From Newsweek

Maliki's Master Plan
A national reconciliation plan for Iraq calls for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops and, controversially, amnesty for insurgents who attacked American and Iraqi soldiers.


Maliki's got a plan. Why not Bush?

What's Wrong With Cutting and Running? - by Gen. (ret.) William E. Odom

 

In the Sunday Washington Post, Peter King is quoted with what sounds like a plan, albeit a bit desperate, on Friday. Wonder how it will sound on Monday?

"Republicans feel politically that we have a window of opportunity to reestablish support for the war, or at least reduce the opposition," said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.). "Democrats are going to throw it at us anyway, so at least now we can fight it on our terms."

 

George W. Bush
A Fool Lies Here

Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles, and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."

Rudyard Kipling

They are icons of failure.  The Loser Label - key to the NASCAR vote

Wary of U.S., Syria and Iran Strengthen Ties -

Do you?  PostGlobal (Ignatius/Zarkaria) is having a dicussion of William Perry's OpEd which appeared in the Thursday edition of the Washington Post. Personally I am not at all convinced that under present conditions, Bush's Greatest Strategic Disaster in History hardly affords the US much leeway in attacking other countries but that even were we back in the good old Clinton days, I'd probably still have some serious reservations about the proportionality of a pre-emptive strike of this kind.

One mess at a time please. Military attacks are always messy.

They're back.  Those Comback Kids ...  A Home Where the Taliban Roam....

• "I think the Taliban realize they have a window to act,” Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, commander of the 22,000 U.S. troops in the country, said in a recent interview. “The enemy is working against a window that he knows is closing.” Except that the power of the U.S.-created Afghan government is receding, not growing, and the Taliban’s “window” only closes when Christ comes again.Aaugh! The last time a nation’s civilian and military leadership was this incapable of learning from experience was under the Ching Dynasty
  
  
• They are caught in a hurricane, and all they can do is spit in the wind. The rest of us should get ready for the house to blow down....
  
  William Lind
  
  

How about "George Bush & His Rubber Stamp Congress: LOSERS"?

More than anything, more than an exit strategy, the American people want the truth for a change.  That is what the Democrats must give them. Not more sappy schoolyard slogans. The War in Iraq is a failure. Bush is caught in a hurricane and is spitting into the wind.  Not only that he's lost the Other War too

Bush has been screwing up left and right for five years in a host of areas, and the Democrats have done next to NOTHING to exploit his many gifts. Now they can't help themselves. Karl Rove has made Iraq the issue. At last the Democrats can neither cut nor run.

Bush/Rove have offered the ultimate gift. They've nationalized the election for us. They've put Bush and his War on every Senate and Congressional ballot in the nation. No more "Congressman Smith earmarked more pork than ever for the district". No more "Tom DeLay might have been a crook but you Smith. He's pure as the driven snow".  Congressman Smith is running with George W. Bush or away from him.

So bring on it on Democrats. America's Had Enough. All you have to do is find a Democrat to read the daily headlines from now to November.

From Iraq:

Iraqis call state of emergency in Baghdad

From that other W-ar he "won"

Karzai: W-ar not getting at terrorism cause

One of America's closest allies says the war on terrorism fails to address its root causes.

Experts agreed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, saying Friday the major military offensive against the Taliban will not fix Afghanistan's larger crises — a lack of reconstruction and jobs, a booming drug trade, and a weak government.

"You won't win unless you can convince people that progress is being made," said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department analyst now a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

"One of the things we recognize is that we have failed to improve on the development side, especially in the south. In the areas with the greatest need, we have not gotten the reconstruction that was necessary."

On Thursday, a clearly frustrated Karzai criticized the coalition's anti-terror campaign, deploring the deaths of hundreds of Afghans and appealing for more help for his government. The coalition has killed hundreds, mostly Taliban militants, since May.

Karzai spokesman Khaleeq Ahmad said Friday the president wanted the international community to reevaluate its approach.

