CNN's concerted strategy of hurting our war effort

good point. think of how much stronger they become if they add "we drove off america" in their rhetoric. "see how week the west is", etc.

 

sometimes you have to determine your objectives are unattainable.

 

Can you explain to me what the objectives are?

 

"speculated" being the key word. gates himself said there is no proof of the iranian government being involved.

 

what a load - the american people elected congress to end this bull**** war and what they have done is put up a dog and pony show for the masses, in the end giving bush exactly what he wants just about every time.

why do you think their approval ratings are even lower than bush's?

what do you think about the 50% of the troops who have actually served and say that iraq is not winnable? are they defeatists and terrorist appeasers? (trader texx, feel free to answer that one too anytime buddy!)

 

the war is not winnable.

See: Vietnam

 

What objectives? I don't agree with your definition, but by the same logic I could just as easily say a war is unwinnable if you don't know what your objectives are.

 

also, see: 50% of the troops who have actually served there.

 

i agree. i dont think i said it was winnable, not in the strict sense. But it certainly can put one side stronger than when it started or one side weaker...a relative win if you will.

 

Sorry, that is the nature of having an oft changing government like we have in America. That some previous administration supported terrorists does not make the current administration terrorists. The administrations that funded terrorist organizations were terrorists.

Then you are wrong, sorry. We supported terrorists when we funded Saddam. We supported terrorists when we funded death squads in Latin America.

Saddam paying the families of suicide bombers is terrorism. Otherwise, Osama bin Ladin is not a terrorist, since he doesn't actually participate in the attacks. Saddam killing political dissidents is terrorism according to your very own definition of terrorism (killing civilians for political reasons). Saddam gassing the Kurds is terrorism. Yes, the Bush I administration was a state sponsor of terror. I would imagine that Bush II would just pardon him though. Bush I and Rumsfeld should be forced to answer for that though.

Many people around the world would be wrong. Israel doesn't do any of the things I talked about Saddam doing. There are large minorities in Israel that are critical of their government. The are not disappeared by the party in power. The government does not consist of a single party that magically wins all the elections with 99+% or the vote. They don't fund terrorist organizations. They don't gas their own people.

I suppose I am at that. Of course, that assumes that they really want us to stay in Iraq, which would be contrary to their stated aim of driving the infidels out of the lands of Islam.

 

He also said this: That said, as I indicated, I think that it's -- the quantity that we're seeing makes it difficult to believe that the Iranian government doesn't have some indication or some knowledge of it," he said.

If I taught you anything with the butt whooping I gave you, its to look at all the information...please...

For example, we know Burns said in no uncertain terms "It is coming from Iran"...

we know Gates said the quantity he sees makes it difficult to believe that the Iranian government doesn't have some indication or some knowledge of it.

It may be that Gates' has decided to not make a definite statement...After all, Burns likely has a greater overall assessment of reliable information, so I personally feel comfortable enough with the stance Burns has asserted...

 

again, this too is speculation. i like how you avoid the factual info gates provided, while only quoting his speculations.

whatever you are smoking, pass it this way please.

 

So you would take his statement that he doesn't have proof, but you take his expert speculations for trash...?

He could be telling the truth, yes...the truth is beholden to Burns who likely is bequest to the overall Iranian threat better...The truth is there is evidence galore of Irans involvement....

 

...Evidence...

The U.S. military in recent weeks captured the Iraqi leader of a network that brings the projectiles into Iraq from Iran, as well as other members of extremist cells provided with funding, training and munitions by the al-Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, said at a news conference in Washington last week.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302530.html

 

no i take his speculations for speculations.

"I have seen analysis suggesting a considerable flow of weapons and support from Iran," Gates Robert Gates told reporters in Brussels. "And I have not seen information that would directly tie it to approval by the government of Iran."

 

...More evidence...


The EFP parts, the officials claimed, are shuttled across the border with Iran at night, along with money and other weapons, through centuries-old smuggling trails. Three problematic border points were listed: Mehran, which is due east of Baghdad, the marsh areas around the southern city of Amara and the border crossing near Basra. The Iranian fingerprint, these officials claimed, was in the pieces used to manufacture the EFPs, as well as the usage of the infrared triggers. "Some components are solely found in Iran," the senior defense official said.

According to the briefers, it was the use of EFPs by another Iranian-supported group, Lebanon’s Hizbullah, that led American military officials to suspect a possible Iranian link. Hizbullah has used EFPs against the Israeli Army in southern Lebanon repeatedly in the late '90s. In Iraq, they are used by splinter factions of the Shiite Mahdi Army, or "rogue JAM" in military shorthand, which have allegedly been assembling and planting the explosives. The officials also noted that they had been used by the "Shaybani network," a group run by a former commander of the Badr Brigade called Abu Mustafa Shaybani. The intelligence analyst said that Shaybani no longer had links to the Badr Brigade, a rival Shiite group to Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army that has now renamed itself the Badr Organization and has members in the Iraqi Parliament. Shaybani, these officials claimed, is currently in Iran and lives with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), specifically the Qods Force.

