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Yes, but which side is in the last throes.
Today, 10-20-2006, the forces of Muqtada al-Sadr seized total control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah.
So now, with less than a month to the mid term elections, the Iraq War Debacle is finally coming off the rails. The US backed Iraqi government is losing control of big chunks of Baghdad. Now Bush has lost an entire city to the insugents.
Back in the spring, the Republican Parrots were squawking "Cut and Run!" endlessly whenever Congressman John Murtha or Sen. John Kerry tried to have a serious debate on the failures in Iraq by the piss poor leadership of Pres. Geo. Bush and Secy Donald Rumsnamarra.
Now, that soundbite doesn't play as well. Because the Republicans didn't want to work to fix the problems, just politicize them.
Well, now we see where that has led us. Amarah, Iraq in rebel hands. Most of southern Afghanistan in control of the Taliban. Somalia has fallen to Al Queda friendly forces. The two Islamic nations that have had free elections without US forces in country- Palestine has elected Hamas terrorists to lead them, and Lebannon elected Hezbollah terrorists into the Parliment.
Failure of leadership. Failure of diplomacy. Failure of Conservative government and Republican values. I hope the Bush, Cheney and the rest of the Can't Shoot Striaght Gang rot in hell.
The Last Throes
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Posted By: Phaedrus Posted on: Oct. 20, 2006 at 10:22 PM  25 Comments
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Based on 9 ratings.
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Oct. 21, 2006 at 07:37:20 AM
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| I read that Bush is having a meeting with his General this morning. Maybe he should have met with the generals before he invaded Iraq. He will fight to our youths death in Iraq so they can have a democracy. It is a shame when these hard fighting men and women come home they will find that they have been fighting for a Dick Tator. If this election doesn't rid us of these idiots, get ready for a revolution. |
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Oct. 21, 2006 at 09:06:13 AM
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| Pat Tillman's brother, Kevin, wrote a scathing article about the Iraq war. Here is the link: link:[www.truthout.org] It is a must read. Phaedrus has captured the average American's anger and disgust with this ill-begotten and terribly managed war. The situation get worse monthly. The death toll for US troops is on pace to be one of the deadliest in the war. As Phaedrus notes, more and more ground is being lost. I read in the paper this am that militia's are conducting military style parades. They are becoming more brazen and deadly. Yet Bush insists on 'staying the course.' President Bush will go down in history as not only the worst President ever, but one of the more heartless and evil men to hold the office. History will not be kind to 51% of American's who re-elected him in 2004. Know-it-all. Tell me where and when to sign up for the revolution. I will be there. |
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Oct. 21, 2006 at 10:10:19 AM
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| The three stooges now find themselves in a very embarrassing and humiliating position with the formation of the Iraq Study Group and James Baker III. Baker has clearly called the Bush strategies an abject failure and will be recommending a serious change in course. The stooges continue to defend their actions and insist that "democracy is on the march" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once this report is released, the only options are going to be admit failure and change strategy, or ignore the ISG's recommendations in order to save face. Either way it's a damning indictment of this entire administration. I think if the Republicans are able to steal yet another election in November, there will be a lot of people ready to join the revolution.
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Oct. 21, 2006 at 10:34:55 AM
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| Revolution . . . Count me in !!! If these Fake Americans steal the election! Or refuse to step down after defeat! I'm there! We'll take this country back!
