COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, September 15, 2007

New York Rules



Giuliani slams Clinton on Iraq


Sep 14 05:32 PM US/Eastern




New Giuliani Ad Accuses Clinton of 'Turning Her Back' on the Troops
Here


Republican 2008 White House front-runner Rudolph Giuliani Friday fired a first, biting attack at top Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, accusing her "spewing venom" at America's commander in Iraq.
In a preview of a possible 2008 general election matchup, the former New York mayor took out a full page-advertisement in the New York Times rebuking Clinton over the unpopular war.

Then he debuted his first Internet advertisement of the campaign, accusing the former first lady of turning her back on US troops, after voting to authorize the war in Iraq in 2002, and now demanding an end to the conflict.

Giuliani took Clinton to task over an advertisement by liberal anti-war group MoveOn.org, which ran in the Times earlier this week with a headline of "General Petraeus, or General Betray US?"

"Just when our troops need all our support to finish the job, Hillary Clinton is turning her back on them," says a narrator in the web ad.

"General Petraeus and the brave men and women now serving under him deserve an apology. And our nation deserves better. Senator Clinton, do the right thing. Apologize for your comments and condemn the MoveOn.org ad."

The advertisement juxtaposed Clinton's arguments favoring the case against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during the debate over whether to go to war in late 2002, with her criticisms of Petraeus this week over Iraq.

Clinton said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services committee on Tuesday that both Petraeus and US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker had been unfairly saddled with the job of being war spokesmen for Bush.

"The reports that you provided for us, really require the willing suspension of disbelief," she said, serving up a large helping of statistics to counter claims by the two men that the current troop surge plan was working.

Clinton has said if she knew in 2002 what she knows now about Saddam's lack of weapons of mass destruction, she would not have voted to authorize the war.

She has also argued that she expected Bush to use the authority he was given by Congress to bolster the US negotiating position and reach a diplomatic solution to the Iraq crisis, rather than driving quickly to war.

Her vote on Iraq had been seen as a threat to her White House aspirations, but she has escaped major political damage, and enjoys a wide lead in national polls of the Democratic race.

Giuliani, who heads national surveys for the Republican nomination, is running a campaign rooted in his leadership role in New York following the September 11 attacks in 2001.

He backs Bush's surge strategy, and accused Democrats of ignoring a mortal threat to US security from global Islamic radicalism.

His attack on Clinton will be seen an attempt to partly court conservative Republican voters who despise the New York Senator, and have yet to warm to his campaign.

126 comments:

  1. "The reports that you provided for us, really require the willing suspension of disbelief," Hillary Clinton to General Petraeus.

    It's a shame but it's all about political theatre. Putting aside the fact that she may have been sincere when she said it, she has to do something to maintain creds with the moonbat left. Such is the state of The Democratic Party.

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  2. New Post, with links to article
    "Dennis Kucinich's Syria follies "
    can be found.
    Sat Sep 15, 08:37:00 AM EDT
    in the previous thread.

    ...followed by a discussion of the current thinking on it's meanings and implications.

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  3. Damn that's a funny picture Deuce.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's a funny article I linked to above, as is the following discussion.
    ...at least I THINK it is,
    depending on what the meaning of is, is.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Son of Sen. Bill Nelson sentenced to probation, alcohol treatment

    Sarah Lundy

    Sentinel Staff Writer

    September 14, 2007

    An Orange Circuit Court judge this morning sentenced Charles Nelson, son of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, to 2 years probation, drug and alcohol evaluation with follow-up treatment, 200 hours community service and anger management class for battery on a law-enforcement officer. The judge withheld adjudication on the charge, which means Nelson will not lose his civil rights, including the right to vote.

    On a charge of resisting arrest without violence, Nelson was adjudicated and credited with time served. Nelson, 31, appeared in court before Orange Circuit Court Judge Stan Strickland for the sentencing.

    In June, an Orlando jury found Nelson guilty of battery on a law-enforcement officer, which is a third-degree felony, and resisting arrest without violence, a misdemeanor.

    Before the three-day trial began, the senator's son turned down the state's offer to plead guilty to the charges in exchange for supervised probation, alcohol counseling and a letter of apology to the Orlando cop whom he was found to have pushed in the early morning hours after his father's November re-election.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Apropos the funny Pic:

    I just heard a motivational snippet on the Radio about a guy who jumped between the tracks, and laid his body over the woman between the tracks who was suffering an epileptic seizure, in order to keep her still until the onrushing Train had passed over them.

    Please let me know if you've heard any rumors that Jody Foster is Epileptic.

    I may need to take a trip to the Big Apple on a quest to insure the safety of the differently abled on and under the transportation infrastructure.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wo is Us!
    Is there NO END to the
    Vice and Corruption?
    Hsu's dat, you say?

