Category: Iraq

McCain is Completely Fr#$@ed

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Well, it appears that in an interview in der Spiegel, Nouri al Maliki, when asked about Obama’s 16 month time frame, replied, “US presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.”

As Marc Ambinder noted, “Via e-mail, a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally provides advice to the McCain campaign said, simply, ‘We’re f#@$ed.'”

Seriously, John McCain is more than “Iraq Forever”, it’s “Iraq Forever, with permanent military Super-Bases”, and while Maliki’s government has backed off a bit on the statement, there is no way they want those US bases there, and what’s more domestic politics makes it politically untenable for them to want those bases there.

Obama Pushing McCain On Afghanistan

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Well, Barack Obama just gave a speech on Iraq and Afghanistan. His basic thesis is that the real war we need to fight is in Afghanistan, and that the war in Iraq is a distraction.

Interestingly, we are now seeing McCain flip-flopping on Afghanistan. He has previously been adamant that it was an obligation of our NATO allies, and of Pakistan, and the US resources would go elsewhere, but now is calling for, “at least three additional brigades” to Afghanistan.

The only way to do that is to pull out of Iraq, because we have no troops available. That is what the chairman of the JCS said not so long ago.

Let’s hope that Obama’s staff picks up on this, and hammers him with it.

Micheal O’Hanlon Can Go Cheney Himself

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So, the Washington Post conducted a poll on the war, and talked to some so-called experts.

One of them was the wanktacular Michael O’Hanlon:

To say you’re going to get out on a certain schedule — regardless of what the Iraqis do, regardless of what our enemies do, regardless of what is happening on the ground — is the height of absurdity,’ said O’Hanlon, who described himself as ‘livid.’ ‘I’m not going to go to the next level of invective and say he shouldn’t be president. I’ll leave that to someone else.’

(emphasis mine)

  • This guy is not a Middle East expert.
  • He’s not a terrorism expert.
  • He does not speak Arabic.

His “expertise” is in military budgeting, and he has gotten a lot of face time on the air because he’s from the so called “center left” think tank, the Brookings Institution, and he loves the war in Iraq.

I understand that when the war in Iraq is over, he won’t be quoted 2-4 times a month by the national press, but that is no reason for him want Americans and Iraqis to keep dying.

Not also that the poll is wanktacular too, it says it’s about the candidates positions, but the question is, “Obama has proposed a timetable to withdraw most U.S. forces from Iraq within 16 months of his taking office. McCain has opposed a specific timetable and said events should dictate when troops are withdrawn. Which approach do you prefer – a timetable or no timetable?“

That is a question designed to get a higher number (it’s 50%-49% in favor of the time table) than any other question, but it allows the Post to claim that people are evenly split, when “not worth fighting” wins 63% to 36%, and that success in the war is not necessary to win the war on terror (60% to 34%).

“Lack of Recall” on Pat Tillman Coverup

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The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has now released its report on the propaganda and misinformation on the Jessica Lynch rescue and the Pat Tillman death, and it basically comes down to Omertà, the Mafia code of silence:

“A near universal lack of recall” by Bush administration officials has thwarted a congressional investigation into whether the administration deliberately misrepresented the details of the friendly fire death of former NFL player Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan and the capture of Jessica Lynch in the first days of the Iraq invasion.

In a report released Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressed skepticism about the widespread lack of memory of the two events, which were the subject of widespread media coverage and can be counted among the best known incidents of the wars.

About Tillman’s death, “The committee interviewed several senior White House officials, including Communications Director Dan Bartlett, Press Secretary Scott McClellan and chief speech writer Michael Gerson,” the committee said. “Not a single person could recall when he heard about the fratricide or what he did in response.”

I hope that at some point someone there cuts a deal with prosecutors, because a bunch of these folks should be spending the next decade or so in prison.

Canadian Court Orders Review of US Deserter Refugee Status

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The judge ruled that officially sanctioned brutality, even when it does not rise to the level of a crime against humanity, is sufficient to merit refugee status:

…..

While the immigration board concluded that some of the alleged conduct by the U.S military included a “disturbing level of brutality,” it said the conduct did not meet the definition of a war crime or a crime against humanity.

Barnes said the board erred “by concluding that refugee protection for military deserters and evaders is only available where the conduct objected to amounts to a war crime, a crime against peace or a crime against humanity.”

Citing a case from the U.S. Federal Court of Appeal, Barnes said officially condoned military misconduct could still support a refugee claim, even if it falls short of a war crime.

“The authorities indicate that military action which systematically degrades, abuses or humiliates either combatants or non-combatants is capable of supporting a refugee claim where that is the proven reason for refusing to serve,” Barnes wrote.

Barnes said the board imposed a legal standard that was “too restrictive” on Key, who lives in Saskatchewan.

