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Five years on, Bush vows to win in Iraq
Mar 19, 2008, 18:13 GMT
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Older Talkback
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I'm so glad that our much-maligned, but truly magnificant, president and commander-in-chief, GWB continues to stand on the high moral ground. He refuses to cater to the treacherous libnazi defeatocrat extremists who have turned into a bunch of cowardly traitors, and who just want to cut and run from our sacred, and patriotic mission of protecting America with our totally justified war in Iraq. He showed the Iraq people just how marvelous shock and awe can be, with very little collateral damage-mission accomplished. He located the vast stockplies of Iraqi-al qaeda WMD and destroyed it-mission accomplished. He brought the evil madman, al-qaeda terrorist, and super-villian Saddam the insane to justice-mission accomplished. He created a powerful magnet to attract all the al-qaeda terrorists born in Iraq, and to pull all the remaining al-qaeda terrorists living abroad, in places like Germany, England, Canada, and the United States,back into Iraq to our terrorist killing fields-mission accomplished. The president has ingeniously invented a superb method of killing al-qaeda terrorists, and their families of terrorist sympathizers, in Iraq where they come from, so that we do not have to kill them in New York and Washington-mission accomplished. GWB brought the Iraqis freedom and democracy-mission accomplished. And, he has discovered a way to get all the oil over there that really belongs to us, thereby keeping oil prices from increasing astronomically, like they would have done without our war on the terrorists in Iraq-mission accomplished. What's there about all this not to admire, and give full credit to GWB, for faithfully doing God's good work on earth and saving our homeland from Iraqi-al-qaeda terrorists? I could go on with more insights about this, but I have said it all already. I realize that the MSM brain-washed, perverted, cowardly libnazi demonrats will not have the faith to believe any of these words of truth spoken by a true believer in our wise, very good president. I only wish that he could be re-elected in november, so he could continue to work hard to save our country.
'....Yes, this is th President!...oh, heloo Hirry...no...been busy an all...Barak who?....O'Baama...?...sounds irish t me boyh! Nooo ah don't watch th TV thit often...sumtahmes ah watch ol Gene Simmons or one o thim reality shoows they got now...maybah sum C-Span...what's on yur mahnd boyh!?'
'Hirry...Hirry...quit ya screemin boyh....ah din't knooow he was reeely colored...ah always thought mah staff wuz jokin....seriously!....maybah he's one o thim black Irish lahke thit band leadah from Thin Lizzy..y' know..th boyhs r' back in town...n' Hirry...it's yur partee boyh...thit's one thing ah cin't do fer ya....yur jes gonna hav t wait until th convention....yep..ol Bill'll deal im out...yep and not think twahce...!...Hirry...ever hear of Waco?...ol Bill sent in thim trooper fellas an gunned dooown one crazy-assed preacher ovah a single gun charge....one charge boyh!...women an children too!...noo..I ain't makin it up...he reeely did it remembah?...noo re commendations....cin't do thit in Chicago or anywhire else Hirry...we're republicans remember?....y' jes hav t wait unitl th Clintons git back in...Noo Ol Dick don't shoot nuthn but Lawyahs...no crazy preachers...well, I'll check jes t make shure!'
'N' Hirry, ah cin hep ya boyh...with anythin, but this ol war is not gonna end bee fore th election. Ah Knoow...ya shoulda though o thit before ya greenlahgted it, but I sympathize...y' got yur tail in a twist Hirry...well...at least it might not be that bowlegged wahfe o Bills!'
Vote for McCain,give Bush a third term ....
Sure, the high costs in lives and treasure are worthwhile...as long as they are not his AWOL or his buddie’s multiple draft deferment lives, who are going to nevertheless get fat retirement pensions despite the loss of treasure.
As for Iraq being better off without Saddam and his slaughter, far more have been slaughtered due to the instability we have created there.
As for “our enemies in Iraq”...they came to Iraq after we did, and bushie used that country for his private battleground. Better their civilian casualties than ours, plus we get ops on Iraq’s oil policies.
The man is clearly insane, put in power along with his puppets by a gullible American public, most of whom cannot even find Iraq on a map. The genius of Karl Rove was recognizing the extreme gullibility and incompetence that exists in roughly a third of the American public, and the skip and a jump from there to a majority vote.
Until votes in a democracy are weighed according to education, community service, citizenship status, age, time in country, and criminal record, we will always have a sub-prime civilian leadership endangering the World and stripping away the rights of American citizens at home.
...the next thing these dumb old voters will do is vote for a black person because he's black.
Cocaine, no experience, ivy league education, and never served...Obama and Bush have more in common thant you think!
'Comprising 112 billion barrels of proven oil, Iraq ranks second in the world behind Saudi Arabia in the amount of Oil reserves; the United States Department of Energy estimates that up to 90% of the country remains unexplored.' -US Dept of Energy
One can infer the reason why we are there & for how long with the sentence quoted above. So let's keep driving out to Florida in the middle of summer, drink from plastic bottles, & live in buildings covered with AC units from top to bottom. It's not like it's affecting anybody else. Go America!
..we were already getting all the Iraqi oil we wanted to buy, before we invaded...
tony really has no idea who mccain is does he.
I think President Bush can declare victory Iraq; he already won by a landslide.
US: 4,000 deaths.
Iraq: 500,000 deaths.
Multiple choice:
A. The man is sick.
B. He lives in a bubble.
C. He really believes himself.
D. He only cares about his own agenda, regardless of how many innocent people are killed, maimed, burned, decapitated, deformed, mutilated, humiliated, deceived, lied to, blown up, fatherless, brotherless, etc., etc.
