Posted on 08/22/2007 6:50:32 AM PDT by SE Mom
When was the last time a war went according to a timetable? Demanding one was dumb to the nth power.
You make it sound like we are providing military support there solely and exclusively as a nicey-nice favor to Iraq, not because it is in our national interest to do so. If this is really the case, then I cannot support the military presence in Iraq any further in the first place, regardless of what Iraq's government does or does not do.
Personally I had always thought it was in our interest to prevent Iraq from becoming a failed-state / Al Qaeda safe haven, and that's why we maintain a military presence there. If that's the case, then applying "metrics" to Iraq's government is irrelevant because regardless of whether or not Iraq's government meets any of our "metrics", whatever they might be, the reason for which (I had thought) we have a military presence there in the first place remains.
So you tell me: why are we there? As a favor, or because it's in our interest?
He’s thinking, OH $HIT I’ve failed... and I may be killed....
“If he wants continued U.S. military support (i.e. my Soldiers, me, and 150,000 others like us), then he had damn well better put up with a few metrics from us. We have dumped almost 4,000 lives, over 20,000 or so wounded, and neary hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars into this dump, and he thinks he has the right to say, “No one can tell me what to do! No one can hold me accountable!” Bullsh*t.”
The above is clearly the post of this thread, and likely the post of the month.
Bravo to you, Sir! is all that can be said in response by anyone capable and willing to take it at face value.
Iraq will be a sovereign nation even if it does sadden Harry Reid and his comrades.
A lot of leaders prefer to make official statements in their own native language so there can be no question of what they meant to say.
Thats what i’m think’n...
Although a secular Sunni and a former Baathist, he was extremely popular with the general Iraqi populace, including the Sunnis, Shia and Kurds. This was because during his term as interim prime minister he showed through his actions that he intended to act fairly and impartially with regard to all factions. By the end of his term he had gained a reputation with the general populace as a man who had the determination to make the hard decisions necessary to build a unified Iraq.
As a consequence of these personal qualities and this popular reputation, he was of course unacceptable to the leaders of the various factions who were only interested in jockeying for power and influence for their own constituencies. Naturally, the idiotic US State Department agreed with the rabid partisans and refused to support Allawi.
Allawi was no George Washington, but he at least understood the big picture and recognized the need for a strong, unified Iraq which respected equally the rights of the competing factions. Maliki has never been anything but a tool and puppet of Al Sadr and the Iranians.
His job has been to make nice and keep the lid on things long enough for the Americans to leave, at which time the Iranian-backed Sadrist Shia could take over. Petraeus' successes with the surge are threatening that plan, and Maliki's masters are jerking his leash. That's what his recent intemperate behavior is all about.
It seems to me that we’ve stayed here, developing this place as long as we have out of some kind of moral obligation to the people of the country. If we were going after AQI, we wouldn’t be spending so much time developing infrastructure, we’d have put that on the civilian gov’t. We do a lot of their work for them.
I guess you believed the dem talking points when they said we would stay there forever.
Yes...we will leave when the people and the government are safe from Freedom's enemies and Iraq will have the country to themselves.
Allawi was a secular SHIA and former Baathist.
here is the BBC take on it:
Iraq PM hits back at US criticism
Iraq’s PM Nouri Maliki has rejected US criticism of his administration, saying “no-one has the right to place timetables” on its performance.
Mr Maliki blamed the US presidential election campaign for many of the “discourteous” comments.
Speaking at the end of a visit to Syria he said Iraq would pay no attention and could “find friends elsewhere”.
On Tuesday, US President George W Bush appeared to distance himself for the first time from Mr Maliki’s government.
Mr Bush said the people of Iraq had made a great step towards reconciliation.
If the government doesn’t respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the government
US President George Bush
However he added that there was “a certain level of frustration with the leadership” of Mr Maliki and that his government now had to perform.
“If the government doesn’t respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the government - that’s up the Iraqis to make that decision, not American politicians,” he said.
Mr Bush’s comments came after the US ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, said political progress in Iraq had been “extremely disappointing”.
On Monday, the chairman of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, Carl Levin, urged the Iraqi parliament to evict Mr Maliki’s government and replace it with one considered less sectarian.
In other news in Iraq:
* Fourteen US soldiers were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter in which they were travelling crashed in northern Iraq. The military said a mechanical fault was to blame.
* At least 20 people were killed and 50 injured when a suicide bomber rammed a fuel tanker into a police station in the northern oil city of Baiji.
* The deputy US commander in Iraq told the BBC that the US has recruited 20,000 civilian volunteers to act as local police in sensitive areas of the country.
‘Discourteous’
Speaking after meeting Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Otari in Damascus, Mr Maliki rejected US criticism of his leadership and his administration’s performance.
We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere
Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki
“No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people,” he said.
“Those who make such statements are bothered by our visit to Syria. We will pay no attention. We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere,” he added.
Later on Wednesday, President Bush is due to make a speech at the convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars, in which he is expected to say the battle in Iraq is as vital as earlier US campaigns and will once again call for perseverance.
He will say that although there are many differences between the conflicts in Iraq and Vietnam, “they are all ideological struggles”, according to excerpts released by the White House.
Officials said Mr Bush’s speech was part of an attempt to provide “broader context” to the debate on Iraq ahead of a crucial administration assessment in mid-September of the current surge strategy of boosting US troop numbers in Iraq.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6958388.stm
Published: 2007/08/22 12:26:16 GMT
© BBC MMVII
I liked him- seemd savvy and relatively fair.
“Maliki has never been anything but a tool and puppet of Al Sadr and the Iranians.”
Correct, and it’s time we dumped our support of him. Especially as I also agree with the last portion of your comments.
Well, good. I always thought the idea of governments having friends as kind of weird anyway. And the United States is going provide security and pump millions of tax dollars into your country to fix the infrastructure whether you like it or not!
In other words, the men on the front lines over there don't have the right to express their being pissed off at the loud-mouthed idiot????? Is that wht you are saying?
Dead man walking.
“seemd savvy and relatively fair”
All kidding aside SE Mom...he’s a politician, and without “going there”, I’ll dance around the idea that he is/has been a damn traitor as well.
“We do a lot of their work for them.”
Yes, and that must be very hard for GI’s to take. It has become (or perhaps from the git) reminiscent of post Gulf War I Kuwait. I share your indignance if I have perceived it correctly.......I also resented the ARVN shamming in the background so much 40 yrs ago......
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