraq “would have been a catastrophe for the United States of America.”
“Look, now the same people who were saying seven or eight months were saying you can’t succeed militarily, we’ve succeeded militarily.”
Hellz yeah! In your face People Who Were Saying We Couldn’t Succeed Militarily Eight Months Ago!
Like this surrender monkey:
Speaking publicly Thursday for the first time since taking charge in Baghdad last month, Gen. David Petraeus said military action was necessary to improve security in Iraq but “not sufficient” to end violence altogether.
“There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq,” Petraeus told a news conference, adding that political negotiations were crucial to forging any lasting peace.
You think after McCain’s little photo-op backfired on him he’d be a little more cautious about hanging Mission Accomplished banners and a little less likely to nanny-boo-boo war critics, who just so happen to represent the majority of the American people’s view.
They never learn.
Related posts:
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- Victor Davis Hanson: Gen. Petraeus Not Taking Terrorism Seriously
- John McCain to President Obama: Get Off My Damn Lawn
- As Another Military Leader Edges Toward Repeal of DADT, Lieberman Tries to Command Spotlight
- Israeli Prime Minister Embraces Same Radical American Cleric That John McCain Denounced
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YES!
zedunoFITZEROO!
Insane in the McCain.
Hey, I thought McCain was going to Baghdad over Thanksgiving, but didn’t see any coverage. Did I hallucinate the former?
Is John McCain still running for President?
Really?
http://thumbsnap.com/v/ce69Qled.jpg
When I was watching McCain blather about this crap, one thing that stuck me was how pleased he was to take credit for any imaginary success, as if he were personally responsible. It brought to mind a song by Bruce Cockburn, DFH:
God, damn the hands of Glory
That raise the bloody firebrand high.
Close the books, and end the story
Of how so many men have died.
Let the world retain in memory
That mighty tongues tell mighty lies,
And if mankind must have an enemy,
Let it be his warlike pride,
Let it be his warlike pride.
I figure McCain is about six weeks away from dropping out of the primaries. Eight, tops.
eCAHNomics @ 3
Just one more turkey meeting the ax. I know I’m thankful.
The Republicans are screwed. They have to say these things in the primaries, but they have to know that the killing is just going to go back up after a couple months without a political deal. Just like it did after the decline that followed the capture of Ramadi, just like it did after the decline that followed the capture of Fallaja – heck, just like it did after the decline that followed the capture of Baghdad back in ought-three.
I guess this is the only rational stance for them to take, though. If the find the pony in Iraq in the next ten months, they get credit for being right and might win the election. If they don’t find the pony, it doesn’t matter how much back-pedalling and sanity they engage in now, they’re already chained to this sinking ship.
EvilDrPuma @ 7
So how are you going to spend your time when you don’t have McCain to kick around anymore?
I think he’s a great tragedy as a human. I would have hoped for a better end for a man who has been through what he endured, other than becoming a whore.
“The Surge is Working” has become the received opinion of the US media. It will be the received opinion until there is some visible change in the situation- casualty figures go way up again.
If one reads carefully, there are provisos and stipulations attached to the “surge is working” stories- but they’ve been swallowed hook line and sinker.
If the story line continues through the election, it WILL be more difficult for candidates who came out against this war.
On the other hand, if we’re back to heavy losses and no end in sight- the gooper’s chances go down to zero..
The future of our nation is strangely in the hands of the Iraqis.
I mean what is a few years of ethnic cleansing, massive population shifts, millions of external and internal exiles, the rise of US paid ex-Saddamist militias, a couple of hundred thousand dead?
Smells like victory to me St. John.
-GSD
eCAHNomics @ 3
Not yet but soon. He simply announced that he’ll be going soon. I posted the AP story last week. Will see if I can dig it up.
joe, did you use the word rational in reference to the repubs? I think i have spotted the problem!
eCAHNomics @ 10
Well, there’s always Giuliani, Romney, Huckabee, Paul, etc. to kick around. And yes indeed, McCain is a waste of a human being, but so are the rest of the Republican slate.
