sure its working . . . if you like moral and national bankruptcy, compromised principals, flouted international prisoner conventions, trampled constitutional protections. It's been just peachy. Don't forget that the same media whores telling us its working are the same ones who told us it would be a cakewalk, too.

The Iraqi Poiticians have us by the balls and are going to milk this country for all it's worth.This is another fine mess you've gotten us into Jorge.

$$$

lol! fuck you lazy iraqi!

Americans can continue to send C-41 super size cargo planes full of cash to pay off Iraqis so they won't kill each other for another 10 years. Don't think so.

uh mr. iraqi minister? no.
we're leaving next year. get used to the idea so it won't be such a shock when it happens.

15 years for them to stand up, so we can stand down.

Mission Accomplished!

the war is never going to end until we stop using internal combustion engines

sassafra @ 12:

uh mr. iraqi minister? no.
we're leaving next year. get used to the idea so it won't be such a shock when it happens.

of course thats assumeing barack obama or shrillay clintons not elected president!or some repig hack! clintons got big oil throwing big bucks at her im guessing baracks getting his share,last night and even before last night hillary said shed have troops left in iraq dureing her terms barack say the same things any repig says we have to keep troops in iraq to protect our interests , that being the embassy the oil the twelve military bases, only edwards says all troops out of iraq in twelve months , his only caviat is a quick reaction force for iraq left in kuwait, wich i dont approve of, anytime the iraq nationalists feel like knocking off a few americans they will be able to if you send in a few troops to quell any upriseing, this makes me unhappy ,if were going to leave then leave!!!!!!!!!!!!if your unhappy with the war and with corporate assholes pulling the strings on our politicians how can you even think of voteing for more of the same bush lite politicians?

"Pentagon officials expressed no surprise ..."

Probably because they knew all along. Bastards.

So, our occupation costs more than $150 per barrel of oil pumped and we pay Halliburton to pump it. Then Halliburton sells us the oil for ~$100/barrel.

Making the cost of a barrel of Iraqi oil, $250/barrel.

NO

The US was really lucky.

What if Abdul Qadir had said '2058'?

That would mean the US future would be fu**ed for the next half-century.

Shouldn't we amend the Constitution so that Abdul no longer is in charge of the US military, and foreign policy?

QuestionGirl @ 9:

Just like here, the government's words and actions .....do not reflect the wishes of the people. The U.S. military itself conducted focus groups of a cross section of Iraqis and found:

* Until the March 2003 US occupation Sunnis and Shiites coexisted peacefully.

* Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the US military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them.

* After the United States leaves Iraq, national reconciliation will happen "naturally."

* A sense of "optimistic possibility permeated all focus groups ... and far more commonalities than differences are found among these seemingly diverse groups of Iraqis."

* Dividing Iraq into three states would hinder national reconciliation. (Only the Kurds did not reject this option.)

* Most would describe the negative elements of life in Iraq as beginning with the US occupation.

* Few mentioned Saddam Hussein as a cause of their problems, which the report described as an important finding, implying that "the current strife in Iraq seems to have totally eclipsed any agonies or grievances many Iraqis would have incurred from the past regime, which lasted for nearly four decades -- as opposed to the current conflict, which has lasted for five years."

But we're not hearing about that.......

Thank you for posting that- I'm absolutely sick and tired of our stupid commentators saying things like "we can't solve a 1000 year old war!!!(sunnis vs. shias)" . The fact is that most all the sunnis and shias in Iraq are related by family. There really was not some huge hatred between the two. It is definitely in the US interest to create divisions because if they were unified then US troops would've had a much larger problem on their hands. When the Al-Sammara mosque bombing took place, our government would have us believe it was sunni's behind the attack because they were angry at the shiites. But anyone and everyone knows that theres no way any muslim, sunni or shia would engage in that bombing. Trust me when I say Iraqis(and I bet they're right), believe that it was the US involved with that attack.

