So?

Why Clusterfuck- the great american military genius, has been trainin them ee-rock-ees fer years now….

How long it take ya ta train an ee-rock-ee Clusterfuck?

Conundrum: if they stand up and can do their job we cannot leave because they need support, and if they cannot stand up and do their job we cannot leave because they need support. Hence McCain’s 100-year war. We are stuck in Iraq without any hope of ever getting out.

I guess the success of that could not have been foreseen even with up-front planning. They wanted to stay in Iraq forever to control oil and now they must because there is no way out.

When are people going to bring up “Exit Strategy?”

100 years.

I’m just reading the last volume of Churchill’s books on ww2. Winnie thought nothing of goin up to the front and witnessing the conflict first hand *** he also was heavily involved in approving every detail of the war

Our prez only flies into the battle zone in the middle of the night and flies out after two hours

he knows nothing about whats goin on over there

wooden soldier

George Bush was right after all when he said that the Basra offensive was a defining moment for his Iraq policy. The failure of that offensive conclusively defined Bush’s Iraq policy as an even worse failure.

So what do we hear today? Even more troops will have to be sent to Afganistan in 2009 no matter what the troop level in Iraq. Yesterday, Bush walked out early from a NATO meeting whose main agenda item was the military problems in Afganistan. It seems like the U.S. treasury and the U.S. blood banks will continue to backstop Bush’s mistakes. Meanwhile, let’s have more video of Obama’s bowling mistakes and what that means for the U.S. election.

Well this kind of goes along with the story that although they knew about Maliki’s plans, they were still surprised by them.

maybe 1000 years?

Clusterfuck trainin

”Hey—march like THIS!”

“Now watch this drive…”

Is there anything they’re not surprised about?

Reminds me of the ARVN rifle joke:

Never fired. Dropped once.

Well, we now seem to be in “Vietamization” phase of the war. I’m afraid the bomb “Laos and Cambodia” phase is coming soon.

“Meanwhile, let’s have more video of Obama’s bowling mistakes …”
________

Intercut, of course, with snip loops of Rev Wright’s rants.

I’m afraid the bomb “Laos and Cambodia” Iran phase is coming soon.

Well… Daddy bush is happy, KBR is happy, Blackwater is happy, Kristol is grinning, and Cheney is happy yet scowling.

Bush’ 1% base is happy, happy, happy.

Now if we could only get our owb troops to do the same thing this war could end itself. I mean, what IF you threw a battle and nobody came?

Ding!

We could simply wait for (the real) al Qaeda to attack them.

CINC thinks that his troops eat plastic turkeys

The dispute between America and Iran is a real dispute based on the struggle over areas of influence, and the possibility of America striking Iran is a real possibility. As for what might happen in the region, I can only say that major changes will occur in the region, and the situation will be in the interest of the Mujahideen if the war saps both of them. If, however, one of them emerges victorious, its influence will intensify and fierce battles will begin between it and the Mujahideen, except that the Jihadi awakening currently under way and the degeneration state of affairs of the invaders in Afghanistan and Iraq will make it impossible for Iran or America to become the sole decision-maker in the region.

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Staunch Ally of Joe Lieberman

Our prez only flies into the battle zone in the middle of the night and flies out after two hours

Even Hillary went into Bosnia under sniper fire.

How do world leaders treat a lame duck future war criminal?

The Turd floats alone.

-G

O/T, from the Cry Me a Tsunami Dept.

Buddy, Can You Spare a Billion?

By Dana Milbank
Friday, April 4, 2008; Page A03

Meet Alan Schwartz, welfare recipient.

As the chief executive of Bear Stearns, he’s getting rather more public assistance than your typical welfare mom — specifically, $30 billion in federal loan guarantees to help J.P. Morgan Chase take over his firm. But then, Schwartz has had rather more than his share of suffering of late.

As his firm collapsed, he was forced to forgo his entire 2007 bonus, leaving his compensation for the past five years at a paltry $141 million, according to Business Week. Things have become so bad that, the Wall Street Journal discovered, Schwartz has had to rent out his 7,850-square-foot home on the ninth green of a suburban New York golf course — leaving the poor fellow with only his 17-room, seven-acre home in Greenwich, his condo in Colorado and the athletic center he built for Duke University.

Schwartz’s tale of woe tugs at the heartstrings all the more because he and his colleagues at Bear Stearns were, he believes, blameless for the bankruptcy of two hedge funds and the subsequent collapse of the 85-year-old investment bank. “I am saddened,” Schwartz told the Senate banking committee yesterday. He was saddened that Bear Stearns was undone by “unfounded rumors and attendant speculation,” despite its impeccable balance sheet.

