The chart does note some positive developments. Specifically, it notes that “hostile rhetoric” by political and religious leaders has not increased. It also notes that Iraqi security forces are refusing less often than in the past to take orders from the central government and that there has been a drop-off in mass desertions.Three and a half years after Chimpie McFlightSuit declared "Mission Accomplished" on the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and the best news coming out to counter the 100+ dead Americans in October is that religious nuts are toning down their rhetoric? Oh joy! We're on the road to victory now! And lower mass disertion rates among the Iraqis who will allow us to "stand down as they stand up." Boy, I sure feel better. Smells like...catastrophe.
I have to hand it to the Bushits--they managed to stir the pot in Iraq precisely to the point where we can't fix it but can't in good conscience abandon it either. Who pays? Our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers serving in the military, whose fate lies in the hands of idiots and megalomaniacal madmen. And keep in mind that not one single civilian associated with this disastrous policy has been fired, let alone been shackled, hooded, waterboarded (a "no-brainer" per Cheney) and then dropped into the dock at the Hague for war crimes trials.
Okay, so what to do? Congressman John Murtha made these suggestions last year on November 17:
To immediately redeploy U.S. troops consistent with the safety of U.S. forces.I'd be delusional to think that "Mission Accomplished" Chimpie and his gang of thugs would do anything like this in the runup to the election, but I predict that if they lose both houses of Congress next Tuesday, they will be carefully positioning themselves to engineer exactly such a plan and then blame the Democrats in 2008 for "losing Iraq." That's like setting your house on fire and then blaming your neighbor for failing to put it out once it's already mostly ashes.
To create a quick reaction force in the region.
To create an over- the- horizon presence of Marines.
To diplomatically pursue security and stability in Iraq
6 comments:
Please...PLEASE... let them lose both houses next tuesday!
By December 16 of last year, Rove's propaganda machine had already swung into full gear with a new set of talking points, a meme to frame what was already a debate with new dimensions. The framing was designed to ridicule and castigate the democrats, while saving face for the move that was increasingly becoming inevitable. That day, on the McLaughlin Group TV Show, Lawrence O'Donnell highlighted for everyone the obvious hint of direction coming from the GOP legion of spinmeisters:
__________________________
MR. O'DONNELL: The president is in a purely Nixonian position. We know this about Republican presidents when they get into foreign violent entanglements that they cannot control. This president is accusing Democrats of wanting to cut and run from Iraq. That is exactly what Republican presidents do when they are planning to cut and run themselves. That's what Nixon did. That's what Bush is going to do.
MR. BUCHANAN: Nixon had four years of exit, cutting and running.
MR. O'DONNELL: Yes. He lied every single day. Nixon lied every day of the Vietnam war, including the last day with the last helicopter --
* * *
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Are you going to defend Milhous?
MR. BUCHANAN: Look, I certainly am. Richard Nixon bombed and mined. We had --
MR. O'DONNELL: And lost the war.
MR. BUCHANAN: We had every --
MR. O'DONNELL: And lost the war.
* * * * *
MR. BLANKLEY: That's absolutely not true. That's a rewriting of history.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: O'Donnell --
MR. BLANKLEY: The South Vietnamese army was --
MR. O'DONNELL: Every American killed under Richard Nixon in Vietnam was a life wasted for no reason by a president who was determined to cut and run, and lost the war.
MR. BUCHANAN: This was a new deal --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: O'Donnell, you're a troublemaker. Now, will you let him alone?
Okay, the human toll: U.S. military dead, including suicides, 2,156; U.S. amputeed, wounded, injured, mentally ill, all now out of Iraq, 50,200; Iraqi civilians dead, 119,500.
MR. BLANKLEY: The president said 30,000.
__________________________
(the entire transcript is worth a read.)
I always appreciate Lawrence for his absolutely-straight analysis of the circus, and his considerable predictive abilities.
Olaf, what do you think of his perspective on Vietnam? Pat Buchanon and Tony Blankly vigorously maintained that it was President Ford, a Democratic congress, and "watergate babies" who "lost" Vietnam, rather than Nixon and the GOP.
Dusty, of course it is necessary for the right-wingers to blame the left for "losing" the war, conveniently forgetting that Nixon campaigned in 1968 on his "secret plan" to end the war. Well, I got drafted in 1971 because his fucking "secret plan" was working so well (I joined the USAF one step ahead of the Army grabbing me--draftees were likely Vietnam-bound and I was no hero). Something like 40% of the American dead in Vietnam occurred after Nixon took power, that is 23,000 American and countless Vietnamese killed on his watch. The wingnuts like Blankely find it very useful to scapegoat "traitors" for "losing" Vietnam, when in fact it was, as always, a willing and weak-kneed Congress enabling a megalomaniacal president (Johnson and Nixon both) who cared more about his place in history than the safety and dignity of this country.
Ronald Reagan is the one who resurrected the "stabbed in the back by liberals" bullshit about Vietnam, so here we are again, applying the same policy in Iraq.
You know, our involvement in Vietnam extended all the way back to before Dienbienphu, when the French had their asses handed to them by the Viet Minh. We were the primary financial supporter in the years before 1954 because France was spending three times as much in Vietnam as it was getting out in trade. Instead of heeding the lessons of colonialism and the futility of wars of counterinsurgency, we fucked it up even worse and by the very same means--ignorance, hubris, an indiotic belief in our own historical exceptionalism, and a failure to understand the power of diplomacy and economic development over arms.
Of course, General Dynamics, Lockheed, the Carlyle Group, etc. etc. don't do as well when there's peaceful conduct of our foreign policy.
I'm no pacifist, but I do believe that war is always a last resort, and only in direct defense of our nation. A strong military is only as good as the diplomacy that prevents its use in needless campaigns.
Olaf: word.
mb: best get thee to missouri or tennessee for GOTV; the senate majority is definately going to hinge on these two tight races in difficult states.
I think I am better off here, GOTV for the green party gov candidate.
Vote Whitney!
mb: word.
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