Viva Iraq! Let's Party like it's 2018
Can someone track down all the times that President Bush and others have said that the Iraqi military has made just awesome progress in their training during the last years now and list them please?
Iraq's new army is "developing steadily," with "strong Iraqi leaders out front," the chief U.S. trainer said.
That was three-plus years ago, and the trainer was David H. Petraeus, now the top American commander in Iraq. Some of those Iraqi officials at the time were busy embezzling more than $1 billion allotted for the new army's weapons, according to investigators.
Nationwide security: In the latest shift, the Pentagon's new quarterly status report quietly drops any prediction of when local units will take over security responsibility for Iraq. Last year's reports had forecast a transition in 2008.
Bush's prediction: In January 2007, President Bush said Iraqi forces would take charge in all 18 Iraqi provinces by November. Four months past that deadline, they control nine provinces and none of the most volatile ones.
Cost: At least $22 billion has been spent to train an Iraqi military with narrow capabilities, critics and outside experts say.
Pentagon's view: Lt. Gen. James Dubik, the current trainer, said his team has made "huge progress in many areas, quality and quantity." Still, "we're not free of difficulties," he said, citing as an example a critical shortage of midlevel Iraqi officers that will take years to close.
Iraqi view: Dubik says Iraqi defense officials don't expect to take over internal security until as late as 2012 and won't be able to defend Iraq's borders until 2018.
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Kickin' sum ass like "W" can...
Now, when will Americans kick their Representatives ass and demand accountability to this mess?
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When you post stories like this
You embolden the enemy.
9/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJuMX1GzD6I
From video heading text:
Former Commander of U.S. forces in the first Gulf War, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf and newly appointed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in a 1997 interview, defend the decision not to go on into Baghdad and remove Saddam Hussein from power after the first Gulf War in 1991.
An ominous and prescient warning totally ignored by the Neo-Cons in the Bush II Administration.
From PBS Frontline's "The Gulf War", 1997.
Also see former President Bush-41's comments on his reasons not to go on to occupy Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.
This is depressing. Watching the right-wing shills trying to spin their way out this fiasco will be interesting. But lets get real. We got to get the Hell out of there.
Hannah Hussein @ 3:
Schwarzkopf [if we had gone in in '91] we would be like a dinosaur in a tar pit…
How true it is.
Strawberry Hussein Shortcake @ 2:
Are you kidding?
"Can someone track down all the times that President Bush and others have said that the Iraqi military has made just awesome progress in their training during the last years now and list them please?"
That would be like trying to name all the stars in the Milky Way!
lafin gas @ 6:
Jesus, lafin', since when does snarkiness go over your head? Are you okay? :^D
Hannah Hussein @ 5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I&NR=1
Here is Cheney from '94 on CSPAN saying we would have been in quagmire in Iraq.
These guys all developed amnesia when the prospect of endless war profits landed in their laps.
Andy "George W. Bush has never been elected. The ‘Machine’ took it and gave it to him." K Jong Il @ 8:
Sorry, just awoke from my nap!
OT: Bush greeted at new D.C. ballpark tonight. A large hail of boos.
Sadr apparently told his militias to back off as long as Maliki stops the raids on Sadr's malitias. Is this success? What a mess. What now? This seems like a bad dream.
LOOK OUT, CONGRESS! Betray-Us is going to be back in town next week handing out more of his STUPID PILLS. Ask the tough questions. Treat him like a Bushie. He'll Betray-Us again... and again... till January of next year when his current boss gets his walking papers.
wonder how the mood this yr will be for the fourth of july and vets day?
dismal to say the least.
Are the repigs that ??? nuts, is the word, to not see the ugly harsh truth? wtf more do they need? reports here , hearings there,, pages after pages of a ´´think tank´´ group that reads the same results. Asking high profile newspapers to not report breaking news, due to a ongoing investigation,, then it all comes out 4 months later and ppl are outraged.
Sending this new Gen here, this new Adm here,, this new yadda yadda here in iraq to ´´make changes and surge it up´´
comon, thats like sitting on the edge of the beach building a huge wonderfull sand castle and keep checking your watch because high tide is coming soon. It came, there went all the hard work, but lets rebuild it again in the very same spot, over and over and over again.Oh wait, we might move down to the left maybe 30 ft because the waves there didint acutally knock over the spot where the sand castle would be,, it touched it yes, but ,,hmm destroy it,, nah.