    ReplyDelete
  8. After a re-read of Whit's Post:
    Is there no end to the Vice, Corruption, and
    Wide Stanced Stupidity?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Trish,
    In case you missed it, Ash posted this Dynamite Video at

    "A Glimmer of Hope from The President. More Murder in Iraq."

    Ash said:
    There is an interesting video letter to the editor at NY Times about Bremner's decision to disband the Iraqi Army.

    Charles Ferguson, a filmmaker, presents a rebuttal to claims made by L. Paul Bremer III that top American officials approved the decision to disband the Iraqi army.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Generals deny being consulted about Iraqi Army being disbanded.

    As reported here at the EB, Aug 3.

    Three American Generals on Iraq"

    ReplyDelete
  11. Correction:
    The Generals indicated there was little or no consultation or debate on the matter.

    ReplyDelete
  12. General Garner briefed Pres Bush on his plan on Feb 28, 2003.

    Bremmer made HIS decision on May 9, 2003.

    Tells a protesting Gen Garner of his decision a week after arriving in Iraq,
    Army officially disbanded on May 23, 2003.


    Col. Paul Hughes, tasked with tracking down the Army in Iraq:

    The fact that 137 THOUSAND of the Iraqi Army
    CAME AND REGISTERED
    tells me they DIDN'T Disappear.
    "

    When rioting errupted, an Iraqi Officer told Col Paul he could gaurantee a force of 10 Thousand Military Police within a week.

    Richard Armitage says he and Powell were not made aware of the CHANGE IN PLANS, until after the fact.

    Col. Paul Hughes was astounded when he was told, saying:
    "None of us knew this was coming.
    There's not a WAY, anyone can say this did not affect the insurgency
    "

    Rendered Half a Million military men unemployed and infuriated.
    (also Betrayed by the Forked Tongue Americans YET AGAIN)

    Many more:
    Quite a large and very cohesive conspiracy of Ass-Coverers, here.
    Truly Diverse, too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I just don't understand the
    Visceral Hatred by looney librarian government apologist moonbats of Don Rumsfeld.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Reminds me of Officer Al's defense of Marine top General and Murtha in the Haditha affair.

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  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  16. Easy to see how Iraqis in this chain might not think too kindly of all the talk by us that they were irretrivably F....., everything IS, and always WAS THEIR FAULT, and they let down the ever honorable Government of the USA.

    (Kurds and betrayed Shiites had already put their resentment of previous betrayals behind them.)

    ReplyDelete
  17. ...although, if they did, I BET they remember NOW!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Paul Bremer gets chicks by saying he’ll do to them what he did to Iraq.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Well, that and them fancy boots and the good hair.
    ...and they just CAN'T resist that "the third" thang.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I wonder if THAT'S what attracts Moonbat Chicks?

    ReplyDelete
  21. The letter of 22May03, from the White House supports Mr Bremer, the President decided to change plans, not tell all his subordinates.

    That is not Mr Bremer's fault nor responsibility. If Mr Bush subsequently cannot recall, that's just Texican memoritous.

    No one inflicted with Texican memoritous recall anything, 90 days after doing it.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Well, crap, 'Rat,
    Wolfie and Feith told him to:
    It was that New Age Neocon/Texican Conspiracy.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Always forget the name of that infamous WaPo writer that got to do the first book on the Shrub:
    He told the tale early-on about how Wolfie got W all dreamy eyed about Democracy in Iraq.
    ...without a TRACE of their former, largely secular, society.
    Onward Islamic Soldiers
    and their Born Again Christian Enablers, informed by Born Agin Joos!

    ReplyDelete
  24. 5,700 troops home for Chirstmass!!

    Celebrate!!!

    There is no Regional War, General P will not "Hot Pursuit", into Iran, not going to happen.

    Got any questions about Iran, call Admiral Fallon, thank you very much.

    General P as distinct as can be, that the two countries are not militarily connected, that being his perspective of the US miltiary's Iraq mission.

    Iran not a military influence in Iraq, so not his responsibility. That's the narrative as to the theme of his answers, when questioned by Senator Lieberman.

    General P sticks to the storyline, whose ever it is. The White house's or the Pentagon's.
    Or one and the same.

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  25. (or Bernstein)
    whatever, seen one, ya seen em all.

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  26. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  27. So far, the evidence presented here strongly suggests the Decider Ultimately made ALL the most crucial and important decisions that led us to this peaceful Paradisical State.
    PBUBush

    ReplyDelete
  28. This talk of withdrawal, sure has hit the posters at the BC, hard.

    Post counts are way off, though readership has been holding firm.

    Not a one of them wants to Celebrate the US success in Iraq.
    None see the withdrawals as Victory.

    They've been off the boat so long, the forgot who the captain was.
    What the Mission was.

