Print
Email Friend
Add to Favorites
del.icio.us
Digg It!
Slashdot It!
Hey gang, where’s the fiery rhetoric about the drubbing Bush gave the Liberals last night? No matter that the TV rating folks report that no one was watching because th
ey don't trust our Commander-In-Chief. They were on firm griound, Bush lied and contradicted as expeceted.
A sampling:
o Bush argued that "Iraq's national leaders are getting some things done" like "sharing oil revenues with the provinces" and allowing "former Baathists to rejoin Iraq's military or receive government pensions."
Just a month ago, Bush said, "The Iraqi government in Baghdad has many important measures left to address, such as reforming the de-Baathification laws, organizing provincial elections and passing a law to formalize the sharing of oil revenues."
Haven’t seen any news flashes about al Maliki’s government enacting ANY legislation related to these issues. Ah, but rest assured that the surge has worked - there’s enough breathing space for the oil-revenue sharing talks to collapse!
o Bush cited the Jones Commission report saying that "the Iraqi army is becoming more capable, although there is still a great deal of work to be done to improve the national police."
Little matter that the report said Iraq's army will be unable to take over internal security from U.S. forces in the next 12 to 18 months and "cannot yet meaningfully contribute to denying terrorists safe haven."
It recommended disbanding the 25,000-member, corruption-riddled national police force, too.
Bush also forgot to mention that the report also recommended that U.S. troops in Iraq be "retasked" in early 2008 to protect critical infrastructure and guard against border threats while turning over responsibility for security to Iraqi forces despite their deficiencies.
o Bush’s rosy picture of Baghdad ("ordinary life is beginning to return") is encouraging, too. He did neglect to mention that much of the city is now divided into Shiite and Sunni enclaves. That’s called “ethnic cleansing” by most observers.
o Bush also failed to embrace the inspired Petraeus/Crocker term, “ethno-sectarian violence”, as the major dynamic to be dealt with in Iraq. I think that means "Civil War", doesn't it?
Disingenuous? Dishonest? Sure, what do we expect? Bush was sent by the gods to hone our memories and research skills!
And what about General Petraeus? I mean, after this week’s beatification, Gareth Porter reports that Petraeus' commander, Admiral William Fallon (CENTCOM) wasn't very understanding when he heard that the General, after bringing the Iraqi security forces to the readiness state cited by the Jones Report, had lobbied selected senators to adopt the surge back in February.
By now, we’re all aware that, just prior to Senate debate on the surge, some senators were invited to Mitch McConnell’s office to be briefed by Petraeus on the measure.
By now, we’re all aware that Fallon called Petraeus “an ass-kissing little chickens***” to his face. Not only did the good General undermine CENTCOM’s Middle East strategy with Congress, he used his military credibility to do it. Wow, wouldn’t want any of that in MY fitness report or on the front page of IPS or the Huntington Post.
Strikes me as odd that if the General's arguments for the surge were so persuasive, they weren't presented as public testimony. Strikes me as even odder that following Petraeus' availability in McConnell's office, the Senate voted to permit the surge go forward; Petraeus was appointed to head it up; Petraeus returned to Congress to tell us it's working; and the Commander-in-Chief wholeheartedly endorses “the Petraeus Plan”.
This scenario makes the Scooter Libby affair look like a G-rated Perry Mason rerun.
Liberals, we’ve been outmaneuvered! But suck it up!
Best case, Harry and Nancy will find the spine to defund the war even though Randi Rhodes is against it.
Worst case, we’ll all get to vote to end the Iraq War, AGAIN, in 2008, and a Liberal Democrat (redundancy alert) will get the job done - up front, transparently and correctly!
And, hey, whatta about Larry Craig, that Senator who was born in Idaho, reared in Minneapolis, trying to retract his GUILTY plea? Just think of the possibilities! Now that’s Liberalism at work!
Talk about OVERREACH, Maaaaaan, it just gets better:
Chris Matthews on MSNBC last night, asks Joe Biden about "the strange world we had described to us tonight... We're given a picture in 20 minutes of a country over there, an ally, you know, like Chiang Kai-shek used to be against the Japanese or Hungary against the Soviets, an ally, a country we care about and it's fighting for its life against our enemy, which is al Qaeda. No real references except once to the fact there's a civil war going on in that country. The notion that we're one of 37 countries fighting over there against the bad guys. There's so much of this that's truly -- and I don't mean this in a cartoon sense -- fantastic. When you're with the president, does he live in this world or does he just sell it?"
Biden: "I don't know, Chris."
Report Abuse