E. All of the above.
I'm going with E
That 1st response is hilarious! I had to at least comment on that!
its well thought out and a perfect redneck rant, like near perfect no joke! Read it! In fact I will print it out and show it to my friends and colleagues. Thank you, You true American Patriots! It's you who weave History's mired, hazy and dopey-eyed tapestry of our modern day! Wait, I forgot unwavering and unquestioning loyalty, no matter what.
Bill Hicks is another dead hero,
and funny knows no bounds.
i can't wait until ALL our news is exclusively about celebrities(especially pregnant ones), TV shows, and their lives on and off camera. -oh and american idols.
I think that would be THE catalyst to finally get building that space station on MARS.
if you can't tell, I am a fervent and usually angry Bush supporter.
In less time than has elapsed since Bush began fighting in Iraq, the US completely defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during WWII ...
... by comparison, in even more time, Bush hasn't been able to secure the road to the airport in Baghdad.
Heck of a job Bushie.
Wow, I never knew someone could be so wrong all in one paragraph! Tell me how to get to this alternate reality that you live in......
In contrast to yesterday's Obama speech - this guy looks retarded.
Bush's legacy: Preemptive war based on delusions. Not the first leader in the world to have done so, but probably the first U.S. President to have done so in such a grandiose fashion!
'john
tony really has no idea who mccain is does he.'
Not knowing the first thing about a subject has never stopped tonny.
No one sober could spout this crap. Bush is just puffing himself up as a boost to the GOP facing a real defeat on the economy and jobs. I doubt that he knows that the date is without a script.
McCain was even more out of it by speaking of al Qaeda funded by Iran, and making multiple references of that before Lieberman whispered in his ear. McCain just MIGHT be too old to handle the Presidency, which requires proactive thinking. We already had the 'late' President Bush - late on Katrina, late on the war, late on the economy.
theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/mccain-stumbles-on-the-facts-in-i raq/?hp
'During his Mideast visit, Senator John McCain — running for President as the ranking mastermind of military security issues — committed a basic error in describing the enemy forces at work in Iraq.
In news interviews in Jordan after his briefing with the American brass in Baghdad, Mr. McCain cited as a “well known” fact and “common knowledge” that the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq was receiving training across the border in Iran.
His traveling companion, Senator Joseph Lieberman, soon whispered something in Mr. McCain’s ear. Whoops, perhaps, followed by the correction that the Iranians are training different extremists. Al Qaeda in Iraq is actually a Sunni-backed group most unlikely to have ties to the Shiite country of Iran. (The terrorists Iran is accused of supporting are Shiites, not Sunnis.)'
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SP4 reminds me of the old 'WETSU' acronym that the trainees were supposed to holler in basic training:
'We Eat This Shit Up!'
Here's his poll numbers:
www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/19/bush.poll/
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Just 31 percent of Americans approve of how President Bush is handling his job, according to a poll released Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.
Sixty-seven percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey disapprove of the president's performance.
The 31 percent approval number is a new low for Bush in CNN polling, and 40 points lower than the president's number at the start of the Iraq war.
'Bush's approval rating five years ago, at the start of the Iraq war, was 71 percent, and that 40-point drop is almost identical to the drop President Lyndon Johnson faced during the Vietnam War,' said CNN polling director Keating Holland.
'Johnson's approval rating was 74 percent just before Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964, which effectively authorized the Vietnam War. Four years later, his approval was down to 35 percent, a 39-point drop that is statistically identical to what Bush has faced so far over the length of the Iraq war,' he said.
(This is exactly what Petraeus spoke of in his interview as to the political failure)
Here's the key, in a one-paragraph excerpt from the next link:
'Maliki's detractors describe him as being hindered by an inner circle that does not like to share power and is fiercely sectarian. His supporters argue that he is trying to build a strong government and that other parties are standing in the way for selfish reasons.'
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-iraq19mar19,1,879867.s tory
BAGHDAD -- Influential Shiite and Sunni groups boycotted a conference on Iraqi reconciliation Tuesday, as U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney traveled north to meet with Kurdish leaders. Members of the main Sunni Arab parliament coalition, Tawafiq, refused to attend the two-day meeting because of complaints about the Shiite-dominated government.
Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr's bloc walked out of the conference, saying it did not want a ceremonial presence. The same went for a contingent led by Sheik Ali Hatem Sulaiman, a representative of Sunni Muslim tribes that rose up against the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The boycott was symptomatic of the rifts and enmity among Iraqi parties, which are organized along ethnic and religious lines and have delayed progress in power sharing between the country's Shiite majority and the formerly ruling Sunnis. 'It is the Tawafiq bloc's opinion that current circumstances hinder the success of such conferences,' parliament member Iyad Samarrai said.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government has dwindled since last summer to a core group of Shiite and Kurdish politicians. But the Shiite prime minister's relationship with the Kurds has become strained over matters such as Iraq's stalled oil legislation and the country's northern boundaries.
One conference organizer, Saad Muttalibi, accused the Sunni bloc, also known as the Iraqi Accordance Front, of deliberately trying to sabotage Maliki. 'This is basically political. When they saw hundreds and hundreds attending the conference, Tawafiq immediately withdrew,' Muttalibi said. 'The message is they will not attend a conference that may lead to strengthening Maliki's government.'
The organizer noted that Sunni tribes, which have revolted against Al Qaeda in Iraq, attended the conference. But one of their main leaders, Sheik Sulaiman, decided to lead his delegation out of the conference.
'I didn't stay any longer than it took me to smoke my cigarette. It was a total failure, because the Iraqi politicians are a failure,' Sulaiman said.
Followers of Shiite cleric Sadr quit the meeting early, in protest of what they called its lack of substance. 'We don't want to attend some conference where just speeches are made, we want actual activities to be initiated between the political powers,' said Sadr parliament bloc member Nassar Rubaie. Sadr's Mahdi Army militia was accused of fomenting sectarian violence before the anti-American cleric called a cease-fire in August.
