Damn, man! You're right, but just damn.
Posted on 10/23/2006 3:14:21 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Under election-year pressure to change course in Iraq, the Bush administration said Monday there are no plans for dramatic shifts in policy or for ultimatums to Baghdad to force progress.
Just two weeks before the Nov. 7 elections that will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress, the White House tried to calm political anxieties about deteriorating security in Iraq. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are calling on President Bush to change his war plan.
"We're on the verge of chaos, and the current plan is not working," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in an Associated Press interview. U.S. and Iraqi officials should be held accountable for the lack of progress, said Graham, a Republican who is a frequent critic of the administration's policies.
Asked who in particular should be held accountable _ Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, perhaps, or the generals leading the war _ Graham said: "All of them. It's their job to come up with a game plan" to end the violence
Rumsfeld, in remarks at the Pentagon, said U.S. government and military officials were working with Iraq to set broad time frames for when Iraqis can take over 16 provinces that are still under the control of U.S. troops. He said officials were not talking about penalizing the Iraqis if they don't hit certain benchmarks.
The Iraqis have taken control of two southern provinces but have been slow to take the lead in others, particularly those around Baghdad and in the volatile regions north and west of the capital city. Rumsfeld said specific target dates probably will not be set. Instead, he said there might be a broader time frame _ such as a one- to three-month window _ for the Iraqis to take control of certain provinces.
Rumsfeld visited the White House early Monday with Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Rumsfeld said the United States was looking at when the Iraqis would move close to setting up a reconciliation process to help quell worsening sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.
Frustration with the war is eroding support in Republican as well as Democratic camps.
Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said two Republicans have told him they will demand a new policy in Iraq after the election. Biden declined to name the GOP lawmakers. He said Republicans have been told not to make waves before the election because it could cost the party seats. Yet some prominent GOP lawmakers have expressed doubts about Bush's policy.
White House press secretary Tony Snow said the United States was continually adjusting its strategy in Iraq.
"In that sense there are new things going on. But are there dramatic shifts in policy? The answer is no," Snow said.
"There is still a very large to-do list before Iraq is in a position to sustain, govern and defend itself," he said.
"Are we issuing ultimatums? No."
He acknowledged, however, that Bush no longer is saying that the United States will "stay the course" in Iraq.
"He stopped using it," Snow said of that phrase, adding that it left the impression that the administration was not adjusting its strategy to realities in Baghdad.
Showing progress in Iraq is critical with the approaching elections, which are widely viewed as a referendum on public support of the war. In Baghdad on Tuesday, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander there, are scheduled to hold a rare joint news conference.
Facing growing impatience with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's failure to stem the carnage, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said international forces must not abandon Iraq while the situation there remains volatile.
"I do believe there is no option for the international community to cut and run," he told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair in London. He said Iraqis and the international community need to be realistic, "but not defeatist."
"We need to understand that there is a need of utmost urgency to deal with many of the problems of Iraq but we must not give in to panic," he said.
We have declined from the Greatest Generation to leaders like him. He is an affront to every American who died in our military defending our freedom.
People who are in Iraq setting off bombs, deliberately targeting and killing non-combatant women and children are terrorists.
Dittoes. Ravenel.
"It doesn't matter. No war is ever under control. It is simply chaos until it's over. And they tend to be over when the other side gives up.
The last man standing wins. We have a very simple choice. To be the last man standing, or to let them win."
That needed to be said again.
Some people on this board do not seem to know the definition of war, if they did, they would not ask about whether Iraq was under control or not.
If there is anything I can do to keep this from being a repeat of Viet Nam I will do it. It's hard sometimes not to feel completely helpless in that regard.
Socialist Eugene V. Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison under this law. U.S. citizens including members of the Industrial Workers of the World union were also imprisoned during World War I for their anti-war dissent under the provisions of the Sedition Act. Anti-war protestors were arrested by the hundreds as speaking out against the draft and the war was illegal under this law.
Ah, the good old days!
If these guys were elected during WWII, then we would have lost the war.
From a military historical perspective our casualties are remarkably low.
I wish the voters in his state would get rid of him. What an arrogant piece of work.
I too have pledged to do all I can to get him (Lindsey Graham)destroyed in the primary! Friggin' LC-RINO!!
What does it matter?
At this point, SC is a safe GOP seat. He needs to be challenged in the primary and defeated.
And if he is not...hold your nose?
Damn, man! You're right, but just damn.
Republicans should be demanding Ted Kennedy's resignation from the Senate for selling out this country to the Soviet Union.
He's up for reelection this year. One would never know it though. Why not just vote him out? Who is running against him? You would think some Republican could at least give him a little worry about the election. It almost seems like he is not even up for reelection. That is strange to me. How lucky for him I suppose.
I wish I had two Lindsey Grahams...
one to sh*t on, and one to cover it up with.
Jim DeMint, on the other hand, seems to have kept his head on straight.
Which Senator Watches only CNN and only reads the New York Times?
Three guesses and the first two don't count.
Senator Graham-stuck on retard.
McCain attention is more like it.
Graham is deliberately causing trouble b4 the midterms, because the worse that the GOP does in two weeks, the more likely McCain becomes the Republican nominee in 2008.
And, because Graham is the #1 McCain handmaiden, he will be well-positioned to serve McCain in the Senate or in the McCain Cabinet.
Watch for Graham to make a hard-right turn after the mid-terms. He'll become a conservative hero, in an effort to make amends, particularly if we lose the Senate.
I live in Salem which is about 10 miles from where Miss Graham grew up in Seneca. And, because of his local boy(?) status, he's still quite popular here in the Upstate.
I'm hoping that a real conservative candidate will emerge to challenge him because I too have vowed to do all I can to ensure his removal from the Senate.
I only wish it was this year instead of two years from now.
Greetings from the greater Clemson area!
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