I caught the tail end of this when I got home. It certainly is worth watching. To me, this was the biggest day in Congress in the last 7.5 years. Menedez ain't no saint, but he really stood up today.

Ok. Now what do we do? Just sit there while our soldiers die? Why aren't our leaders demamding a pull-out? This SUCKS!

Those are stark numbers.

Someone might also point to the 500,000 children who, it is said, died during the sanction regime between the wars.

Someone might also point to the number of Iraqis killed since 2003, in the hundreds of thousands.

Someone might also point to the number of Iraqi refugees, several million.

I will not point to those numbers because it makes me absolutely sick.

Iraq is destroyed.

For a false pretense. For an illegal war of agression.

Today, the Republicans in the House had the unmitigated gaul to repeat their mantra. They say that calling for an end to the war is calling for defeat. They never come up with a coherent statement on what winning is.

The defeat I see, will be the defeat of the war profiteers. And the defeat of the insanity that has gripped this entire endeavor.

Yeah, I watched Sen. Menedez commenting when questioning Gen. P. and Crocker.
Crocker has his own set of figures, but no details, whereas Menedez can easily substantiate and verify his data...It was obtained by the ICRC(International Committe
of the Red Cross) and was released to the general public just over a week ago; but
Crocker was unaware(or so he claimed) w/such statistics.

"Some of Menendez’s figures are downright infuriating. This is what $25 billion has gotten us:

43% of population lives in absolute poverty
prior to war 19% of children suffered malnutrition; today 28%
last year 75% elementary-aged kids went to school; now 30%
prior to war 50% lacked access to clean water; now 70%
only 50 of 142 primary health care centes are open to public"

Looking like what the GOP is doing to America. At least they're consistent.

Betrayus says its working? Next thing they'll tell us is the Earth is flat!

Ash"Hussy"Williams @ 11:

Michael M. @ 1:

What is our purpose in Iraq?

Exactly. If you ask Republicans, the answer will be "To win" or "To beat the terrorists"
If you ask Democrats, the answer will be "To restore Iraq to what it was before we invaded" or "To ensure the Iraqi people are secure"

See the difference in perspective? The Righties' focus is on themselves and the Dems' focus is on the Iraqi people.

But the statistic that stood out to me: the education percentage. Such a huge drop in a year? That statistic alone shows the potential of how fast this country can go down the tube.

Makes you wonder who is going to reach the bottom first, us or them.

Michael M. @ 1:

What is our purpose in Iraq?

We're bringing 'em freedom and democracy... can't you tell???

I thought the Repugs were big on cost / benefit analysis? Oh, I guess they figure that we bear the cost while they and their miltary/oil industrial complex friends benefit.

Ron @ 14:

Makes you wonder who is going to reach the bottom first, us or them.

Yeah, it's at least quite probable that our economies will meet in the poor house and throw a party.

P.D. @ 12:

Betrayus says its working? Next thing they'll tell us is the Earth is flat!

Isn't it?!???

it takes cheney a lot of money to build his new home and offices in dubai.
now you don't really think all this money was wasted on those poor iraqis.....
now do you?

TypicallyWhiteJohnny, Do you think the Eath is only six thousand years old too? Itellegent design is the greatest!

It depends on what you wanted those billions are for. If you wanted to make Dick Cheney's friends rich, its working just as planned.

P.D. @ 27:

Where the Hell is Bremmer anyway? Probably took his Medal of Freedom and fled.

Not sure where Paul B. is, but rumor has it that he is about to join Snowjob as a
political analyst on Faux Noise.

Doggiebobo, That's just perfect! What a bunch of trolls!

Yeah, but the tiny fraction of Iraqis who have everything they need say things are great.
What more proof do you need that America has democratized the region?
Sounds just like America to me.

th'rev @ 33:

I was sick today,so I didn't go to work,so I got to watch the whole thing from start to finish from my sick bed.I was amazed and the republican softballing overall,and the dems attempts at kicking ass to be fielded by poor Jon Lovitz compulsive liar skit responses circa his stint on SNL in the mid to the late 80's.The general and the ambassador were mostly stuttering pathetic weenies.It was disgusting...but I watched it all.And I came away with two knowns...these guys are ass clowns and you can polish the turd that is Iraq all day long,and at the end of that day you just have a shiny turd.
What a joke of a hearing...what a waste of time regarding the "war",what an indictment of how shitty this country is...