Iraqi FM Warns Against Quick US Pullout
By KIM GAMEL – 10 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's foreign minister said Tuesday that he believes his country has averted a civil war after five years of 'tears and blood,' and warned that an abrupt U.S. troop withdrawal would be disastrous.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Associated Press that mistakes had been made by all sides but Iraq has reached a turning point.
'These past five years I think were full of hopes and promises but also of tears and blood ... and we've gone through a very, very difficult transformation,' said Zebari, a Kurd who has held his post in each successive Iraqi administration since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003.
He noted that the Iraqis had established a government and gained freedoms that were absent under nearly three decades of Saddam Hussein's rule, despite violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,000 U.S. troops.
'At the same time divisions have deepened, unfortunately,' he said during an interview in an ornate reception room outside his office at the Foreign Ministry building in central Baghdad. 'But ... I think we averted a sectarian war. We passed the possibility of a civil war.'
Zebari said it was premature to set a timeframe for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, noting that negotiations on a long-term security agreement with the United States to replace a U.N. mandate had just begun.
He expressed concern about growing weariness by the American public with the war, and promises by rival Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama to begin withdrawing forces quickly if elected.
Zebari said changes could be made but warned that the consequences of a premature withdrawal would be 'disastrous.' All the security gains from a U.S. troop buildup 'would evaporate,' he said
Bush will be out of power, and like SP4, complaining about what the NEXT President does with the complete mess he's left behind. Perhaps the GOP's symbol is appropriate - we get to clean up after the elephants leave.
What Bush is leaving behind is 4 large bases in Iraq and a massively expensive embassy, and he'll try to find a way around Congress and cut a deal with al-Maliki to support them indefinitely with our troops. Bush is incurring future costs, and has not even had Iraq in the formal budget for years.
Already, they're talking about a 'pause' in the drawdown that's supposed to be happening - THAT'S why were getting all the 'we're winning' crapola - to convince the American people that their family members have to remain longer in Iraq. Bush will keep those numbers up until he's out of office, so when the sectarian crap hits the fan, he won't get the direct blame.
www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=08031915 5208.27blj7ue.php
Iraq's parliament has been paralysed by competition between parties driven by sectarian interests. Last year the US embassy in Baghdad documented a high level of corruption at all levels of government, and questioned the Maliki administration's willingness to crack down on crooked practices.
RE: 'BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's foreign minister said Tuesday that he believes his country has averted a civil war after five years of 'tears and blood,' and warned that an abrupt U.S. troop withdrawal would be disastrous.'
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Yeah; look who's complaining. In a recent poll 70 percent of the Iraqis want us OUT. al-Maliki's army was just in conflict with Moqtada's Mahdi army. The real battle is over oil revenues, which the Kurds and Shia have in their areas, and the Sunni do NOT.
If we're there 5 years, the disaster will occur in year 6.
If we're there 10 years, the disaster will occur in year 11.
It's time that the American people spoke up and called for the end of it. We're borrowing money to pay for it, so it's not as though there were funds lying around for economic issues. Bush has radically increased the National Debt for the satisfaction of seeing Saddam dead. The major blunder was probably Bremer turning the existing Iraqi army into an insurgency; but there are plenty of mistakes to choose from.
'In less time than has elapsed since Bush began fighting in Iraq, the US completely defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during WWII ...'
Let me explain that: That is because the U.S. didn't have their (Germany and Japan) leadership on welfare and the dole. Take away the 'foreign aide' and the war would be over in a flash (for the U.S.). They would tell the U.S. to get the hell out and then duke it out among themselves.
First of all, the weaponry we have now is not at all comparable to flying a B29 over Germany. We had actual physical targets to attack; not an insurgency that can hide. Both Germany and Japan had an industrial base to go after, and troops in uniform. The war against Japan came to a conclusion because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which convinced the Japanese emperor that his cause was lost.
al Qaeda was not IN Iraq under Saddam - no dictator will sponsor a group of fanatics. bin Laden despised Saddam as the reason that Western troops occupied what the Arabs consider 'holy ground'.
Bremer's error is dismissing the existing army, and turning them into an armed insurgency, reactivated the centuries-old sectarian battles held in check by leaving a string of Sunni leaders in charge dating back years.
Bush keeps referring to al Qaeda, because the surge can do nothing about the native sectarian problems, or an impotent and corrupt Iraqi government. Bush is talking credit for 'winning' against an enemy that was not present until Bremer got rid of the army.
He writes 'That is because the U.S. didn't have their (Germany and Japan) leadership on welfare and the dole.'
Lance, Are you saying it has nothing to do with Bush's leadership (or more specifically, lack thereof)?
Bush's leadership qualities: Tax rebates, government bailouts, hiring friends as cronies, printing money, borrowing against the future.
The war is just another example of that leadership. He buys friends.
... w/Lance
If you guys didn't get enough of the bitter pills,consider voting McCain,he vows to continue the disaster Bush has started;stay the course for another 100 years ,not hindered by the results for the Iraqi population,those are just collateral damage in a war that is waged in their country .But was their opinion ever asked by the 'liberators' ?Not at all.The newly installed democracy does NOT give the Iraqi's any authority over the presence of foreign troops fighting their private war in Iraq.Can anybody of the republican party explain how McCain 's policy is any different from Bush?Go ahead please...
The Coalition Is Winning the War Against Al-Qaeda
On the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the United States has proved its critics wrong--again. The U.S.-led surge has been a remarkable success, and the fledgling democracy is no longer on the path to civil war. The ballot box and the rule of law are now replacing terrorism, fear, and intimidation as the norm. For historians looking for evidence of American decline, this progress in Iraq must be a huge disappointment.