The officials zeroed in on the Qods Force as the "enabler of violence." "[The Qods Force] really report directly to the Supreme Leader," the senior defense analyst said at the briefing. This had led the U.S. military to conclude that the campaign was being orchestrated at "the highest levels of [the] Iranian government." Recent U.S. military raids in Baghdad have nabbed top members of the IRGC. Disclosing some of the details of these raids, the briefers said that last Dec. 21, Mohsen Chizari, allegedly the No. 3 man in the IRGC, was pulled out of a compound linked to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the top Shiite party in the government. Chizari was later freed when it was proven that he had a diplomatic passport. The defense analyst told the briefing that there were no dubious ties between the Qods Force and members of the Iraqi government, but the senior defense official seemed to contradict that assertion by noting that soldiers found a long list of weapon inventories at the SCIRI compound--including sniper rifles and mortars, items that he called "offensive-type armament."

Another five members of the IRGC were taken out of an Iranian diplomatic office in the Kurdish Iraqi city of Erbil in mid-January and are still being detained. When the U.S. military raided this office, which Iranian officials insist has consular status, they allegedly caught the group trying to flush documents down the toilet. At least one of the suspects was trying to alter his appearance by shaving his head. And one of the detained men, the officials claimed today, also had explosive residue on his hands. Additional exhibits at the briefing included two IDs from the suspects held in this raid. One was an official IRGC ID for a 43-year-old colonel named Baqer Qabshavi. The branch of his work was listed as "intelligence." The second card was a student ID from Iran’s Imam Hussein University for a bearded middle-aged man named Hamid Reza Askari-Shekooh. His area of study was listed as "strategic defense studies."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17103722/site/newsweek/

 

Hey jo momma, since we are all about posting from non-mainstream news...What about this!!!!!! The source is from your...very...OWN ...PRESS ESCAPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
KILL THEM!!!!!!!!KILL THEM!!!!!!!!

http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=3554

Source: Press Esc


Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Washington yesterday and met with US President George W. Bush to finalise plans for a joint US-Israel strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
President Bush hinted that actions against Iran will form the core of their discussion.

"I'm sure that we will find some time, also, to discuss other measures, such as the danger of Iran and the threats that come from the President of Iran, who talks time and again about the liquidation of the state of Israel, something that is totally intolerable and unacceptable," he said. "And we have to continue the measures taken in order to stop the Iranian efforts to establish unconventional weapons."

Talking to reporters at a joint press conference Bush once again re-iterated his position on military strikes against Iran by saying "I will tell you this, that my position hasn't changed, and that is all options are on the table."

"And I fully understand the concerns of any Israeli when they hear the voice of the man in Iran saying, on the one hand, we want to acquire the technologies and know-how to build a -- enrich uranium, which could then be converted into a nuclear weapon, and on the other hand, we want to destroy Israel," he added. "Look, if I were an Israeli citizen I would view that as a serious threat to my security. And as a strong ally of Israel, I view that as a serious threat to its security -- not only the security of Israel, but the security of the Middle East."
Olmert also met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to obtain their broad support for military action against Iran.

Pelosi's comments welcoming the Prime Minister indicate that he is likely to get the backing he is seeking from the Congress.

"With the Republican and Democratic leaders gathered here, you see how strong the bipartisanship is for a great U.S.-Israel relationship," Pelosi said.

Meanwhile, Iran has formally complained to the United Nations about the planned strike by US and Israel.

"I wish to inform you that, emboldened by the absence of any action by the Security Council, various Israeli officials have unabatedly continued to publicly and contemptuously make unlawful and dangerous threats of resorting to force against the Islamic Republic of Iran," Iran's UN ambassador Javad Zarif wrote in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, dated June 11.

Iran has also accused the US of carrying out covert operations aimed at destabilising the country.

...It looks like even the far left has my back... watcha think about that great "great U.S.-Israel relationship"?

 

looks like the objective is not being told "I told you so"

 

I am FAR from liberal (ask Batman Jones, glynch, et al). I, as a moderate conservative, believe that your argument is bogus. The "enemy" you desperately want us to have is, at this point, the citizens of the country we went in and took over their government. Shocking that they would want us out after 4 years.

Al Qaeda has nothing to do with the Iraq conflict. They simply are not there. I believe that they are gleeful that we are in Iraq, because that distracts us from tracking down the real people in power in their terror network.

By the way...freedom to dissent and to criticize the government are amongst the basic freedoms which those who support the war hold so dear. Why would you want to squelch that freedom? Very strange...suspect even.

 

TJ

.It is so sad that TJ who views himself as an uberpatriot sees the majority of his fellow Americans who opose Bush's war as being fifth columinsts who are aiding and abetting Al Qaeda.

This thinking sort of makes you understand how the conservatives have supported death squads to kill their felow citizens in such Latin American countries as el Salvador and recently Columbia.