Login HereGeorge W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished," Afghanistan edition.
The Taliban no longer is in existence.
Taliban insurgents carried out a bold assault on a remote base near the border with Pakistan on Sunday, NATO reported, and a senior American military official said nine American soldiers were killed.
The attack, the worst against Americans in Afghanistan in three years, illustrated the growing threat of Taliban militants and their associates, who in recent months have made Afghanistan a far deadlier war zone for American-led forces than Iraq.
No one could've predicted that invading Iraq for fun, then sending even more troops there 4 years later for the Bush/McSame Surge, would allow the Taliban and al-Qaeda to reconstitute in Afghanistan. Oh wait, someone did.
Unlike Senator John McCain, I opposed the war in Iraq before it began, and would end it as president. I believed it was a grave mistake to allow ourselves to be distracted from the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban by invading a country that posed no imminent threat and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.
But don't you dare ask McSame if his awesome war in Iraq has anything to do with failing to achieve victory in Afghanistan -- after 7 years. It makes him very, very angry.
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No one could’ve predicted
Shorter McCain: We will succeed because we have to. Great foreign policy there, sparky.
yet anothercountry we adorable Merkins destroyed….the UGHHHHHly Merkins
Nine more Americans dead because of this administration’s lies. Why am I reminded of Pat Tillman?
People Speaking Out Against The War:
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.....untry.html
Signs on freeways are like really short letters to the editor that get published every time.
Afghanistan - wasn’t that where the taliban and Osama Bin Ladin were both before and after 9/11/01?
Wasn’t THAT the war that so many men and women enlisted for in response to 9/11/01, including Pat Tillman and his brother Patrick?
Wasn’t THAT the excuse used by the PNACers for launching the GWOT and providing a thrilling opportunity for war profiteering on an unimaginable scale?
and you are the greatest patriot,thank you
Now that you mention it…yes.
oh my …you covered it all inashort paragraph……..hey mega yachts are selling like hot cakes,havent you heard?
But finding a crew is a bitch.
well itsa toss up Iraq,Afghanistan 4ever,or minimum wage out to sea
Most likely all poor people so things are really working out quite well.
We have taken our eye off the ball for too long. I fear we cannot get back in the game, but it is not a game. Those poor young Americans, dying for the insufferable ego of George W Bush.
Defeatist.
It’s a shame that the general public is/was/continues to be unaware that the contracting in Iraq did NOT include the Iraqis, but instead contract laborers to do the work - no matter the complex nature or the fact that Iraq had a highly trained workforce (more engineers per capita than the U.S.)- But guys like Joe Allbaugh (former head of FEMA) and Jerry bremer insisted that profits ALWAYS come before people.
Were’d the money go?
Why aren’t there war profiteering hearings?
When might there be an accounting followed by accountability?
sorry t disagree,it isnt his ego watch Farenheiht 911 again,its for $$$ and the haves and HAVE MORES…they put him there,and with ONLY one purpose..bring back the GILDED AGE…MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
yea…..wheres your damn gold plated FLAG PIN? traitor
Well, yes — but he learned from his pop’s failed attempt at a second term to never stop being a War President. That appeals to his ego, I think.
Now, of course, he’s the War Crimes President.
again i bring up Moores clasic F911….they had an IRAQ job fair(merkins only of course)
i truly believe,he is a BLANK slate,his reasons are whatever the last person who whispered in his hairy ear said they are
Yes, and yes. Wish he had just left it at that. The BBQ set is starting to see the real jerk at last.
Go two threads down. Dorgan was here, and he had some hearings last week. And, hi!
im dense,but i did not understand his reply…it was talking points and pontifications
It is not just the failure in Afghanistan but the destabilization of its much larger neighbor Pakistan.
If history is any judge. Never.
chaos….i truly believe they want chaos………………oy
Good point.
Freedom’s On The March!
It was all more lies for profit. But if he had just dropped it after his original smart-assed answer, he could have avoided the lies. (NYT question…kinda like progressive news outlets never getting to ask questions on the phone pressers)
plus the worldwide food shortages…its almost too much to contemplate the suffering
At least (link above to 7/14 NYT article) this is how Obama wants to handle the war today. When the nitty gritty arrives, and he’s been well-schooled by his advisors, he could very well pull a FISA on us.