Key’s lawyer, Jeffry House, said the ruling expands a soldier’s right to refuse military service.

…..

(emphasis mine)

They broke this man, the story mentions debilitating nightmares, and I’m sure that an examination would find more evidence of damage, and they wanted to send him back.

For us as a society, what should bother us is the broken men who go back to Iraq, and then, one day, they come home, because this will come home with them.

USAF Wanted to Deploy F-22 to Iraq

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But SecDef Bob Gates shot the idea down.*

Gates was right. The F-22 would be as useful in Iraq as tits on a bull.

There is no sophisticated air defense system, no opposing air power, and the aircraft need to get as low as possible in order to minimize collateral damage.

My guess is that the USAF wanted to deploy some Raptors in order to pitch them to Congress as “combat proben”, and Gates was having none of that.

When you also consider the fact that Iran would undoubtedly consider the F-22 being in theater as a prelude to a sneak attack, it would further destabilize the region.

*Pun completely intended.

Gee, What a Surprise, Friends of Bush and His Evil Minions™ Get an Oil Deal

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It turns out that when Hunt Oil, run by a Bush political ally, cut a deal with the Kurds over oil last year, pissing off the Iraqi central government, and throwing a monkey wrench into the works of a comprehensive oil law, Bush and the state department not only knew about it, but they tacitly approved it.

Oh, well…Only 6 months and 20 days left for him and his to rape US interests for personal profits.

Hmmmmm….An Interesting Factoid about the Iran – US Conflict

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According to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius :

He said the Iranians had recently captured several dissident Iranian operatives who had been recruited by U.S. military officers inside Iraq and then sent into Iran. The Iranians, whose intelligence network inside Iraq is pervasive, surveilled the meeting, then followed the agents across the border and seized them.

So, the Iranians know that we are attempting to insert spies, saboteurs, and garden variety terrorists from Iraq, but they have the Iraqis so penetrated that they when we plan something before we do it.

Sounds an awful lot like Vietnam, where about 35% of the intelligence officers there were working for the North.

At some point, they will catch an American, and put him on TV.

Very Wise:

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Jim Henley of Unqualified Offerings notes the following about the surge:

The pretended meaning is, The US increased troop strength in Iraq for a period of time beginning in 2007. The actual meaning is, the US increased troop strength WHILE ramping up a program to pay off Sunni resistance leaders WHILE Iraq’s warring ethno-religious factions finished completely remaking Iraq’s demographic patterns, owing to tens-to-hundreds of thousands of dead and millions of exiled and internally displaced, WHILE the US turned the capital into a warren of barricades. The net result of all those changes has been a less obtrusively violent Iraq for the time being, and the whole arrangement is ‘The Surge’ in practice, but the cheerleaders talk as if it was all due to The Surge in pretense. Meanwhile Iraq’s ‘calm’ would count as calamity almost anywhere on earth but Darfur or Zimbabwe.

Very well said, young man.

Too Stupid for Silverware

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New York Times Columnist Thomas L. Friedman is a complete pratt. Really….

That also helps explain why Iraqis initially never took ownership of their governing institutions, like the Coalition Provisional Authority, or C.P.A. They never fought for it. It was handed to them. People have to fight and win their own freedom, and that’s what gives their institutions legitimacy.

Anyone who does not understand that the CPA was a US institution, enforced at the barrel of a rifle by the US military, and answerable only to Bush and His Evil Minions™ is too stupid to cut his own meat.

GAO: Surgee No Workee

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The GAO has just issued a report on the surge, and it has determined that, “The American plan for a stable Iraq lacks a strategic framework that meshes with the administration’s goals, is falling out of touch with the realities on the ground and contains serious flaws in its operational guidelines.”

You mean Bush and His Evil Minions™ screwed it up???? I’m shocked.

Once again, I am compelled to make the repeat the wisest thing that I’ve read this century:

But it does inspire in me the desire for a competition; can anyone, particularly the rather more Bush-friendly recent arrivals to the board, give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:

  1. It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration
  2. It was significant enough in scale that I’d have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it)
  3. It wasn’t in some important way completely f#$@ed up during the execution.

Seriously. I’ve yet to see anything wiser yet, and I’m using the loose definition of the 21st century which includes the year 2000.

Dems To Try to Block Iraq No Bid Oil Contracts

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They are threatening to, “cut off financing for as-yet-unspecified programs in Iraq that are not directly in support of U.S. troops,” but in the end, they will once again collapse like a bunch of overcooked broccoli to George W. “@9% Approval” Bush.

Even though it is clear that these deals would “deepen political tensions in Iraq and put our service members in even greater danger,” when push comes to shove, I expect more capitulation from the Dems.