The world needs stronger U.S. leadership and is a far more dangerous place without it. As the only superpower, America might not always be loved, but it is respected and feared by its enemies. The United States still possesses the strength and the will to fight, even in the most difficult of circumstances. The dramatic turnaround in Iraq is a warning signal to the enemies of the free world. From Tehran to Damascus to Pyongyang, rogue regimes and state sponsors of terrorism are taking note of a renewed American determination to stand and fight.
The U.S. and its allies must still make a long-term military commitment to defeating the al-Qaeda threat in Iraq. Talk in Washington of a large-scale withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country after the end of the Bush Administration sends the wrong signal at a time of continuing uncertainty and will only serve to embolden the enemies of the West. An early withdrawal would not only hand a huge propaganda victory to al-Qaeda, giving it tremendous momentum and reversing the progress of the past year, but also open the door to mass ethnic cleansing that would claim hundreds of thousands of lives.
Iran, the world's biggest state sponsor of international terrorism, would benefit enormously from a Coalition pullout from Shiite-dominated southern Iraq, where it already wields political influence. A withdrawal from the South would create a power vacuum that dozens of Iranian-backed militia groups are ready to exploit--among them, Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, the Badr Brigades, and the Mujahidin for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. To prevent this, America must continue to exercise its leadership and demonstrate a long-term commitment to the fight against terrorists and their sponsors in Iraq.
The Success of the Surge
The surge campaign was launched over a year ago with the phased introduction of an additional 30,000 American troops. It demonstrated that the United States is capable of fighting and winning a protracted counterinsurgency war against well-armed and highly trained militia groups thousands of miles away in the Middle East. The figure leading the operation, General David H. Petraeus, is a true hero, a remarkable military commander who defied the odds to deliver results in the face of a brutal, sophisticated, and multifaceted enemy.
Since June 2007, terrorist attacks in Iraq are down by more than 60 percent, with a 90 percent reduction in Anbar Province, once a hotbed of al-Qaeda activity. Iraqi civilian deaths fell by over 70 percent in the eight months following July 2007, and Coalition military losses have decreased by the same figure in the period since May 2007. Overall ethno-sectarian violence is down by nearly 90 percent since June 2007, reaching its lowest level since early 2005. Bombings in Baghdad are now at their lowest level since early 2006, with terrorist attacks falling to 57 per week in the past four months, down from 225 a week in summer 2007.[1]
Al-Qaeda is on the run across large swathes of the Sunni heartlands as previously warring Iraqi factions are uniting against the foreign Jihadists who have ravaged their country. Such is the improvement in the security situation that Iraqi security forces are now responsible for nine of the nation's 18 provinces. Operation Phantom Phoenix, a series of joint Iraqi-Coalition operations launched in January to hunt down remaining al-Qaeda cells operating in Iraq, has already resulted in the capture of 26 senior al-Qaeda leaders and the elimination of several hundred terrorists, including 142 in Mosul alone.[2]
Improved security has brought with it a renewed sense of economic confidence and stability. More than 30,000 private-sector companies have been registered in Iraq since 2003, with an almost 10 percent increase in new business registration in 2007 compared to the year before. Inflation has fallen from 65 percent in 2007 to just under 5 percent in 2008, and the Iraqi government's budget has doubled in the past three years, rising from $20 billion to $41 billion. Crude oil production now exceeds pre-war levels at 2.4 million barrels a day, with oil exports averaging 1.9 million barrels a day, helping to spur economic growth of 7 percent for 2008.[3]
Even the BBC's latest poll[4] reports that more than half of Iraqis believe that life is 'good' in Iraq, with over 60 percent declaring that security in their neighborhood is 'very good' or 'quite good.' A striking 49 percent of Iraqis surveyed support the view that the decision taken by America and its allies to invade Iraq in spring 2003 was 'absolutely right' or 'somewhat right.' Just 38 percent of Iraqis polled support an immediate withdrawal of Coalition forces, and a total of 59 percent believe that the Coalition should remain until 'security is restored,' until 'the Iraqi government is stronger,' or 'until the Iraqi security forces can operate independently.'
cont.
Even with recent gains in security, al-Qaeda remains a potent threat in Iraq, and there can be no room for complacency. Much work remains to be done in securing the country, and the Coalition must stand united in ensuring that the gains of the past year are not reversed. As General Petraeus warned in an interview last week, 'We should expect al-Qaeda to try to rebound. Al-Qaeda's like a fighter that's been dropped to the canvas a couple of times, but comes back off that canvas.'[5]
Despite a huge reduction in terrorist attacks across Iraq as a whole, sporadic bombings continue in parts of the country. The brutal killing in February of over 70 Iraqis in two Baghdad market blasts--the bombers were mentally disabled women sent to their deaths by al-Qaeda[6]--provided a stark reminder of the pure evil that Islamist militants are willing to unleash on the streets of Iraq. Over 40 Shias were murdered by a female suicide bomber in the holy city of Karbala in a suspected al-Qaeda attack in mid-March.[7]
The free world should be under no illusions that, if given the opportunity, al-Qaeda will seek to emulate this kind of barbaric atrocity in cities across Europe and the United States. These and other bombings in recent weeks underscore the precarious nature of the progress that has been made in Iraq.
The Specter of Iran
The dangerous regime in Tehran also remains a major threat to long-term peace and stability in Iraq. Iran's Revolutionary Guard continues to arm Shia militia groups responsible for the killing of Coalition soldiers. The Iranian regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad represents the biggest nation-state threat to international security of this generation. It is a brutal and highly dangerous tyranny that already has British and American blood on its hands and is actively waging war against Allied forces.
It is vital that America's closest ally, Great Britain, maintains a significant military presence to act as a bulwark against Iranian aggression in the South. As progress is made in central Iraq, this is no time for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to adopt a weak-kneed approach. There are no compelling military or strategic reasons for a British withdrawal. The security situation in and around Basra remains tense as Iranian-backed militias continue to grow in strength with the assistance a corrupt police force heavily infiltrated by Tehran's agents. There is a vital need to maintain security along the Iraq-Iran border, as well as to protect the supply routes that run from Kuwait to Baghdad.
