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Last time we heard from Michael Yon, he was saying that We've Always Been Winning in Eurasia Iraq. He's back today with even more ridiculous assclownery. (updated below)
April saw 49 U.S. casualties in Iraq, the highest total in seven months.
Zzzzzzt! Sorry Michael, that number is actually 54. But do continue.
Does this mean, as some insist, that the enormous progress we have made since the start of the military surge is being lost? ...here's my short answer: no.
What a surprise! So what can we expect over the next few Friedmans, Michael?
For the next few months, expect more blood, casualties and grim images of war. This may lead to a shift in the political debate inside the United States and more calls for rapid withdrawal. But on the ground in Iraq, it's a sign of progress.
There is literally no way to parody these morons anymore.
UPDATE
The breathless, reverential way wingnuts like K-Lo talk about Yon's BS kinda tells you everything you need to know about the current state of the conservative movement.
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so!
but what’s the bad news? /s
Funny that you were also winning when there were fewer American casualties.
If more Americans are being killed in Iraq, we have to stay there and fight more. If fewer Americans are being killed in Iraq, it means “the surge is working” and we have to stay there and fight more. What is wrong with this picture.
it’s be Yon the pale…
Yep. And the Iranians refuse to talk to use anymore.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200.....an_iraq_dc
Why don’t we just say that the total cost of the war will be paid for by the top 10% not of taxes but holders of assets. Steve Jobs of Apple only gets a dollar for salary but he does get plenty of stock options.
Also so called charitable trusts that let the rich pass their money to their kids, grand kids etc without paying taxes could be taxed.
Same with all those Cayman Islands tax haven accounts.
Once the rich know that they will have to pay for this war the war will be over.
You know, even among all but the most ardent WarFanz I am not hearing the refrain, “but we don’t want their sacrifice to be in vain” (referring to those killed/maimed/wounded). The war has long since passed it’s value as a “marketing tool” for all but the truest of believers.
Now, look to Iran for further atrocities. Punkinhaid (predictably) and Obama (sadly) both spent valuable time Sunday talking of Iran as if it had ICBMs ready to target and launch against America cities, instead of discussing the fact that the NIE says differently. Also, Obama did not even try to put the breaks on the assertion that Iran is “killing American soldiers” by supplying Iraqi factions, they both just acted as if the 1600 Crew were unimpeachable sources of intelligence.
Wow- that’s quite a phrase… “unimpeachable sources of intelligence”. Scary on so many levels. *g
sort of puts a bug up mccains but, his entire premise supposes there will be fewer casualties, now he has to deal with more casualties means succes not less
I am a fly on the wall in the meeting of pnac fasitst, here is what I heard
“here’s the game plan guys, stick with the script;
if we have fewer deaths or attacks that means we are winning, if we have more attacks that means we are winning
if they are happy we are winning, if they are discontent we are winning
if they are cleansing their ethnic divergence we are winning, if they are getting along we are winning
if they like the us we are winning, if they hate the us we are winning
so don’t forget, we are winning”
BT,
You should apologize to morons everywhere for comparing them to being like these.
OT with apologies.
If sadlyyes shows up today, could some kind soul show her this link. It might help her a little. It did me anyway. There are good people out there.
Warning: keep tissue handy. Thanks gang.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
oops… should be “I am not hearing the refrain”
oh, bolton says we are going to attack Iran, it’s the only prudent thing to do
and he is SUCH an intelect I am certain he knows exactly what is prudent and what isn’t
does this nightmare end?
don’t tell me about the comming election I have no faith there will be one or that obama can win a fixed election even if there is
Let’s see, so if I blow a headgasket on my car it’s a good thing, I still have half an engine that works.
There is something seriously wrong with this thought process.
Can a dog wag two tails at once?
well, that could be either cheney or bush, they are both uninpeachable
well we know we cannot engage three theatres at the same time, we have trouble with two
this means they want a nuclear strike, there are very few assets for anything but
But neither is particularly intelligent.
F Progress in Iraq 9/11 happened in 2001 its now May 5, 2008 why have we not sent one solder after Ossama in Pakistan?
