larry--

It's not that he doesn't get it. It's essential to the fundamental lie that has been the foundation of this war that it is about terrorism.

That's all he's got. He has promised Americans, from the beginning, that he invaded Iraq to keep terrorists out of the United States. That was never a claim that could be supported by any evidence whatsover, but, I presume, it focus grouped well.

It's not gonna work anymore.

Most bizarre in the speech was his declaration that the Iraqi Parliament would pass legislation that he has demanded it pass. Leave aside that there is no quorum at the moment. What does that say about the sovereignity of the Maliki government?

and if he does get the Iraqi Parliament back into session it will be because Moktada al Sadr comes back. good grief!

2) Let on that he is planning to go into Iran/Syria. (When he talked about destroying camps where Iranians and Syrians are training insurgents)

The idea of opening up new fronts and false fronts at that is really scary.

true dat.

You're stuck between hopelessly clueless or utterly nefarious liar.

And stupidly shortsighted to boot. What's Bush got to bring to bear against al Sadr? Moqtada has shut down the parliament. He controls a militia that represents very serious opposition in block to block fighting, and he also controls incipient citizen guerillas.

All I can conclude is that this is the best stall he could come up with.

Once again, how many seconds did it take before he invoked 9/11 again?

And instead of winding down US involvement in the region he intends to pull an Emeril Lagasse (BAM!) by creating a new war front with Iran.

His arrogant patronizing of the sacrifices our troops are making is simply unbearable. And while he blithers on about "freedom" and "democracy" in Iraq, he's asserting some twisted Constitutional right to open our mail without a warrant.

The whole circus needs to end.

Sadr is a street thug just like Saddam Hussein. Sadr is a Shiite cleric and Saddam was a secularist Sunni, but their methods of accumulating power are very similar. Sadr's Mahdi Army must be disbanded but it's doubtful that Maliki has the power or will and we don't even know if Sadr completely controls his own army or if he is beholden to other Shia warlords.

"President Bush is like a gambler who has lost everything, but yet continues to try to salvage his fortunes by doubling down one more time. The problem is that he's gambling with other people's lives. There is no military solution to the problems in Iraq -- Bush must recognize this reality." Rep. Jose Serrano - Dem-NY

powerful poetry and scary as hell.

Leading up to the speech, I was recalling the Nixon escalation speech where he outlined the mining of Haiphong (sp?) Harbor and the bombing of Cambodia. I was quite young and pre-politically aware, but I found it all very exciting and I remember feeling I was witnessing history being made. A year or two later and I was quite aware and anti-war. The other thing I remember was the seriousness of the post speech commentary on the networks and the time devoted to analyzing the implications.

Tonight I watched a bizarre Bush, reading his teleprompter like an automaton; no emotion, no passion, no indication that he even cares what befalls the US or Iraq. I honestly think he just wants the next 2 years to be over with so he can get back to clearing brush at the ranch. I was watching NBC. They gave about 5 minutes to "analysis", then hurried back to the all-important episode of Deal or No Deal.

I agree with a few others here that the real point of all this is to prepare for attacking Iran - get more troops in theatre and get more naval and air assets into the region for a bombing campaign.

This country is doomed unless we can muster the passion necessary for a double impeachment of these craven, lying war criminals. Anything short of that is an acceptance that our country has completely lost our soul.

UA

The addition of the Carrier attack group to the Gulf is to attempt to provoke Iran into using the new armaments that they have. If they work as well as the upscaled RPG's that were used against the Israeli tanks, in Luigi Vampa's words:

We're fucked.

Not only would our Navy suffer a killer stroke on a ship- no, that would be the smallest part of the suffering.

It would give the Chimp-in-Chief the excuse to translate "The Way Forward" into what Mr. Wolfowitz, Mr. Feith, and the Zionistas wanted all along-

"The Way into Iran"

Alphonse ( Al ) Kada

William Lind, an 'old fashion' conservative type who is a recognized authority on 4th generation war, discussed a Stalingrad type scenario if Iran is attacked:

.....Unbeatable militaries are like unsinkable ships. They are unsinkable until someone or something sinks them.

If the U.S. were to lose the army it has in Iraq, to Iraqi militias, Iranian regular forces, or a combination of both (the most likely event), the world would change. It would be our Adrianople, our Rocroi, our Stalingrad. American power and prestige would never recover......

link

Bush is still in kick ass mode. He is still an idiot. He still commands a military that is still loyal to its Commander in Chief. He still has the support of powerful people who approve of and support his power grabs as President. He still has the confidence of, what now, Twenty five percent of our neighbors.

