So much for pressuring the Iraqis to stand up for their own country. In case it wasn’t obvious already — it was — today Bush made perfectly clear that troop levels will not dip below the pre-surge level of 140,000 for the remainder of his presidency.
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The “debate” over the surge has always perplexed me. We can all acknowledge that violence has mainly decreased. One doesn’t need a masters degree in foreign affairs to know that flooding more troops in would help cause that. The real issue is whether (a) the levels are sustainable — they’re not — and (b) whether the “surge” has achieved the intended result of providing the Iraqi government the breathing room needed to make the essential political progress — it hasn’t. Furthermore, the relative decrease in violence has just as much to do with troop levels as it does with ethnic cleansing, physical separation of varying sects, millions of Iraqi refugees, and millions of dollars in bribe money being doled out. By every meaningful measure, the surge has been a failure, providing breathing room only to President Bush so that he can pass along the disaster he started to the next President. Then again, that was probably the goal all along.
No Trackbacks To “The Not for Prime Time Bush Iraq Speech: Petraeus will “have all the time he needs”“
And here I thought 30,000 troops were on the way home to offset the 30,000 sent in to surge. Oh well, it was a success right?
Translation: The reality of a man-eating tax policy is already among us. It just hasn’t been immortalized on paper or film yet, except in the CONgressional Record.
Bush seems to have the impression that people are going to sit by forever taking this shit.
Man is he ever wrong.
Its a dark day in this country’s history.
impeach the executive branch before they kill us all. Why does congress do nothing?
Unfortunately, few have been disappointed in underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
What a coward! This man is walking away, all the responsibility lies with everybody else! Broken country, poverty, two friggin wars, ruined reputation. Why the Hell is congress allowing this to happen? This is a disaster! And the ultimate disaster? BUSH!
Somethings Got To Give
P.D. @ 7:
This has been his pattern in every endeavor in his adult life. It’s not like this wasn’t well known all the way back in 2000 when he was first campaigning for the job. America deserves whatever crumbling state it will be in when it bottoms out for its shear stupidity in supporting and continuing to enable this horrid little pissant. War crimes tribunal and hanging should be in his future.
L.A. Confidential @ 3:
i have my doubts…
Not only has bush lead us into a war based on lies and deceptions, he and his WH staff proceeded to mishandle their war with complete ineptness. The war it is now known has done NOTHING but show profits for the bush families favorite corporations, Halliburton, KBR, the Carlysle Group etc.
And if that weren’t enough, his administration loosened the regulations of the FAA (resulting in the meltdown we are now witnessing in the Airlines) and the FDA resulting in the drug companies going unbounded into record high prices and low oversite of drugs.
The governments own financial oversite group, the GAO can’t seem to account for anything until the billions are already lost and then claim they are investigating.
The war in Iraq is being funded not only by billions of our taxpayer dollars (while our schools and highways, bridges etc. crumble) But when they first started sending billions to Iraq for reconstruction whole pallets of crisp $100 dollar bills worth billions of dollars mysteriously disappeared (and still have not been accounted for.) Meanwhile the money from Iraqi Oil is going into foreign banks and not being used to pay back the American people.
Between these things and what you saw in the preceding article here on C&L about torture and secret prisons, you’d think we would have enough to start getting the Legal Proceedings going for War Trials.
TDS had it right last night
http://www.thedailyshow.com/vi.....aeus-pt.-2
So basically there is no carrot
there is no stick
whatever they do or not, we are there foreva
it’s Bushco’s OIL and MONEY
More Deaths = The surge is working
Less Deaths = The surge is working
Same amount of Deaths = The surge is working
I hate to say this but, in the long run, the Bush Presidency may be a good thing for America. Granted the immediate effects are…..well…not good. Really bad actually. But the long term effects might be incredible. People are interested. A lot of the population is paying attention now. Pretty soon they will rise above playing into the choreography of partisan politics and blindly adopting talking points as their points of view. Pretty soon they will think for themselves and eventually, maybe, a group will be elected that has the public’s interests at heart.
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 13:
A win-win-win situation.
tool @ 10:
Perhaps. But small signs are beginning to appear that suggest otherwise.
Kyle @ 14:
Bush will try to take credit for that, if it happens.
♣Bangkok Bob♠ @ 11:
If this were a Demcratic president and a Republican congress you better believe impeachment would have been on the table long ago and for matters far more important to the American people than a blow job.
Dale @ 15:
Unless you’re a soldier.
Iran and al Qaeda among greatest threats to U.S.: Bush Reuters - 34 minutes ago
Why is that Mr. Bush? Don’t stutter now.
bob dobbs @ 9:
Right.
Every business he’s had, he’s bankrupted.
He’s famous for trashing apartments when he leaves. Busting out walls, windows, staining carpets.
Will he throw a kegger in the Oval Office on his last day, and take a sledgehammer to the furniture?
The man leaves mountains of wreckage in his wake.
And he’s been doing to America, what he’s done to everything else he touches.
Right on Bob Dobbs, he got elected because of the ignorant religious right-wing. A complete failure all his life, then he finds God and Jesus, and those assholes followed in droves. Vote for me and I’ll ban gay marriage! Vote for me I’ll end all abortions! How those pathetic right-wingers followed and believed every word. And even now, they will NEVER admit they were wrong. That is why I question any of these Repugs. They will sell their soul to the devil, just to get elected.
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 19:
But then you’re a hero. Another win. Just a slightly less advantageous win.
