Bush is a jackass.
LikeAnOcean
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Most republicans, his own damn party don't support a troop increase. His policy is failing, but he's so full of himself the only change of course he will accept is fucking things up more.
I just had to vent. I once supported Bush, but strongly opposed re-electing him. We need to stop voting monkeys into the white house and if we do, avoid re-electing these apes.
I just had to vent. I once supported Bush, but strongly opposed re-electing him. We need to stop voting monkeys into the white house and if we do, avoid re-electing these apes.
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I predict that we won't reelect the Bush administration again.
And I don't feel right when you're gone away
Welcome to 2000.;)
Seriously, I gave W a lot of leeway when was "elected" and hoped he would live up to the expectations that a president should be. Now I think to myself "I never thought we would have a president more arrogant than Clinton.":(
I could imagine the threads around here. Either it would neutralize those ridiculous threads about Senator Obama from a couple of weeks ago (Is America still too racist to elect a Black President?) or it would open the other side up to silly attacks such as "why do you hate black women so bad?"
Unfortunately, it won't be long until you hear from Jeb Bush. And it'll pretty much be the same thing. Jeb might be a bit smarter than 'W', but equally as crooked.
~Edward
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I actually don't think he will make it out of a primary. I'm more worried about Hillary winning than I would ever be about Jeb.
Same here. This country won't elect another Bush right now. And I don't believe we will elect Hillary either.
This is the first I'm hearing of this.......
If the United States sends more troops into Iraq, especially Baghdad, then we must expand the parameters of operations — otherwise, thousands of fresh American soldiers will only end up ensuring the four things we seek to avoid in Iraq: more conventional targets for IEDs when more soldiers venture out of our compounds; more support troops behind fortified berms that enlarge the American infidel profile; more assurances to the Iraqis that foreign troops will secure their country for them; and more American prestige put into peril.
As the troop levels gradually rise, there will be a brief window of opportunity as the world watches whether greater numbers will radically change conditions on the ground. If in a matter of a few months conditions do not improve, they will begin to get far worse — there will not be a continuation of the status quo. The jihadists will grasp that they have survived the last reserves of American manpower; antiwar critics will pronounce the war to be unwinable regardless of the amount of American blood and treasure spent.
So what might we do to ensure the success of this troop surge, the greatest gamble thus far in the war to secure the Iraqi post-bellum democracy?
1) Provide a clear definition of victory as the establishment of a stable Iraqi democratic government, free from sectarian and terrorist violence. While there may be a sick appeal in allowing Sunni and Shiite jihadists to kill each other off, such endemic violence will only wreck the country. The role of the U.S. military, then, must be to ensure a monopoly on violence for the Iraqi government, itself free of militia infiltration, fighting to put down insurrection and factional strife.
2) Establish in advance new protocols with the Iraqi government that offensives and operations must be allowed to culminate. It will be a disaster if heads of militias are captured only to be let off, as happened once in the past when Moqtada al-Sadr was surrounded.
3) Ensure that an Iraqi veneer covers all of our operations. The aim of these operations is not just the disarming of militias and the killing of terrorists, but fostering confidence in the Iraqi people that their own soldiers were responsible for such successes. As much as possible, we should keep American generals off the air and avoid the public-relations disasters of the summer of 2003 when Americans, not Iraqis, were televised in daily press conferences.
4) Supporters of the surge may call it a "bump," or suggest that it really does not mark much of a change. But like it or not, it will be seen as an escalation with all the attendant risks. So warn the American public that there is going to be a new level of violence, a storm before the calm, as American and Iraqi forces hunt down the terrorists, kill them, and disarm the militias — and that this is as necessary as it is going to be ugly, especially when the rules of engagement must expand.
5) The highest American administration officials — Bush, Cheney, Rice, Hadley, Gates — must all explain seriatim the new gambit in terms of democratic idealism, the only way to ensure that the millions of brave Iraqis who voted for a constitutional government are given the support necessary to stabilize their achievement. The war will not just be judged in Baghdad, but also in New York, Washington, Cairo, London, and Paris. Fierce antiwar critics, here and abroad, have staked their prestige and careers on American failure, and will not wish to see Iraqi and American troops, Ethiopian style, routing the Islamists. Their arguments must be countered hourly.
6) Emphasize offense. Our new forces are not going to “patrol” or “stabilize” things by their “presence” or “reassurance,” but rather are being sent to Iraq for one purpose: to hunt down and kill or capture terrorists to ensure public confidence that the Americans and the new Iraqi government are going to win. And fence-sitters should make the necessary adjustments.
7) Close the borders with Syria, and, as far as possible, with Iran. Assume that there will be more supposed “wedding parties” bombed and various other propaganda victories for the enemy once we begin hitting trans-border incursions — it is a necessary price to be paid in this final push for victory.
8) Prepare regionally for the unexpected with more troops and air wings on alert. If more coalition troops begin to arrest and kill terrorists, expect Syria and Iran to foment trouble elsewhere, or to move on fronts in Lebanon, Israel, or to accelerate nuclear acquisition. We should assume that a surge will raise the stakes in the Middle East at large, and that our enemies cannot afford to see us prevail.
There have been a number of anomalies in this war, as a brilliant American tactical victory in removing Saddam has not translated into quick strategic success. But one of the most worrisome developments is the narrowing of the recent debate to the single issue of surging troops, as if the problem all along has just been one of manpower.
It hasn’t. The dilemma involves the need to fight an asymmetrical war of counter-insurgency that hinges on what troops do, rather than how many are engaged. We have gone from a conventional victory over Saddam Hussein to an asymmetrical struggle against jihadist insurgents to what is more or less third-party policing of random violence between Sunnis and Shiites.