He predicted many American and Iraqi casualties in the next year. He still has the power to guarantee that. He also threatened Iran.
>

Now, now... careful.

You'll get Daalder's choir singing their "Decency" song to us all again.  Could you at least tone it down to cscs' bush is a "dumbass" level.  I could live with that.

______________________________________

“I, ..., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

With Sheriff Dick and Deputy Dubya you can take your choice of either stupidity or criminality. Either they don't know what to do and so they just can't do anything right, or they can very well do something they shouldn't and just won't tell us about it. Of course, Israel could just have duped them into stupidly doing something criminal in pursuit of Israel's interests in which case that leaves them looking both stupid AND criminal from the viewpoint of American interests. Characterize these Mayberry Machiavellis any way you like, but their ruinous reign has done nothing but harm America.

Israel seems pretty pleased, though, and would just love to see Dimwit Dubya blunder into Iran, as well. Tough shit how many Americans and Iranians die. With "friends" (or eternal dependent pets) like the Israelis, who needs enemies?

America must leave the governing of Iraq to Iraqi's.

The fascist warmongers and profiteers in the Bush government are expert in the black arts of, slime, propaganda, and disinformaion, and have succeeded in perpetuating a few exceedngly dangerous and PATENTLY FALSE fictions, myths, and partisan parables with regard to 9/11, the socalled neverendingwaronterror, al Quaida, Iraq, and the shapeshifting slurry of "evildoers".

First, the fascist chickenhawks, imperialist corporatist, and satanic obdurate heartless brutes in the Bush, and government and every single office, agency, organization, and individual in the Bush government, - and America’s half a trillion dollar US defense industry, - and $44bn intelligence apparatus were thoroughly and soundly DEFEATED on 9/11, by 19 jihadist mass murderers (15 Saudi's) using box cutters and our airplanes.

There is quite obviously some very scary and whacky math in these equations and calculus.

Now, don't get me started with the creepy kissing and freaky interpenetration with the Bush Crime Family Cabal's and the "good friends", and America's sworn enemies in SA, - but the incontrovertible FACTBASEDREALITY, - and one the disinformation warrios , sloganeers, and profiteers in the Bush government, and the complicit parrots in the socalled MSM, CANNOT and will not ever legitimately excuse, ignore, deny, cloak, or fly away from - is that 9/11 happened on the Bush governments watch.

9/11 happened on the Bush government's watch!

9/11 happened on the Bush government's watch - and there was plenty of national intelligence estimates, dire warnings, and Able Danger reportage that the fools, or fellow conspirators in the Bush government tragically for whatever unknown unknown reason IGNORED and then cravenly cloaked.

The Bush government was either complicit, (google Indira Singh, Sibel Edmonds, Ptech, and Wolfgang Bohringer, "Vigilant Gaurdian" and "Vigilant Warrior", for starters if you dare and get back to me) - or these chickenhawks and fascists were woefully, criminally incompetent.

Either way, the fictions, myths, partisan parables, fascist homilies, and PATENTLY FALSE Bush government narratives regarding 9/11 are hollow, meaningless, and moot.

America has never had a real investigation into the horrors and mass murder of 9/11. The socalled 9/11 investigation is a pathetic partisan whitewash, that cloaked more that it unearthed, and that only holds water for fanaticus truebelievers and the ignorant, or people incapable of reading, - and it is a grotesque injustice and disservice to all Americans.

The key point I am making is that al Quaida, the socalled neverendingwaronterror, the Iraq horrorshow, and evildoers are pathetic Bush government conjured constructs.

Are American's and socalled realists expected to believe that these jihadist cavemen are truly a threat to our way of life and the unique experiment that WAS America's democracy.

The fascist in the Bush government are the real threat to our way of life and what little remains of our democracy.

Framing this conflict against jihadist mass murderers as a "WAR" or in any terms linking to "WAR" is a fundamental component of the disinformation and propaganda disinformation warfare campaigns the fascist Bush government ruthlessly and ghoulishly exploited and used as a "Pearl Harbor like event" to mesmerize and terrorize the American people into turning a blind eye to, or robopathically condoning the NAZIFICATION of America and the perpetuation of the psychotic Pax Americana neverendingwar and empire agenda pimped by the fascist warmongers and profiteers in the Bush government.