Washington and London must ensure that Tehran does not gain a long-term foothold in Basra, Iraq's second-biggest city. In the coming months, thousands of U.S. troops may need to be deployed to the region in a show of strength to warn Iran of the consequences of playing with fire. Over 4,000 Coalition troops have laid down their lives in Iraq since 2003, and it is important that their sacrifice be honored with a commitment to ensuring that an Iranian-backed Islamic dictatorship does not take hold.
The Front Line in the War Against Islamist Terrorism
The U.S., Britain, and other Coalition allies must remain united in their determination to continue the fight against Islamist terrorism in Iraq. An early withdrawal of Allied troops would have catastrophic implications for the future of the country and would be seen by most Iraqis as a betrayal of trust. By liberating Iraq and removing one of the most brutal regimes of modern times, the Coalition made a powerful commitment to the future of the Iraqi people that must be honored. There should be no major pullout of Allied forces from the country until key military objectives have been met and Iraq is stable and secure.
Ultimately, Iraq is a microcosm of a larger war the United States and Great Britain are waging against Islamist terrorism and extremism. The battles on the streets of Iraq have a direct relevance to the national security of the U.S. and its allies, and to walk away from this front line of the war against Islamist terrorism would significantly increase the terrorist threat to the West itself.
This is a long-term conflict that must be fought to ensure the security of the free world. America's recent success in Iraq demonstrates that this is a war that can and must be won.
Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., is Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at the Heritage Foundation.
news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1396096.php/At_least_26 _killed_32_wounded_in_Iraq_violence__Roundup_
Baghdad - At least 26 people were killed and 32 wounded in separate attacks across Iraq, US military and police and media reports said Wednesday.
In Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, five people were killed Wednesday and 16 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt in a public market, Iraqi police told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Police told dpa that the suicide bombing might have been carried out by a female attacker. The bomb also damaged nearby stores in the market.
Another suicide bomb left 11 Iraqi soldiers and three civilians wounded in the northern city of Mosul, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency said. Security sources told VOI that a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle, targeting an Iraqi patrol in the Intisar district of Mosul.
In another development, some 17 border guards have been shot dead by gunmen in different areas in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, police sources told dpa. The killings occurred over the last 24 hours. The sources did not say whether the killings were carried out by the same gunmen and what the motive behind them was.
Criminal gangs and militias loyal to rival political powers have been active in Shiite-dominated Basra, 550 kilometres south of Baghdad.
In a separate incident in the city, Sheikh Abdel-Azim al-Idani, a close aide of senior Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was critically wounded in an attack by gunmen Tuesday, according to the same sources. Al-Idani's aide was killed in the attack.
Basra has recently seen a wave of assassinations targeting senior security officials, academics and clerics. The Iraqi government has sent reinforcements to the city to crack down on criminal activities and a surge in sectarian violence.
Separately, US military confirmed that three Iraqi policemen were killed and another was injured 'by mistake' Wednesday by a US patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. An Iraqi police patrol from the southern Rashad district was heading for Jawija, to the south-west of Kirkuk, when it was shot at by a US patrol by mistake. US-led multinational forces explained that the police officers entered into a previously cordoned area at a high rate of speed and their vehicle was perceived as a threat. The incident is currently under investigation, the US military said.
Pandering to the George Soros, Daily Kos wing of the Democratic Party, yesterday Senator Clinton joined Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi in saying that she would start to withdraw troops from Iraq immediately NO MATTER WHAT THE FACTS ON THE GROUND OR WHAT THE MILITARY RECOMMENDS:
Referring to Clinton's plan to withdraw one to two combat brigades per month, an ABC reporter asked her advisers directly: 'She is going to stick to this plan, whatever the realities on the ground?'
'She has said that this is her plan. She has said what her goals are and those are the direction,' Feinstein said.
'The answer is yes!' Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson jumped in.
'My question is … whether this is her plan and she is going to stick to it regardless?' Dobbs asked again.
'You're asking a question. I'm giving you a one-word answer so we can be clear about it. The answer is 'Yes',' Wolfson said.
Folks this is the position of the Democratic party, no matter whether it could cause physical harm to the troops on the ground, no matter whether it could lead terrorism on American soil or a genocide in Iraq (as most experts predict), this party is going to pull the troops out of Iraq. We now know what the Democrats mean by change....more DEATH.
Pelosi Wants 'Rwanda-Like Genocide' in Iraq, Expert Says
By Monisha Bansal
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
March 18, 2008
(CNSNews.com) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said President Bush's Iraq policy has failed. She spoke in response to comments made last week by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who said that no one in the U.S. and Iraqi governments thinks there has been 'sufficient progress by any means' when it comes to Iraqi national reconciliation.
But Michael Rubin, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, called Petraeus a 'realist,' adding that 'the progress toward reconciliation will take time.'
'President Bush doesn't have a magic wand,' he said. 'But there is a huge difference between not following an arbitrary congressional timeline and failing.'
'The worst possible option would be to withdraw and create a vacuum,' Rubin told Cybercast News Service.
'After almost five years of war and nearly 4,000 American lives lost, Gen. Petraeus's admission proves that the president's Iraq policy has failed,' Pelosi said in a statement. 'President Bush and other Republicans can no longer credibly claim that their status quo Iraq strategy is working.
'Americans demand a new direction in Iraq that includes responsible redeployment so we can strengthen our military's readiness and refocus on the real fight against terrorism,' she said. 'Democrats in Congress wholly reject a continuation of the President's 10-year, trillion dollar war in Iraq,' Pelosi said.