Our past errors were not so much dissolving a scattered Iraqi military or even de-Baathification, but rather giving an appearance of impotence, whether in allowing the looting to continue or pulling back from Fallujah or giving a reprieve to the Sadr militias.
So, yes, send more troops to Iraq — but only if they are going to be allowed to hunt down and kill the vicious and sectarian in a manner that they have not been allowed to previously.
This surge should not be viewed in terms of manpower alone. Rather it should be planned as the corrective to past misguided laxity, in which no quarter will now be given to die-hard jihadists as we pursue victory, not better policing. We owe that assurance to the thousands more of young Americans who now will be sent into harm’s way.
©2007 Victor Davis Hanson
This is eerily similar to viet nam, and I do not say that lightly cause I hate those comparisons. More troops is not the issue now.
I work on projects, big ones with lots of money involved, and the reality is there are decisions made early on that affect everything thereafter and you can hardly recover from after a certain point without major intervention.
What you can do is reorganize the efforts, dramitically involve other departments who have a stake in the game but have not been previously included, and spread the ownership accross the company so that affected parties become owners; and that will often save the effort. That is Iraq, we cannot recover the original goals in Iraq with just more bodies (no pun intended).
What pisses me off is that for a bad decision (and I do not subscribe to the Bush lied concept) based on bad information and overconfidence (decisions made without proper scrutiny and suspicion of evidence), as well as misguided motivation (exactly what threat was Saddam to the US); that it somehow becomes OUR problem to fix by sending more American boys and girls to do ...what? I believe they want to do the draft and that changes everything, and it is a bad idea, and it is so we can save THEIR asses.
The US should demand a declaration of war before we ever send more troops. That would also make the Congress accountable. That is why it is in the Constitution and we should never allow this to happen again.
The only wars we have ever lost have been ones that we never declared war. We should learn from that.
He's sick! PERIOD.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=11718
2. What, from the elite perspective, would be a major victory in Iraq, what would be modest but still sufficient success, and what would constitute a loss? More, for completeness, how much does democracy in Iraq, democracy in the U.S., the well being of people in Iraq, or the well being of people in the U.S. - or even of our soldiers - enter into the motivations of U.S. policy?
A major victory would be establishing an obedient client state, as elsewhere. A modest success would be preventing a degree of sovereignty that might allow Iraq to pursue the rather natural course I just described. As for democracy, even the most dedicated scholar/advocates of "democracy promotion" recognize that there is a "strong line of continuity" in US efforts to promote democracy going back as far as you like and reaching the present: democracy is supported if and only if it conforms to strategic and economic objectives, so that all presidents are "schizophrenic," a strange puzzle (Thomas Carothers). That is so obvious that it takes really impressive discipline to miss it. It is a remarkable feature of US (in fact Western) intellectual culture that each well-indoctrinated mind can simultaneously lavish praise on our awesome dedication to democracy while at the same moment demonstrating utter contempt and hatred for democracy. For example, supporting the brutal punishment of people who committed the crime of voting "the wrong way" in a free election, as in Palestine right now, with pretexts that would inspire ridicule in a free society. As for democracy in the US, elite opinion has generally considered it a dangerous threat, which must be resisted. The well-being of US soldiers is a concern, though not a primaryl one. As for the well-being of the population here, it suffices to look at domestic policies. Of course, these matters cannot be completely ignored, even in totalitarian dictatorships, surely not in societies where popular struggle has won considerable freedom....
5. What policies are available to the U.S. warmakers, now? What options are plausible as what they would like to do, if they could have their way? Is withdrawal in the cards? Will withdrawal lead to even worse civil war? Will withdrawal lead to the victory of either Baathists or Islamic fundamentalists? What would be the effect of either? If there is no withdrawal now, forced by opposition or sought by some elites, or both, what do you think policy will be?
One policy available to US planners is to accept the responsibilities of aggressors generally: to pay massive reparations for their crimes -- not aid, but reparations -- and to attend to the will of the victims. But such thoughts are beyond consideration, or commentary, in societies with a deeply rooted imperial mentality and a highly indoctrinated intellectual class.
The government, and commentators, know quite a lot about the will of the victims, from regular polls run by the US and Western polling agencies. The results are quite consistent. By now, about 2/3 of Baghdadis want US forces to withdraw immediately, and about 70% of all Iraqis want a firm timetable for withdrawal, mostly within a year or less: that means far higher percentages in Arab Iraq, where the troops are actually deployed. 80% (including Kurdish areas) believe that the US presence increases violence, and almost the same percentage believe that the US intends to keep permanent military bases. These numbers have been regularly increasing.
As is the norm, Iraqi opinion is almost entirely disregarded. Current plans are to increase the US force level in Baghad, where the large majority of the population wants them out. The Baker-Hamilton report did not even mention Iraqi opinions on withdrawal. Not that they lacked the information; they cited the very same polls on matters of concern to Washington, specifically, support for attacks on US soldiers (considerered legimate by 60% of Iraqis), leading to policy recommendations for change of tactics. Similarly, US opinion is of little interest, not only about Iraq, but also about the next looming crisis, Iran. 75% of Americans (including 56% of Republicans) favor pursuing better relations with Iran rather than threats. That fact scarcely enters into policy considerations or commentary, just as policy is not affected by the large majorities that favor diplomatic relations with Cuba. Elite opinion is profoundly undemocratic, though overflowing with lofty rhetoric about love of democracy and messianic missions to promote democracy. There is nothing new or surprising about that, and of course it is not limited to the US.
As to the consequences of a US withdrawal, we are entitled to have our personal judgments, all of them as uninformed and dubious as those of US intelligence. But they do not matter. What matters is what Iraqis think. Or rather, that is what should matter, and we learn a lot about the character and moral level of the reigning intellectual culture from the fact that the question of what the victims want barely even arises.