Because we were wasting our time in Iraq in a war for oil!
there is nothing wrong with either your picture or your reasoning
I also want to know when the object of Iraq was staying, for the first couple of years the object was leaving
when did the purpose become to stay?
that is the question we have to start asking mkkkain
Awesome.
you make a good point, it couldn’t be either of them
so who is unimpeachable and inteligent at the same time?
that’s a tough one
Bolton
may beis a moron but if he says that our moron President is going to attack Iran I believe him.Did he give any timetable, deadline, conditions to justify such an attack?
God the news seems bad today. It is gray and cloudy here, maybe that is part of it. Where are some sane voices? Obama kept calling Matt Lauer “Tim” this morning on the Today Show. Yes, I know it is a small thing. I want him to make his case, and sadly, everything counts against him.
That creep scares me to death. Wasn’t he the one that hung out at Plato’s Retreat? Do we really need to listen to him. Where are the troops for the good guys/gals? Please
it wasn’t really to get oil it was to restrict oil
we invaded an oil rich nation not to get those assets but to keep those assets from reaching the market and lowering profits
no kidding, that’s what this was about
Could it be he’s hinting broadly that Tim is a big part of the problems of not asking decent questions relative to the problems we face?
he said “it’s the only prudent thing to do”, he didn’t say we were doing it
check out think progress they have the clip and the transcript
Plato’s Retreat? Is that some weird bar where old conservatives pick up young boys?
Bolton is currently of counsel to the law firm Kirkland and Ellis, in their Washington D.C. office.
Is Kirkland and Ellis’ D.C. office sort of the adult day care for former Bush/Cheney regime staffers?
The NYTimes frontispieces seem creepy to me. W.th.H##?!?! Enablers gone wild….
I wish; he seemed pretty scattered, however. I don’t know. Then the crazy repub lady I heard said Michelle had been talking about being very angry. Of course, that brought criticism and the why should she be angry question. Gag.
Where are the troops for the good guys/gals? Please
70% of Americans want out of Iraq because we support the troops and do not think its worth in Congress on the other hand is about 90% spineless.
Harry and Nancy have to go in November.
It was weird OK; I think for those who like several folks at one time/swap, etc.
I only supported the war in the beginning like many Americans to get Ossama.
So bad … can we blame them for burning out the aerator on our septic tank this weekend? Works for me. Wish I had the guts to send them the bill. There goes our whoop-ti-doo-doo bonus check.
they sure do
give me a progressive that says they are going to impeach post office and I am going to do whatever it takes to get that person in office replacing these two
Damm I hoped he was stupid enough to let the cat out of the bag.
OT Breaking: HRC campaign confirms they will indeed “go nuclear” — on The Sheik, that is.
Whatever it takes to prevail, I guess (which has been my prediction).
I pray you are right; why can’t we be more heard? All we need is to be talking about Iran next on the list. Have we gone crazy?
I saw most of Michelle’s speech last week, tried twice to watch. She’s an incredible person. As is Obama imo.
That’s a thought that always makes me smile. How much money has Cindy Sheehan raised, and how is her campaign going?
Back in 2005, Deadeye told Larry King that:
Yes, when casualties are down this is an indication that we are winning. When casualties are up, it’s because they (whoever they are: insurgents, AQ, Mahdi Army, Iran) are getting desperate.
I think the real way politicians who voted for bush’s “authority” have an escape clause they haven’t persued vigorously enough
they can say;
“the president lied to me, he showed me information that was supposed to be classified and it demonstrated the need for the attack
that information was a lie that the administration manufactured, the president lied us into our votes and he needs to be held accountable for that crime”
bing, the next president of the United states of America
does hillary want the job?
that’s pretty much all she has to say and it’s hers
I have not heard much about her campaign so I fear it is not going well
long drive ahead of me, see all later tonight
Uh Plato is famous as a Philosopher but also because he liked young boys any sex club called Plato’s Retreat well its old men and young men or old pedophiles and young victims.
Bolton is mixed up in that scene?
There really is no reason that with all those troops and all that money we spent that Bush and Co couldn’t get peace in Iraq. It’s a combination of incompetence and greed that keeps getting in the way of success (whatever success is.)
EVERY development will be interpreted by these True Believers as proof that we are “winning.”
Right up to the day of embassy rooftop helo evacs.
HRC supports the New NeoCon agenda of destroying (or is it obliterating?) Iran. She has voted for every single bill to wage aggresive war, and that alone says Goldwater Girl to me. Today Goldwater is viewed by many today as a moderate, but he was in fact in the 60s a “bomb’em all and let jeebus sort them out” guy.