Shorter McCain.
All of the great success I was touting for four years was bullshit, Iraq was a hellhole.
But now it is getting better.
-GSD
TexBetsy @ 14
Hope springs eternal.
Biodun @ 13
Thanks. Don’t bother finding the link. The info you already gave me is sufficient.
I like how we couldn’t leave because we had to reduce the domestic violence, and now we can’t leave … because we’ve reduced the domestic violence. So when we can leave exactly?
EvilDrPuma @ 15
all human beings have value, but not in the white house.
Funny thing about ‘the surge is working.’ If we were working our way down to this level of failure, we’d be horrified. But since things have been so much worse, down looks like up.
@#1: You
(stopped to read)
Bob in HI
eCAHNomics @ 21
and they’re probably cooking the books
BlueMesa @ 19
As you may have guessed, the BushCo answer is “never.” From TPMmuckraker:
White House Releases “Principles” for Permanent Iraqi Presence
TexBetsy @ 23
Saw somewhere that Iraqi govt stats on ‘returning’ refugees include people crossing the border in both directions. Want me to try to find the link?
Just love the Republican victory dance. It always seems to be executed with two left feet.
Clusterfuck still has his hell hole spending appropriations bill before congress. There is the possibility that the military is avoiding conflict for a while to hold casualties down until the money is appropriated…would be interesting to get some inside scoop on that. Anyone seen anything?
The goal of the surge was political reconciliation and a functioning Iraqi government, neither of which has come close to happening.
Yet the corporate media keeps reciting this “the surge is working” meme.
So annoying.
Jane Hamsher @ 26
Not two right feet? Oh, the horror!
The big meme being pushed now by the White House and the MSM is that the surge is succeeding. This entails ignoring the real political situation in Iraq, the civil war there, the original aims of the surge, and what happened during the surge. It is only a small step from the surge is succeeding to McCain’s the surge has succeeded. Well if it has why has there been zero movement on a political settlement? Why are Bush and Maliki moving toward a longterm status of forces agreement that would leave American forces in Iraq indefinitely? And finally as I said last night on this subject, if we have won militarily in Iraq (as promoters of the surge like McCain are asserting), then we can remove all our troops now, right?
McCain who demanded US troops out of Somalia after 18 US dead now sees success in 3 times that amount.
Soft bigotry indeed.
-GSD
Hugh is obviously not very serious, and possibly shrill.
EvilDrPuma @ 29
worse yet, they’re using MY left foot
blue–Yep it’s annoying- but people are gobbling it down like tastycakes.
McCain’s Thanksgiving in Iraq
TexBetsy @ 23
Oh, yeah: Books Back to Cooking
rwcole @ 27
As i understand the decline in casualities, there are several important ingredients.
1. U.S. soldiers are spending more time in their hardened bases & using aerial bombing instead (with concommitant civilian casualties).
2. Many neighborhoods have already been ethnically cleansed. And many neigborhoods have been turned into prisons with blast walls, limited access, retina scans, etc.
3. Prison population has exploded as young Iraq men have been swept up & incarcerted for no reason whatsoever.
Best response to war supporters may be:
“This war is now about which of two moslem sects is going to rule Iraq. Do we have a dog in that fight? If so- which? If not- why don’t we get the fuck out? Capice?
The John McCain Batshit Nuts Across Mesopotamia Tour is sponsored by Blackwater.
-GSD
cahn
Most americans would applaud all three of your factors I suspect.
eCAHNomics @ 37
Those are three of Thomas Jefferson’s cornerstones of democracy.
-GSD
GSD @ 39
And Baghdad’s rugmakers.
TSF @ 35
Thanks. No pics of strolls in the market with flak jacket & 100s of guards?
Major Kong reality is calling!
Thomas Ricks had plenty to say about the surge the other day.