"We want to fight (terrorism) in a way that we fight the roots of it: where they get trained, where they get equipment, where they get money, where the recruitment centers are," he said.

Outside Kabul, there is little visible evidence of improvements in infrastructure or services since the Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001.

What is Wrong with Cutting and Running?  I forgot.

This post from an Informed Comment reader:

At 10:08 PM, hector191 said...

I am a civilian contractor working in Iraq and have been accessing your site with no problems at multiple US military bases. I thank you so much for your work as I have found your site over time to be the most accurate and informative as to what is ACTUALLY happening (and not the incredibly prevalent spin). When I first got here in '04, I was surprised because the military newspaper they offer here 'Stars and Stripes' was not extremely biased. Yet soon after the Presidential election I noticed it getting wierder and wierder. I wish I had kept the clippings, but there have been some mind-boggling doozies (such as when they had daily headlines that the new Constitution had been agreed upon, when in reality it was still being argued about for months after that). Some of the stuff is nothing more than propaganda and very depressing as it is transparent lies.

William Perry kicked up a small dust storm with his OpEd in WaPo recommending an airstrike on North Korean ICBM site

Q: Mr. Eagleberger, Vice-President Cheney forcefully came out against the idea of a pre-emptive strike saying the North Korean system was "fairly rudimentary". Why then should the US strike North Korea? [paraphrase]

A: It wouldn't be the first time the Vice-President was wrong

The Dark Side is Now on line

 is now on line

Best way to view..by segment You cannot deal with the Consequences until you apprehend the lies

John Kerry would like you to know:

We ask you to join us now in honoring the strength and leadership of the Senators who stood with you:

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), co-sponsor
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Sen. James Jeffords (I-VT)
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), co-sponsor
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Don't look now Karl Rove, but you've a BIG problem in the War Bush "won".   Come November, the campaigning season wil be over (the war campaigning season) but between now and October or so look out

 Zawahiri Urges Afghan Attacks

Afghans urged to rise up against U.S. forces; four U.S. soldiers killed in action. –AP 5:32 a.m. ET

• Attempt to Steer News Backfires in Afghanistan

The Australian reports on an interview with Richard Armitage, disgruntled employee:

THE level of violence in some areas of Iraq is worsening dramatically and US forces may soon be asked to leave by the Iraqi Government.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has given a gloomy assessment of the situation.

"The British used to make a big deal of walking around in their berets in the south," he said. "Now they won't even go to the latrines without their helmets. The south has got much rougher, it's mainly Shia on Shia violence."

Mr Armitage said much of the violence came from differences over how the Islamic religion should be interpreted.

And he said he believed the Iraqis would soon ask the US to leave their country.

This time around Democrats who run cannot hide. 

Rallied by Bush, Skittish G.O.P. Now Embraces War as Issue - NyT

The word is I-R-A-Q 

In a way it is funny. I have an odd sense of humor but check it:

- Kerry sends emails to his 2004 list "Support Kerry Feingold tell your Senators what you think" (did I ever!)

- Shrum does the talkies in support of Kerry-Feingold

- Jentleson, Yglesias step up to the plate for Reid/Feinstein Resolution  with supportive comments even Kos was matter of fact reporting if not endorsing

- Sen Reid does Keith Oberman Show (impressive!)

- Kevin Drum mildly supportive

- New YorkTimes runs hit piece on Kerry

Well - didn't do any good. The rank-in-file, the sheep are just too pissed off.

WASHINGTON - So much for consensus. Fissures in the Democratic Party over   Iraq will be on display Wednesday when the Senate takes up two proposals to withdraw U.S. forces, touching off an election-year showdown between Republicans and Democrats.

 

They couldn't even prevail with their plan to have the Kerry Amendment debated at night.

C for  effort though

Frontline's "The Dark Side"

The CIA's revenge. Airs more dirty laundry than I have in my closet. Fascinating bureaucratic politics of the war on Iraq. Payback.