The “daisy ad” ran once. LBJ won, ’nuff said?
Oblit, blit, blit, blit, obliterate Iran.
Once we do that then we can start rounding up the elite economists.
-G
wow, even lindsey graham says things are going badly in Iraq
holy crow, they can’t even make believe the surge is working anymore
The fact that we haven’t captured or killed Bin Laden is also a sign of progress in the war on terror.
Doesn’t matter after the election Congress can elect a new speaker of the House of Representives and a new Senate Leader.
I think it was more a 70’s swingers type of club as opposed to a peed-o-file thing.
-G
You all sound so optimistic. We just have to have more faith in the
American people than the last 2 elections have indicated. We waited 30 years for the cold war to end; I think the world is much scarier and we have idiots at the helm….IMHO
How long have they been, plan to be so desperate?
it’s none of those reasons
the reason is they want unrest, they need the insurgency to pillage, it’s why they attacked in the first place, they were well warned long before the attack this is exactly what would happen
they were given a template of best proceedure to try to mitigate the unrest and they did the oposite at every turn
this is deliberate and there is no question about it
they refused to protect the infrastructure, they refused to employ the Iraq armed forces, they gave them their weapons and they left the stockpiles of Iraq military ordinance unguarded
there is no way any of this is an accident
can not quit this place, it’s like a fever and I need more cowbell
gonna shut down before I read one more comment
lindsey graham says things are going badly in Iraq
What where’s Jane that is news, next Darth will be admitting that booze, broads and shotguns don’t mix.
I was trying to be very careful….but I think I recall that conversation, coverage during part of the UN nomination coverage. So it’s a tentative opinion, not a fact, dontcha see? But I seem to recall….
The fact that we haven’t captured or killed Bin Laden is a sign that the bin Ladens are Bush family cronies.
oh, here is the link to graham saying things are bad in Iraq
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....th-mcsame/
Fine a gay swingers club maybe cause Plato was not straight.
cue images from Eyes Wide Shut
The Daisy Ad, for any youngsters out there… :-)
It all makes sense, if you’re the Republicans. The surge was a success. Now that people are wondering when the troops can come home, like magic Iraq is a dangerous place again. They can swing this back and forth ad nauseum.
When you’ve vented and spewed enough to last awhile, and want to catch your breath, take a look at the link I put at #11. dumbya is afraid of those animals, both of them.
[aside to avoid being smacked upside: yeah i know both are Arab; trust me, only a very perceptive, talented, kindly personality can accomplish this; it’s a beautiful game, or dance, or expression of love and trust - whatever you wish. the whip is merely a signal, not ever threating or even touching the animal.]
please watch it, close your eyes and replay in your head, then resume your discussion. anything changed for you? probably not, but do watch anyway. ;->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
I’m sure there’s some truth in what you’re saying, but I still think that it’s mostly incompetence. Bush is only concerned with loyalty, has no idea about meritocracy, has mismanaged everything up to and including his presidency, has no interest in Iraq outside of its oil fields.
it was a heterosexual club of sex swapping
it was before aids and I have to tell you, just about everyone I know fantasized about going and this is one thingI blame bolton for doing
me a sex craved addict, sorry
Exactly me too. Maybe we need a 12 Step program. In my life I need a dentist appt, a hair cut, to get to work, etc etc etc. but here I am. Selah. I hope Im outa here. Cheers.
The Republicans have to keep on message saying that success is all over the place in Iraq, so that when the Democrats have absolute power, and withdraw troops, they can blame them for screwing it up.
sure there was incompetence but it was by design
they knew how many troops were the minimum they sent less by multitudes, they knew the proper strategy to contain the insurgents they did the oposite
at every single turn they did what needed to be done to fail, this must be by design that is the only excuse
so ya, there was incompetence but the incompetence is by design, just as bush hires incompence to offices of importance so that the office fails miserably
it is by design
Are you saying you do or don’t blame Bolton? Didn’t want to make it up.
Bolton was the life of the party, he was able to stash large amounts of cocaine, wine and dildo’s in his mustache.