    Living in a fantasy of their own realities. Realities not shared by the Decider and his Staff.
    Team 43 is rockin' they are just "behind the curve" they do not know how to promote the Party.

    It's better than 1999 or it could have been, if they had sent the invitations out, two years ago.

    It's a bitch, when one throws a Party and no one comes. Even if you've got all the goodies folk said they wanted, for the goody bags...

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  29. What does it mean, what does it say about a person, who, just getting up, rubbing the sleep from ones's eyes, brain barely working, glances at the picture above, and comes rushing into consciousness the word "PUSH"?

    ReplyDelete
  30. That is what he keeps telling US, doug.
    Believe.

    It explains so much of the story.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Sure woulda felt better if Gen P had assured us of his heartfelt certainty that all this has led to increased security for the USA.
    Then again,
    he's not runnin for, or away from, the Presidency.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Does explain most all:
    Never forget the outright lies tho:
    Starting with,
    (in W's best Bubbavoice)

    "I never worked harder in my life than I did to secure the Border.
    EVERY Gal Darned Day I was in the Whitehouse.
    Even stayed up nites frettin bout it
    "

    ReplyDelete
  33. Albob,
    Us honorable men feel the way the men refered to in my Sat Sep 15, 09:58:00 AM EDT felt.
    AND they act on it.
    Repeatedly if possible in the time alloted.

    ReplyDelete
  34. That assertion, doug, is an unknowable.
    Not even a reasonable question, really.

    How much of a threat were the 1920 Brigades to the US homeland one year ago, today...

    Their threat level, to the Government in Iraq, that's about the same, now compared to then.
    The threat level they posed to US troops in Iraq, lower now.
    That is all that counts, to US.

    But to the US Homeland, how much of a threat did they ever pose?
    Not much of one, I've thought.

    el rata del desierto

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  35. How can we be sure it's not a cross-section of a mouldy testicle?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Sure woulda been nice to preserve the Secular State of Iraq, tho, and leave almost unscathed, as would many more of the Iraqi people.
    THAT would have secured things up quite a bit.

    But WHO woulda ever thot of doing it that way, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Another thing Col Paul said is the Army was very integrated with Sunni's and Shiites, and they had a sense of national unity.
    Pictures look like it too.
    Course gettin paid for it didn't hurt.
    Dumb F... Moonbat Iraqis that they were!

    ReplyDelete
  38. I should clarify:
    Hillary, for you, per your expressed interest.

    Jody Foster for me, for mine.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Hadn't checked out any recent photos:
    I'll be on the lookout for other epileptics in need of saving.

    ReplyDelete
  40. A Whole NEW way to save the Damsel in distress on the tracks.
    Multitasking between the Rails.

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  41. Rudy ain't thinkin of doin
    THAT with HER, is he?

    ReplyDelete
  42. Bout now, all the educated, secular Sunnis, like the Dentists, their families, and friends, would be living 1st World Lifestyles, an attractive example for the dirt-poor Sistanni and Sadr Followers.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Better to have a Democracy that Iran is more comfortable with.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Hewitt cites this as a Brilliant idea by Bush
    ...the better to burnish the Bush image, whom he sees as our very own Truman.

    Truman would say:
    "SHOW ME!"

    ReplyDelete
  45. Small potatoes, Charles:
    I turn lead into Uranium.
    (when provided the proper equipment and library)

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  46. Whit,
    I don't think RF ionizes Water:
    It boils it in my microwave, but...

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  47. IOW, that would mean it's ENTIRELY a hoax.

    ReplyDelete
  48. China Rules! Chinaman Pulls Car With His Nose

    With four people inside too. How can we possibly compete with these people?

    ReplyDelete
  49. "Petraeus says Iran involvement in attacks 'clear'"

    As I pointed out, Petraeus said no such thing. At no point (let us read his own actual quotes, Doug) does he refer to an agency of the Iranian government. The country team has, in fact, been very careful NOT to refer to any agency of the Iranian government, or the government as a whole, as the responsible party.

    Aren't you curious as to why that is?

    ReplyDelete
  50. Iraq forever

    The powerful logic of constant interventionism.

    By Matt Welch
    September 11, 2007

    Last Friday morning, I found myself cornered by a Republican Iraq war vet from the National Guard who sincerely wanted me to understand that when the news media or congressional Democrats talk about drawing down troops, or withdrawing altogether, they are, explicitly, siding with the enemy. "It's either victory or defeat," he said, and if U.S. troops leave Iraq, that means unequivocal defeat.

    I pointed out that by that definition of abetting the enemy, noted non-treasonite John McCain, to name the one of many qualifying Republicans I happen to know best, could be culpable, based on his statements and actions regarding Beirut, Somalia and Haiti. The vet let the blow glance off and got back on message: Wartime is not the time to debate the conduct of war. Once we're there, we're in it together, and we need to fight united until we win.

