Playing for more time
By Steve Benen Sunday Sep 09, 2007 7:15amIn talking to Robert Draper for his book “Dead Certain,” the president conceded that his goal was not to end the war or to bring U.S. troops home, but rather, to bide his time. “I’m playing for October-November,” Bush said.
For nearly five years, every defense of the administration’s war policy has been just that, “playing” for more time. When conditions on the ground would deteriorate, we were told we just needed to be patient. When political progress went backwards, it was only because Iraqis needed more time.
Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will finally start sharing their perspectives today — though they won’t offer an actual report — and the plan, apparently, is to once again ask for more time.
The top American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, has recommended that decisions on the contentious issue of reducing the main body of the American troops in Iraq be put off for six months, American officials said Sunday.
As Kos put it, "Six months. It's always six months."
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I read that Petraeus will give Fox News an exclusive interview after he gives his report/statement/whatever, today. That tells me all I need to know.
NO MORE TIME!
Want to lose your lunch?
Take a look at this picture of our goofball president smiling like a complete jacka**simpleton.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com.....bu-ri.html
He’s shaking hands with an Iraqi thug (he’s building his own militia loyal not to the Iraqi government but to him). Bush has just given him more of our tax dollars in the hopes that he’ll help advance our cause. Even the thug seems to be thinking…”Is this guy a dufus or what?”
One can only imagine the 24/7 coverage our corporate media would’ve given these pictures if it was President Bill Clinton instead. Bush gets another free pass.
And people say the Democrats lack backbone??
What about Bush and his incompetent minions? Where's the backbone in following the same failed war policy for 4 years?
Peace @ 3:
Link not working.
So....what happens to the 'Pottery Barn' rule? "You break it...you own it"
I guess that wasn't getting too much reception at the latest CPAC function...
Now it becomes....you know....I broke this thing and I just can't bring myself to admitting I did it....here...I'll leave and you can take it back to the store....you face the music, you get told its your fault...we're not replacing your mistake....
Wow....the Iraq 'war'....occupation for Big Oil...legacy of the Bush Crime Family
You see the cycle of 4 year old intelligence levels...at their finest on full display...
If you vote Republican in '08...then you need to put your a$$ where your mouth is...
http://www.goarmy.com/flindex.jsp
Hey...if you act now...you'll get a $20,000 bonus....and you can get tires for that El Camino & repair the moonshine station in the back yard
And Gen. Pet. will get up there and move his lips and reel off numbers and will ANYONE ask about how the numbers were arrived at ...how the data was gathered and more importantly the methodology by which the presented were arrived at.
No -- because I guess that's not dramatic enough as political theatre goes.
How about a subpoena for Adm. Fallon?
Just click http://abuaardvark.typepad.com
Stephen Biddle (military consultant to Petraeus) now on WJ making WAY TOO MUCH SENSE to have had much exposure to anyone in the Bush Administration. Every day I awake I wonder just how much it will take for the people in this country to WAKE UP and become fed up enough to rise up and REVOLT against this gang of theives and dissemblers??? There is no WAR in Iraq...just a mess of our making that will haunt the Iraqi people and the rest of the world for generations. THANKS TO GWB more damage has been done than Osama ever dreamed of by sending the planes into the towers. He had just the right guy in charge here on 9/11...Glad I'm an old gal....
Eh! What's six months? It's only about 500 more dead Americans and 500 gallons of fake Bush tears.
W always lies, even when he might be telling the truth.
Because he will not live up to the truth.
If he was telling the truth to that writer, by the time October/November pass, he will have more reasons to "play" for time. That's his whole miserable life. He has played at everything and lied to himself about what a wheeler dealer he is. He needs to get back to killing himself with drugs and alcohol. It's safer for everybody not to have this dry-drunk lurching around the world, pretending to be large and in charge.
He is not in control of this war. He is still PNAC's pony.
€Punk @ 8:
Thanks for the correction.
The neo-cons took us into Iraq for four reasons:
(1) To take control of the oilfields and privatize them
(2) To build embassies so we can control whatever puppet government we set up
(3) To build embassies from which we can project military power in the Middle East
(4) To use Iraq's economy as an neo-con exercise in free-market, unregulated, non-unionized capitalism
…the “troops” as we so casually refer to them (Blackwater Private Army of Mercenaries as well) will NEVER leave until all the neo-cons are impeached, thrown in jail or run out of the country.