McCain just said that if elected he would tell the secret service to go fuck themselves. I predict that he’ll walk around a Baghdad neighborhood without guards for at least long enough to snap 1,000 pictures…
The BIG BALLS candidate.
rwcole @ 40
I don’t deny that. The only, usually successful, solution to insurgencies is total warfare.* This is the closest we’ve come to that model.
The reason for detailing how it happened is to be able to pronosticate about the future. Doesn’t look sustainable, but maybe it is.
*Soviets tried it in sections of Afghanistan but it didn’t work. Also, took a long time to work in Chechnya.
I am leaving the house. Going to work for the first time in 11 days. Wish me luck!
There’s an excellent article “Inside the Surge” in the New Yorker.
Sadr can just decide he’s tired of his little time out and make things a hell of a lot worse.
rwcole @ 46
I think the meaning of this statement changes radically when we note that McCain doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected. It’s easy to make a big noise about what you’ll do under absurd circumstances.
John McCain, “we’ve succeeded militarily.”
Kommander Guy, “In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”
Hey the War is Over and We Won. Let’s have that $20 million dollar party. John McCain can now go to Badhdad and buy some very cheap rugs. (He may need only a couple hundred troops to help him carry the rugs back to the Homeland.)
TexBetsy @ 48
You go, girl!
So, is General Petraeus a good authority or not? Because when he says something you don’t like, the left runs ads in the Times calling him a traitor. Are you now acknowledging that he’s a good authority?
Blue Texan @ 49
Oh yes, I forgot Sadr’s cease fire in my list @73.
Another reason behind the decrease in casulties is that Al Sadr has his troops on a shut down for 6 months. Who knows what he will do when those 6 months are over.
Blue Texan @ 49
Let’s see . . . when might he get tired, and look to make things worse?
If he got tired around the time of a certain gathering at Annapolis, he’d get to stick it to GWB twice — once on the streets in Iraq, and again at the diplomatic tables.
TexBetsy @ 48
Be Well and do well, TexBetsy!
Bob in HI
The surge is working! So now we can keep our troops in Iraq permanently!
Sorry, but no matter how cheerfully you say it, it just sounds nuts.
What sense does it make to crow over an improved means [maybe] to an unimproved end?
If someone in Cuba decided to hike to Paris, buying better shoes wouldn’t be the answer.
Cahn
Yeah- going back to the original debate before the invasion, one of my arguments was that Americans would not be willing to do what it takes to win this kind of war and occupation.. I am vindicated by events.
If there was any rebellious nonesense, Romans were prone to killing one of of ten villagers at random till the shit stopped.
As bad as we can be, that wouldn’t work for us (yet).
Am I crazy or didn’t the President say just about a month ago or so that his plan is to withdraw apx. 3,800 troops by Christmas and about 20K more troops by June or July of next year? I remember thinking even then, and in fact saying to my niece that he just gave the equivalent of a date certain, essential a timetable for withdrawal. I’m so confused?
I guess I got the McCain Iraq trip bit wrong–apologies for that.
But here’s the latest on Iraq:
OT: So “The Economist” has Bush on its cover with the headline “Mr Palestine: The Only Man Who Could Make It Happen”.
As recruiting posters go, I can’t think of one that would be more effective at making a young Palestinian into a suicide bomber.
Am I crazy or didn’t the President say just about a month ago or so that his plan is to withdraw apx. 3,800 troops by Christmas and about 20K more troops by June or July of next year?
He can say that now because We’re Winning. Before, when were on the way to winning, you couldn’t say that, because it could embolden the enemy and derail the winning.
More on McCain’s Mesopotamian Utopia.
“Arbil, Nov 26, (VOI) – Ninety-seven women were burnt to death and 27 others killed in the three Kurdish provinces during the past four months, the human rights minister in the Iraqi Kurdistan region revealed.”
Gorilla’s Guides link.