Ahh, quit yer whinin’…it’s only mental suffering.
I think that would be unwise politically, given the war’s unpopularity.
Thanks for the laugh! Very good response!
At least (link above to 7/14 NYT article) this is how Obama wants to handle the war today. When the nitty gritty arrives, and he’s been well-schooled by his advisors, he could very well pull a
FISANixon on us.Fixed it for ya.
uh… maybe it’s that no one predicted that dropping cluster bombs from 30,000 feet, using depleted uranium, installing a puppet government (including warlords so bad than when they were overthrown by the taliban in the ’90s the people were actually relieved) and generally making life in an unwelcome occupation would.. well, you know, make enemies? and cause problems for our regional allies?
i know we’re all supposed be gung-ho for the democrat’s war…. but when will enough be enough?
Boy howdy, it certainly would be a dumb move - sorta losing your entire primary base by voting for FISA….Sorry. I just can never trust anything Obama says again…
BTW Froomkin has returned from his vacation.
I don’t think Obama has lost his primary base.
You’re probably right - he’s only lost the left half of it. :^)
Enh. I doubt that. Obama pissed them off, but lost them? Nah.
The nexus here is the intersection of the Taliban, the ISI (Pakistani Intelligence), and, of course, nuclear weapons. The Taliban is largely a creation of the ISI, so the idea that they are not allies now is ludicrous. So-the intelligence agency of our nuclear-armed ally in the GWOT, Pakistan, also seems to function as the intelligence agency for the Taliban. Surreal, huh”
Thanks for the fix - I love it! I was out protesting the war then, as well.
Hey selise! LTNS! Been busy? *g*
can anyone explain to me why a continued, but ’smarter’ occupation of afghanistan is a good idea?
oh, and no fair using the same explanations that the republicans use to justify our occupation of iraq.
Well, he did lose whatever part of the base I’m in.
Nixon *did* promise to end the war, didn’t he?
You’re welcome :)
Because the Villagers say so.
Actually, you raise a good point — it’s not clear that the toothpaste can be put back in the tube.
no access to fdl (except for a few hours late saturday night / sunday morning) since saturday morning.
the withdrawal symptoms got so bad i finally gave in to my addiction and am at the local starbucks drinking an iced coffee and using their wifi.
Clusterfuck will attempt to withdraw a significant number of troops from Iraq before the election–and declare that he is well on his way to victory there.
More troops will be sent to Afghanistan- and BOTH presidential candidates are agreed on the need to fight on there….
There is no political advantage for either candidate in an upswing in violene in Afghanistan.
hey, no fair - that works for iraq to.,
but i’ll cut you slack because our awesome afghanistan adventure is hard to justify without using the same talking points that are used to justify our awesome iraq adventure.
Yes he did.
secret plan for peace.
Read somewhere on-line today that grassley is b!tchin’ about all the gas money being wasted by government car drivers idling in dc traffic. Too bad he isn’t as concerned about the millions that have been flushed down the toilet in bogus occupation contracts. :-(
Hugh @ 37 -
Booyah! Sure do miss that guy when he’s gone.
I cannot-but I could make a very cold-blooded argument for using Afghanistan as the launching pad for a massive invasion of Pakistan. An unstable, al-Qaeda-friendly government, teetering on the edge of being replaced by an even more al-Qaeda-friendly Islamist government, deeply involved in proliferation, and armed with real, not theoretical nuclear weapons…I DO NOT support such an action, but it seems so arguable that I’ve been treating it as inevitable. Perhaps that will be the “Democrat’s War.”
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu.....p?pid=2303
This is a 1969 Nixon speech about ending the war in Viet Nam. It actually ended in 1973…
How will you vote?
ah, i see - afghanistan as a launching pad for an attack on pakistan. vs the neocon’s plans of using afghanistan as a launching pad for an attack on iran.
swell.
I do not intend to cast a ballot for President.
Like I said I am not arguing for this.
People are seriously fed up with the triangulation and shell games going on with candidates. How does one call bush a liar and then forgive when Obama does the same thing. He failed to protect the constitution. What makes folks think Obama wont be just as power hungry as McIsane? What do we have to do to get a candidate who’s talk and actions are aligned?