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Oct. 21, 2006 at 01:02:40 PM
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| Hey Mr. Know it all, That meeting with the Generals, is all fluff with no change. Like everything else these clowns have done. Immigration, lotta talk, no action. Terrorism, lotta talk, OBL alive and well. Iraq, stay the course, descending into chaos and civil war. Republicans are all delusional or willingly following these losers. I just wish to God that when OBL hits the USA again, he only kills Republican voters. |
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Oct. 21, 2006 at 02:01:50 PM
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| Muqtada al-Sadr forces stopped the locals from taking control, get your facts straight. The British used to control that area not the U.S. Al-Sadr has been the only stabilizing thing in the area since then, agreed to by the provincial government. CUt and Run just proved not to work you idiot. The Brits turned it over to soon and now there is a problem. This is exactly what will happen nation wide if we cut and run. You people are so ready for a Bush defeat ( cause you could care less about hte very real human toll in Iraq) that you actually jump up in glee when you here of a possible defeat of the Bush plan. You all preach about your love of peace, these local Iraqi's die and you could not care less. Makes me sick. And Tillman's brother is just a hair biased with his opinions on all this don't you think. I'm sure he is having trouble separating his personal loss from the real political and military objectives in Iraq and Afganistan. Good luck with your little revolution, I'm sure it will be a real blowout. You guys lack the moral fortitude to do s***. Bush isn't staying past Jan.20th 2009 but that's the next one you guys wil start cliaming right??? God, the paranoia is so extreme. |
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Oct. 21, 2006 at 02:11:54 PM
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Not one single american should have died in a war that had no true justification! And I don't care what Rush limbaugh thinks! A.A. and his kind are like the virtual people in the video game the sims . . . they have no life or thoughts of thier own. Their leaders are pulling their strings. Rush limbaugh is a babbling moron, who can't answer any intelligent querry (even from dissenting ditto-heads) without fleeing to commercial break. He is pathetic. If and when Limbaugh announces that Bush has declared the U.S. a Republican nation (fascist state), A.A. and all of his ilk will line up like obediant puppies (or lemmings). Regressive fools
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Oct. 21, 2006 at 02:58:49 PM
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| You are right. Now you make it clear that to you the killing of 200,000 Kurds with gas, the raping of thousands of women and kidknapping and murder of thousands of other men, women and children is not a justification for U.S, involvement in Iraq. Neither is the very real threat Suddam posed had he regenerated his weapond program which he and he alone was responsible for proving was no longer there which he did not do. You prove that the lives of Americans are worth more to you than the lives of those Iraqis who have done there level best to support us. How do you think we get 336,000 Iraqi's to join a police force to help govern their own country if all Iraqi's want us out, apparently a few at least think we are doing the right thing here. These are among the bravest of people in the theater. They have to stay there when we leave and are willing to dawn a uniform and go fight the very people they most likely passed on the street for the last 20 years. Gog bless out troops who are doing a hard job and are doing it with the lowest death rate of any military force in history in a war of thise kind on this scope. They are doing great and deserve to know we support them in their mission.
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Oct. 21, 2006 at 03:26:25 PM
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| Oh my GOD!!!!!! It has gotten so f***in' bad that now AA is using Muqtada al-Sadr as an ally! What's next, UBL and Bush having tea in the Oval Office? For your edification, here a bit about AA's new little friend: Muqtada al-Sadr is a young Shia cleric who has seized the attention of the Americans and much of the rest of the world. He is the leader of the Mahdi Army, the militia that barricaded itself inside the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. Al-Sadr is a vocal opponent of the Iraqi interim government and his militia has been fighting with the U.S. and Iraqi armies in Najaf and the Sadr City section of Baghdad. "The people of Iraq are supportive of what they call the Sadr movement… and I am the leader," al-Sadr said in an interview with the CBC in April 2004. This movement is seeking to establish an Islamic state in Iraq under Shariah law. At 30, he hasn't finished his religious training. He's still a student, too young to be a full-fledged religious authority, but he has inherited both status and credibility from his famous father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, once one of the most powerful Shiite clerics in Iraq before he was assassinated by Saddam Hussein. Al-Sadr is using his father's reputation to wrestle power from the established Shiite leadership and lead