-G
more cowbell
one of the funniest clips evah
They will have to blame someone else. The Clintons are making sure that there is no longer a Democratic Party.
to heck with the strap-ons; John Bolt-on is to be reckoned with.
true or snark?
if true, linkerage please
We are always ‘winning’ as long as you, not you personally, and I and the folks here in the reality-based community continue to frame this illegal butchery as a ‘war’
IT IS NOT A WAR. IT IS AN OCCUPATION. ANYONE WHO CALLS IT A WAR IS HELPING BUSH AND CHENEY AND THEIR HELPERS MISS NANCY, HOYER AND REID.
STOP CALLING IT A WAY GOTDAMMIT!
Yet another instance of the smart, smart, smart folks here in Left Blogistan not being….
So smart!
None of this directed at you Fern.
that was supposed to say “one thing I do not blame bolton for”
typo
Wasn’t there a fairy tale like that, once upon a time …?
I’m just sure I’ve heard of something very much like that …
Um … was it ‘real’ or did I just imaginate that …?
Wait! It’s coming into focus … uh … nope!
Not at all the same.
That was called Vee et nwahm.
This is called ‘I rock!’, by George!
I am so glad that I hung around for this “round”. Wonder if Bolton has email. Sounds like he likes to be the life of the party. Yes, Im going to work ;)
See your doctor…you’ve got Kool-Aid poisoning.
I cannot blame him for it
sorry revbev
It was the heyday of Plato’s Retreat, and a few copycat establishments popped up here and there in the city to catch the overrun, but none had the high visibility and pagan rep of the original pile-on palace, which conjures up an entire lost realm of chest hair, gold medallions, platform shoes, bellbottoms, rubber mats, frizzy Afros on white people, and the birth of porn video. One of my colleagues then at the Village Voice, Michael Tolkin (who went on to become an accomplished, disturbing novelist and screenwriter–The Player is his best-known novel, but his film The Rapture may be his most relevant work today), wrote an inside-tour of Plato’s Retreat that drew a lot of attention. I remember him comparing the sight of swingers humping on the mats to the action of oil pumps in the Texas panhandle, but my memory may be embellishing.
I wonder if during his journalistic tour of duty Tolkin ever came across the now-familiar face and less familiar buttcheeks of Bush’s nominee to the United Nations, John Bolton.
According to a shock claim by Larry Flynt and Hustler magazine, trumpeted on the Raw Story site, Bolton was a paid visitor to Plato’s Retreat, which in the seventies brought together many people of differing viewpoints, penis and bra-cup sizes, much as the United Nations has done since its founding. Perhaps Bolton went (if he indeed went–we must preserve the benefit of doubt) for the excellent buffet, of which the owners of Plato’s Retreat always expressed pride. I understand the conversations in the buffet line could get quite racy. (”Hey, this salad dressing tastes funny…”) Or perhaps it was the aromatic atmosphere he couldn’t resist as he padded around in a white towel and flipflops. According to one former enthusiast, “One of the things I’ll never never never forget -I think it was Plato’s Retreat - it was walking in and having a waft of red energy, but it had no thorns in it, everyone was there consenting to be there. Everyone was there for the same purpose. It was so hot and so heavy.”
It doesn’t matter now what his motives were as long as he kept his whistle clean and followed the punctilios of swingers’ etiquette (i.e., no climbing aboard without permission from whomever’s at the bottom of the pile). I just hope Bolton didn’t try to browbeat his wife into sharing his boogie-nights bacchanals, much as senatorial candidate Jack Ryan was alleged to have done to his former wife, the divine Jeri Ryan, whom many of us will always treasure as Star Trek: Voyager’s catsuitted 7 of 9.
http://www.vanityfair.com/poli.....er_to.html
Ok I’m wrong well maybe how do we know what Bolton did there and what party favors did he indulge in?
I just think you have it backwards. I think they had a design, the design sucked, so I call it incompetence. Their design sucked so much that it has all of us constantly thinking that Bush and Cheney are out to destroy our country, but I think that’s just us misreading the results. It’s hard to imagine that they could be so bad, by accident, but that’s not exactly it. They were that bad, on purpose, and their motives were different than we might think, but, when you put bad people in charge of every department, you get bad results.
I do think that, if they could have had a peaceful, Democratic regime in Iraq now, with no US troops there, they would have liked that. I think we have to give them the benefit of that.