…

~~~ModNote: Edited by Mod for length. To help keep the FDL servers running smoothly – just the first few paragraphs and a link. Thank you.~~~

Oh, I thought she said they went there on a snipe hunt. My Bad.

What is so sad in all this is that we are better informed about what is going on in Iraq than Bush or Petraeus both of whom have access to much more information but whose ideological blinders prevent them from understanding it.

That this was a militia on militia action and not “Iraqi” government vs. bandits was obvious from the beginning. Sending militiamen into areas held by other militias (because that is where they live) and thinking they could be “dislodged” was just nutty. Sadr is very popular among Iraq’s poor and there are a lot of poor Iraqis. So naturally we back some guy named Maliki from a second tier party and his unpopular pro-Iranian allies the ISCI, yeah, that’s the ticket. That will really work. It’s all rather like watching someone sitting on the wrong side of a branch 50 ft. up and sawing it off. It would be comical if it weren’t so tragic.

Good article from the Guardian on Sadr:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm…..4/usa.iraq

After breakfast, the prez gets his daily briefing:

“Iraq goin good- economy goin good- war on terror goin good- global warming going great”

He’s had the same briefing for years.

Did someone say “exit strategy“?

Does NATO Want Out of Afghanistan?

By Matthias Gebauer in Bucharest

In public, NATO is demanding that all allies contribute their fair share to the ongoing effort in Afghanistan. But behind closed doors, a paper has been circulated that may provide the beginnings of an exit strategy. Germany is pushing the plan.

So far, little has remained behind closed doors at the NATO summit in Bucharest. Almost every cough from every negotiating session has found its way into the press. But there is one paper that has remained largely in the shadows. NATO diplomats have been working on a far-reaching strategy paper for the ongoing mission in Afghanistan.

The secrecy, some say, is necessary as the dossier contains details that could compromise the safety of NATO troops in Afghanistan. Others have been a bit more direct, saying that the paper is simply too controversial to be made public.

There’s lots more at the link. And Bush likely won’t like hearing about much of it. They apparently use words like “responsibility” and set benchmarks and such.

here’s the thing to ask’

“when did staying become a goal?”

“when did leaving become the antithesis of our goal?”

I’m afraid the bomb “Laos and Cambodia” Iran phase is coming soon.

Yes, as I have been saying, the first set of dates for an Israeli led American backed raid on Iranian nuclear facilities could be as early as this weekend. The new moon occurs on the 6th and an attack could occur within one to two days of this. My guesses are the 5th or the 6th of April. The next new moon is May 5 and would be the next most likely date.

Clusterfuck trainin the ee-rock-ee troops:

“OK now follow me—1, 2, 3, RUN LIKE HELL!”

They been learnin good.

If Clusterfuck were to attack Iran- he’d fuck that up too. He’s better off stayin at the Crawford Pig Farm…er Ranch!

“when did leaving become the antithesis of our goal?”

When did withdrawal when it is suggested by a Democrat become by definition “precipitate”?

What about the one million man march that Sadr has called for? He had 10 thousand the other day with police officers tearing their uniforms off to participate…

Naw, Michael Ledeen says Iran is a paper tiger. It’ll be a cakewalk! Ledeen also said a few weeks ago that Moqtada Al Sadr didn’t have any sway left in Iraq.

Get that man spot on the McCain campaign.

-G

If Clusterfuck were to attack Iran

I see it more as a Cheney workaround using Israel and with Junior along for the ride.

Hey, while we’re carelessly throwin’ around Vietnam allusions, we must in fairness recall that Bu’ush single-handedly kept the No-Fly Zone above the TANG golf course and NCO Club utterly free of Vietcong heavy fighter-bombers back then. HOOO0-ahhhh!!!

when did a president so reviled by both parties, in his last year, in a congress and senate with no majority, become not a lame duck?

OT
Members of Congress ‘heavily invested in defense’

Don’t know bout that- but he kept em out of the officers club- till after midnight.

GregB – do you have a link to the Ledeen “Iran…a paper tiger” statement?

It’s a yawner- but Clusterfuck gets close to a record low in another poll- CBS/NYT—-28%.

Yawn!

I’m just reading the last volume of Churchill’s books on ww2. Winnie thought nothing of goin up to the front and witnessing the conflict first hand *** he also was heavily involved in approving every detail of the war

And compared to the Queen Mum, he was STILL a big huge wuss.

This really is a catastrophe for Iraq.
When we go, we leave behind a legacy of corruption and incompetence that will take a generation or more to solve, under the best of scenarios. We can only hope that, once we’re gone, some sense of cultural pride takes hold. But we’ve done very little to encourage it.

And from where are the next group of Iraq’s Generals going to come?