The neverendingwaronterror, or "GOW" is a PATENT LIE, perpetuated by pathological liars, sloganeers, and disinformation warriors who singularly and exclusively, - not to mention wantonly - PROFIT from its’ prosecution and perpetuation.

The only human beings on earth that benefit in any way from these ghoulish, bloody, costly, noendinsight, and obscenely PROFITABLE machinations, policies, and horrorshows - are select klans, cabals, cartels, coteries, cronies, and oligarchs in, or beholden to the fascists in the Bush government.

The rest of America, all Iraqi's, and most of the rest of the world are either paying a terrible enormous price for these CRIMES, or working feverishly to counter the hegemony, imperialism, predation, and wanton profiteering of the fascist warmongers and profiteers in the Bush government.

As we see in Somalia, - the best way to deal with jihadists, salafists, wahabi's and the malignant freaks that perpetuate the mass murder and psychotic mass murdering insanity of jihadist islam, - is to hunt, capture, and kill every single one of them, and all those who aid and abet them.

These efforts involve covert, intelligence-centric, POLICE actions, not massive land invasion and occupation scenariors or the missallocation of blood and treasure in rabid pursuit of the socalled neverendingwaronterror.

Like all gangs and gangbangers past and present from John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, and Al Copone, to Pablo Escobar and The Cali cand Medellin Cartels, - to the modern mafia's all over the world, - wise and intelligent leadership must conduct LEGAL and ruthless police actions, (which may or may not involve military assets and resources) involving under-cover, covert, deep cover, assets, resources, and systems and all the counter terrorist tools available in a coordinated and concerted effort to ruthlessly hunt, capture, or kill every single mass murderer on the planet, and all those who aid and abet them.

Just as local police services collaborate with, collate and utilize information from a wide variety of intelligence sources in the determined and ruthless hunt for any mass murder that would plague any city, - so we must direct our focus, energy, resources, and assets, (and every police, military, intelligence, or ninja tool in the shed ) on hunting, capturing, or killing every jihadist mass murder on the planet, and all those who aid and abet them.

This hunt, these police actions will, and must include all the jihadist mass murderer gangs including Hamas, Hesbollah, al Aqsa, Islama Jamiyaa, al Quaida, blah, blah, blah, - those shaitans and freaks called the Janjaweed in the Dafur, Chechen jihadist - all of them, everywhere on earth, and all those who aid and abet them, should and must be relentlessly and ruthlessly hunted, captured, or killed.

We can all applaud the painless, relatively inexpensive, and easy slaughtering from the air of the jihadists mass murderers in Somalia. Bravo.

Why did the Bush government wait so long?

Why are Hamas, Hesbollah, al Aqsa, Islama Jamiyaa, et al. somehow immune from the Bush government terrible swift sword. How hard can it be? These mass murderering hordes are not superpowers, with air and sea power. Most of them fight with AK-47's, RPG's, and IED's, and though the technicals in Somalia have heavier weapons, small boats, they are no match for puff the majik dragon C-131’s and the hell and fury our hypersuperior military can and should unleash upon them whenever they are discovered or rear their mass murderering heads.

These targeted strikes should not be based on political expediancy, as this Somalia espisode would appear to be, - but on tactical and strategic necessity.

That said, - invading, occupying, and marauding sovereign nations, slaughtering thousands of the victim nations innocent civilians in the process, conducting religious reformations, and forcing perverted political constructs upon the people of the victim nation, erecting puppet governments bowing to, and perpetuating the will and way of the invading, occupying, marauding, slaughtering force, - and that imperialist fascist invading, occypying, slaughter force PROFITEERING wantonly in and from the bloody, costly, and unholy process is TYRANNY, IMPERIALISM, and FASCISM, - not liberation, or promoting democracy, or minimizing threats to America.

The fascists (Vulcans/neocons) in the Bush government are pathological liars. Nothing they say or do, has any semblance of, or basis in reality, or the slightest glimmer of truth, credibility, or legitimacy.

Unless and until America garners the courage and the wisdom to recognize that our government is commandeered by FASCIST, criminals, and war profiteers, - America's future, and the future for most of the world will continue to be a bloody, costly, deceptive, pursuit of neverendingwar, and American hegemony through military force and control of oil resources.

Sorry for the long post, - but please -
"Deliver us from evil!"