My take is that Lindsey Graham is providing a back door for McCain.
I’m gonna split the difference here.
I’ll give you the greed factor, but I have to ride along with perris re: incompetence.
I’ll even spot you that Bush is incompetent, but since most people here know Darth and his minions run the country, that doesn’t matter much.
No, they know exactly what they’re doing.
The more chaos they stir up in the Middle East, the more cash is made for the MIC.
Besides, as I mentioned here earlier today, no one gets a seat at a war crimes trial for ‘incompetence’.
If I had to choose, I’d go for incompetence vs sinister, too.
it’s just plain not possible to believe
they did exactly the oposite what every single expert told them needed to be done
every time
I cannot believe this is not deliberate, it flies in the face of reason and so long as we believe it is not deliberate we are open to more of the same which I am not willing to accept, they cannot be doing this in good faith and do the oposite every shred of advice given
so we disagree
Will this do?
“I have reserve capability, in particular our Navy and our Air Force so it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability,” Mullen said.
Targets would include everything from the plants where weapons are made to the headquarters of the organization known as the Quds Force which directs operations in Iraq. Later this week Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to confront the Iranians with evidence of their meddling and demand a halt.
If that doesn’t produce results, the State Department has begun drafting an ultimatum that would tell the Iranians to knock it off - or else.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....tpop_story
I’m not sure that’s true.
ONLY IF I recall the conversation, I seem to recall the wife was part of the discussion/report.
Yeah, but they do it with everything! Not just Iraq. They fuck it all up. At every opportunity, they make the worst possible decision.
Okay, okay. It’s not a way!
Happy now?
rofl :)
because they wouldn’t get a seat in war crimes for incompetence I go for sinster
these are criminals, they lied us into war and they knew they were doing it, they ignored every template for success and they knew they were ignoring them
we have been told rumsfeld came right out and said anyone that presented plans for succes would be gone
do you think when cheney invented “intel” that made certain nixon’s detante would fail was incompetence?
it could not have been, it was sinister and he did the same thing here
sorry, this is sinister
it not only does the trick it adds something that I do blame him for
he forced his wife to participate, that is depraved
good, I needed something to blame him for as regards plato’s retreat
thanx
Yep, if I have the choice between malicious and incompetant with this crowd, I’m going to go with malicious. Because they’ve been doing malicious for the past 40 years.
their very purpose is to prove government does not work, that’s their very purpose
believe me, it’s deliberate
I remember that ad. Scared me.
That’s just wrong on so many levels. Would John call Lindsay a “trollop”? *g
off to the dentist… have to give up my FDL crack for a bit…
Part of the plan.
Remember where they come from — “government is bad.”
So, to prove their point, as you so astutely point out, “they fuck it all up”, then get to say “I told ya!”
Take Katrina for example. Most people who frequent this site could’ve done a better job reconstructing New Orleans over the past few years than this misadministration has.
Seriously. Why? Because all you have to do is give a damn.
They don’t, and it shows.
OT, more Republican family values: Las Vegas RJ
Michael row your bloat ashore, all Faluja!
Michael row your bloat ashore, all Faluja!
Scorched earth, win at all costs, I despise McCain but I will have to think very long and hard before I vote for Clinton and at the moment I seriously doubt I will should she be the nominee.
finally, I have the strength to hit the power button
see all later
That’s true, but they’ve been replacing Government with outsourced contracting. And they’ve made the biggest Government ever. That’s corruption and incompetence.
And, of course, the lead up to the war was definitely illegal, as were many other things done by the administration. There’s plenty of other war crimes to be dealt out here.
Anyway, I think we basically agree that they suck. And I think their incompetence is worthy of jail too. And not just because they screwed things up, but because of the way they screwed things up - lying, inventing evidence, contracting to friends, not listening to advisors, classifying their screw ups. All of that is criminal and incompetent too! And sinister. What a bunch of scumbags!
I think you’re missing my point.
We’re on the same side. I’m saying these crooks want to be thought of as incompetent instead of sinister, which they are.
So if ‘I’ found myself in their position, I’d try to make people believe it was incompetence, just as they are doing.
But we agree, perris. These are evil people.
No question about it. A bunch of fucking sickos.
End the war now. By giving Bush this new budget it just extends the life of the conflict another 18 months beyond next January.