and the possible smoking-gate

Sadr gaining strength in Iraq with the bumper sticker- “Kick out the invaders”….

Guess it sorta resonates over there.

There’s lots more at the link. And Bush likely won’t like hearing about much of it. They apparently use words like “responsibility” and set benchmarks and such.

Oy. The link says the earliest NATO can start a sensible pullout is 2015.

Jeebus, the paper tiger statement was a while ago. The one about Al Sadr was on someone elses blog just today.

-G

Clusterfuck thinkin over the war- fer the first time:

“So yer sayin that if we give the sunnis guns an money- the shiites will try to kick our asses out- and that if we DON’T give the sunnis guns an money- THEY”LL try ta blow us up—–is THAT what yer tellin me? SHEE-IIT!”

Bush must think that the Iraqis are standing up because the Bush family is definately standing down…way, way down. Otherwise, being from such a patriotic family, they’d all be on the front lines.

And compared to the Queen Mum, he was STILL a big huge wuss.

Rarely known fact about the Queen Mum, Benny hill died after having hard sex with said person… ;-))

Not just desertions

There were indeed many refusals of Iraqi army and police to fight the Mehdi Army, as well as outright desertions. Reportedly, those who refused to fight have been drummed out of the army and police, while the militias of Dawa and ISCI have been enrolled in the Iraqi army.

This is not necessarily a bad thing for Maliki. He now has an army and police force that has been purged of folks loyal to Sadr, and stacked with folks loyal to his coalition. This is so not a bad thing for Maliki and his govt, that perhaps this was the whole point of the attack on Sadr strongholds. The idea wasn’t that they would take Basra and Sadr City, at least not this time, but that they would stage a major assault precisely to shake off the disloyal (i.e., loyal to Sadr) elements in the army and police who would show their true allegiances by refusing to participate in the attack, and at the same time create an excuse to replace the disloyal with their own militia members. Then, after reorganizing and regrouping an army and police that actually will be willing to fight against the Sadr forces, they will launch the real attack later, closer to both their own October elections and our November elections.

Yes, this is paranoid, but I’m not sure that reasoning based on the idea that our current govt is plotting against us is not solidly reality-based. And this theory would explain the otherwise puzzling fact that the recent attack was launched so hastily, not something they would have done if they really wanted it to work at taking territory, but just suited to forcing the Sadrists in the army and police to show their hands without having time to seek instructions from Sadr. I certainly don’t buy the idea that our govt was taken by surprise by Maliki’s offensive. The man can’t go the bathroom without US permission, and he certainly can’t go to Basra with an army without the full approval of our govt. If our govt knew about the offensive and expected it to succeed at its stated objectives, they would have presented it as our brilliant idea. If they knew of the plans for the offensive but correctly foresaw failure to achieve the stated objective, they would never have allowed it to go forward. The cover story would never have been that our govt didn’t know anything about the offensive unless it had been designed to fail at its stated objectives, but also designed to achieve something else that justified green-lighting it. My idea is that restructuring Maliki’s forces into a politically reliable force was that something else that got our govt to green-light the offensive.

“As the Iraqis run off- we run on”

No wait- that’s not it

“As the Iraqis give up- we give down”

No no—how’s that go now?

“As the Iraqis get it on- we get off”

No that’s not it.

May I suggest, just to make the calls, faxes, e-mails and letter to this dwork’s office all the more meaniingful, promising to donate to his Democratic challenger, with the amount increasing daily until he does apologize.

Since he may never get around to it, $1/day could run into some bucks–

Oops, wrong thread–this was for the undistinguished gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. McHenry.

As the Iraqis fuck up- we fuck down

No- that’s STILL not it.

McBush refuses to release his medical records- again.

Says he’s waitin fer the autopsy.

*spew*

HAHAHAHAHHAHA *inhale* HAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

‘The Reddish Green Zone’

islamtoday

“My family has not gone out from home for a week,” Ibraheem Jumaa, 43, a resident of the fortified Green Zone, told IOL.

“We are scared to enter and leave the zone fearing a terrorist attack at the checkpoints or the entrance. Even the extensive concrete barriers around the Green Zone have become useless to the new potential acquired by attackers.”

“Warning alarms in the Green Zone, the most shelled 10 square kilometers of Baghdad, give about three seconds to find shelter in one of the numerous concrete bunkers,” a US military officer told IOL on condition of anonymity.