The “surge” has had very little to do with the down-tic in the Iraqi violence, as has been well noted. What we have is CYA at the expense of the lives of thousands of Iraqi’s, American young (and not so young) people, money, and reputation. That the dry-drunk, chickenhawk would do this is also not surprising in view of his historical business resume. What is outrageous is the lock-step “conservative” Repukes who continue to enable this outrage. It is they who are the arch-accomplices to these crimes against the United States, its honor and its traditions. Conservative indeed! What hypocrites! They hang on to the Bush sinking ship for one reason and one alone. Protecting the fucking rich bastards who are their only constituency. Shame, shame on the Republican Party!
What a lying hack…He’s ALWAYS been a liar and will be for the rest of his miserable existence.
If the next president (NOT MCSHAME) has an IQ higher than a BB the number of troops next year at this time will be ZERO! Or if the American electorate is dumb enough to believe anything Mc-100years-shame says it could be a million!!
Dale @ 23:
Touche
Hrmm, will they be withdrawn into Iran?
If Muqtada al-Sadr decides to call off his ceasefire, what then? I give his ceasefire a lot of credit for the so-called calm.
After hearing that speech today, I’m afraid bush has one more evil trick up his sleeve. He mentioned Iran way too often.
Kyle @ 14:
This will occur only if we don’t get complacent. There is still a lot of media reform that needs to occur, as they still seem to be interested in doing nothing but reporting on Brittany, Paris, etc. We need more people in the news who are actually going to investigate and report on government wrongdoings instead of how much some politicians haircut cost.
Once again the Democratic Party fails to live up to their obligations and impeach this President.
Hell, ABC news just gave some airtime to the story that calls for impeaching the entire Executive Branch!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....they-knew/
Pelosi… it’s time to put impeachment back on the table! Get on this please!
RB-Chicago @ 25:
Hey wake up these guys don’t care how many nasty names and things get spewed at them. And we can’t expect politicians from either side to do what is in the peoples interest anymore. Because they are NOT and Won’t.
So, what are the solutions to that problem.
What a fucking disgrace to America.
JayDog @ 30:
Forget Pelosi she’s a sham it should be obvious to any human being who has a pulse by now.
pissed off patricia @ 28:
Lay the impeachment documents before the House! One step towards war with Iran without the Congress and the impeachment goes forward, new war or not!
L.A. Confidential @ 16:
i certainly hope so. the injustice around here is palpable.
Your right Patricia, all last summer I was afraid to get out of bed in the morning, because the drums were beating for war. And , it’s happening again. One thing you have got to say about these neo-cons, they will never give up. McCain, lieberman and even Thume was on MSNBC playing up Iran. Sigh.
Oops!
Kristol: Sober, Serious Democrats Know U.S. Will Have 100K Troops In Iraq When Bush Leaves Office
U.N. Official Urged Commission To Study Neocon Role in 9/11
“Hey wake up these guys don’t care how many nasty names and things get spewed at them.”
I believe Bush actually enjoys it more when people are angry or upset with him. He can handle not being popular. He lives by the mantra: Just because it’s not popular, it doesn’t mean it’s not right.
Simply The Worst.
Did our militaristic president state when his daughters and Cheney’s daughters will be joining the army in order to fight for the Fatherland? Perhaps he is waiting for the army to waive the requirement for them to go to basic training in order for them to go directly to Iraq so they can shed their blood for his less than noble cause.
SteveinSC @ 34:
Bush considers himself above the Law I doubt they will even try.
“If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.”
Washington-once AGAIN has fallen completely out of touch with the American Reality. Unless your getting subsidies to grow corn to fill up pickup trucks. Then you get their eyes and ears.
Yeah, it’s really a shame. As much as I’d hate to see Bush doing a little dance, we’ve really f**ked that country up something terrible, and we should try to help straighten it out if we can. (And, if we can’t, we should get out of the way). Putting enough guys with guns in to provide security for more than the Green Zone was obvious, and something we should have done 5 years ago. My only fear was the same dumb people were still at the top. Sure enough, they let the army handle the military surge, and figured an American 4 star general was best suited to handle the civil/diplomatic side as well. They should have thrown the State Dept., the UN, France, Egypt, Geo. Schultz, Jimmy Carter and Sinbad at this. Instead, I heard Tuesday, they have Ministerial meetings every 6 months, and working groups in between. That sounds like how they worked out the EU Treaty, and they’re still trying to figure that out after 50 years. As I say, a shame. A lot of people are still dying.
CheneyBushCo hates America and does not support the troops.
Then again, that was probably the goal all along.
Indeed. And McCain is their sacrificial chump, meant to get his ass handed to him in this election (if he manages to win, by hook or by crook, so much the better. “Yay, more fascist appointments to the SCOTUS”, say the conservative knuckle draggers!). He’s just getting his chance, at the end of a long career in politics, to run for prez, much the same way that Dole did in ‘96 and Dole didn’t stand a snowcone’s chance in Hell.
I mean come on:
From everything we have heard, even the average con(servative) doesn’t like McCain. Bush and McCain have been enemies for years. So why shouldn’t I mull over the notion that he is their sacrificial lamb for this election cycle?
What really scares me is the thought that this might all be a political game for the next election. What if they re-evaluate in six months and - SURPRISE! - things look great and the troops can start coming home? WE WERE VICTORIOUS! YAAAY! The policy is vindicated, everyone loves the Repubs and, BINGO! They vote for McSame. After November it doesn’t matter, stay, leave, whatever, they already got elected.