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The Good News From Iraq

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by rimrocker, Oct 10, 2003.

  1. rimrocker

    rimrocker Member

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    Reality sucks. (My comments in parentheses)
    __________

    Bush Urges Public To Be Upbeat on Iraq
    Situation Termed Better Than Perceived

    By Dana Milbank
    Washington Post Staff Writer
    Friday, October 10, 2003; Page A22


    MANCHESTER, N.H., Oct. 9 -- President Bush, launching a new bid to halt the long slide in support for the occupation of Iraq, urged Americans Thursday to be optimistic and assured the public that the U.S. efforts there are proceeding better than it appears.

    Addressing reservists and National Guardsmen at a time when more are expected to be sent to Iraq to quell violence and disorder, the president marked the sixth month of the fall of Baghdad by bidding Saddam Hussein "good riddance" and noting that the seemingly chaotic situation in Iraq is "a lot better than you probably think."

    (From USA Today...

    "The enemy has evolved," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said Thursday in Baghdad. "It is a little bit more lethal, little bit more complex, little bit more sophisticated and in some cases a little bit more tenacious."

    Sanchez said coalition forces need to be prepared for more casualties and a long stay in Iraq.

    USA TODAY examined 30 daily security reports filed from Aug. 17 to Sept. 28. An analysis of the 558 attacks detailed in those reports shows:

    •Violence has spread from the capital to northern Iraq. The most troublesome region remains Baghdad and the "Sunni Triangle" areas to the north and west of Baghdad, where support for Saddam Hussein remains strong. But rebels are also active in the north, where the predominantly Kurdish population opposed Saddam's regime. In Mosul, rebels have attacked coalition forces or their Iraqi allies at least 40 times in the past six weeks.

    •Attacks are more coordinated. Attackers increasingly initiate an ambush by firing a rocket-propelled grenade or detonating a roadside bomb. The assailants then shoot at coalition soldiers with AK-47 assault rifles. On occasion, attackers have detonated an explosive to lure quick-reaction forces into ambushes.)


    Bush's twin speeches here in New Hampshire, to service members and business leaders, were meant to be the keynote of the administration's reply to critics urging a reduced U.S. commitment in Iraq. "Americans," the president said, "are not the running kind." Bush's speech, however, was delivered on one of the more violent days in postwar Iraq: An attack on a police station killed eight, a Spanish diplomat was slain and another U.S. soldier was killed in an attack on a convoy.

    (First, we don't change the policy or even reevaluate our position... we just shout out that we are right and try to do it louder than the critics. Second, in the 24 hours before this speech, we lost not only 8 Iraqi policemen, a Spanish diplomat, and a US soldier, but also 2 other US soldiers with at least 5 wounded and another 45 Iraqis injured.)

    Bush did not directly acknowledge Thursday's bloodshed, but he implicitly addressed the difficulties and their toll on his standing. "When you become the president, you cannot predict all the challenges that will come, but you do know the principles that you bring to the office, and they should not change with time or with polls," he said. "The challenges we face today cannot be met with timid actions or bitter words; our challenges will be overcome with optimism and resolve and confidence in the ideals of America."

    (It's clear Bush has not changed his "principles.")

    Bush's largely identical speeches Thursday, delivered in Portsmouth and Manchester, received substantial advance billing as the White House has worked to shift the focus from the violence in Iraq, the lack of international help, the absence of proscribed weapons and the controversy over the administration's leak of the identity of a CIA operative who is married to a critic of Bush's Iraq policy. Bush used many of the same lines he commonly uses in the remarks he gives at fundraisers, but with a more measured tone.

    Still, the speeches furthered the administration's shift in emphasis from Hussein's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction to his desire for such weapons and the general evil he represented.

    (Bait and switch. If something is a failure, most reasonable people admit it and try something else that has a chance for success. This guy just rephrases the failure and hopes people don't notice. The emperor has no clothes.)

    Echoing his speech to the United Nations almost two years ago about the Taliban in Afghanistan, Bush celebrated the fall of Hussein's statue in Baghdad, six months ago today.

    "Who can possibly think that the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein still in power?" Bush asked. "There's only one decent and humane reaction to the fall of Saddam Hussein: good riddance."

    (Saddam was a bad man.)

    Bush repeated national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's contention Wednesday that it is "undeniable" that Hussein violated U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 -- not necessarily with actual weapons, but with biological laboratories that could have been used to produce weapons and with work on missiles that could have exceeded legal limits. "I acted because I was not about to leave the security of the American people in the hands of a madman," Bush said.

    (Not necessarily with actual weapons? I guess the Iraqi WMD program was more advanced then we thought because they obviously are the first on our planet to master cloaking technology. By the way, in the speech Bush also said: "Since the liberation of Iraq, our investigators have found evidence of a clandestine network of biological laboratories." But, here's Kay...