Hmmm. Well, one way to look at it is George W. Bush is the commander in chief, and he’s a Republican, and he’s lost the war in Afghanistan. So I disagree, since the GOP have flushed their national security card down the toilet with both Iraq and Afghanistan, and McSame is married to Bush.
you didn’t ask me, but i’m planning to cast a protest vote for president - probably green.
Ahh, yes - the Capital Policeman-shoving candidate.
Cinthia McKinney.
I’m thinkin’ green too.
I find it incredible (as in beyond belief) that in some countries people will walk for hours, then stand in line for hours (not to mention risking death) for the opportunity to vote while we in this country have the luxury of “sitting this election out” if we so choose.
i know. but i’m not worried about the foreign policy that you would pursue if you were president.
Bush/Cheney have no “midas touch.” Just “death and deception” in the name of National Security while corporate oil’s agenda is advanced. Pathetic!!!!
Look at all the faces dead and gone you fascist creeps……….
http://projects.washingtonpost.....my/page26/
She was disrespected and demonized…JMHO
The “creeple” are ruling the “sheeple”. We need to turn this around. Power to the peeeeple.
i don’t think anyone here considers their vote a luxury.
I don’t have a lot of respect for people who resort to violence when they are “disrespected.”
Nor do they intend to sit it out. I haven’t spent years registering people so I can “sit it out.” Suggest Everyone Read Naomi Kline, The End Of America if you haven’t already.
Voting is a “duty” not a luxury.
Thank you! I SO would not want you to get the wrong idea…Were I President, my foreign policy would largely involve trying to generate a “soft landing”, a measured, carefully managed drawdown of the Empire, without producing a catastrophic domestic collapse.
I would then be crushed in my re-election bid.
BTW, outstanding diary on FISA.
I’ll vote for Obama.
It is not incumbent on me to find a reason to vote for Obama. It is his responsibility to give me a reason to support him. As his recent statements on FISA, Iran, Israel-Palestine, gun control, abortion, faith-based initiatives, and the promotion of Petraeus and Odierno show, he is very much going out of his way to give me reasons not to vote for him.
If I am given the choice between Republican and Republican-Lite, then the candidates have told me they don’t want my vote.
I’d look at it in relative terms. If you live in (potential) swing state, not voting - or voting third party - is perilous. (Remind me again how that Nader thing worked out?). If you’re in a solid red or blue state, then sure, knock yourself out and vote for Engelburt Humperdink.
I don’t think it’s a luxury either. But I do think we are patriots and want the best for our country, and so it is our responsibility to vote.
However, freedom means also choosing not to vote if one wishes. But I do hope that is a choice very few of us make.
no. it’s not.
it’s our duty as citizens to weigh our actions carefully and then do what we think is in the best interest of our country (as defined by the people who live here - not the politicians) and the world. that doesn’t mean we will all come to the same conclusions.
please, save your outrage for those who can’t be bothered - not those who are wrestling with the decision.
I will vote for Obama. The alternative of McCain is unthinkable to me.
I’ve always thought it was my duty as a US citizen to make a choice between all viable candidates. Otherwise, I would be copping out. IMHO, neither Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney are viable candidates.
“On the morning of March 29, 2006, McKinney entered the Longworth House Office Building’s southeast entrance and proceeded past the security checkpoint, walking around the metal detector. Members of Congress have identifying lapel pins and are not required to pass through metal detectors. The officers present failed to recognize McKinney as a member of Congress because she was not wearing the appropriate lapel pin.[34] She proceeded westward down the ground floor hallway and about halfway down the hallway was grabbed by United States Capitol Police officer Paul McKenna, who states that he had been calling after her: “Ma’am, Ma’am!”; at that time it is reported that McKinney struck the officer. Two days later, Officer McKenna filed a police report claiming that McKinney had struck “his chest with a closed fist.”
In the midst of a media frenzy, McKinney made an apology[35] on the floor of the House of Representatives on April 6, 2006, neither admitting to nor denying the charge, stating only that: “There should not have been any physical contact in this incident.” Minutes before making the Congresswoman’s apology, McKinney’s security officer made contact with a TV correspondent outside of the U.S. Capitol.[36]”
Wiki
She reacted after being “grabbed”.
SO the question becomes at what point does a person put away the laptop or PC and act as America’s founders acted to protect their life, liberty, property and the lives of loved ones from the actions of despots. At what point due American realize they have right duties and obligations requiring action, besides watching American Idol, drinking booze and taking anti depressants?
