And, these hard liners continue to believe that by showing off a few bunker busters,like when the US and Israel recently bombed an empty Syrian factory to scare the Iranians, that the Iraqi’s, the Lebonese, and the Iranians are all going to cave in and give up what little they have, on lands they’ve owned since time began -and lands the very authors of the bible were sitting on when it was first written. Jesus was a Palestininan.

It’s time Israel moved – after 60 years they have zero friends left in the region due to their own conduct. And endanger too many lives with their presence in that location. Surely the US has a few islands they can give them where they can be just as Independent and free as they wish and no neighbors to worry about? Surely the Aussies and the Brits – oh and don’t forget Poland -can help them financially??
It’s time for a change- there too.

http://www.juancole.com/

Maybe the Iraqis need to be left on their own militarily, and maybe what they need is a big conference at Taef.

Maybe the US in Iraq is not the little boy with his finger in the dyke. Maybe we are workers with jackhammers instructed to make the hole in the dyke much more huge.

Just something to think about.

Go and read the post. The best part of his thread:

Sadr Calls off Demonstration;
Threatens to End Cease-Fire;
McCain confuses al-Qaeda with Shiites (Again)

…What does that even mean? Do we really need another tongue-tied president who says incoherent things about the most important challenges facing the US? McCain keeps thinking that al-Qaeda is a Shiite, Iranian plot, when in fact its leadership is hyper-Sunni Egyptians and Saudis. As for al-Qaeda not being an obscure sect, well I’m not sure about the obscure part. But it is certainly a tiny fringe in the Muslim world, analogous to the far right gun nuts and white supremacists that formed the context for Timothy McVeigh.

(my bold)

Thanks for that link…PERFECT!

This is why Knut’s notion that the public will just naturally get poor enough and fed up is wrong. The establishment have made a decision and they, with the exception of certain straight shooters, or loose cannons, like McCain, are not admitting it openly. The media, naturally, have assented to disappear the subject so that Iraq, in terms of public awareness, might as well be Japan or Germany.

These hearings, and this election, are important: we cannot allow them to manufacture the “consensus” to stay permanently.

Something explosively accusatory leveled at this pissant Petraeus, such as, for example, portraying him as a politically ambitious yes-men as compared to Fallon, might be nice.

Still the question remains-is there anything we can do except complain?

Petraeus called security in Iraq “significantly better” than before last year’s troop buildup but still “fragile and reversible.” He plans a 45-day “period of consolidation and evaluation” after the reinforcements leave in July, followed by an indefinite period of assessment before any further drawdown.

How can withdrawing jeopardize a surge whose only accomplishment is a reduction in U.S. combat casualties? WTF?