Friday, July 04, 2008
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Consider the Contrast
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Posted by:
Michael Medved at
4:11 PM
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Striking Constrast in These Brief Bulletins from LBN News Alerts--- First, a PROFILE IN JELLO
LBN-PRESIDENTIAL BACK ROOM: ***Senator Barack Obama said he might "refine" his Iraq policies after meeting with military commanders there later this summer. But hours later he held a second news conference to emphasize his commitment to the withdrawing of all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. And then, a PROFILE IN COURAGE
CONDOLEEZZA RICE SAYS SHE'S 'PROUD' OF DECISION TO INVADE IRAQ": Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she's "proud" of the U.S. decision to wage the Iraq war and insisted that the world is not more dangerous than it was when George W. Bush took office. "We're now beginning to see that perhaps it's not so popular to be a suicide bomber. We're beginning to see that perhaps people are questioning whether Osama Bin Laden ought to really be the face of Islam," Rice, 53, said in an interview to be broadcast this weekend on Bloomberg Television's "Conversations with Judy Woodruff.
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Condi's nuts. All this time I just thought she had a crush on W. |
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So you're saying that Obama is displaying the characteristics of jello because he's willing to change his plans based on changes in the situation? I suppose that that's in contrast to the current temporary occupant of Obama's Oval Office, who couldn't change his mind if his life (or other people's lives) depended on it.
And as for Rice's profile of courage, the two statements you quoted are stark evidence of clinical insanity. |
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You will find this interesting:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aH0_cYG S8Avc&refer=politics
Bush has been an unmitigated disaster. America was in the driver's seat in 2000. Now we are beggars at the feet of China and Russia because of the weaker than weak dollar. Yeah, bring on the McCain-Lieberman Cap and Trade bill. We need a centrally controlled command economy that both McCain and Obama are promising us. I don't recall McCain mention anything about cutting government spending anywhere yet he's touted as a "small government" conservative. What a larf! |
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In the history of civilization a non muslim invading or occuping army has never held substained control of perusian or muslim land.
Sadam Hussian was the only force to hold Iran in check.
The reason we can't leave is the same reason we should never have gone If you replace the force keeping the sheiets(?) from killing the Suni and Al Sarder taking control of Iraq as the proxie goverment of Iran -- Iran controls Iraq.
Who is to blame the senate who voted for this, just like only 16 members of the senate voted against the most favored nation trade status for China, demos and Gop alike have mass histeria or something when it comes to giving bush what he wants.
THE WAR WAS AND IS IN Afganastian
MS Rice hit the wrong nerve with me
it doesn't matter how we got there , we can not leave, but neither should we not hold those responsible to some standard of accountability
there is a lot about McCain I don't like but the war is not one of them he spoke out about the mismanagement ,he took Rumsfeld to task when everyone else was still hiding behind the say no evil of the president or Rumsfeld and for that alone I have hope that he will put the troops first. the democratic controlled congress cant even stand up to Bush, so why would anyone think they and Obama can stand up to any threat.
If I'm wrong please tell me in a nice way |
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"So you're saying that Obama is displaying the characteristics of jello because he's willing to change his plans based on changes in the situation?"
-- No. If that was the only thing he had ever said about the war there would be a lot less to talk about. The problem is he made a specific campaign promise, in order to gain the votes of peaceniks and isolationist leftists, announcing a timetable for withdrawal. THAT was the wrong thing to do; THAT is what conservatives have been knocking him on throughout the campaign.
Now, as part of his blatant attempt to move toward the center in order to win the general election, he announces his willingness to do the right thing; then, when called on the change, he IMMEDIATELY backs off of his statement from earlier the SAME DAY.
What is it that he's saying now . . . "I'm going to listen to the Generals on the ground, while I go forward with my plan to withdraw two brigades per month"? That sounds like lip service -- jello-lip service. |
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"I don't recall McCain mention anything about cutting government spending anywhere"
-- You're talking about JOHN McCain, right? The LEADER of the fight against congressional earmarks in the Senate (along with Jeff Flake, also from here in Arizona, in the House); John McCain, who vows to veto excessive spending by Congress.
From McCain's website:
He believes that outside of essential military and veterans programs there should be a one-year pause in discretionary spending growth that should be used for a top-to-bottom review of the effectiveness of federal programs.
The federal government itself admits that one in five programs do not perform.
Reform Our Civil Service System To Promote Accountability And Good Performance In Our Federal Workforce.
Eliminating Earmarks, Wasteful Subsidies And Pork-Barrel Spending.
Reform Procurement Programs And Cut Wasteful Spending In Defense And Non-Defense Programs.
