Bush administration never said to stay the course in Iraq.

Wagner · #1 10-24-2006, 08:11 AM

Quote:

In another interview with CBS's "Early Show," Bartlett dismissed assertions that the Bush administration's strategy for Iraq is to "stay the course."

"It's never been a stay-the-course strategy," Bartlett said. "Strategically, we think it's very important that we stay in Iraq and we win in Iraq. And if we were to cut and run and go and leave that country too early it would be a disaster for American policy."

Ahh what??

Next thing he'll say this administration never used the word 'resolve'.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/...raq/index.html

Side Bar:

Why don't we just stop having polls asking if American's believe we are 'winning the war in Iraq'. You can't win something when you have not been told what the goal is. Last I checked there was never a list of boxes to complete in order to WIN in Iraq.

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blondboinsd · #2 10-24-2006, 12:41 PM

I was laughing with mom about that this morning, the best part about the 'pubs is we don't even need to bad mouth them, they do a good enough job of putting their foot in their mouth without our help

ifly · #3 10-24-2006, 01:11 PM

Whatever happened to "Mission Accomplished" when they keep talking about defining the mission and the mission has changed? I thought Mission Accomplished was the last thing you said. If they meant getting rid of Saddam they should have said "Objective Achieved".

Gotta love politicians!

Eric5273 · #4 10-24-2006, 01:16 PM

I've kind of been out of things for the past 2 weeks as I've been helping my parents pack their stuff to move from the house they have lived in for 31 years, so I haven't been paying much attention to the news or current events lately, but I happened to read some stuff yesterday on Bush's new "Military Commissions Act". I cannot believe that our congress actually voted for this thing.

Basically, it suspends Habeas Corpus. It gives the president the power to declare anyone an "enemy combatant" for any reason he choses (this reason does not have to be disclosed to anyone). This includes American citizens. Once declared an enemy combatant, you do not have any legal rights. They do not have to tell you why you were declared an enemy combatant, or why you were arrested. They can hold you as long as they like. You are not entitled to any kind of hearing in front of a judge. And if they decide to prosecute you, you will not have the right to any legal cousel, nor will you have the right to see the evidence being used against you or even be present at your own trial. Also, once declared an enemy combatant, the government can interigate you using any method they wish stopping just short of anything which will cause "permanent physical harm" (wording from the bill itself).

Yet, Bush had the balls to stand up there in front of the media the other day and say that this bill gives proper legal rights to detainees. The lies this administration tells is unbelievable.

Good luck if you are ever mistakenly detained under this bill.

Keith Oberman did a segment on this the other day on his show. He basically says it all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oKDCFB48kk

ifly · #5 10-24-2006, 01:24 PM

Yeah the CEO and I were talking about that one Eric

over!

Does that mean they are going to arrest all the winners in the next election??? Stranger things have happened.

noncom23 · #6 10-24-2006, 03:04 PM

Big Brother, ever closer.

Eric5273 · #7 10-24-2006, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ifly

Yeah the CEO and I were talking about that one Eric

over!

Does that mean they are going to arrest all the winners in the next election??? Stranger things have happened.

As Oberman points out, John Adams used the Alien and Sedition Acts to jail thousands of newspaper journalists and Woodrow Wilson used the Espionage Act to indefinately jail thousands of anti-war protesters. These two instances and Roosevelt's executive order to suspend Habeas Corpus in order to imprison 110,000 Japanese Americans during WII are the only times in our history that Habeas Corpus has been suspended for American citizens. Until now that is....

I think they should make a law that it is illegal for politicians to lie to the public. Although I'm not in favor of the death penalty, I wouldn't be opposed to it being used for this specific crime, if it is proven that such a lie either caused or had something to do with the death of Americans or American involvement in a war.

motordavid · #8 10-24-2006, 04:35 PM

I seldom wade in on the political posts, but I'm with BigWag
and Eric on these issues.

The Military Commissions Act, while "saved" at the last hour
from including US Citizens, came very close to covering all
people, regardless of citizenship...as for any non-US Cits,
you can "disappear" and no one will ever know why or, that
you have "disappeared"...sorta chilling, unless the gov't
actually catches a bad guy.

Politics and bs politicos being what they are, we will hear
how the cause and effect got out of hand, was exaggerated,
was thought to be on focus, was good for the econ, good
for the world to see, stopped/slowed terrorism, blah, blah, blah.

The top dogs, both elected and appointed, are curiously incurious
and not very bright, imo.

As for the current soft shoe crabbing going on, well Gee, it's
only costing about $6,000 per second to keep the "democracy
effort" going on in Iraq, et al.

Some recent reading projects the "war" at topping 2 Trillion bucks...

In the run-up to the Iraq war, Donald Rumsfeld estimated that the
overall cost would be under $50 billion. Paul Wolfowitz argued that
Iraq could use its oil to “finance its own reconstruction.”

But now several careful studies have attempted to tote up various
costs, and they suggest that the tab will be more than $1 trillion —
perhaps more than $2 trillion. The higher sum would amount to $6,600
per American man, woman and child.

“The total costs of the war, including the budgetary, social and macroeconomic costs, are likely to exceed $2 trillion,” Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-winning economist at Columbia, writes in an updated new study with Linda Bilmes, a public finance specialist at Harvard. Their report has just appeared in the Milken Institute Review, as an update on a paper presented earlier this year.

Just to put that $2 trillion in perspective, it is four times the additional cost needed to provide health insurance for all uninsured Americans for the next decade. It could cover a lot of other stuff, too, including real
Homeland "security", and on and on, and on...

Before the chest pounders show up, I am, like everyone else,
"for the troops". I am not "for" the ridiculous waste of life, on
both "sides". I'll shut up...for awhile.
BR,mD

rangerfan · #9 10-25-2006, 08:49 AM

MD, the truth hurts. I feel sick after reading that. *sigh* Operation Enduring Occupation indeed.

On a positive note, this debacle will provide us with some humor on the new Simpson's Annual Treehouse of Horror. Here's a clip:

"In the Simpson's version, the confusion the radio broadcast created sets the stage for an invasion by Kang and Kodos, the lime-green aliens who have appeared in every Halloween, sorry — "Treehouse Horror" special. The parallels to the U.S. occupation of Iraq are not subtle.

After the aliens destroy Springfield, home to the Simpson clan, they talk about the invasion and the occupation that will follow.

"Well, the Earthlings continue to resent our presence," Kang says. "You said we'd be greeted as liberators!"

"Don't worry," says Kodos. "We still have the people's hearts and minds." In the show's characteristic over-the-top sarcasm, Kodos then holds up a brain and heart.

"I don't know," says Kang. "I'm starting to think 'Operation Enduring Occupation' was a bad idea."

Kodos disagrees. "We had to invade. They were working on weapons of mass disintegration."

As the two survey the smoking ruins of their town, Kang deadpans the last line of the segment. "This sure is a lot like Iraq will be."

E61Silver · #10 10-25-2006, 09:44 AM

No question that Bush got us into a war we cannot win.

The question is what do we do now?

Bashing Bush does not solve the problem, we need a plan to get us out and we need a plan to deal with the middle east.

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