an anti-U.S. revolt, says Mideast expert Mamoun Fandy. "The majority of the Iraqi population are under 25, so the majority of the young are attracted to him and they are attracted to his fiery message," Fandy says. Al-Sadr's support lies mostly with the poor in Baghdad's impoverished suburbs. His movement is based on strict Islamic values, and he has invoked a wider Islamic struggle, warning that the Americans are occupying some of the most sacred Muslim ground, and he is threatening to act on behalf of Palestinian extremist groups. "It throws the whole situation into chaos because it links the whole Arab politics together. It is not just a confined situation of the Iraqis. It really expands beyond the Iraqi boundaries," Fandy says. Al-Sadr has always been an irritant for his unwillingness to co-operate with the American forces, but it was the closing of his newspaper in late March 2004 that lit the fuse. After protests and the arrest of one of his supporters, al-Sadr said the demonstrations were not working and he urged his supporters to terrorize their enemies. "This is really a very difficult situation because if they arrest him, practically they are increasing his power and increasing the number of his followers and also radicalizing the whole situation. If they don't arrest him, also, they will appear weak," Fandy says. So far, al-Sadr has failed to interest the educated middle class and many Iraqi Shiites are not interested in turning Iraq into a strict Muslim state. But al-Sadr is the first Shiite cleric to openly challenge the U.S. presence, a move that might force other more tolerant Shiite leaders to take a tougher stand. link:[www.cbc.ca] Al-Sadr has a militia of about 16,000 troops. 2 years ago it was about 600 members. And here are the facts. It was the militia loyal to the anti-American al-Sadr who took over the city of Amarah. The Iraqi army moved in and retook the city. Quote from an AP story: "The Mahdi Army held Amarah for several hours in an embarrassingly strong showing against the local police and security forces." So AA, you had it exactly WRONG. It was al-Sadr's people who took over the city from the locals. You stand corrected "you idiot." And this crap about 'us' not caring about the Iraqi people or not supporting the troops is complete and utter bulls***. YOU and your support of the criminal bush regime is what is killing the innocents and troops. WE have been advocating a change in leadership. This month is going to be the most deadly for our troops in 2 years. Where is the god damn progress? Bush says we will get out when the Iraqi's stand up. They have 336,000 troops ready according to you. Yet, the number of Americans in theater is as big as ever. 3.5 years later! Wake up AA. Even Republicans in Congress are figuring it out.
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On the Road to Strategic Defeat in Iraq
ljohnson's picture
By Larry Johnson | bio
Hey, let's buy Tony Snow a copy of Carl von Clausewitz's classic, ON WAR, and help him understand the difference between "strategy" and "tactics". Tony's tap dancing today during the White House press briefing revealed a shallow political hack swimming in deep waters. When asked, "are we winning", poor Tony could not come up with a definition of victory. In fact, he responded rhetorically, "what is victory". According to Clausewitz:
tactics teaches the use of armed forces in the engagement; strategy, the use of engagements for the object of the war.
What is our objective in Iraq? Eliminating weapons of mass destruction? Promoting democracy? "Fighting them (the terrorists) there so we don't have to fight them here?" These are not mutually compatible objectives. It is the lack of a clear answer that accounts for our nation's inability to define victory in Iraq. Bush, Cheney, and Rummy need to figure out what in the hell we are trying to do. Once that is clearly defined then we will be in a position to devise tactics that will complement the strategic objective.
*** He says it better than I did. Albeit if with less hatred and disgust for the Worst President in the history of the universe.
This Clausewitz quote is the crux of the failure in Iraq- and also the failure that was Vietnam.
What is the objective in Iraq? When anyone in the White House can come up with an answer beyond "Cut and Run- Defeatocrats- Plan for Victory" then our armed forces can work to achieve the goal, and then declare victory.
Korean War- stop spread of Communism, defend South Korea.
WWII- defeat Nazi Germany, and then Imperial Japan.
WWI- defeat Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Ottomans.
Spanish American War- plunder Spain of their last pieces of Empire, Phillipines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
Cold War- stop spread of communism.
War of the Rebellion aka US Civil War- defeat rebel forces, restore Union control of the states that illegally seceded from the USA.
All these succesful wars had objectives, and the leaders adapted tactics to achieve those goals.
We have no objectives in Iraq, beyond sending US troops out on convoys to act as bait for insurgent attacks. Then react to attacks.
Who are we fighting?
Where are they?
How do we kill them, and make it so our enemy never again considers taking up arms against us?
Anyone gets any answers, forward then to:
the Chimp in Charge
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC
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