“”Conventions”" anyone, or will the corporate fascist win by default and manipulation!!
thanks RonD. and i like your “soft landing”
Wow.
After passing through a security gate and being told to stop. When she did not stop, the Caption Policeman grabbed her, as he would anybody who tried to pass through a security gate without the proper ID.
from your quote:
Obama assumes that progressives have no choice but to vote for him so he feels free to trash progressive positions on the issues. I see this as a strong reason not to support him.
How do you know what actions I take or do not take to protect democracy in America? I don’t have time to watch teevee, I am too busy working ten hours a day. Ditto for my husband so we can provide an education for our child. I write letters to the editor, I protest with my fellows, I register people to vote, I canvass neighborhoods with the other elected members of the Dem Central Committee in my county. I can’t speak for anyone else, but for this family we do all that is humanly possible.
news from the committees:
‘DC Amnesia’ strikes again.
i’m curious why you plan to not vote vs a protest vote.
New Hamsher
It actually ended in 1975.
They should have known who she was, I don’t work there, but I know what she looks like. What I’m saying is that she reacted to being “grabbed”…she didn’t attack someone because they were disrespecting her per se. She was wrong, because she wasn’t wearing her pin. She was wrong, because she went around the the check point, and she was wrong for not stopping when she was called out to…but she didn’t react violently to being disrespected…she reacted because she was physically grabbed. That’s all I’m saying.
With all due respect, how difficult would it be for the Capital Police to familiarize themselves with what 535 members of the House of Representatives and the Senate look like? Especially those who have/had been serving for a couple of terms by this point.
Oh wait, she couldn’t have been a Congressperson though, she’s a black woman!
Kudos to you. It is hard work. Same boat here? Sometimes it is not enough as our founders became acutely aware.
I will only vote for a candidate if I think they have made some effort to earn my vote. A protest vote for me does not fulfill this requirement.
thanks.
I agree that they should know 535 people. But if somebody passes a security gate without being checked, they should be stopped, I don’t care what color her skin is.
At my job, where I have been for over 10 years, I have to show my badge to get in the parking lot. Several of the guards have been there as long as I have. Should they know me? Some do know me, but I still have to show my ID. Should they allow me to pass if I don’t have my badge out?
I got a call from Obama’s people looking for a donation Saturday. I told the gentleman “not one penny, after his FISA vote.” He sighed and said they’d been hearing that a lot lately.He also said Obama had to vote that way because the Republicans would call him soft on terrorism. I asked “Why, when the original FISA bill was not going to expire?” I said I was sick of Democrats calling capitulation compromise and giving a president with lower approval ratings than Hoover everything he wants. I told him I had hoped for a person who stood on principles, not politics. I left him with the comment that, while I will NOT vote Republican in November, I will not give any money to Obama’s campaign either.
The problem really is that unlike the 56000 dead American in Vietnam, we are insulated from Dover, Arlington and friends and family of your children in are not coming home dead in droves. Where is the Norske flame thrower when you need him!!
http://projects.washingtonpost.....my/page26/
Just look at the faces
good. i hope there are enough to have some influence on obama’s behavior in the future.
Without knowing anything about you or your job that you’ve had for ten years, I still think there’s probably a fairly significant difference between your going to the same plant/building for the last 10 years versus a Member of Congress going into the Capital building.
And she worked there for a total of 12 years herself.
I remember talking to a guy who knows his stuff about Afghanistan back in the fall of 2001 after we’d ‘mission completed’ it. He said it would take time, but that we’d be dragging our tails out of that place sooner or later, but inevitably. Sometimes you just have to own up to defeat, the way you own up to lost love. It isn’t nice, but it happens all the time. Americans have gotten out of the habit.
mckinney? sorry, i don’t think much of the woman.
my reaction about mckinney being the green party nominee?
you gotta be kiddin’ me…….no way, who’s in charge there now? are they stupid or just dumb?
just playin’ at havin’ a political party, nothin’ serious goin’ on here, move along…….