'I used to give Nancy Pelosi benefit of the doubt, but I don't think she'll be happy until we have a Rwanda-like genocide. Pelosi is perhaps the worst example of a liberal racist: She sees Iraqis as nothing more than a template upon which to fight a partisan battle. It really is disgraceful,' he added.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) said Monday that, as president, one of her first actions will be to begin withdrawing troops within 60 days.
'The Petraeus statement means that they're not where we want them to be and they need to move faster, and nothing more,' countered Thomas Donnelly, a resident fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
'He also says that political progress is coming from the bottom up rather than the top down - that is, from a different direction than anticipated - and that is real,' Donnelly said.
'Reconciliation at the national level is a trailing-edge indicator of progress at the local level,' Donnelly told Cybercast News Service. 'So it means that the U.S. posture in Iraq must continue to help the positive local developments like the Sons of Iraq while sustaining the pressure on national-level politicians.
'It also means that provincial elections are crucial,' he said. 'And what it all means in the larger context is just that the success of the surge is happening in a different manner than we in Washington anticipated, which shouldn't come as a surprise since we're not on the scene.'
'Clearly, there is no measure of success in Iraq that could satisfy her (Pelosi) or others who have invested so much political capital in the narrative of the 'Lost War,'' Donnelly said.
'al Qaeda was not IN Iraq under Saddam'
BUT THEY ARE NOW!!!!!
That is the whole point!
'- no dictator will sponsor a group of fanatics. bin Laden despised Saddam as the reason that Western troops occupied what the Arabs consider 'holy ground'.'
The Arabs need to get over it. It isn't 'holy' it is an ugly stretch of blazing hot sand. If infidels can't be in Saudi Arabia we shouldn't allow Muslims here.
'Bush keeps referring to al Qaeda, because the surge can do nothing about the native sectarian problems,'
ATTACKS ARE DOWN 80% on Iraqis and 90% on coalition troops. You call that 'nothing'?
More propaganda about how 'we're winning' completely absent of a point.
www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080319/OPINION /80319033/-1/NEWS05
The assertion that if we leave Iraq al Qaeda will take the country is baseless. Juan Cole, president of the Global Americana Institute, notes, “Shiites would not allow an ‘al-Qaeda’ takeover of Iraq. Neither would the Kurds. Nor would most Sunni Arabs. Moreover, the neighbors would not allow the radical Sunnis to take over. Iran would sit on its hands while Shiites were massacred in Baghdad? Secular Turkey would allow this development? Baathist Syria? Hashemite Jordan?”
Political reconciliation, the surge’s goal, hasn’t happened. The al-Maliki government lost Sunni support in Parliament and his cabinet. The “debaathification law“ passed in January may forcibly retire 20,000 to 30,000 largely Sunni ex-Baathists and exclude them from important ministries. The presidential council has Parliament reexamining the local government powers law, placing the budget and prisoner amnesty in jeopardy. The immorality of the invasion is revealed by its human cost.
RE:
'al Qaeda was not IN Iraq under Saddam'
BUT THEY ARE NOW!!!!!
That is the whole point!
==========================
'Doctor, why did you cut my leg off, when I was having my appendix out'?
'Too late to complain - learn to hop'
(The whole point IS how we got here; because the American people never want to go through this again. Put the Shia in charge, and al Qaeda is a dead duck in Iraq. If Bremer had not dismissed the army, this would have been an entirely different situation)
When someone f--ks it, IT MATTERS!
as I said before (although you were too cowardly to print it), george bush should bend down between his legs and try to pull his head out of his ass,
what arrogant idiocy!
What does the American presence have to do with the failure of the Iraqi people to form a functioning society?
Nothing.
We've helped them free themselves and paid zillions. We've done more than we should have.
It's not our fault they act like savages.
This thing ends only one way:
Badly.
So end it, if you want.
One other detail: tell any of the notable local dickheads that none of them get US asylum. In fact, we're sending names and addresses of all of them to Al Qeada. I suspect we'd start getting cooperation immediately.
'So end it, if you want.'
'Ending it' would mean turning over a failed state in the geographic center of the middle east to al Qaeda and Iran, complete with billions of dollars worth of oil in order to have safe haven and financial backing to attack civilization. It would also mean turning over the gulf to Iran which would then control about 80% of the worlds known oil reserves.
If you think the economy is precarious now, Imaging if that boob Obama actually keeps one of his promises and turns over the whole thing to the terrorists. Oil would be $200-$500 a barrel and we would hit a world wide depression.
Not to mention a terrorist threat like we have never seen before.
'Is -winning- supposed to look this bad?'
It is now statistically safer to be an Iraqi living in Iraq then an American living in Detroit, Birmingham, Washington DC, Compton, Atlanta, St. Louis, Flint, Memphis, Baltimore, Richmond CA, Youngstown, Oakland, Cleveland, Gary or Cincinnati.
By FOUAD AJAMI
...
At a perilous moment in early 2007, when the project was in the wind and reeling, the leader who launched this war doubled down and bought time. The polls -- and this might be the war most endlessly measured by pollsters -- tell us that two out of every five Americans are now willing to stick with this endeavor.
The tipping point came with 'the surge.' The new policy was marked by stoicism and an acceptance of the burdens of this war. For once, there was no promise of easy success. 'Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved,' President George W. Bush said when he announced the new policy some 14 months ago. 'There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship.'
In Iraq, America was surrounded by enemies who were sure from the start that the great foreign power was destined to fail. They could not be given the satisfaction of a hasty American retreat. The stakes had grown: We were under the gaze of populations with a keen eye for the weakness of strangers. It was apt and proper that the leader who launched this war did not give up on it.