P.D. @ 12:
Now you will not find out from the media how much money the American taxpayer is paying "this time" in bribes to all parties involved. Bush's regime wants Iraq messy, but not too messy. Keep it broke up into three or four, and then when you get enough cash thrown around to calm things, you stick your American straw into the sand and suck up the oil. Voila! Success!
just remember that 22 YO kid with the $300 million dollar arms contract was supplying both to Afghanistan and IRAQ,
so the hapless Iraq army police force has his junk ammo.
300M = three billion rounds of ammo at 10c a round or thereabouts, hmmmm doesnt that sound rather a lot or maybe the money was going somewhere else.
lafin gas @ 10:
Here's the prescription- drink a cappucino & Red Bull. If you fail to
laughchortle, see your personal physician.ferrofluid @ 16:
Dude, you are harshin' on Efraim. Not cool.
***snark*** (for lafin gas)
Isn't it a bit odd that no one questions the basic model of having the Iraqi army in charge of internal security in Iraq. This model seems to be much admired by the military and right wing types. Of course there is that inconvenient Posse Comitatus law but heck, it's not even part of the constitution. Start to worry if the Coast Guard starts getting unusually large appropriations.
It's about Permanent Military Bases
Peter G @ 19:
Not a bad idea- if we hadn't gotten rid of the Iraqi Army after the war ended.
And even then, the old Iraqi army was dominated by Sunnis, as were most facets of the Iraqi power structure. And this phenomenon preceded Saddam. The minority Sunnis dominated the country since the state was created by the Brits.
We don't talk about it enough, but the Iraqi Sunnis ghettoized the Shii'a. Sunnis kept Shii'a out of the universities, out of the government and out of the loop. Maliki represents the minority of Shii'a- those who were allowed to rise into the middle class. Sadr represents the underclass. And we haven't done a damned thing about that.
How many Friedmans will transpire before our military is completely broken?
LA is right of course. That Embassy is a slap in the face. It is a huge symbol of aggression. And I heard personal can't even stay in it. Our tax dollars at work!
Peter G @ 19:
Posse Comitatus is a nice idea but... Face it occupied countries are inherently under martial law... And off the top of my head decades were the military were used to police (or outright against) the populace in this nation: 1860's, 1920's, 30's, 50's, 60's, and 90's.
"Iraqi defense officials don’t expect to take over internal security until as late as 2012"
Four years after the inauguration of the next president. What a strange coincidence. Operation "dump this mess on the next president" continues in earnest...
ferrofluid @ 16:
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dude or miss, you must be a accountant! only someone who crunches numbers all day, and of course a person with machine gun /rifle knowledge would be able to calcuate that so ,,,,,precise! You work for the pentagon by any chance?
(snark)
Section 3. of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America
I reckon theres quite a few DC Republicans who fall under the 'given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof' clause
There more than enough preliminary evidence to start impeachment hearings against GWB and Cheney and others.
Friar Tuck @ 26:
sorry nope, just basic illiterate maths here, and guestimate at prices of second handy rusty crap.
I do have an electronics background (in a past life), so numbers are not scary but fun.
EliteLemming @ 24:
Just so but with the consent of congress as the law intended. I can only wonder if this is yet another aspect of congressional oversight that the Republicans yearn to mail over to the Whitehouse.
Andy "George W. Bush has never been elected. The ‘Machine’ took it and gave it to him." K Jong Il @ 18:
Dude , his haircut (if it can be called such) is very uncool and rather square 70s style.
ferrofluid @ 30:
then again this is Florida we are talking about....
ferrofluid @ 28:
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if you speak german well i know of a good ITC firm here that would hire you in a heartbeat!
you should be in the line of bean counters as we say here. Pretty impressive.
Friar Tuck @ 32:
I barely speak good english, as most of suffering acquaintances say so, The English do not speak good english :)
and with that,, iam out. Take care fine ppl and thanks again for all of your posts and of course johns online magazine ;)
With that, i bid you all a good night /eveing there and wish you a better tomorow wherever this post may find you.
Be good and be good at it.