-- Maybe you should get your 'recall' serviced. |
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Pretend that this is the cops:
Stay where you are. Don't move. |
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"How can Medved even so much as look at himself in the mirror, etc. . . ."
-- Right back at ya, Bim. Of course you can take all of that extra time you have as a result of never facing your critics to look at yourself. Who knows? Maybe one of these days you'll actually find your spine. |
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-- You are not wrong about McCain at all.
To his credit, Rumsfeld TRIED to do the right thing, but he ended up creating his own Catch-22 situation and doomed himself. He bought into the 'light footprint' strategy: invade with the smallest force possible; it saves money, you're more likely to be greeted as liberators, it allows you to have major operations in more than one theater of battle simultaneously, and theoretically you can withdraw a smaller force quicker. He WANTED to withdraw our forces at the end of the initial invasion.
And then Paul Bremer, the interim 'Governor of Iraq' issued those orders (the ones that people claim came from Cheney): disband the army; de-Ba'thification. Combined with the fact that Rumsfeld's ONLY post-war plan was to pull everybody out right away and get back to Afghanistan, he got stuck with the situation that led to what has happened during the past five years. He couldn't withdraw our forces BECAUSE there weren't enough of them in place to stabilize the situation, a situation made more unstable by the dismissal of 400,000 potential members of the new Iraqi army, many of whom became insurgents, and the resulting mess in trying to raise a new army from scratch.
So, partly due to circumstances beyond his control, Rumsfeld's forces got bogged down; then he made it worse by ignoring or dismissing Sen. McCain's calls for a surge. And so, 3 1/2 years after completing what was, at least initially, one of the most well-executed military takeovers in history, he took the fall for all of the mistakes -- both his and those of others. |
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There are so many with their hands moving his mouth, we don't actually know what he stands for anymore.
We had a saying in the navy: If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your BullS**t. Holds true for Captain Zero and his minions. I'm waiting for his stocksdale moment. Who am I? Why am I here? And his teleprompter will be off. |
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I suggest you read "My Year In Iraq" by Paul Bremer, then decide who should shoulder the blame for the early mistakes in Iraq (post invasion).
Btw, the Iraqi Army disbanded itself (what was left of it). In fact, they even looted their own barracks! This (we shoulda stood up the existin Iraqi Army manta, is a straw man) there wasn't one left. And Bremer called for far greater US troop strength (impossible to effectively go after "insurgents" and protect major infrastructure w/out enough troops), fast trackin new Iraqi troop trainin, Iraqi govt accountability, ect (most nixed by Dumbsfeld). Dummy wanted to use the effective strategy from Afghanistan in Iraq, too different situations tho.
Bremer was the guy, upon takin over command "in country", who ended the looting by orderin looters shot on site. Remember all the complaints about the looting? Remember how they quickly ended? Bremer had the b*lls to make the tough (and correct) calls; Washington wouldn't let him. Yet he never criticized the POTUS. Paul Bremer is a stand up guy!
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I never said that Bremer was responsible for the orders he issued, or their consequences. I was noting the timeline of events; I acknowledge that he was issuing orders written by someone else.
Bremer DID NOT order the Army to shoot looters on sight; he voiced the opinion aloud but the Army never took him up on it (he had NO authority over the Army whatsoever), nor is there any evidence that word of that idea ever reached the Iraqi people on the streets.
From Slate.com
In Baghdad, a U.S. Army colonel named Paul Hughes had spent weeks contacting officers of the Iraqi regular army, paying them to call up their troops to rejoin the new government -— just as the [National Security Council] had directed. He was flabbergasted when Bremer's orders came down. Hughes' travails are well documented in George Packer's book The Assassins' Gate and in the documentary film No End in Sight. In the movie, Hughes convincingly demolishes Bremer's claim that there was no Iraqi army left to reconstitute.
The war began on March 19th; Baghdad didn't fall until April 9th; President Bush didn't announce the end of major combat operations until May 1st; Bremer issued the dissolution order on May 23rd.
Organizations that were disbanded by the order:
Ministry of Defense
Ministry of Information
Ministry of State for Military Affairs
Iraqi Intelligence Service
National Security Bureau
Directorate of General Security
Special Security Organization
Iraqi Army, Air Force, Navy, the Air Defense Force, and other regular military services
Iraqi Republican Guard
Iraqi Special Republican Guard
Directorate of Military Intelligence
Al Quds Force
Emergency Forces
Fedayeen Saddam
Ba'ath Party Militia
Friends of Saddam
Saddam's Lion Cubs
Presidential Diwan
Presidential Secretariat
Revolutionary Command Council
-- Do you believe that all of this structure had completely collapsed and dissolved itself within the span of eight weeks? |
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