It is so painful to watch this unfold.
I could envision Maliki being told by Moktada al Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, exactly how to lead the American troops into an ambush.
How to act surprised at the level of resistance. Shaming, embarrassing the "Greatest military in the world"
Bush then coming on the tube invoking Remember the Alamo, The Sinking of the Maine, possible response statement "We can't let this go unanswered, because the enemy will be emboldened even more." Besides we have to remember all those who have given their lives, to promote freedom (as defined by the US and it's SOLE interests)

Baghdad will represent the New Berlin, surrounded by enemies armed with surface to air missiles. probably the ones we gave Bin Laden to fight the Soviets. So a massive airlift might eventually be necessary but very risky. So again what is gained by securing Baghdad?

“Freedom’s just another word , for nothing left to lose “

Maybe the plan all along was, and still is, to keep the sectarian violence perpetuated, so that Iraq can't unite according to it's design, it's own self determination, because American interests wouldn't be served.
For that reason, why doesn't Bush just take the oil fields outright, instead of suggesting that the Iraq parliament sign the bill allowing sharing of revenues. If he’s so afraid of oil revenue supporting terrorist , take away the revenue source.

We take the oil and we sell the Iraqi's what they need, we could kill to birds at once. Control the oil and control the commerce. Norm Coleman get your I TEAM together, oil for food will be chump change. We could control all commerce in and out of Iraq, if only we could rid these outside trade routes. Of course we'd have to deflect criticism, we'll claim to be protecting Iraq’s borders her Sovereignty. ( In fact England showed the colonies how to work that economic slavery)

Maybe I'm to cynical, but this is Deja vu or **** you,

Possible thought processing before making speech
Is it possible, that thoughts like these could cross the mind of someone lacking humility. "I'm Commander and Chief, and mistakes were made. (So sue me) I didn't quash the resistance sooner. I couldn't convince the American people to turn in their neighbors, you know the ones who weren't with us, the traitors Dick and I and lackeys called them, and their co conspirators, the weak American press and those pesky minority Democrats. We should have fired Shinseki as soon as we took power. Big mistake."

"Now we have to prevent the overthrow of the Saudi Royal Family, if they have to send their sons into war, it would be unpopular and could cause unrest, maybe topple my buddies. Not to fear I'll put my subjects in harms way. At least that's what my advisors told me, AIPAC think tanks think. "

" to hell with our hemisphere, (Chavez has oil, he's next). Moderate Arab nations (Ones that like US) and Europe are depending on me to deliver our blood and treasure to the alter of fire, for the sacrificial rite."
"I'd better call it the alter of liberty" " Maybe I could convince the public of the coming Apocalypse and scare them into sacrificing their blood to God.

Just some thoughts.

PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL

Mr. President , Mr. Commander and Chief , do you think you could humble yourself and apologize to this man, do you think that when you tell us you’ll take full responsibility for the countless and unnecessary deaths you could call this man and ask for his forgiveness or ours.

I doubt you'll ever be man enough to say "I'm sorry"

Eric Ken Shinseki
He is famous for his remarks to the U.S. Senate Armed Services committee before the war in Iraq in which he said "something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" would probably be required for post-war Iraq. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz publicly disagreed with his estimate.[1]
When the insurgency took hold in post-war Iraq, Shinseki's comments and their public rejection by the civilian leadership were often cited by those who felt the Bush administration deployed too few troops to Iraq. On November 15, 2006, in testimony before Congress, USCENTCOM CENTCOM Commander Gen. John Abizaid said that General Shinseki's estimate had proved correct

Thanks Mr. Johnson.

Going over this again ... terrorism is a tactic ... not a person, a group, a movement, a country, a state, a region, an ethnicity nor a religion.

It is a very old tactic. cf. the New England wars between the Wampanoag and British colonists during the 1600s being one of innumerable examples.

Thanks.

How is securing Baghdad – even if it can be accomplished, which I doubt - supposed to translate into “success” in Iraq in the long term?

Isn't it clear? "Breathing space..."

I didn't have the same take on Durbin's speech. I do agree that it did not respond closely enough to what Bush actually said (but, do responses ever do that?). But what he did say was very important, and I think was the center of his remarks -- 20K troops are not enough to stop the violence, and too many to commit at this point in time.

The 911 comment, I agree was the wrong wording. It's not like they are calling us for help -- in fact, they want us out. What I think he was trying to say, was that we are not forcing their hand, that the longer we remain in Iraq without benchmarks, the longer we'll be there. We need an endpoint, and we don't have an open-ended commitment.

I do think the Dem position is more thoughtful than you characterized, but I agree that did not come through enough last night. The takeaway line, as I mentioned, was about the 20K troops, but there should have been more.  