[snip]
Still, five years on, this endeavor in Iraq is taking hold. The U.S. military was invariably the great corrector. In their stoic acceptance of the mission given them and in the tender mercies they showed Iraqis on a daily basis, our soldiers held out the example of benevolent rule. (In extended travel in and out of Iraq over the last five years, I heard little talk of Abu Ghraib. The people of Iraq understood that Charles Graner and Lynndie England were psychopaths at odds with American military norms.)
In those five years, the scaffolding of the war came under steady assault. People said that there was no connection between al Qaeda and Saddam, that no 'smoking gun' had been discovered, and that the invasion of Iraq had turned that country into a breeding ground of jihadists.
But those looking for that smoking gun did not understand that the distinction between secular and religious terror in that Arab landscape was a distinction without a difference. The impulse that took America from Kabul to Baghdad was a correct one. Radical Arabs attacked America on 9/11, and a war of deterrence had to be waged against Arab radicalism.
Baghdad was the proper return address, as a notice was served on the purveyors of terror that a price would be paid by those who aid and abet it. It was Saddam Hussein's choice -- and fate -- that he would not duck and stay out of harm's way in the aftermath of 9/11. We have not fully repaired the ways of the radicals in the intervening years. But the spectacle of the dictator's defeat, and the sight of him being sent to the gallows, have worked wonders on the temper of the Arab street.
So we did not turn Baghdad into a democratic city on a hill, and we learned that the dismantling of Sunni tyranny would leave the Arab world's Shiite stepchildren with primacy in Iraq. A better country has nonetheless risen, midwifed by this American war. It is not a flawless democracy. But compare it to the prison it was under Saddam, the tyranny next door in Damascus and the norms of the region, and we can have a measure of pride in what America has brought forth in Baghdad.
This is not a Shiite state that we uphold. True, the Shiite majority was emancipated from a long history of fear and servitude, but Iraq's Shiites have told us in every way they can that their country is not a 'sister republic' of the Persian theocracy to their east. If anything, the custodians of political power in Iraq have signaled their long-term intentions: an extended American presence in their midst and the shoring up of an oil state in the orbit of American power.
There has been design and skill in recent American endeavors. The Sunnis had all, but wrecked their chances in the new order. The American strategy in the year behind us worked to cushion the Sunni defeat. The U.S. now sustains a large force of 'volunteers,' the Sons of Iraq, drawn mainly from the Sunni community. This has not met with the approval of the Shiite-led government, but the attempt to create a balance between the two communities has been both deliberate and wise.
In the same vein, American power has given the Kurds protection and a historic chance in a neighborhood that had hitherto snuffed out all their dreams. But a message, too, has been sent to the Kurds. The condition of this protection is a politics of sobriety and a commitment to the federalism of Iraq. We have not re-invented that old, burdened country, but this war is the first chance Iraqis have had to emerge from a history of plunder and despotism.
In the past five years, the passion has drained out of the war's defenders and critics alike. Our soldiers and envoys are there, but the public at home has moved onto other concerns. Still, the public is willing to grant this expedition time, and that's for the good. There is no taste in this country for imperial burdens and acquisitions in distant lands. But Americans also know that the lands and sea lanes of the Persian Gulf are too vital to be left to mayhem and petty tyrants.
Mr. Ajami, a Bradley Prize recipient, teaches at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of 'The Foreigner's Gift' (Free Press, 2006).
I think everybody recognizes that there has been progress in the security arena over the course of the last six to eight months,' but no one, Gen. David Petraeus said, is celebrating.
'The progress in Iraq is fragile, it is tenuous. There's an enormous amount of hard work to be done to solidify the gains, to build on them, while there is a draw-down of over one quarter of our combat forces.'
Five of 20 Brigade Combat Teams - a Marine Expeditionary Unit and two Marine battalions - are scheduled to leave by July. Already, two Army brigades have departed Iraq, one based in Diyala province, the other in Baghdad.
The withdrawals are a test.
'They always leave some gap... that has to be filled. Obviously, we have to thin out in certain areas to accommodate that withdrawal,' Petraeus said, referring to the recent departure of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. At the same time, 'al Qaeda remains a very lethal enemy... capable of lashing out at any given time.'
The battle against al Qaeda in Iraq is focusing primarily on Ninevah province, north of Baghdad, which Petraeus calls 'hugely important' because of its location at the cross roads of Turkey, Syria and Iran, and an important trade route to Baghdad. He admits there has been 'an economy of force' in the north because of the security operations in the Iraqi capital.
Petraeus has moved additional American and Iraqi conventional and Special Forces to Ninevah. Four Iraqi battalions, sent to Baghdad for the security operations, are now returning to Mosul, Ninevah's capital. Combat outposts, like those established in Baghdad during the surge, are being built.
'Everyone, I think, sees Mosul as a very significant location for al Qaeda.' A large city, he says it is a greater challenge than towns like Ramadi in Anbar province, or Baquoba in Diyala province. While admitting it may be an over-statement, he quotes intelligence analysts as saying 'al Qaeda can't win without Baghdad, or survive without Mosul'.
'This is not the final battle by any means, but it is a very important battle in the overall campaign against al Qaeda in Iraq,' Petraeus said. 'Mosul is certainly an area where we have to focus more attention, and we have.'
Realism In Iraq
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, March 18, 2008 4:20 PM PT
War On Terror: As John McCain and Dick Cheney observe progress of the surge in person, new revelations show how important Iraq is to al-Qaida. Electing a Democrat president would squander our gains.
Top Democrats are so committed to the position that liberating Iraq will go down as a monumental blunder that the most powerful tsunami of facts will not change their minds.
[snip]
Amid this straight talk on Iraq comes news of just how important the country has been all along in the eyes of al-Qaida.
A document apparently written by Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian who is a high-ranking al-Qaida leader under indictment for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, has surfaced on a jihadist Internet forum. In it, al-Adel states that ruthless al-Qaida in Iraq head Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, killed in 2006 northeast of Baghdad by U.S. Air Force rockets, arrived in Iraq before the U.S. invasion to lay the groundwork for an American defeat there.