Right now the military industrial media corporate complex is in complete control of our government. Nothing will change until an adminstration is in power ready to do BATTLE with them. The only candidates capable of this are Kucinich, Gravel or possibly Paul. OTHERWISE THE SITUATION WILL ONLY GET WORSE.
Peace @ 13:
I agree, most of the other candidates like Hillary or Giulianni or Obama or Romney are all corporate whores, ready and willing to sell out even more of our once great country. I look for the candidate that will abolish the electoral college, enact equal gay rights, control corpoate power and monopolies, fix our public schools (NCLB is the worst thing ever!), decriminalize marijuana and redefine the "War on Drugs", plus many other things like NOT SYSTEMATICALLY TERRORIZING THE CITIZENS OF HIS OR HER OWN COUNTRY!... WE NEED TRANSPARENCY IN OUR GOVERNMENT!
Indigowatcher @ 14:
The first thing(s) that need to be done is Campaign Finance Reform. Then the Corporate Media needs to be broken up and regulated. We need an Amendment to the Constitution to make sure our elections are fair, on paper and easily auditable. Then we need to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Habeas Corpus needs to be restored. Probable Cause needs to be proven in order to obtain a Subpoena to tap any phone, e-mail or snail mail. Throw away Nafta and make Fair Trade Agreements. Remove ALL troops from Iraq. Hold tribunals for all War Criminals in the Government and Media who enabled this disaster. Cut military spending immediately by 40%. Eliminate Bush tax cuts for billionaires. Up Corporate Income tax rate back to pre-Regan level of 75%+ (from 0% today). All this needs to be done in the first week of a Kucinich (I can hope) Presidency.
yesterday on cnn, ed henry said that the petaeus report would not be the turning point that everyone expected but would instead be more of the same.
he must have been referring to the same "everyone" that knew saddam had WMDs and was persuing nuclear weapons.
the truth about "petraeus day" is this.
as we've known all along.
Eh! What’s six months?
six months is the length of time from any arbitrary point to the beginning of the next six months.
2 more Friedman units until the 2008 elections.
Eh! What's six months?
A Friedman Unit.
We've been Freidmaning all along and I suspect we're going to be Freidmaned again.
Freidman me once shame on you, Freidman me twice.....uh.... don't get Freidmaned again.
What is really revolting is that Bush is going to get his additional 6 months; Bush is going to get his additional $50 billion; Bush is going to get all of the concessions he wants from the brainless and spineless and gutless opposition. People are dying. People are being mutilated. An entire nation is being slowly bled to death. Yet the Dems -- in titular control of the House and Senate -- are afraid to stand up to the war criminals and their lackeys.
We gave the Dems a weapon last November. They took it, smirked at us, and put it in the attic. They never had any intention of listening to the voice of the people. After we drive the Republicans out of power and into oblivion, can we all get together somewhere and form a new Party that will actually deliver on its promises to work for the people who put it in office? Maybe just call ourselves the American Party? Or the We're Mad As Hell And We're Not Going To Take It Anymore Party?
Just a thought.
This is all just a game to cokey. He sees the lives of our GIs as nothing more than game pieces in a never ending game of Risk the board game
not worth a comment. I've already wasted too much energy on this.
The thing to do is to start writing your local papers' op/ed page and use the term, "Running out the clock", which is a term that even a Republican can understand. It is the most obvious explanation of what the administration is up to. They're simply handing off the problem to the next president so as to let him or her take the blame for the cost of cleaning up the mess.
These people have no idea how to end this without looking like the incompetent criminals they are. So let's get to work. It takes 10 minutes, max, to write your local paper with a little nugget of truth to counter the tons of bullshit that BushCo will be laying out this week.
"Running out the clock" That's the frame. Use it, please.
Slideguy @ 23:
Good point.
I believe the first question that should be asked of both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker should be:
Has the White House ordered you to portray the Iraq situation in a favorable light?
And the second question should be:
Has the White House suggested to you that it would be in your best interest to portray the Iraq situation in a favorable light?
Might be interesting.
'Playing'.... Yea, I like that word as it applies to all this shit... that's a tag that's a little close to the real truth folks...
But, the tagline ought to read 'playing and punking the world for fun, profit and power... The neocon agenda... Now in bidness officially since 2000, unofficially? At least 60 years.....Brought to you by Dick, George, Donnie, Condi and an host of other shifting and changing support charactors"....
And the mantra?
Six more months, six more months, six more months.....
Rinse, repeat... ad nauseum.............................JD
They only need 3 more 6 months, and that's what they're playing for.
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