No comment necessary

Two California soldiers shot to death in Iraq were murdered by Iraqi civil-defense officers patrolling with them, military investigators have found.

The deaths of Army Spc. Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr. and 1st Lt. Andre D. Tyson were originally attributed to an ambush during a patrol near Balad, Iraq, on June 22, 2004.

But the Army's Criminal Investigation Division found that one or more of the Iraqis attached to the American soldiers on patrol fired at them, a military official said Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the military did not plan to release the report until Wednesday.

The families of McCaffrey and Tyson were to be briefed on the report's conclusions Tuesday and Wednesday by Brig. Gen. Oscar Hilman, the soldiers' commander at the time, and three other officers.

"When they come I have my list of questions ready, and I want these answers and I don't want lies," McCaffrey's mother, Nadia McCaffrey, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

Soldiers who witnessed the attack have told her that two Iraqi patrolmen opened fire on her son's unit. The witnesses also said a third gunman simultaneously drove up to the American unit in a van, climbed onto the vehicle and fired at the Americans, she said.

"Nothing is clear. Nothing is clear," she said. Her son was shot eight times by bullets of various calibers, some of which penetrated his body armor, she said. She believes he bled to death.

Nadia McCaffrey has become a vocal critic of the war in Iraq, and said her son had reservations about it, too, though he served well and was promoted posthumously to sergeant.

"I really want this story to come out; I want people to know what happened to my son," she said. "There is no doubt to me that this (ambushes by attached Iraqi units) is still happening to soldiers today, but our chain of command is awfully reckless; they don't seem to give a damn about what's happening to soldiers."

Patrick McCaffrey joined the National Guard the day after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, his mother said.

Tyson's family could not be located, and a message left with his former unit was not immediately returned.

McCaffrey, 34, and Tyson, 33, were members of the California National Guard. Both were assigned to the Army National Guard's 579th Engineer Battalion, based in Petaluma.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., pressed the Pentagon for answers about the case when Nadia McCaffrey was unsatisfied by explanations from the military.

"Mrs. McCaffrey is set to receive a briefing from Pentagon officials (Wednesday) afternoon in California, during which we hope they will provide her with a full report of the facts surrounding Sgt. McCaffrey's death," said Natalie Ravitz, a Boxer spokeswoman.

Operation Forward Together Moves U.S. Deeper Into Quagmire

On Tuesday, June 13, while Mr. Bush spent a brave five hours in the "green zone" of Baghdad with puppet Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, at least 36 people were killed across Iraq amid a wave of bombings. Eighteen of those died in a spasm of bombings in the oil city of Kirkuk in the Kurdish north.

The minute word hit the streets in Baghdad of Bush's visit, over 2,000 supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took to the streets in protest. The protesters chanted "Iraq is for the Iraqis," and Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji publicly condemned the peek-a-boo visit of the man he referred to as "the leader of the occupation."

Day One....

 

The Americans seem to have gotten them­selves into an intractable mess in Iraq. They must now choose between a historical debacle if they hang on and a temporary setback if they let go.

"We cannot leave Iraq before it is stabilized," declared a former CIA officer. But to maintain a prolonged foreign occupation of Iraq is to destabilize it only further. Once the invader departs, there will no doubt be a civil war, which will accelerate the dismemberment of the nation, giving rise to a fundamentalist regime, which will make at least some people miss the era of Saddam

From "Americans, If You Only Knew," by Regis Debray, published in the September 5, 2003 Le Figaro.

This Sunday's sacred ritual of Mass, bagels, and tea with the Grumpy Old Men's Club was rudely disrupted by the headline of the day's Washington Post: "U.S. Airstrikes Rise in Afghanistan as Fighting Intensifies." Great, I thought; it's probably cheaper than funding a recruiting campaign for the Taliban and lots more effective at creating new guerrillas.

Getting into the story just made the picture worse:

Air Strikes in Afghanistan: Aargh!

by William S. Lind




Stay the course, and we'll continue getting swept