'Our analysis was that the Americans were going to make the mistake sooner or later to invade Iraq,' al-Adel wrote, '(and) that this invasion will lead to the fall of the regime, and that we should play an important role in the confrontation and resistance.'
Iraq is now turning out to be a humiliating defeat for al-Qaida. But as McCain warned about a big drawdown: 'I just think what that means if al-Qaida wins. They tell the world that . . . their dedication is to follow us home.'
An al-Qaida manual now freely available on the Internet describes what 'follow us home' means.
British intelligence's translation of the document, named 'Declaration of Jihad,' calls on al-Qaida operatives to 'kidnap enemy personnel, documents, secrets and arms . . . assassinate enemy personnel as well as foreign tourists.' It recommends 'blasting and destroying the embassies and attacking vital economic centers, blasting and destroying bridges leading into and out of the cities.'
The manual's 'lessons' range from the counterfeiting of currency and the forging of documents to the practice of espionage, the use of weapons and communicating by code. One chapter is titled 'Assassinations Using Poisons and Cold Steel'; another is named 'Torture Methods.'
Obama and Clinton kid themselves and the American people if they think we do not have to stay in Iraq until the long, hard job is done. Emboldening al-Qaida with a terrorist victory in the Middle East that could put its gruesome manual into full effect on the U.S. homeland is a risk we cannot afford to take.
Larry Diamond
==========================================
Although it has been creeping back up again recently, violence has declined sharply. Since the surge took hold in mid-2007, the average daily death toll of Iraqis has dropped from over 100 per day to less than 20. Almost 500 Iraqis dying violently per month is still horrific, but the improvement is palpable, and evident in many other statistics.
Iraqi police and military deaths are also way down, from a peak of 300 in April 2007 to 110 last month. Multiple fatality bombings have fallen by more than two-thirds since their peak of 69 at the end of 2006. American troop fatalities have also dropped sharply, from more than 100 per month in late 2006 and early 2007 to under 40 per month in the last few months.
The improved security situation in Iraq owes to many factors. In addition to the surge in U.S. forces, there has been a large increase in Iraqi forces: 100,000 more army and police, and about 80,000 'concerned local citizens' - local community militias that have been armed and paid by the United States to turn against al Qaeda and other violent forces.
No less important, American military strategy changed. After years of denial and failure, the U.S. military finally turned to classic counterinsurgency tactics of taking and holding control of towns and neighborhoods while working earnestly to win 'hearts and minds' on the ground.
All of this came at a propitious moment. Sunni Arab communities were fed up with the brutal, thuggish domination of al Qaeda in Iraq; with the provision of arms, money and assurances, they turned again al Qaeda and expelled it from most Sunni communities where it had taken root. While still incomplete, this has been the single biggest achievement of the surge, with positive huge implications for Iraqi and U.S. security. In the Shiite communities, the militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pulled back from military conflict and authorized his 'Mahdi Army' to cease fire.
=========================================================
This is the situation Obama wants to abandon.
SP4:
I could not agree with you more. Good comment.
Doing GODS will?????????? I guess the the 10 commandments are wrong. Maybe G.W.B. (which apparently you don't have enough respect for him to spell out his full name) should just go ahead and rewrite them Thou shall KILL Thou shall bare false witness, and so forth. The only thing I have to add, is I hope to God we do not put another, Military Industrial Complex member into the White House. Gods blessings and peace to us all.
I'd rather the terrorist be trying to kill well trained motivated US troops than civilians. The future depends on finishing the job. success means democracy. failure leads to new dark ages, tyranny, and women return to being merely property. europe would be ruled taliban-like before the end of the century.
Yhank you dear neocons for replying with propaganda to real facts such as: 1.200.000 Iraqi citizens killed since the invasion,7 million refugees,50 percent unemployment,no water or electricity anymore in vast parts of Iraq,roadbombs,rapings;civil war,concrete walls dividing cities into getthos,religion fanatism surging in a previous secularized country.All your good intentions have brought misery to their country .Result is thay 70 percent of the Iraqis want the US troops out immedialetly,61 percent of the Iraqi population support the insurgents .And all you offer them is wind and arrogant self glorification,and on top of that SP4 even dares to blame the Iraqis for the mess created by the neocons .
Tzll me guys,if tyou realy think that the Iraqis are ungrateful,what keeps you from leaving ?After all that is all they ask for .
The one thing that would make us leave is if they would just cooperate and get up and running.
Seriously, the easist way to make the Americans go away is to just cooperate until we leave. We'd have left years ago, if this were the case.
Ask yourselves why that has not happened, then look at the people you're dealing with.
That being the case, why are americans to blame, for what is an Iraqi problem?
'1.200.000 Iraqi citizens killed since the invasion,'
If you are going to make up crazy numbers you should really go for the gusto:
A GAZILLON Iraqis were killed by Donald Rumsfeld himself!!!! is just about as accurate...
'1.200.000 Iraqi citizens killed since the invasion,'
If you are going to make up crazy numbers you should really go for the gusto:
A GAZILLON Iraqis were killed by Donald Rumsfeld himself!!!! is just about as accurate...'
You really should not lecture anyone about not telling the truth...if the truth come up and hit you in the nose you would not recognize it.
I think the poster Larry is right:
We have won in Iraq.
We have Al Queada tied up.
We have stymied Iran and Syria in their attempt to undermine the formation of a government, and do dominate the region.
The internal squabbles cannot be blamed on the USA, and it's efforts.
'
You really should not lecture anyone about not telling the truth...if the truth come up and hit you in the nose you would not recognize it.'
Not really a rebuttal to what I wrote, is it?
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