I feel the same about bush. We would be a lot better if he was never put in office by the Supreme Court.
I was just dreaming, the world would have been a better place without him.
To bad we cannot replay these last 6 years.
What is this, an enormous game of "Never Mind", as Gilda Radner used to say? Bring back, Saddam, eh? Give me a break.
This clown Chait must be certifiable---the idea that any single person, dictator or democrat, could get "control" of Iraq at this point is ludicrous. How did the LA Times editor agree to publish such utter idiocy?
As Iraq descends into an uncontrollable bloodbath, and our collossal human failure, President George W Bush, looks helplessly around for an appearance by Deadeye Dick (both held in complete contempt by all thinking people around the world), we can observe that these are the wages of being an ignorant, fearful, unthinking, bellicose culture of military loving closet authoritarians.
Hope you enjoy the spectacle, "conservative" RepublicanAmericans, you are largely responsible for it through your uncritical support of the idiot Bush. And every public policy you endorse, from irresponsible tax cuts to denial of global warming to a Radical Rightist Supreme Court, will result in its own replication of the Iraq catastrophe.
"Conservatism" is all its forms, manifestations and infestations must be abandoned wholesale---it is the path to absolute disaster, America; get a clue, before it's too late.
Posted by euzoius at November 26, 2006 03:55 PMJonathan Chait ought to resign his job, quit writing and enter a monastery.
Posted by James E. Powell at November 26, 2006 04:33 PMJames is absolutely right.
Thorazine, perhaps, is perfectly viable alternative for Mr. Chait.
[bows head as career sinks quickly out of sight]
Posted by paradox at November 26, 2006 05:39 PMToday marks the day that we will have been in Iraq longer than we were in all of World War II.
That's right. We were able to defeat all of Nazi Germany, Mussolini, and the entire Japanese empire in LESS time than it's taken the world's only superpower to secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad.
And we haven't even done THAT. After 1,347 days, in the same time it took us to took us to sweep across North Africa, storm the beaches of Italy, conquer the South Pacific, and liberate all of Western Europe, we cannot, after over 3 and 1/2 years, even take over a single highway and protect ourselves from a homemade device of two tin cans placed in a pothole.
Part of a letter from Michael Moore.
Posted by Judith at November 26, 2006 05:54 PMInstall a "strong man"...and what army?
Charles
Here's a solution fucking war profiteers won't want...CUUUUTTTT and RUUUUNNNN!!!!!!
In twenty years I guarantee, the USA will be known as the United States of Friggin' Foreigners For Real You think the immigrant pop is bad now? Whites won't exist in twenty years.
Al-Sadr has a pretty big army. Why don't we just forget Saddam and let Sadr run the country? Or any of the other militia leaders running around in Iraq?
Or why don't we just keep fighting for what is right, that is, building a free and democratic Iraq, and stop with this pussy crap about running away?
Posted by shoelimpy™ at November 26, 2006 06:08 PMI suppose you're unaware that Sadr is already part of the democratic government of Iraq, shoesticky, and the other shi'ite and Kurdish parties that make up the government also have large militias backing them. And the sunnis have their "insurgents". Everybody is armed at this point, they're all firing and most of them oppose our continuing occupation of their country.
None of these militias is going anywhere, least of all the the "disband" pile, headlimpy, and there isn't anything our 140,000 boys can realistically do to them, even if their leaders weren't part of the government.
So that's the reality that you can measure against your childish, ignorant "conservative" bleating about "building a free and democratic Iraq." It ain't going to arise out of our occupation, no way, no how.
And how many neices and nephews have you sent off to the noble meat grinder...er, crusade...er, cause?
Posted by euzoius at November 26, 2006 06:35 PMIt appears as tho' someone removed my post! (Who could that have been?)
To be expected, I suppose. After all, Leftists are such tolerant people.
In any event, I hope all here at TLC enjoyed their Turkey-Day.
Cheers!
Posted by Bagley at November 26, 2006 07:57 PMSadr is one of the greatest threats to a free and democratic Iraq that there is. Supporters of democracy in Iraq don't fire mortars at American bases or take over properly running stations. Period.
Posted by shoelimpy™ at November 26, 2006 08:15 PMSadly, the neocon/Likud delusional Iraq invasion/occupation exercise now spirals down to its predictable horrific crash and burn conclusion with little institutional maturation to show for the monumental waste of lives, reputation, resources and lost opportunities. Its insipid proponents conceal their chagrin beneath ridiculous remedies (Chait, shoelimpy) and playground taunts (Bagley) while the blood of our faithful soldiers and innocent Iraqis drips from their hands. Gleefully they contemplate the next application of their uniformly failed and profoundly disastrous policy prescriptions: Iran.
However, if Israel's second Lebanon disaster is the template for the US/Israeli attack on Iran, our future is Wadi Saluki's smashed Merkavas writ large. Big surprise: where force fails, more force also fails.
Due to the real revolution in military affairs, a development far beyond the comprehension of the US/Israeli national security elites, people living on "our" resources now have both effective defense and a superior military model. Having long hated our policies, they need tolerate them no longer.
Regretably, the recent Iraq and Lebanon fiascos are merely Acts I & II of a joint US/Israeli tragedy who's climactic Act III promises to bring down the house.