Regards,,,,
ferrofluid @ 27:
That's a streeeeeeeetch.
While the Civil War isn't specifically raised here, that's what the clause was about. To invoke that clause, insurrection/rebellion would have to be acknowledged by the government. And, iirc, that hasn't happened since the Civil War.
If we had a time machine, we could put 2008 Dick Cheney in it, send him back in time, and 1994 Dick Cheney could shoot him in the face.
Andy "George W. Bush has never been elected. The ‘Machine’ took it and gave it to him." K Jong Il @ 35:
Its this bit that is the clincher
so much American foreign policy is anti American and seems to be designed to enrich foreign oil companies and outside forces.
being retarded or incompetent is not a defense in law, only a way to avoid standing trial.
Bushco has shown themselves to be treasonous and incompetent time and time again, nothing else explains their almost 100% track record of turning everything they touch to sh1t.
ferrofluid @ 37:
It would still have to be aid or comfort given to someone who was recognized as being in rebellion against the US government. And to be in rebellion against the US government, one would have to be a subject- a citizen- of the US.
Like I said, you're stretching it.
So by reduction
this means that Americans embezzled the other $8 billion that went missing
Andy "George W. Bush has never been elected. The ‘Machine’ took it and gave it to him." K Jong Il @ 39:
how does arming insurgency groups that are killing US soldiers fall under this !?
thats exactly the situation that is going on in Iraq.
American soldiers are being killed with US issued weapons.
ferrofluid @ 41:
That only proves incompetence, not insurrection.
It would be interesting to know what percentage of troops instantaneously retired in the past week.
I see all the snide and snarky, but very sincere comments above. BUT wake up! McCain promises to win and McCain may be leading Hillary and Obama. Too many are supporting McCain and preparing to sell us down the war river for from 4 to 100 years.
This Iraq mess is unwinnable no matter how the Neocons define winning. Why are we continuing to let these fools have any say and to even consider McCain as a viable candidate?
gussmith @ 44:
With all due respect, what is it you propose? As I see it soon the Democrats will have their candidate and go on the attack against the neocon candidate McShrub. He is their candidate of choice; we can't change that.
We can all work to support the Democratic candidate and most of us will. Again, I am as frustrated as anyone, but what exactly do you propose?
The Clinton's lost $40,000 on a Whitewater investment and the investigation went for four years and cost around $60 million.
No one will investigate the looting of the treasury for $1 billion dollars and the rampant profiteering for the war. The republicans would make it too profitable for themselves and it would be necessary to keep it a secret so as to not encourage al queda.
Hannah Hussein @ 3:
There also was a news article that had comments from Bush I's secretary of state who said they did not want to overthrow Saddam because the various Shiite factions within Iraq would start a civil war afterward.
They already had a military capable of defending their borders. I don't understand why it would take more than six months to redesign the personnel and logictical infrastructure on paper, hire experienced troops to fill those slots, then train together.
There is no Army to defend Iraq, the insurgents are the ones getting paid! Ask that new prime minister of Pakistan. He just laid it all out he said you are not going to use us for killing fields. That says it all, War games paid for with real blood all for the fun of Banker elite scum.
PROGRESS.....
BUSH CLAIMED THAT WE NEED #### TRAINED IRAQI...
SO WE HAVE ARMED THEM
AND TRAINED THEM
------------DOES IT STILL COUNT IF THEY QUIT AND JOIN THE ENEMY
Yes, let's train Iraqis to go and kill other Iraqis when the occupiers, that do not want to waist a valuable US life, says so.
That is just has to work. I simply cannot see where that could fail.
Come on, the US knows how to play this game. They did it before. You get one group to oppress the other group.
@given aid or comfort to the enemies:
Do Americans really have 5 minute attention spans?
Bush sr, Rumsfeld, Cheney and co gave aid and comfort to the likes of Saddam, The Taliban, Osama and other fine people/organizations.
You know that was when they were using them to fight someone else and before they back stabbed their old buddies.
This is not some ill-guided well meaning intentions but people who knew damn well who they were supporting and giving money to.
They lied and cheated and murdered their way through the last few decades.
Wake up US! You are being Governed by the RNC goons, a group that makes the Mafia look like the Peace Corps.
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