The Dems and Americans in general have fallen for a classic bait and switch. What Bush did with the surge is not dissimilar to what retailers do when they dramatically mark up merchandise and then announce a 50% off sale. The surge was only successful in buying Bush time to coast out of office without saying the war was lost on his watch.
If the Dems continue to play along and then win the Presidency, it becomes the Dems war. Hillary is to close to the center to end the war. I'm going to back Edwards or Obama, based on electability.
Write your Congressman or Senator. Repeat the message. No timetable, no funding. No Excuses.
"if everyone claps, Tinkerbell won’t die"
Posted by Mickey at September 14, 2007 05:28 AMMickey-
That is what the President thinks when he goes to "invited only" cheering appearances at military bases and fundraisers.
did not listen to the speech. But reading the comments this morning, it sounds like the same speech he usually gives each year...give me one more year. Each year the reason for needing another year changes, but one thing I havn't seen reported is the old stand by "Training Iraqis to take over for US troops" line. Did he mention that at all, or are we finished with that joke? Maybe Bush has tossed that into the Find WMD/Regime Change/create Democracy trash dump of failed plans. And why was it, from the start, destined for failure? Because there are no Iraqis. There are Kurds, Shia and Sunni and they all deeply distruste each other.
Posted by T2 at September 14, 2007 06:22 AMThis iraq deal/war is all so sad.....bush as usual!
BUT i agree...write to your senators and representative to do something.....EDWARDS should be telling his congresspeople in
NC and SC to do the same since he gave up to be in the congress!
EDWARDS is just ranting again....
Posted by mp at September 14, 2007 07:57 AMT2,
I'll have to disagree with you on the "no Iraqis" idea. Until the divide and conquer colonial idiocy of the Bremer/AEI/Haliburton Proconsulship, Iraq was reasonably happy with widespread mixing of the Shia and Sunni populations. The Kurds have always been separate. Broad intermarriage and side by side habitation was absolutely the norm. While anecdotal, many Iraqis "on the street" complain bitterly that they never even knew what religious sect their neighbors belonged to.
To add yet another crime against humanity to the gore dripping hands of the Cheney Administration et al., it seems obvious to me that these creeps went in with the determination to whip up as much antagonism as possible along any lines of fracture they could (dimly) perceive.
Yes, Saddam was a Sunni and the British, in their Colonial Wisdom determined in the 20's decided to make the Sunni minority their proxies. And a great deal of injustice bred hatred among the Shia. This hatred was directed mainly, though, at the corrupt, brutal Ba'athist leadership. In general, most Iraqis, Kurds, Sunni and Shia alike were the victims of the same group of thugs.
Despite the authoritarian rule, they had a vital and reasonably cohesive society; one capable of optimism and open to secular beliefs. And then came the neocons.
Posted by DeminNewJ at September 14, 2007 08:05 AMRoy,
Glad to see that you are seeing the light. Corporatist Hillary, will say and do absolutely anything that she needs to get the nomination. I can't see hardly any true convictions coming through from her. Simply: I don't buy it.
Sure, whomever is going to win, needs to pander to some extent, but at least with Obama and Edwards there is a true sense of underlying convictions and statesmanship. Hillary is a purely political beast. It is the last thing we need now.
Posted by Simp at September 14, 2007 08:27 AMDeminNJ...but you say "until". Thats the point. We did invade and destroy the "reasonably cohesive society" (enforced by dictatorship as it were). So now, now, we are dealing with factions returning to the ages old animosity...and as you say, the Kurds have never been part of "Iraq". If there is a unified, pan-tribal unity of citizens operating for the greater good of all citizens in Iraq now, I sure can't see it. And thank's to our invasion, we won't put the Genie back in the bottle. There is no Iraq, simply land occupied by various peoples with very different agendas and cultural views. That fact makes any statement coming from Bush about "Iraq" meaningless. It's just ground. With Oil under it. And people dressed like they did hundreds of years ago on top of it. Fighting the same battles.
Posted by T2 at September 14, 2007 08:32 AMT2,
Sadly true. But don't despair! Joe Biden has the fix for what ails them. Just hurry up the ethnic cleansing, convince them to listen to their betters and learn to love the bombs.
Posted by DeminNewJ at September 14, 2007 09:28 AMRoy, I wanted to ask you if you made up your mind on Petraeus? He certainly failed-us!
Wouldn't you agree now he is nothing more than a bu$h stooge?
Seven,
Sadly I must agree that Petraeus was disappointing. Perhaps his political ambitions have taken over. So much for my last hope for any semblance of honor in the top brass...*sigh*. However, I think MoveOn did the Dems a disservice by attacking Petraeus so brazenly...let's not kill the messanger...let's impeach the people who wrote the message.
Posted by Roy Batty at September 15, 2007 05:44 AM