Posted by Pvt. Keepout at November 26, 2006 08:18 PMCakewalk said Mr. Adelman. We will be greeted as liberators said Mr. Cheney. Might last six days said Mr. Rumsfeld.
This is the neocon braintrust. All of you neocon fools who thought and bought this need to give us the update on the state of your colons. Your head have been on a scouting party there now for several years. Seen anything to report yet?
I am really outraged that the neocon fools could create so much death and mayhem and so little of it comes home to these folks.
It's time to stop talking about al qaeda and insurgents in Iraq. Time to stop talking about Iraq as the front line of the war on terror because we have lost that war already and this stupid rhetoric just delays the day when we ask all the parties to come to the table and talk about how to partition the country and stop the killing.
Posted by angel at November 26, 2006 09:17 PMi want to say something.
what can i say that i haven't said for years?
the amerikan elites just abdicated and allowed the little frogkiller to prolong bill clinton's homicidal ways.
oh, make no mistake, all you erstwhile progressive gangsters, bill and maddie and tony killed as many of the wogs as has george. georgie's contribution is the murdering of his fellow amerikans.
who seem to enjoy their maiming. their dying.
we live in a strange country. soldiers that seem to welcome being invested into death by a coterie of draft dodgers.
why is it that i am confused by this picture? why aren't these veterans marching on washington? so as to hang the chickenhawks?
Posted by albertchampion at November 27, 2006 01:02 AMIt appears as tho' someone removed my post! (Who could that have been?)
That be me. If its not civil I'll delete it from my posts.
Hussein was extremely difficult to deal with before the war, in large part because he apparently believed that he could defeat any U.S. invasion if it came to that.
I'd be interested in his sourcing for that claim. It's abundantly clear from his military strategy that Hussein had no delusion that he could defeat a U.S. invasion. His saber rattling over the past decade was aimed at one thing. Making people believe he was stronger than he was. I highly doubt that he believed his own hype. The only reason American soldiers and Marines are still dying in Iraq is because of Rumsfeld's botched war plan.
What the U.S. should have done was engage in secret high level talks directly with Hussein and establish a relationship like that which we have with Pakistan. Hussein would have renounced his desire for wmd in return for lifting of UN sanctions and American security gaurantees. Assuming the arrangement was kept secret. He needed to maintain the myth of a strong Hussein to keep his enemies at bay. He could have been made to work with the US. Such a US guarantee of his security would have releaved a lot of the stresses that necessitated his brutality in the first place.
Posted by snark at November 27, 2006 05:44 AMSadr is one of the greatest threats to a free and democratic Iraq that there is. Supporters of democracy in Iraq don't fire mortars at American bases or take over properly running stations. Period.
If the democratically elected Sadr faction backs out of the government, Maliki goes down. That's why we did his bidding when he said give up on rescuing the kidnapped american serviceman. (you probably blame that on john kerry, dicklimpy.)
Posted by benjoya at November 27, 2006 07:32 AM"building a free and democratic Iraq"
Please someone, get rid of Dicklimpy. I am embarrassed for him/her.
Posted by Judith at November 27, 2006 07:43 AMHow is a "strong man" going to help?
The nation is in the midst of a civil war! Are the insurgents going to lay down their arms because Alawi tells them to?
He has "connections" to the Sunnis? They regard him as a "puppet ruler."
This is what the Sunnis are saying in Bagdad:
It’s not about the man- presidents come and go, governments come and go. It’s the frustration of feeling like the whole country and every single Iraqi inside and outside of Iraq is at the mercy of American politics. It is the rage of feeling like a mere chess piece to be moved back and forth at will. It is the aggravation of having a government so blind and uncaring about their peoples needs that they don’t even feel like it’s necessary to go through the motions or put up an act. And it's the deaths. The thousands of dead and dying, with Bush sitting there smirking and lying about progress and winning in a country where every single Iraqi outside of the Green Zone is losing.Once again… The timing of all of this is impeccable- two days before congressional elections. And if you don’t see it, then I’m sorry, you’re stupid. Let’s see how many times Bush milks this as a ‘success’ in his coming speeches.
A final note. I just read somewhere that some of the families of dead American soldiers are visiting the Iraqi north to see ‘what their sons and daughters died for’. If that’s the goal of the visit, then, “Ladies and gentlemen- to your right is the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, to your left is the Dawry refinery… Each of you get this, a gift bag containing a 3 by 3 color poster of Al Sayid Muqtada Al Sadr (Long May He Live And Prosper), an Ayatollah Sistani t-shirt and a map of Iran, to scale, redrawn with the Islamic Republic of South Iraq. Also… Hey you! You- the female in the back- is that a lock of hair I see? Cover it up or stay home.”
And that is what they died for.
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_riverbendblog_archive.html
Posted by Cugel at November 27, 2006 02:31 PM"'It appears as tho' someone removed my post! (Who could that have been?)' That be me. If its not civil I'll delete it from my posts."
Civil?
Awwww, did I hurt your feelings? A little to close to the truth. Maybe Santa will bring you a pony for Christmas....and then it will be all better!
Posted by Bagley at November 27, 2006 07:37 PM