Just like Bush’s beliefs that Musharraff hasn’t ‘crossed the line’ with his dictatorial fiat, this is clearly a sign the Kurds won’t knuckle under to political correctness. A right wing utopia indeed.
-GSD
Ann in AZ @ 61
Just have another sip of the Kool-Aid. And remember, Nancy Pelosi was a traitor for talking to the Syrians, while George Bush is a hero for…wait for it…talking to the Syrians!
eCAHNomics @ 10
In extraordinary circumstances, people can do extraordinary things, but circumstances usually do not stay extraordinary throughout one’s life. The problem is that those qualities that helped them then do not stand the test of ordinary life. Indeed they often thrust them into positions for which they are unfit.
If McCain or Duke Cunningham had not been highly publicized heroes of Vietnam, it is doubtful either would have made it to high office. But having facilitated their rise to the Congress, their former exploits did not make them into statesmen. Instead it turned one into a hack and the other into a crook.
rwcole @ 59
Once insurgency started, and I knew nothing about insurgencies, I did my usual which is find books on subject in amazon & choose by selecting most sales or most revealing reviews. Didn’t take me long to find the 2 classics (one is called War of the Flea; don’t remember the other title), and as each was around 200 pages or less, I became an insurgency expert in about 2 weeks.
As I am fond of saying, if I can do it in 2 weeks, what took the army so long.
And yes, since Total Warfare is as close as you can come to a sure fire counterinsurgency technique, it seems highly likely U.S. would lose for being unwilling to go that far.
Also interesting dynamic when enemies’ lives are so much cheaper than our lives. Part of the fundamental asymmetry.
Which leads me to ask what took them so long to figure out suicide bombing? It’s one of the most efficient insurgency tactics, taking out about 10:1. For us it takes something like 50,000 or 250,000 or some ridiculous number of bullets to take out one Iraqi.
And this part is interesting:
Looks like they’re getting ready to set up a South Korea-type situation.
(Same link as my 62.)
American Hawk @ 53
I take it you apply the same litmus to Bin Laden. One day Bush calls him a fascist liar, next day he says we should listen to him.
-GSD
gold
Well hell if this was about makin sense we wouldn’t be in Iraq now- McCain is makin a last gasp attempt to win gooper votes by takin the position that he’s the kind of fighter that gouges out eyeballs and bites off islamofascist testicles.
American Hawk @ 53
Irrelevant. Petraeus says “A” and Hillary says “A” and McCain says anyone who says “A” is wrong. So by calling Hillary wrong, McCain is calling Petraeus wrong. That is the point. Petraeus/Hillary’s right-or-wrongness is not relevant.
Regardless, people can be correct in one instance and wrong in another. Eg: Cheney, saying that invading Iraq would result in a quagmire. Nobody is 100% infallible or 100% fallible, I’m sure G.W. is very capable at clearing brush.
I’m sure G.W. is very capable at clearing brush.
I have serious doubts about that.
Hugh@66
Very thoughtful commment. McCain & Cunniingham fit the Greek tragedy profile, I think, of tragic personal flaw. I would have hoped for better for both of them, though.
Frank Probst @ 66
Getting the Syrians to attend Annapolis was described as a ‘political coup’ for Bush. It was described as treason for Speaker Pelosi.
Then again we are told the Israeli’s cannot ever deal with Hamas because they are terrorists. Yet the Iraqis are told to reconcile with former Baathists, rejectionists and Sunni militants.
-GSD
And this bit:
Assuming Chimpy sets this up before he leaves the Oval Office permanently, can a Dem administration do something about it come January 2009?
(Same link as the others.)
Blue Texan @ 63
Or do you think the improvement they’re seeing is a result of him saying that. IOW, could his promise to start withdrawing troops alone have improved the attitude and thus the situation in Iraq?
Besides, you didn’t answer my question. Am I crazy or did I mistake what I thought I heard, and if I heard right (or close to right,) is what I heard still operative?