=====
the ’guard grab’?
i remember her reaction and what she said at the time, i thought it was atrocious. atrocious. a member of congress acting like a pubescent ’i’m entitled’ kinda gal throwing a tantrum…blaming everyone else for something she started and created and made worse…not pretty, not befitting an elected member of congress, heck, not befitting me or my family if i acted that way.
it all got buttered up with her statements later, but go back and read the originals. you’d a thought they tackled her and searched her person right there in the halls for everyone to see her undies. she created the ruckus and made it worse…..she knew the rules. she didn’t think she had to follow them. she reacted like a baby when required to follow them. then slammed people whose job it was to keep her from breaking them. she was emitted from my radar screen after that.
and yes i am and was aware who she was and how she voted before that. after this, was hard to put the two into one person, after her tantrum i was never able to. persona nongrata.
I’ve been working in the same building most of the last 12 years, with a photo ID, and pretty much the same set of building security, and I still have to show my badge. We have a cafeteria that is open to the public, a lot of legal offices, and our (roughly fifteen) floors, so there’s some reason for security. (The really public stuff, like the green mermaid coffee, is outside the security turnstiles.)
Excellent! I’m glad they’ve been hearing it a lot lately.
And I would still submit that it is a different situation for a private employer security than it is for security for the Congress at the Capital building.
You might have been fired/laid off. At this point, Cynthia McKinney was still a member of Congress and had been for roughly a dozen years.
To put this in perspective, is the local Division/Group Manager/Senior Executives for your employer treated the exact same way in showing ID and badges every time s/he enters the building as you are?
Yes. Everyone has to have an ID of some kind, or sign in as a visitor. (I did that when I came back after a year and a quarter away - the guards recognized me, and I signed in as a visitor.) You need a badge to work the elevators, anyway, and on our floors, except for the company lobby, to get out of the elevator lobbies.
Talking Points is saying that Waxman’s commitee report on Tillman has a nice tidbit:
Ron Fournier of AP was messaging back and forth with Karl about Tillman and how it should be covered.
and dakine–she went around the metal detector, she HAD to know that was a no-no……you can’t even do that in a courthouse where they know you…….i would think in a public place the guards would be even more on alert-because it’s public. can be anyone with anything trying to get in.
and anyone can go bazookers, and have a mental meltdown, too….even if you are a member of congress. those security measures are in place for a reason. to protect people like HER.
they have their pins to identify them so that they can get easy access through security, can’t tell me she didn’t know that was as important as her planner or cellphone or driver’s license when she leaves home in the morning. and what if she lost her pin and didn’t report it?
for a while, i worked in two different buildings, many floors, where everyone had to show their badge/id, even when their hands were full at lunchtime bringing in takeout or bags, etc..even when the guard knew you…had to stop and show it. however, if there was noone around, if he knew you, he would let you pass, but never if anyone was watching, he made that clear. even the heads of the company, same thing.
any deliveries were met at the door and signed for, on a different log….in other words, nothing went into that building that wasn’t id’d or logged.
if you forgot your id, you might as well go back home and get it and be late to work rather than have to be signed in, and if you had to be signed in cuz you didn’t have it-you had to show it the next day to show it wasn’t lost…….when i worked in another department i lost mine once in an attic, had to carry it on me, slipped out of my levi’s, it was over 100 in that attic and i looked all over digging around in insulation, that’s how badly i needed to find it….pile of paperwork for my boss. and had to go downtown to get new id the next day, wasn’t allowed to work without one.
(later, that boss made me a ’funny’ official id, that was a little picture of a street urchin and said, help me, i’m lost, return me to —– —-. )
so, i think it’s a big deal. she knew the rules, same as i did where i worked. she’d been there for 12 years? um, knew them better than most. thought she was entitled to break them.
i wouldn’t nominate someone like that to be a presidential candidate.
‘The nexus here is the intersection of the Taliban, the ISI (Pakistani Intelligence), and, of course, nuclear weapons. The Taliban is largely a creation of the ISI, so the idea that they are not allies now is ludicrous. So-the intelligence agency of our nuclear-armed ally in the GWOT, Pakistan, also seems to function as the intelligence agency for the Taliban. Surreal, huh”’
Just spread it out a bit and you run into the Saudis and all sorts of interesting folks. Darth fits here :)..
A pretty, smart, blonde lady’s old job fits right in here..
And, maybe we need to look closer at all the references to Chemical/biological ‘weapons, from a bigBis connection, because Donald Rumsfeld is still quietly watching from the sidelines..