Petraeus: The Surge is Working, Premature Pull-Out Would Be Devastating

correct me if im worng...

but when i took texas government (way back when...) i learned that the governor of texas is mainly a ceremonial position; his powers are really limited. the leutinent governor actually has more power than the governor. i think after the civil war, the texas legislator designed the state government like this to avoid giving one man too much power.

 

Obama was clearly suggesting that an option would be to go after these groups even without Pakistan's permission which does constitute a violation of their borders and likely would result in a massive backlash and perhaps sour the relationship and destabalize the country. His comments alone were damaging to relations and the delicate situation over there.

 

It's hard to believe that the Senate would unamiously approve him and then bash him a few months later. There was zero controversy with him as a pick. It could be that many of these attacks are purely political and more directed at Bush that Patreaus....that is discrediting Patreaus is a means to discredit Bush further.

I think your characterization of Patreaus as a bush crony is completely wrong considering Patreaus has no ties to Bush.

 

what are you talking about? pakistan made a truce w/ al qaeda to allow them to live and operate freely in the northwestern part of the country. their isi are big supporters of al-qaeda and furthermore, one of their generals was the money man behind mohammad atta.

another way to put it would be that the civilian leadership in washington hindered our forces efforts in catching bin laden and allowed him to get away (see tora bora). if special forces had been allowed to go after him they would have caught him.

feel free to read here to get an idea of how bin laden was allowed to escape.
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a1101pakistanaid

if the situation was reversed and say mexican terrorists had attacked pakistan causing pakistan to invade mexico and mexican terrorists were in the u.s. and pakistan was giving the u.s. billions of dollars in economic aid while we made a truce w/ the mexican terrorists to not attack us if they were allowed free reign in arizona and new mexico, than yes, they would be justified to send commando units to tuscon and las cruces. at the very least, they would be justified in cutting off the billions in economic aid they give they country which is harboring terrorists who want to attack them.

 

I really couldn't be more disgusted. The President of the United States hiding behind a general in order to sell a policy that the American people manifestly do not want. Of course, he's been doing it for months, but something about this week and seeing Petraeus and Crocker up there trying to defend the indefensible really hit it for me.

Leadership my ass. Bush is the biggest coward to ever live in the WH. We saw it on 9-11 and we see it here.

As for Petraeus, why would any intelligent general get roped into this and allow themselves to get tied so greatly to Bush and a failed policy? Particularly when this president has a habit of jettisoning generals when they don't agree or have served their purpose. His ambition got the better of him and we're all poorer for it. Petraeus has now served the needs of Bush and will gradually fade away. After he retires, he'll write a book trying to set the record straight, but nobody will care. He sold his soul for the longest of long shots that predictably failed. He's now a pathetic footnote.

Why any member of the military would ever again vote Republican is beyond me. They have done nothing but ruined traditions, destroyed laws that were so tough to get after WWII, overextended the forces to a criminal degree, screwed with the intelligence, lied to both the American people and the soldiers, neglected the care and protection of soldiers, used them as props and political chits, overruled military decisions while pushing political ones, lied about the deaths of soldiers to score domestic political points, and finally, this spectacle of having a General go sell a political policy on behalf of an unpopular president. Any true conservative in the military should be going ape-shiite over all this.

I agree with the analysts who suggest this whole dog and pony show is not aimed at changing US opinion in general... just buttressing the dead-ender contingent enough so that cloture votes go in Bush's favor or he has enough to sustain a veto. All so he doesn't have to admit to himself that he's a miserable failure. In the meantime, a thousand more soldiers will die.

Worst President ever. Most cynical President ever.

"I guess the Secret Service had a little scare yesterday. ... For a couple of hours, they could not find President Bush. Turns out he was just hiding behind General Petraeus."

---Jay Leno

 

You are correct. The governor is at the mercy of the Lt. Governor and the House. Bush had a very strong relationship with a powerhouse known as Bob Bullock. In fact, Bush campaigned for president on his ability to reach across the aisle. But as soon as he was elected, he quit reaching.

 

I'm usually not big on Leno . . but that was funny

Rocket River

 

Krugman nails it... here's an excerpt...

 

I think if anyone is going to support a more accerated withdrawal of troops, you have to develop a plan to keep the country from falling into a total mess when we leave. It's not enough to say it will be better anyway...you have to have a plan.

Now, if that means partition, that's fine. But you have to first partition the country and then leave, not the other way around.

 

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this is just my opinion but...

I think americans would be willing to accept our current position in iraq (the fact that we cant withdraw) if bush would be a man and just say that he screwed up.

 

Actually (and this is the REAL problem), Bush has to admit his grand plan is a complete failure and partition is the best way out. He will not and wants to push that off into the future to keep himself clean from it. Bush will not admit that his grandest plan was a disaster while still president because that would be too humiliating.

 

I disagree.

W announcing to the world that

• Saddam was not connected with OBL or 9/11
• pre-war intel was cooked
• he really only thought Iraq had a small amount of WMD
• fired generals who disagreed with him, so that he later can say that he listened to the generals
• he had absolutely no idea what to do after the Iraqi military was defeated and the occupation began
• there was some political motivation to invading Iraq
• waiting four years of failure and a sound election spanking before rethinking his strategy was kind of stupid
• etc.

would really help his cause?

 

people always say this( for example... if the texans just admit they screwed up then people would forgive them" but i just dont buy it. If they do admit it, people will go up in arms and then say how stupid they are and they even admitted it themselves, they should quit, etc etc.

People will always b**** about something.

 

The Texans aren't beholden to the American people. And they aren't sending people to die in a war of choice.

Bush has been wrong every single time he said we were succeeding in Iraq. If he refuses to acknowledge that, why should anyone believe him now?

 

Man, if your financial advice was like your political positions it would be: "Play the lottery as much as you can."

 

By "we" I guess you mean the 30% of the country that still doesn't know the war has been lost. (Coincidentally the same percentage that still thinks Saddam had something to do with 9/11. LOL.)

I don't "just decide to" support a successful outcome in the Iraq war for the same reason I don't "just decide" the tree in my back yard will grow money.

You don't get to decide what constitutes the "pro-American team." You're at odds with the vast majority of Americans on the war and on Bush. You are also at odds with the majority of Iraqis, the military and the rest of the world.

 

admission of error is the first step.

bush keeps asking for a little more time a little more patience. im pretty sure that the majority of americans are fed up w/ the "we're succeeding" lies. the only thing bush has been right about is the fact that we cant withdraw.

if wants to gain the support that hes gonna need, its time for him to man up.