Giuliani Ousted From Iraq Study Panel

Rudy was too busy making money hand over fist to bother with the war He cited "previous time commitments" in a letter explaining his decision to quit, and a look at his schedule suggests why -- the sessions at times conflicted with Giuliani's lucrative speaking tour that garnered him $11.4 million in 14 months. (from newsday, actually) How sad is it that Mitt is looking like best in show? Tags:Rudy Giuliani Iraq presidential campaign Republicans

We're still looking for WMDs????

End Looms for Iraq Arms Inspection Unit I really thought this was a joke... What I find funny is that, every once in a while, you'll see some delusional twit make some statement about how WMDs of some flavor were found. And I know that's simply untrue. How do I know? Because if WMDs had been found, the White House would have been singing and dancing in the streets. Thats how I know. Tags:WMD Iraq

Lieberman Logic: YAY! THEY ARE SLAUGHTERING US!

Lieberman Logic: The more they kill us, the more we must be winning. LIEBERMAN: Well, two parts. Here’s the point: We’re in a war. The surge strategy, which is just beginning to be fully implemented, has worked. It has reduced sectarian deaths, particularly in Baghdad where we’re focused. They ticked back up in the last month. Why did they do that? Because our enemies, the insurgents and Al Qaida — insurgents particularly supported by Iran — see us winning, and they’re doing desperate things. More of them are prepared to blow themselves up to kill Iraqis or American soldiers. Honestly, I'm not sure what I can even say about this. I love this kind of thing...its so wonderfully self-proving. I remember talk after 9/11 procedures had started to be put in place, and our right erroded. There was no way out of the logical hole. a-no attackes happen: the methods must be working. ramp them up. screw the constitution. We must maintain safety! b-attacks happen: we aren't doing enough! ramp it up! screw the constitution! This is war! Tags:LIEBERMAN Iraq

Lies Lies Lies YEAH!, They're gonna getcha!

link So, at the Republican debate, Mr. Guliani drew a connection between Iraq and terrorism. This connection has been shown to simply not exist. Interestingly, both Gulie and Cheney have talked about this mythical connection in recent days. This is nothing more than playing on people's irrational fears, fears that fly (by definition) in the face of hard facts. Mitt, as well, seems confused about the IAEA. He seems to think that the IAEA didn't go into Iraq until after the war, and so we went in with the information we had at hand. Nice. Except, of course, Hans Blix and his team WERE in Iraq before the invasion. In fact, had Mitt been paying attention instead of…well…whatever else he was doing, he would have noticed that Hans had determined that here were no WMDs, that there was no meaningful intelligence that could seriously support the claim that the IAEA just hadn't found them yet. Lies or ignorance. Which is it, Mitt? The thing is, I've just gotten used to it. I've gotten used to the ChickenHawks tossing these lies around. That’s a bad thing. I think that, at every speaking event, at every single appearance on TV, the Democrats should show up with a written document listing off any of the lies uttered by any Republican. They should start any interview by reading the document, and then providing a web address where people can go and see the entire thing. Don't let one slip get through. Don't let them just make stuff up. If you do, then you don't deserve to win. Stand up. Fight. (Of course, this means that the Dems had best not tell any lies either. Which is a good thing.) Tags:Iraq lies WMD terrorism Republicans presidential election

Iraqi Parliament: When are you leaving???

Iraqi Parliament Wants A Timetable A majority of the members of the Iraqi Parliament have signed a petition for a legislative timetable governing a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, several lawmakers said Friday. ... But President George W. Bush and the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, have rejected the idea of withdrawal timetables. Well, its nice to know that it isn't just the American people who are ignored by their leaders. Tags:Iraq

Bush Quits!!