Clearing brush was Ronald Mc Reagan’s invention. Clusterfuck does it to show that he’s like Ronnie- one doubts that he has ever cleared a brush with no camera present.
American Hawk @ 54
It’s called irony. It’s also a question of the Administration getting its story straight which given how many times the story has changed is no easy thing.
bio
sounds like a TREATY that would require ratification by the senate…
Need some legal help with your excellent question.
rwcole @ 77
I do it because I like it. Especially the burning part. I’m a big-time pyro.
We have learned that it’s possible for a president to be defined by the nation by only those things that he does before cameras. Once candidates learned that- it was Katy bar the door. You can BE anything you LIKE that you can do for three minutes.
Frank Probst @ 65
It has nothing to do with Kookaid, Frank, it has to do with the fact that Georgie’s boys have broken the army. There really aren’t enough troops to do anything but start drawing them down as they cannot be stretched any further in rotation. Incidentally, I don’t drink Koolaid, and you should know that.
And again, didn’t he say he was going to start withdrawing some troops by Christmas, and more before midyear, and is that still operative? This inquiring mind wants to know!
I see McCain marching down some Baghdad street with a govt. issue 45 strapped to his thigh and a BIG fuckin HAT on his head–high noon at the gooper shoot out.
rwcole @ 84
He’s gonna march waist deep in the Euphrates doing his best McArthur impression.
“I have returned!”
-GSD
OT–
Is Faux News cannibalizing one of their own?
Ann in AZ @ 77
You have to remember two things. First, the surge was unsustainable and that regardless of its results there would be a drawdown beginning in April 2008 no matter what. The current plans to remove a brigade by Christmas is kabuki, a gesture to mollify some Senate Republicans like John Warner. It is not a military but a political move.
Second, there is the hypocrisy angle. Bush can talk about dates because he is a Republican. IOKIYAR. Democrats, of course, can’t do this. Similarly, it’s OK if Bush talks about withdrawals but if Democrats or war critics do, it is by definition precipitate. Finally, leaving them to be shot up in Iraq to no good purpose constitutes supporting them but taking them out of harm’s way and using them in some more useful way is a clear indication of non-support. Hope this clarifies things.
Wonder if it’s occured to the gooper candidates that they could settle this thing among themselves some saturday morning with a shoot out—strap on some iron boys an let’s see what yer made of—last guy standin gets the nomination- you can sell the broadcast rights for enough to run a pretty damned good campaign. Hell- I’D watch.
Only Saddam’s guys can have militias now.
The US is playing good Col./bad Col. in regard to the Shiites and Iran.
“They’re very lethal, they’re organized, they’re sophisticated and I have not seen that their operations have declined or diminished in any way, shape or form here in the last several months,” he said
-GSD
Course Freddie’s too old ta shoot good- an ROODY hates guns- Hucklebee don’t look like a killer- an Romney don’t wanna mess up his hair.
The shoot out thing is lookin good fer McCain.
rwcole @ 88
Iron probably isn’t their first choice for strap-ons.
Clusterfuck NEEDS the Iranians….
He used ta be able to say that the enemy in Iraq was Al Queda- but now he made the mistake of sayin he killed em all- so who’s the enemy NOW- CAN’T be the IRAQIs—MUST be IRANIANS–filthy islamofascists!!!
And on the curious relationship between Hillary and Rupe Murdoch:
OT–
And Tucker Carlson (that twerp) might soon be out at MSNBC:
GSD @ 89
Organizing and arming (though we say we don’t do this, nod, nod, wink, say no more) Sunni militias is the essence of Petraeus’ bottom up strategy. It is supposed to lead to a soft three way partition but is more likely to result in the fragmentation that we see in Shi’ite areas like Basra which is split up between 4 competing and antagonistic militias.
eCAHN @ 81
I think most of us have a little pyro inside. (It was fun lighting the burn pile when I was in TX – it was mostly tree-branches, but also included the prunings from the grapevines. We had to wait for the right weather, though, so it was months between burns.)