    "We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort…Technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers.")


    Some Democrats have argued for a pullout of U.S. troops, and some in Bush's own party are seeking to give Iraq less direct aid. Democrats on Thursday issued a statement from Rep. Edward J. Markey (Mass.) complaining that "the Bush administration has proposed billions in open-ended grants" to Iraq despite the "decrepit state" of the infrastructure in the United States.

    (I don't understand why people are upset that things cost 10x or more over there than what they cost here or why people are talking about the cost-plus contracts issued to companies for services DOD used to do cheaper or why Bush cronies are setting up lobbyijng firms right and right to cash in on the rebuilding.)

    Though he did not say so directly, Bush suggested a concern that pressure would grow to turn away from Iraq. "Now our country is approaching a choice: After all the action we have taken, after all the progress we have made against terror, there is a temptation to think the danger has passed," he said. But, invoking the vulnerability shown by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he continued: "America cannot retreat from our responsibilities and hope for the best. Our security will not be gained by timid measures. . . . I believe America has only one option. We must fight this war until our work is done."

    Ah, another appeal to 9/11. Can Bush make it through just one speech without exploiting the tragedy? And only a fool would think the danger has passed... what a strawman he presents here.

    I don't think it would be moral to pack up and leave tomorrow, but damn, we've got to get some people in charge who can objectively evaluate this problem and come up with some strategy and choices, even it is a choice of really bad vs. not so bad.

    If we have to fight the war until our work is done, define the work in meaningful terms... Do the words Basque, Irish, Palestinians mean anything to this administration? It's looking more and more like we didn't learn and are now condemned to repeat.)


    Bush blamed the news media for the public's negative impression of events in Iraq. "Life is getting better; it's a lot better than you probably think," he said. He cited improvements in Iraq's infrastructure that are "much different from the perceptions that you're being told life is like."

    (Then why is unrest growing and demonstrations becoming more frequent?)

    Bush's first appearance on Thursday, before the National Guardsmen and reservists at Pease Air National Guard Base, came at a time when such troops are carrying much of the burden in Iraq. With the lack of foreign troop commitments, it is becoming increasingly likely that two large National Guard brigades will be added to the Iraq rotation in the spring. And there is word that a third brigade is on alert. With more than 166,000 reserve and National Guard troops already on active duty, the military is concerned that these service members might choose not to reenlist after their extended tours in Iraq.

    "Serving your country can bring sacrifice and uncertainty and separation," Bush told a few hundred troops in camouflage, along with their families. "Your lives can be changed in a moment with the sudden call to duty."

    (Your lives can be changed even quicker by an RPG. And there was nothing sudden about this... it was being planned even before 9/11. The fact that this administration ticked off every ally that could offer real help (except GB) is one of the major failures.)

    Even as Bush delivered his new message about Iraq, he made time for politics, giving a speech in Lexington, Ky., on Thursday night for Ernie Fletcher, the GOP candidate for governor. And he made an unannounced lunchtime visit to the Caesario's pizza shop here in Manchester. "This is not a campaign stop -- I'm just hungry," Bush said, laughing. He posed with diners and walked behind the counter, passing a hamburger to a server.

    With Democrats in Arizona for Thursday's presidential debate, Bush, unopposed for the GOP nomination, had the first primary state to himself. After his luncheon stop, he seemed in high spirits as he addressed the local Chamber of Commerce at a downtown hotel. Bush joked about his "first great victory" in New Hampshire in the 2000 campaign -- not in the primary, which he lost to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), but in the candidates' pancake "flip-off."

    (Everything is politics to this administration. Though I can understand how so many would want such a witty guy in office. He's a real card. By the way, two more soldiers killed and two more wounded today.)
     
  2. twhy77

    twhy77 Member

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    Did you add all the witty commentary to the article? I couldn't even read the whole thing because its just a crappy way to present things. I'd say the same to T_J if he presented an article like that.
     
  3. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    Yeah, I thought that was pretty much understood when the first line said this
     
  4. twhy77

    twhy77 Member

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    doesn't change the point sam
     
  5. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    The point being that you're asking questions you know the answer too? or that Wesley Clark wants to spend billions of dollars on time travel? What was it? I must have missed it.
     
  6. twhy77

    twhy77 Member

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    Sam you're a moron. The point was that it was a crappy way to present things. Maybe you've been watching FOXNEWS and you can't understand what I'm saying.
     
  7. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    Ah, so the point was to create a diversion so as to call me a moron rather than address the substance.

    It worked, congratulations.
     
  8. twhy77

    twhy77 Member

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    Well, I meant moron in an older brother to his kid brother kind of way, kind of like hey there kid read what I was saying, kind of like how you guys do with T_J all the time...
     

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