Hmm i can’t imagine why he wouldn’t release them. It’s not like there is something in them that might, I don’t know, confirm what we see/hear everytime he opens his pie hole

As they stand aside we shut the f* up.

g’morning sir

The troops won’t stand down, because the US might, very possibly be preparing to attack Iran, and the troops are placed strategically in the countries that border Iran.

afraid that is *exactly* it!
as they fuck up, we fuck up more!

hey there, newton

Bonjour punaise, hope you are doing fine.

So, who is the bull and who is the Matador?

“MIDDLEBURY — Scott Ritter, former head of weapons inspection in Iraq who protested there were no weapons of mass destruction to justify an invasion, believes the same is true for Iran.

But there is an 80 percent chance of war with Iran, he told about 200 people Wednesday at Middlebury College as part of a series of talks facilitated by the Vermont Peace and Justice Center.

The pattern of preparations for such a conflict has been steadily developing and involves Congress as well as the Bush-Cheney administration, he said.

People ask him if he feels vindicated by the absence of WMDs in Iraq, he said, but “there isn’t any vindication in being right about this one.” A war with Iran would hasten the ongoing decline of American standing in the world, and afterward Russia and China would be ready to take advantage of the resulting power vacuum, he said.”

http://www.rutlandherald.com/a…..002/NEWS01

This could be fun. I just got an email from Congressman Wexler in which he is soliciting questions to be submitted to Petraeus next week. I assume if you have signed his petition for impeachment hearings or other things he is up to you will get the email, too. He asked people to reply, with their first name, city and state and to submit a short, focused question. The reply goes to contact@wexlerforcongress.com for those of you who wish to play along but did not get the email. He will select two questions from among those we send him and ask them of Petraeus during the televised hearing on Wednesday.

Matador?

Those cars were almost as incompetent and dangerous as Bush.

So, who is the bull and who is the Matador?

wouldn’t be an issue if we’d been Gore’d in 2000.

salut, Quebequois. been busy, busy, busy…

Good one!

We who are about to die laughing salute you.

O/T McSanka declaring that his opposition to the King holiday was due to his not being involved with the issue.

Wow, I can’t wait to see how this unfolds *g*

hi punaise ! guess it’s good news you are busy, busy, busy

hey kids o/t

WaPo – Ashcroft & Deputy were “unaware” of Torture Memo

Neither the attorney general at the time, John D. Ashcroft, nor his deputy, Larry D. Thompson, were aware of the 81-page memo when it was written and sent to the Pentagon in March 2003, according to several former senior department officials. The Pentagon was told in December 2003 to disregard the legal advice in the memo after Justice Department lawyers raised objections.

WaPo

and of course, no one could have anticipated them leaving Yoo out to dry

I’m a little rusty after some time off….

hey cbl2, busy equates to still in business, so in these sketchy times that’s a good thing!

and of course, no one could have anticipated them leaving Yoo out to dry

if Yoo gets cleansed from the UC Berkeley faculty Cal might regain a shred of dignity.

McCain 2002:

The question of where the Confederate flag should fly in South Carolina should be left up to the people of South Carolina to decide without outside interference.

In Arizona, we resented it when outsiders parachuted in to tell us what to do about a Martin Luther King holiday, I am sure the people of South Carolina feel the same way about outsiders trying to impose their views.

As to how I view the flag, I understand both sides.

Some view it as a symbol of slavery; others view it as a symbol of heritage. Personally, I see the battle flag as a symbol of heritage.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/f…..038;st=nyt

link from earlier thread

spends Dr King’s birthday at swearing in of Republic Gov who belongs to group excluding blacks

his flip flopping on Confederate flag

his endorsement and campaigning for George Wallace, Jr

and then there’s the whole “I hate the gooks” statement

US troops off on voter suppression duty; Deaths to follow.
America’s young men and women will now be marching South to the oil important Basra area.
The purpose of the next 200 deaths in this region will be to promote voter suppression against MqSadr’s political party.
Maliki and the central gov’t are being paid well to follow US policy for gaining control of the oil resources. Sadr represents the nationalist interest for Iraq and our boys and girls must now squash his party. So?, says Cheney.
Sadr has been taking Ayatollah lessons and is emulating Ghandi by calling for nation wide non violent demonstrations.
He is a wily fox from a legendary martyrdom family. Stay tuned. Will Bush/Cheney (McCain?) mow down his followers? Ugh!

can we impeach him now?

McBush:

“Come on Doc- tell me the truth- I can take it- am I dead?”