Dissent Protects Democracy.

Senator Mikulski nails it here:

Sen. Mikulski (D-MD): "This is a reckless plan - it is about saving the Bush presidency, not about saving Iraq."

Whether Bush is delusional or insane, he is incompetent. Given the broad spectrum of advice not to add troops, he says he is going to do it. He is a real and present danger to our country.

Just say "NO" and cut off the funds. Iraq will be far better off when we get our troops out of the mix there.

Unlike the preseident, you weren't hallunicating.

The questions are good. Isn't there some rule like "Occam's razor" that says , always choose the most simple explanation ? Somewhat like "if it walks like a duck " . That line of reasoning takes me back to the surface explanation . He's a guy who partied and drugged his way though the part of life during which maturing happens - from college to the early 30s-. After which it's been too late for him to become anything other than a cliche-thinking schemer.

What we see is ,I'm afraid , what we're getting. A half formed adult in a job that requires a mensch. The really frightening conclusion is that he actually believes much of that drivel. God help us all !

Does anyone here think when Bush said "Mistakes were made and I take responsibility for that" it was a huge admission of personal error?

No, absolutely not. He has deniability built into the sentence, because what he actually said was, "WHERE mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me." Within the confines of that sentence, one can argue that no mistakes have been made at all. Ergo, he said absolutely nothing with respect to his own liability.

Later, he can twist this quote to his favor. Which way, of course, is dependent on whether he is "successful" or not.

In times of stress and trouble, when confronted by the truely fabulous (barely believable, incredible, something out of legend) I revert back to that bayou boy who had never been more than 200 miles from home before joining the army. In other words, I agree with you 100%: We are soooooooo fucked, no matter what happens. In the best case scenario we are totally fucked. In the worst case scenario, our grandchildren will still be trying to get out of this fuckup as they watch their own grandchildren trying to deal with it.

Why is Kieth Olbermann the only figure in the MSM who seems to see what all the rest of us here see?

Bushco delenda est

Good catch.

Faux news has already started sliding the meme into it's newscasts, first with Hannity's "Enemies of the State" segment, and most recently yesterday with the Faux news anchor marking Ted Kennedy's speech at the press club as made by the "enemies within".

Will Andrew Sullivan launch back into the "Fifth Column"?

Alphonse ( Al ) Kada

Speaking as one of the "Fortunate Sons" who was sent into Cambodia in 1970, I would like to say that I have always felt bad that the incursion into Cambodia had the effect back home that it did. I am sincerely sorry that something I was involved in, even though not at my choosing, caused such strife at home. At the time a lot of people blamed those of us serving for Viet Nam but in time they realized that we had no say. It wasn't our war any more that it was theirs.

I am begining to get the sense that todays troops in Iraq are begining to feel as we did back then... it was wrong to be there and it is wrong to be in Iraq. Neither war should have ever happened.

IMPEACH NOW!!!

The BBC reported several weeks ago about the huge numbers of people fleeing Iraq. Some estimates put it at one million mostly to Jordan.

In addition neighborhoods are being ethnically cleaned so that within a short period of time the division of Iraq into three (not necessarily contiguous) parts will be complete.

This is what eventually happened in Yugoslavia, why isn't this being talked about with Iraq? If the population shifts continue eventually the violence will subside since the ethnic objectives will have been achieved. Bush can then claim a victory and just keep forces in the oil rich parts of the country (where they will be "invited" to remain).

--- Policies not Politics
Daily Landscape

I can think of something that would extend the effectiveness of the terrorism bogey man a little longer. God help us.

I am sorry that you felt that we at home blamed you. I actually had my most important conciousness raising done by Vietnam Vets. I had been against the war for some time, but became radicalized by the vets, many of whom I knew before they were drafted. (I lucked out with the lottery.)

IMPEACH NOW!!!! 

YES! That is another threat to our country that many may not be aware of, i.e. a military coup. Congress cannot rest until the Constitution is sovereign once again and this sociopath and his backers are out of power.

I agree with your take on Durbin's speach. It was pathetic and ridiculous to blame the Iraqi people at this time. Especially when you look at what the economic looters, i.e. Bechtel and their ilk, have wrought.

Why hasn't re-development money gone to Iraqi businesses to hire Iraqi workers to rebuild the infrastructure? Because the Bush mob gave all the contracts to their cronies who brought in workers from abroad. Who was it that said a man with a shovel and a lunch box in hand won't pick up a rifle? Well he was right!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . .

Reuters tells us that "U.S. forces stormed an Iranian consular office in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil early on Thursday and arrested five people, including diplomats and staff," and NPR  augments the story by reporting that Kurdish Iraqi Soldiers and United States forces faced down each other with guns cocked for over an hour during the raid.

This raises several questions in my mind.

1. The Kurds have been the most enthusiastic Iraqis during the American invasion and occupation.  While details are sketchy (and there may, admittedly, be elements of deniability operating here), it seems that his act against the Iranian Consulate was taken without consent of the local Kurdish Officials.  Are we losing their support along with everyone else's.
2. The implication of the Reuters story is that the raid was concurrent with the President's address...yet he made no mention of the raid, though he made oblique references to stopping Iranian and Syrian "interference" in the affairs of Iraq.  This raid cannot be coincidental, any more than dawn and the rising of the sun above the horizon are coincidental.
3. Choosing to attack a consular office raises the whole issue of extraterritoriality:  Extraterritoriality can also be applied to physical places, such as embassies, consulates, or military bases of foreign countries, or offices of the United Nations. These places remain the sovereign territories of the host countries, and although they are not subject to local law, local law enforcement agencies do have the duties of protecting them from outside disturbances... Our erstwhile allies are bound by international law to defend our "enemies" against us in situations of this kind, and we find ourselves violating the very principles of international law we claim to defend.  Were the shoe on the other foot, there is little doubt in my mind that this administration would treat an Iranian attack on an American consulate as a cassus belli. I shudder to think that this indeed might be the purpose of the attack:  to force Iran to respond in kind and provide a putative reason for the expanded war that Bush and Cheney seem to lust after. 

 Again, meanwhile, according to the Scotsman,

BRITAIN is planning to pull back up to 3000 troops from Iraq in May, it emerged today, as George Bush announced he would send more than 20,000 extra US servicemen to the country to put right his "mistakes".

Our strongest ally knows when to admit futility, and we stand more alone than before. 

I gave up believing it couldn't get worse years ago.  Bush represents the worst of the dark side of American Character.  Holding him accountable (i.e., impeaching him for high crimes and misdemeanors abroad and at home) would show we still have a brighter side.

aMike

Are you sure?

One point that stood out last night to me was that GW posed the reason we must stay in existential terms yet went on to give Maliki, in essence, the decision as to whether we would stay or not by saying that we would be likely to leave if he didn't accomplish XY and Z. Was it General Odom on PBS last night that mentioned this as well?

It appears that Maliki has Bush by the short hairs. Either that or Bush plans to dump him soon in favor of Mr. X. Or, Bush as much as admitted your thesis Larry, that there really is no real terrorist threat to the U.S. tied to Iraq.  

In full agreement here. Sullivan has recently turned into one of the better commentators on the war.

Here's a further post to show that he's no longer buying any Bush*t.

A recent edition of BloggingHeadstv on Jan. 3rd [http://bloggingheads.tv/video.php?id=178&cid=862] had a good conversation about mistakes by pundits and what is forgiveable and what isn’t. Eric Alterman discusses Andrew Sullivan, whom I had no opinion of, quite extensively as an example of what he, Alterman, will not forgive.

Assuming his facts are correct I agree with his conclusion.

neoboho

There certainly has been a great deal of cluelessness with this administration.

In fact, the administration, up until now, has all but openly preserved the failing status quo strategies since, well, before the 2004 election.

Things began to truly fall apart in Iraq somewhere in early 2004. Since that time, right through the 2004 election, Bush has not made any significant changes to his Iraq policy. Sure certain things have been tweaked, but for the most part, the number of U.S. troops in the country has remained static, and its main objective of training Iraqi forces behind the walls of the Green Zone has been unhindered by the violence.

But this "New Direction" isn't the status quo. We are sending more troops with the obvious purpose of doing hard fighting. Larry does a nice job of outlining the hazards of the plan, but I fear we cannot simply dismiss it as being incompetant.

It is, after all, two years in the making. Additionally, it will likely be Bush's final hurrah, his final hail mary to the endzone, with regard to Iraq.

There is no doubt that very specific goals are wanting to be met; many of which likely lead to Iran more than stability in Iraq.

But for these reasons I think it is foolhardy and even dangerous for everyone to simply dismiss the New Direction as nothing but an incompetant plan. By merely dismissing it on sight, the necessary analysis is missed and the productive objectivity goes by the wayside.