Regardless, if the iraqi defense minister believes we should stay there till 2018 he doesn't have the Iraqi people's interest at heart because they will only accept an immediate withdrawal of US troops AND NO PERMANENT BASES.

My repube father-in-law informed me last night that "the war is over" based upon, I can only guess, that the Michigan primary exit polls (Republican ones) indicating that the economy was the voters' top concern (i.e. that the economic disaster now out polls the Iraq disaster).

I politely replied that people are still dying on a daily basis over there, and that we are still spending $1.5 billion per WEEK as well. My reply was met with a sort of condescending silence.

As is typical, I unforunately came up with some better, actually snarky responses after the fact, though if I had used them I probably wouldn't be invited back for dinner anytime soon (imagine my disappointment - snark):

"Oh, good, we win! So can we now bring the troops home with your permission?"

"And it only took the economic collapse of the U.S. middle class to achieve it!"

"Can we go finish the job in Afganistan now?"

"Geese, if that suicide bomber had only waited one more day, all those people would have been alive to see the end of the war, bummer for them... and their families, and..."

"What??? What war? I can only focus on one thing at a time... didn't you know there was a marine missing? He killed a white woman!!!"

please feel free to add to them, I could use some additional fodder for the next assinine comment.

But I do feel much better that the war is officially over, don't you?

Do we get free oil during that time? You better decide quick,bush is pumping it out of your country as fast as he can.

Without vetting Qadir I would surmise that he is a US puppet and will be dead wihtin a year, unless he has great security. JMHO.

That is a load of crap. Why is it that the Iraqi's are so incompetent that they need 10 MORE YEARS of occupation before they can defend themselves?

The taxpayers of the United States cannot and will not continue to pour more and more money into the black hole of Iraq for 10 more years! The debacle in Iraq is draining our resources - both our treasury and our military forces - and we must stop it right away.

There are PLENTY of other countries who can help Iraq. Why aren't the Arabs getting together a task force to replace the occupying US forces? Why can't Arabs solve this problem? Let THEM spend their money and shed their blood for Iraq. Put some of those windfall profits from $100 per barrel oil to use!

The only way that I would agree for us to remain in Iraq past 2009 is for Iraq to GIVE us their oil - not sell it to us, but outright hand it over - so long as we are responsible for their security. Americans cannot pay $3.00+ per gallon for gasoline and still afford to provide security for Iraq. Give us the damn oil or we're going home. Period.

That is a load of crap. Why is it that the Iraqi’s are so incompetent that they need 10 MORE YEARS of occupation before they can defend themselves? -- Jonathon

*******************************

Ironic, isn't it (not to mention hypocritical), that the Republican Party which is largely although not solely responsible for dragging us into this godforsaken mess has in at least some ways actually been helping if not encouraging the Iraqi people to depend upon our largesse and apparently sees absolutely nothing wrong with this ? Even though these are the same people who, when it comes to something similar here at home, will quite happily pontificate ad infinitum and ad nauseum to the effect that welfare and other programs designed to provide assistance to those in need ought to be cut because they encourage people to be dependent upon the government instead of taking personal responsibility and hauling themselves up by their own bootstraps?

Jonathon @ 38:

That is a load of crap. Why is it that the Iraqi's are so incompetent that they need 10 MORE YEARS of occupation before they can defend themselves?
.

Iraqis already have a group capable of defending Iraq, and its led by Muqtada Al-Sadr. Our puppet government needs to come to an end. Iraq's future is in the Iraqi's hands and thats how it always should be.

Besides, like the recent 40,000 pounds of bombs we dropped on Iraq....our "assistance" is pretty poor.

And in other war crime news, Halliburton keeps profiting off of ill gotten gains.

Saddam managed to do it a lot faster than that. It won't happen until a crazed but charismatic dictator who hates America gathers a power base, overthrows the government, and represses most of the country. Not pretty, but that's pretty much how it usually goes in that part of the world.

Notice 2018 is conveniently until _after_ the next two Presidential elections. He doesn't know. Put it down as "indefinite" like US troops are in Germany and S. Korea.