I think books, or at least essays, have been written on this subject.
Good morning everyone :)
Completely OT,
Things are a little heavy today, so have faith and a sense humor.
These are good . :) :)
http://dremilykane.com/2007/10…../#more-112
Well, if everything’s going so swimmingly, Senator McCain, why does Bush want to stay in Iraq forever?
Some have observed that men at least love to blow things up—burning em is probably second best.
Keeping troops in Iraq permanently has always been one of the key goals of the fuckin war. We were forced to invade Iraq when the Saudis kicked our asses off- nothin personal Saddam- we needed a place to stay- and we love to have oil near our homes.
Phoenix Woman @ 99
Bush wants to give future Bush family members an opportunity to not serve there.
rwcole @ 99
Must be a guy thing. While I love to burn, I have absolutely no desire to be anywhere near, or be the cause of, an explosion.
Hugh at # 87, what you said is kind of my point. The reason that I asked was because of the way I have used the information.
My niece is sort of uninformed and she forms opinions based on whatever info she pics up from sources like NPR or regular TV news or the debates. Usually her exposure is superficial and without any in depth analysis. So she said to me something about how she doesn’t think we should be insisting on a date certain because then the terrorists will just wait us out. So I said to her that she must really be unhappy with the President then, because he just gave a date certain, and I told her about the 3,800 before Christmas and another 20K by around April-July. I doubt that my niece even knows that the army is broken, although you’d think she would since she’s a veteran.
I can’t imagine why more of us don’t say the same thing to show that Bush and his people are utterly disingenuous liars.
McCain asks Clusterfuck if he can borrow the artificial dick now that the carrier landing is over.
OT..Buying votes is a time honored tradition.
talkleft
Cahn
It’s the Dave Berry theory of motivation for male members of the species.
new thread.
Christy’s upstairs…
rwcole @ 11
The future of our nation is strangely in the hands of the Sunnis.
In January 2005 I made what seemed to be an obvious prediction. I predicted that we could not ever defeat the Sunni insurgency. I predicted that a time would come that we would need to (have to) make accommodation with this fighting force. My favorite line on this subject was from Rummy who said, “It’s not like we can just call up these guys.”
Well, these guys have not only fought us to a standstill, they, in adherence to their code of honor, consider that they defeated the USA forces and are now willing to deal. We lost to the Sunni insurgency: they won and are now willing to sit at the table with the defeated occupying forces to establish their socio/political future.
I find this an intriguing point.
There’s also the silence from the main stream media. I see no mention that the Sunni’s have kept their honor by fighting us to a standstill and that having won, they are entering negotiations and pursuant thereto daily IED attacks have been halved. When we witness our ‘bring-them-on” President smilingly meeting with entities that have heretofore been killing US troops on a daily basis, I get a feeling of visceral disgust for the hypocrisy it entails..
There’s the Washington/American political angle, not only that we lost, but that the surge arrived as the Anbar/Western Provinces etc (not Baghdad) based Sunnis were claiming victory and it, the surge, had not an iota’s affect on the main reduction in hostilities.
And there’s the point that we are cooperating and arming the Sunnis (to defeat Al Queda) thus establishing a viable military and political Sunni entity which is in direct opposition to the main purpose of the surge. We surged to allow a national political reconciliation but by accommodating the ‘victorious’ Sunnis we have worked against the national (majority Shia) government.
I worry for the military because these events could easily backfire. More guns and more Sunni cohesion is a risky strategy.
I don’t worry about the Cheney/Bush crowd. I would like to see the American voters informed that we in essence have lost the main military pacification objective versus the Sunnis, that the surge did not accomplish its aims and that politically motivated incompetence still rules the lives of our troops.
________________________
My January 2005 prediction:
The ghost of Arafat will appear from the Sunni side and George B. to his enormous bile-choking displeasure will have to deal. Were that it were otherwise but this is written.
