Posted on 08/18/2007 4:41:05 PM PDT by DakotaRed
"Even if the war is still winnable in Iraq, it is now being lost at home. Even some Republican senators are calling for troops to be withdrawn."
From the middle of the article;
Even if the war is still winnable in Iraq, it is now being lost at home. Roughly half of Republican senators whisper privately that they have given up on Iraq, while a growing number are in open revolt. Bushs own officials are expressing doubts about sustaining a war that will cost $135 billion this year. A record 71% of Americans want most troops out of Iraq by the spring. Bushs approval rating has plunged below 30%.
Britain, Americas staunchest ally, is inching away from the president under the new semi-detached leadership of Gordon Brown. In an interview yesterday, Lord Malloch-Brown, a minister at the Foreign Office, said that the British prime minister and US president would no longer be joined at the hip.
Last week Bush remained defiant. The real debate over Iraq is between those who think the fight is lost or not worth the cost or those who think the fight can be won, he said. Increasingly, it is an argument between the president and everybody else.
Bush says he is waiting for the verdict of history, but historians might conclude that this was the week Americans lost the will to win.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Most telling to me in the article is the very last sentence, "After billions of dollars and thousands of lives expended, America, it seems, is back where it started on the eve of September 11, 2001."
I wonder if reporters realize just how much their defeatism has caused the prolonging of another war they make unpopular?
These people haven’t been updated have they.... Oh well. LOL.
No, but the chattering class has.
‘’We have not yet begun to fight!’’
Brits have short memories
Yes.
Only those that forgot to take thier vacation. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
It depends. If you are a Democrat yes, you have either lost your will to win, or you never had it because you believe peace is infinitely superior, even if it means bondage! Republicans who have not lost their way are just as stout-hearted in their desire to win as always!
The Sunday Times wants the U.S. policy to look as bad as the British policy. If you think our guys are hamstrung, you should getta load of what the Brits are doing in Basra.
The Brits really screwed up Basra - stfu UK.
Maybe because it felt ‘so good’ to lose in Viet Nam?
If that would have been done from the beginning, the public would have understood and backed it. The word posturing that has gone on from all sides has made the public weary. Neither side has taken the high road.
The thing that worries me is that Bush is apparently grooming NO ONE to take the ball and run with it after he leaves. Our current crop of Republican frontrunners don’t have the wherewithall to knock off a corner liquor store, let alone continue to carry out this mission. THAT’S where the whole train will go off of the tracks....
Omar from Iraqthemodel:
"....we have the pro-withdrawal anti-American factions in the parliament; mainly represented the Sadr bloc in addition to some radical elements from the UIA and a few from the two Sunni blocs who are not getting along well with the moderate wing in the bloc. These simply want to halt the legislative process at this point hoping that this would put more pressure on Washington to withdraw from Iraq."
"I don't have the vote record of the session in which the recess was approved but from the number (150 votes in favor of the recess) I think Allawi's bloc, or at least its members who were present that day have voted similarly perhaps for the same reason the Accord did.
"I suppose Petraeus will not have a difficulty in showing progress military-wise but the question is, could that be enough to make up for the damage done by these political setbacks?"
"There's no question that achieving a dramatic military victory in 30 days is very unlikely when we're fighting terrorists and militias. On the other hand reversing the political damage dealt by the two developments in 30 days seems to need something close to a miracle.
These developments show that a majority in our parliament care only about themselves and their blocs' interests much more than they do about the country's in such difficult time and their attitude tells that the blocs don't want to work together and dont want to reconcile their differences."
"Like we always said, we don't need reconciliation among the people, we need reconciliation among the components of the political class and if they don't want to do this then I think the best solution to ensure a fresh political start would be to change the political class through early elections once the security situation allows for. And to do this Iraq will need the "surge" to continue for several months beyond September."
"One thing makes me worried these days and I'm afraid that someone is planning a different bad solution. The rift between the minister of defense and the senior commanders including chief of staff of the army which led to a group resignation is an ominous sign that indicates a deep dispute between the two leaderships and this dispute seems to be over a political issue given their history in the military institution."
"It would be too early to speculate that someone is planning a coup-or preparing to crush one-at this point but the mere thought of it remains a little bit scary."
SNIP
..."Arab countries fear that Iran would control much of Iraq and they have come to realize that the only way to prevent this from happening is by allowing Iraq to become a stable state with which they can build good relations. Second their relations with America are already much better than Iran's which is seen as a common threat to them and to Iraq's stability. Add this to recent pledges with military aid in the billions and-I assume-guarantees that democracy in Iraq is not going to be a threat to their interests and we have a good package of incentives and disincentives. This must have convinced them that they will lose if they keep putting their money on the insurgency as a way to stop the Iranian expansion."
"This doesn't mean Saudi Arabia is doing all they can. After all it's the ideology they teach in their schools and mosques that keeps breeding terrorism and until they do something about that Saudi Arabia will always be responsible for creating new generations of terrorists who could strike in Iraq and elsewhere."
Then there's Syria which I'm going to leave aside right now since apparently there has been no change in its attitude in either direction. And we still haven't heard enough about meetings between American and Syrian officials, that's if there were any. Speaking of that I think the public in Iraq and America deserve to know more about what happened during previous meetings with Iran and Arab countriesI don't know about the media in America but I know our media here is not telling us any reliable information in this respect."
The results with Iran have been so poor so far, in fact the Iranian involvement in violence has increased as statistics tell usthe American commanders here said that attacks on coalition forces by Shia militias linked to Iran represented 75 percent of total attacks in July."
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That was obvious when he picked Cheney as VP in 2004.
Maybe to the anti-leftist kooks it did, but not to me. I was sitting on my duffle bag in the company area at Ft. Bragg that day with the rest if the unit awaiting order to return that never came.
If they felt is was so good to lose there, maybe they should speak to some of the Vietnamese refugees we have accepted here, especially the “Boat People.”
YES.
All the more reason we need to back the long shot, Duncan Hunter, for ‘08. He doesn’t need the ‘grooming,’ just the support and backing of any who will ignore the Hillary Supporting media as they feed us who they desire to run against the Democrat candidate, presumbably Hillary.
He has been a staunch supporter of the mission since the beginning. Not only that, as Viet Nam Vet himself, and not a 4 month tour or a photographer for 5 months, his son is in the Marines on his second tour as we post.
Since Bush isn’t ‘grooming’ anyone, we need to choose who will be the best leading us in this war by their record.
“WE” decide who is the most popular and has the best chance to win, not the Hillary Supporting media.
Pretty much, yes. Just ask Oprah, or Jon Stewart.
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