Bush wants to appoint a war czar As atrios reminds us, the Commander In Cheif IS the war czar. At least, so says the Constitution. The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation Tags:bush Afghanistan Iraq war

WaPo is owned by BushCo

WaPo retracts FACTS that go against Bushco's Iran/Iraq theory In short A while back, NYT reports that US intelligence thinks certain explosives are coming from Iran. Lieutenant-Colonel Scott Bleichwehl then informs Reuters that they have found a factory producing just such explosives. WaPo dutifully reports this online. But an hour later, they remove the paragraph about the factory from the story. As Jon Stewart put it, its almost as if the mainstream media has completely abdicated its reponsibilities. (thanks atrios) Tags:iraq iran MSM

Faux Klingons

Idiot...they are obviously Andoreans... Tags:iraq klingons David Wu

Concentration camps

Concentration Camps Will Win Us The War The British achieved victory over the Boers by taking their women and children away to concentration camps, by laying waste to the countryside, and by dotting the veld with small garrisons in blockhouses at regular intervals OK, now, I'm kind of with this guy in a sense. He says that in war, one must do horrible things. I happen to agree. Japan, Germany, these countries started wars and we had to defend ourselves. Total decimation has to remain an option. HOW-FUCKING-EVER, The moron above has a completely off-reality view of this situation in Iraq. In theory, the Iraqis, as a people, are not our enemies. But the only way to make this work is to handle all Iraqis that way. Our friend above thinks you could just do it to SOME Iraqis. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work and would just create, y'know, angrier, more motivated enemies. And not just in Iraq. That would be hard enough to justify in any situation, but to justify it when WE went in provoking and creating the situation thanks to our unwarranted invasion, well... Tags:Iraq

McCain: Iraq War Was Easy

McCain: Iraq War Was Easy It was easy, it was easy. I said the military operation would be easy. It was easy. We were greeting as liberators. Look at the films of when we rolled into Baghdad. Good God, man! Have you moved into the La-La Land that our Commander-In-Chief has been living in??? His statement implies that military operations are, in fact, over. I'm no military genius, but if military operations are over, then why are military men still dying? If military operations are over, then why is GW planning to send over 21,000 more troops? If military operations are over, then why do we keep talking about how we can best win this war? Honestly, I think McCain is being advised what to say. I also think he is being advised by folks who think the American public has an IQ around the same as a cantelope. Tags:John McCain Iraq 2008 Election

McCain Won't Tax The Rich To Pay For The War

Apparently, taxing people is pointless. Here's the best part I would certainly ask Americans to serve. I would ask them to make other sacrifices, but I’m not sure I would want to raise their taxes just because we’re in a war. Yes, ask them to serve and die, but to demand a few bucks out of their overflowing wallets is far too much to consider. Seriously, I used to like McCain. I considered him to be a classic conservative, which I can respect. However, he seems to have fallen into step with the Bush-style Republican. Spend more. Tax less. Thats not being foolish. Thats a lack of understanding of basic arithmetic. With this, and the whole "I'm against gay marriage" thing, we can see one thing clearly. McCain is already down on his knees. The illusion is broken. Tags:John McCain Iraq

Why don't they talk about the nice parts of Iraq?

Things are wonderful in the better Iraqi neighborhoods! Today's Washington Post reports that almost 25,000 Iraqi civilians and police officers were killed in 2006, with almost three quarters of the deaths occurring in the second half of the year... ... So, taking into account both the level of violence and the economy, is Iraq better off now than it was under Saddam? If you're a Sunni living in a mixed neighborhood in Baghdad, no. If you're a Shiite living in such a neighborhood, probably not. But if you're a Shiite living in the south or a Kurd living in the north, then you're almost certainly much better off now. Yes, I suppose this might be true in a sense. But lets take a slightly different example. The population of Iraq is about 26.8 million people. That means about .1% or the population was murdered last year. That's huge. Here's a better example. New York state has about 19 million people. If you were livingNew York, and you heard that 19 thousand people died due to, say, armed warlords in New York City, would YOU say things were going well? That whatever set off the warlords was, in fact, a wonderful thing? All I'm saying is that, regardless of how nice things might be elsewhere, the fact that people are still dying by truckloads should remain a huge concern. If the people in the safer areas aren't still concerned, then they are making the same mistake people make again and again. "It'll never happen here." Tags:Iraq

McCain Only Wants A Massive, Longterm Surge

McCain to Back Iraq Surge Only If `Sufficient and Sustained' Senator John McCain, a longtime advocate of increased U.S. forces in Iraq, said he would support a troop ``surge'' into Baghdad only if it is ``sufficient and sustained.'' As Atrios put it, a 'sustained surge' is called an escalation. Tags:Iraq McCain

Rumfeld Resigning!!!

AHHH AHHH AHHH!!!!!!! (but we've heard this before) Tags:rumsfeld