Fielding one per cent of the Sunni fighting-age men as active insurgents/freedom fighters with three percent as cadre (40,000) creates a stalemate. They can not dislodge us and our Shia forces nor can we pacify them.
Personally I would find this leader (or group) now and begin the next phase. Offer them administrative control of electric and water reconstruction projects. They create no-kill, no-maim zones, implement the projects, Halliburton yes, Halliburton no, who cares, and we release the money on a quasi ‘completion’ basis.
This gambit lacks all pride and ego but we do get to stay a while.
Sarge might say “Light em if you got em,” for a change.
CognitoRex: Interesting stuff, but I did not see the word “Shiite” in there anywhere, and they, being 60-odd percent of “greater Iraq” (and an even higher percentage, if you subtract “Greater Kurdistan” from the population…and make no mistake, without our military there to weigh in regularly on independence, it WILL be subtracted. :o) ) will have a say in the matter of how stable or how unstable Iraq will be.
Watching bush and CentCom decide to go a-schmoozing with the Sunni insurgents, many of them Baathists from the good old days, is not going down well with the Shia. They fear, and rightly, I think, that the seemingly genetic disposition of the bush family to sell them out, is rearing it’s ugly head yet again.
:o)
They think, again, I believe rightly, that co-opting the Sunni insurgents with arms and money has an ulterior motive on the part of bushCo, of trying desperately to stave off the control of most of Iraq (or at least, that part of it blessed with the lubricity of all those dead dinosaurs) by Shiites who will inevitably be exchanging ass-rubs with the hard-liners in Teheran.
I think these factors will mitigate against the Kumbayah Chorus ever getting off the ground in Iraq, more than anything the Sunnis do or don’t do.
I think that believing that there is a corner to be turned, is utter bullshit…of the same kind that for years polluted and perverted any sensible thinking about how to end the misery of that other clusterfuck, Vietnam.
I think the shit is probably going to hit the fan, whether we leave in 10 weeks or 10 years; but that decision will have to be made by the factions which bush unleashed when he so insanely went haring after Saddam and his oil.
The denouement of this bloody, chaotic, little soap opeara is not going to be a happy one for us, but with at least a half-million dead, and a country in ruins, from “Operation Surrogate Viagra”, why should it be?
Has God suspended the law of kharma?
what is mccain doing in that barbeque apron?
I do not know where Blue Texan gets his info that there is an “improved security situation in Iraq”. It may be too Machiavellian to criticize the stories coming forward that the “surge” is working as pure bullshit but that is certainly what the Clintons thought would happen when they refused to directly criticize or renounce their support for the Iraq War in mid 2007. So here we are with the glitter of the the success of the “surge” with no viable reporting on what is actually happening in Iraq. How do you rebut opinion as fact?
Left’, rebut is not hard.
One question should do it.
The splurge “working” means one thing: bush has jacked enough troops into Baghdad and the restive midlands to put that part of the country into semi-lockdown, complete with a maze of concrete blast barriers, ethnic cleansing, and checkpoints everywhere.
Now. What makes anyone think that without our troops there to perpetuate it in perpetuity, that the “stability” can be sustained?
Take your time for the answer, Fox/Friedman; no hurry. The election is still a year away, and we all know the ingrate Iraqis have finally come to their senses and will be offering garlands and their daughters, to our weary troops, for the pastoral tranquility that bush has finally given them. :o)
TexBetsy @ 23
The same people who had ‘the math’ on election day 2000 and again in 2004. I’d probably be disappointed if they didn’t stay true to form and lie every way they could.
McCain is an embarrassment to himself, his family, to the Senate and to America. It didn’t have to go this way, but this is the Bush era. What a shame.
Biodun @ 86
Thompson is done. You just can’t criticize the party propaganda machine and get away with it.
Steve-AR @ 106
I guess that really shows what kind of politician he is. You just can’t hide who you really are. When you open your mouth stuff comes out.