To me the speech came across as very patronizing towards Iraqis. I checked Durbin's web site and came across what appears to be a synopsis. If that is really the whole response then I may have to change my view.

"....unknowingly opening a Pandora's box though every move."

Isn't that a description of everything that has happened, beginning with the invasion?

rjb  - have you tried using the link capability so the ugly address is not printed in your comment?

As to Sullivan, a conservative Republican of the type that used to exist pre-Bush, his change on the war makes him a prime target for both sides. I have read him for a long time because he is a thinking pundit, one who reexamines his views and welcomes challenges to his thinking. Check him out.

By 2004 Sullivan announced that he a conservative forever Republican would vote for Kerry because of what Bush had and would do. Since then he has continued to challenge Bush.

War Pigs...

"Generals gathered in their masses,
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction,
Sorcerer of death's construction
In the fields the bodies burning,
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind,
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh Lord Yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave thier role to the poor, yeah

Time will tell on their power minds,
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
Wait 'till their judgement day comes, yeah

Now in darkness world stops turning,
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more War Pigs have the power,
And as God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees the war pigs crawling,
Begging mercies for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
Oh Lord Yeah!"

"The final resolution took another 100 years with the Civil Rights Act of 1964." But then Nixon helped restart the war only four years later, with his southern strategy, and it hasn't ended since. 

John 

http://www.haberarts.com/

Select your text, and click on the right arrow thingy on the bottom. 

Dissent Protects Democracy.

The Iranians might not even need to do that much to give the Bushistas an excuse, any more than Iraq actually needed to have WMD.  Remember the Gulf of Tonkin incident?  Suspicion and misinterpretation will suffice.

Whether I agree or disagree with Sullivan at the outset I find he does a good job of challenging policy positions. Analysis is one of the reasons I poke around the internet looking for informed thinkers, and Sullivan is one.

OK I re-listened to Durbin at You Tube   and found the parts that bothered me. It was when he said something to the effect that it was time for the Iraqi government to provide water and electricity. Maybe it wasn't blaming but it sure seemed to ignore the Bremer doctrine.

I agree, but the way I read the momentum of the situation is that the de facto partition will be into just two significant parts, possibly with some small Sunni remnant that has very little say about anything.

When we finally pull out (I am being optimistic), it will not just be Americans who are leaving. There will be an enormous flood of the last remaining Sunni pouring out of the country.

Once we get over the madness of assuaging our guilt feelings over our failure inside Iraq (again, I am being optimistic), I think we should redirect our efforts, diplomatic and otherwise, to the refugee problem. We might actually be able to do some positive good in smoothing the way of the refugees -- although I do not claim to know enough to suggest specifically what we ought to do.

The refugee problem deserves a lot of attention in its own right. It is a humanitarian issue, we might actually be able to do something positive about it (although I cannot swear to that), and disaffected refugees will be the source of future problems.

It is important to understand that the problem in Iraq is a moving target. The problem is evolving as we speak. It is tranforming into a whole new set of problems. The new problems are the ones that most deserve our attention -- or at least they would be, except that Bush is creating his own reality.

The momentum that I observe is what Bush is trying to reverse.

Sullivan was the author of the "Fifth Column" demonization of everyone that did not support Bush's adventure in Iraq. He blithely dismissed any criticism of the war as support for the terrorists. Alterman routinely pointed out (almost on a daily basis) how Sullivan disparaged anyone that merely questioned the war. He repeated on a fax machine level the neocon talking points on many Bill Maher "Real Time" appearances, to the point of being booed by the audience for the disingenuous comments he made.

Then suddenly, one night on Maher, he seemed to have a "deathbed conversion" and publicly retracted his support, saying that he was wrong to support it. Maher's jaw almost hit the table! Since then, he has been purporting analysis that he previously had dismissed.

I'm all about forgiveness and conversion and such, but prior to that, Sullivan's attack mode was to question the patriotism, intelligence and motive of any that were not towing the administration line on the war.

For that, he should not be forgiven as quickly as some might. I would like to think that it is genuine and not that he has sniffed the wind and is blowing with it to save his income.

Alphonse ( Al ) Kada

Daniel wrote

The final resolution took another 100 years with the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Tennessee's  election in which Harold Ford's poll ratings dropped sharply after the TV ad in which a blond said "Harold , call me" is one indication of the extent to which final resolution occured in 1964.

Larry, you're right, but of course the canard doesn't stop with Iraq.