You are much more brave than I, for had I had the fortitude to watch the "entire"
hearing, I too would have been sick and demanding medical attention. Hope you did
not upchuck toooo many times when watching/listening to the two clowns giving
"scripted" testimony and responses.

sounds like success, is it not what they(pnac) wanted to accomplish?

Four years of McMoreFailure , the US will have similar figures.

Yeah, big deal. At least our American Companies who were brave enough to go into the Iraqi Freedom Business have made lots of money and turned Iraq into a Capitalist Paradise, which was the point of the Iraq war in the first place. Mission Accomplished!

$25 Billion sounds like a lot, but fixing a country after we destroyed it for no real reason is hard work. We had to literally lose $8 or $9 Billion in cash, then pay all the non bidding contractors (whom had no accountability in regards to their work... or lack there of), there's not much to work with. Do you want to fight them here???? Geez, why are they badgering this poor man???

chris @ 45:

This is what happens when you get your statistics from the Center for American Progress!!

What happens chris? What happens when you get stats from Center for American Progress? You mean we start to see the truth?

Excuse me, but C&L is a respectable blog and we don’t need that here, now if you can’t contribute to the conversation intellectually then move on….

Re “Security conditions made it difficult to bring projects to closure in a timely fashion.”

Years ago, I paid really good money to take a business workshop in San Francisco that lasted several days with the goal of preparing its graduates to go out into the world and represent themselves to employers in whatever way the representer wanted to be viewed. It was not about representing yourself as you actually were. It was all about perceptions, and how to win in that game.

That quote by Crocker reminds me of some of the quotes we memorized about ourselves, in preparation to be able to answer any interview question we might face.

Uh, uh, uh, uh... uh, uh, uh ????

This is the diplomat???? Crocker is uh..uh... another useless Bush toadie.

a poll???? he quoted a fucking poll?????

fuck this administration

and fuck betrayus....generals should not be hacks

The ambassadors response was extremly lame. He questioned the data and the reliability but could only counter it with an irrelevant opinion poll.

The figures are certainly very reliable. I've read many reports telling the exact same story. Iraq is a gigantic humanitarian crisis argubably one of the worst in the world. It was bad cause of the sanctions before the war and now its even worse. Access to clean water is almost as low as Gaza another humanitarian disaster caused by a brutal occupation.

My Amb. Crocker impression: "uh, uh, um, uh, uh, um." Fucking idiot.

This administration won't be satisfied until all the Iraqi children are eating sand for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Makes you proud to be an American, huh, when our tax dollars go for foie gras for a pack of murdering bureaucrats.

chris @ 45:

This is what happens when you get your statistics from the Center for American Progress!!

Yeah , Menendez should have consulted Crockofshitter and Betrayus on getting bullshit numbers off of the White House web site , right you Chimpy ball mongering tool ?

chris @ 45:

This is what happens when you get your statistics from the Center for American Progress!!

Chris I thought you said it's time to throw down. Why haven't you enlisted in the Marines yet?

The really sad truth of all of this is that this was likely the plan all along.

As I believe Naomi Klein outlines in her book Shock Doctrine, The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism, the basic plan, as developed by Milton Friedman of the Chicago School of economics, is first you subject the country in question to a massive shock that saps the local population's ability to resist. Then you move forward with predetermined policies that open the country up to massive exploitation. Then you use systems, like toture, to force compliance. Then you rape the country completely and leave your systems in place to maintain dominance.

Anyone concerned about the state of affairs in America today should read that book. It is a frightning look at the mindset of many of the most influential economic policymakers over the last 30 years and obviously involves both Democrat and Republican presidential administrations.

The other amazing thing is that 911 allowed the Bushies in many ways to do the same things in America. Shock, then policies forwarded that like the Patriot Act had been developed in advance of the event that restrict the rights of citizens to question government and illegal spying on citizens which was taking place before 911, plus through shows like 24 they acclimatize people to the reality that their government tortures people. Now the federal reserve is being promoted by Paulson as the best regulator of the financial system while at the same time saying no more regulation is required.

Anyway, people maybe need to look at this question in some new ways. Maybe the plan was to leave the people of Iraq, destitute, divided and fighting amongst themselves. Maybe Bush's plan has unfolded perfectly. In which case, why believe anything that any official involved has to say about the matter.

Mission accomplished!

These Christian terrorists won't be happy until every Muslim is dead.