The inflation of the terrorist boogeyman under Bush has paid many dividends:

- Unprecedented concealment, for "national security" reasons, of illegal and unethical activities
- Voter manipulation with code orange alerts leading up to the 2004 election
- Many billions of dollars in lost time and productivity due to increased security at airports
- Justification for many violations of privacy rights, including domestic wiretapping
- Justification for rescinding habeus corpus under the guise of "unlawful combatant" orders
- Windfall profits for Blackwater and other private contractors of "security services"
- Formation of the gigantic, unwieldy, and poorly managed Dept of Homeland Security
- Incessant corporate media propaganda about overblown threats to America
- The indelible image around the world of America as weak, afraid, and ineffectual

These are just some of the fruits of the terrorism canard, none of which redound to the benefit of the people who voted George Bush into office, pay his salary, and will keep paying him through his retirement.

The real crime is that there is no rational opposition to this fantasy. Democrats don't want to be viewed as "soft on terrorism", so have bought the lie just as much as Republicans have. Now neither side is in a position to suggest that our resources and time might be better spent solving the many (other) problems in our country that are self-inflicted.

I think it is a bit of an exaggeration, jhc, to say that Sadr is anti-Iran. In fact the Mahdi Army has pledged to support Iran in the case of a coalition attack on Iran. Where Iran is concerned, Sadr seems determined to follow an independent course, but not a hostile course.

I don't think it will be very hard for the administration to draw all sorts of plausible lines from the Mahdi Army to Iran, if it is determined to do so. In addition to whatever official Iranian government support the Sadrists receive under the table, there are bound to be some Iranian Shiite fighters in Iraq who are acting on their own. There must also be a fair amount of money and weaponry flowing through the many cracks in the border from concerned Shiite fundamentalist hardliners in Iran, mosques, charities, etc. Bush will pin anything that turns up on the government itself. So, by taking on the Mahdi Army and overturning rocks as they go, they will surely find all sorts of Iranian connections crawling beneath them. They will also provoke a response from independently acting Iranians. The administration only needs to publicize and hype those connections and relationships to get their pretext. We'll be hearing a lot about captured documents and fighters in the days and weeks to come.

Of course, if you kick over rocks in Sunni-dominated parts of Iraq, you would certainly uncover many similar connections between the Sunni insurgency and various countries and governments in the region. The US will not publicize those connections.

In any war like this, all the people in the surrounding region are likely to be involved in some covert way, because they all have an intense interest in who wins.

Then that is what they are looking for in the Iranian consulate?

Libertine said: The Madness of King George...

Was George a Cokehead? Did alcohol destroy his brain cells? Unfit, to make rational decisions, a threat to others? Self destructive behavior? Poor judgement? Fantasy rather than reality.
Surrounded by monsters.

I was actually asking jhaber. But as you say, what do I know? ;-)

I am not by any stretch of the imagination an historian, but right now I am reading Kevin Phillips book, The Cousins Wars. If you take the long view, it can be argued that the conflict in question has been going on since the time of the English Civil Wars.

Every century since the 17th century a deep-seated cultural conflict has broken out into violence: the English Civil Wars, the American Revolution, and the American Civil War. In the 20th century, the civil rights movement was obviously not that violent, and Dr. King probably gets most of the credit for framing the conflict in non-violent terms. For some reason, the American blood-lust has been directed outward in modern times, as in Vietnam and Iraq. I suppose that with modern technology and the modern centralized state it has simply gotten too dangerous to have internal civil wars anymore, so people have to act out their fantasies of dominion elsewhere. (Maybe you can tell that I am a pacifist.)

Mary Chesnut said that everything that Charles Sumner said about slavery was true, but she also wrote, "We went to war because we hated each other so."

That much of this post is probably relevant to the Iraq war, but it would be getting really far off topic to pursue the subject any further.

Maybe it would be relevant to say that Condi Rice's comparison between Bush and Lincoln is true in an ironic sense that she never intended.

True indeed. He was a poet.

Has anyone else noticed Mikhail's rationale is where Steve Clemon's thread ended : though with more detail there.

So what you're saying, Larry, is that we should ignore the largest, most organized, most dangerous militia in Iraq and... what exactly?

The NIE you referenced also says quite clearly that leaving Iraq is our worst option, a fact that you disingenuously omit.

Meanwhile, you and your VIPS crew are busy peddling the story that the Bush administration is poised to attack Iran - something you've been doing for 2 years now.

Madness indeed.