    Set aside for the moment whether he's right. The important thing, for the future conduct of U.S. foreign policy, is that his sentiment remains widely held, in numbers large enough to help ensure that no matter what you may hear on the campaign trail between now and November 2008, the U.S. troop deployment in Iraq will likely be an issue in the 2012 election and beyond. To paraphrase that old country song, we ain't going nowhere.

    Consider that in a galaxy far, far away (otherwise known as the 1990s), President Clinton felt that he had to assure an isolationist Republican Congress -- repeat after me, an isolationist Republican Congress -- that the 20,000 U.S. peacekeeping troops he promised Bosnia as part of the Dayton Accords would only stay deployed for a single calendar year. They ended up staying nine times as long, and that ranks among the shortest of unpromised U.S. deployments since the country became a global power.

    At the time, Clinton was able to persuade enough Republicans not necessarily on the merits of backing Balkan peace with potential U.S. blood but rather on the argument that, well, the commander in chief had made a promise. McCain, who had said just two years earlier that "the aspect of the future of this nation that bothers me more than anything else is the prospect of sending American troops on the ground into Bosnia," grudgingly rallied his party mates to the president's side. "As I have already stated," he said on the Senate floor, "I would not have committed American ground forces to this mission, had that decision been mine to make. But the decision has been made by the only American elected to make such decisions."

    The logic and momentum of intervention is so powerful that few Americans, even in Year 4 of a howlingly unpopular war, seem to note how far the goalposts have been moved in such a short time. Eighteen years ago, war was considered a grudging last resort, conditional on a maximally multi-lateral "new world order" in which Bahrain would fight shoulder-to-shoulder with Denmark and Bangladesh, financed (for some reason) with billions from the Japanese and Germans. Back then, Op-Ed pages nearly printed themselves with thumbsuckers about who, if anyone, should play "global cop," and no one deemed "serious" even considered going all the way to Baghdad.

    Every presidential nominee of the major party not currently occupying the White House runs on a scaled-back, more "humble" foreign policy; every new president quickly becomes a robust interventionist. People commonly misportrayed as wild-eyed pacifists -- Howard Dean, George Soros -- in fact supported just about every war before Iraq and will almost certainly support future Democratic wars. As the woman said, what's the point of having this superb military if we can't use it?

    As for this year's candidates, according to this useful and depressing rundown from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Hillary Clinton "has proposed a congressional vote to reauthorize the war effective next month, the fifth anniversary of the original authorization measure's passage, although there appears to be little prospect that it will be taken up." Barack Obama wants a "phased withdrawal," a negotiated settlement, perhaps a residual force. Joe Biden imagines a standing presence of 20,000 troops. Everyone wants to double down in Afghanistan.

    So Gen. Petraeus will get his six more months of surge, even though Democrats claim it's failing and the public has long since given up hope. We'll all reconvene next spring, by which time the goalposts should be moved sufficiently enough that I can plan on writing the exact same column on the seventh anniversary of Sept. 11 as well.

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  51. "Richard Armitage says he and Powell were not made aware of the CHANGE IN PLANS, until after the fact."

    How can that be if it was all the fault of DOS and CIA?

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  52. Forever, could be, but with the smallest footprint we can, that's success, now.

    Just another reason, trish, that NCOs do not run the World. Last time a Corporal made it to the "Big Time"...
    Was not Europe's finest hour in it's long history of defending the "Rights of Man"

    So Celebrate! Celebrate!

    We can dance to the music!
    5,700 troopes home for Christmass

    30,000 to be out by July!!!


    62,000 out by Jan 09, leaving only 100,000 for the next President to deal with.

    To deal with the future, when it is the present.

    Celebrate, the New Course is laid in!!

    Stay the Course!!!

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  53. Mr Bush was often touted as a master poker player, skilled in the arts of deception.

    Seems he let his underlings believe that they were in the know, when often they were not.
    Deception, leak tracking, counter intel security, who knows ...
    It makes no difference, now.

    The President made a decision, put it in writing to Mr Bremer.

    Then forgot about it, it was so inconsequental to his vision of the scheme of things. Well within his perogatives as the Decider in Chief.

    Get over it. There was only ever one Plan, it resided in Mr Bush's brain. Everything else, eyewash and CYA.

    Mr Bush's signature on that letter to Bremer, that says it all, the first or the final go ahead, makes no difference, a go ahead it was.

    In plain and Presidental english.

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  54. "Iran not a military influence in Iraq, so not his responsibility."

    Influence or no, his responsibility, his authority, ends at the border. Works the same way in re Afghanistan/Pakistan. Beyond that border there is (in increasing order of importance) CENTCOM COM, SEC DEF, DCI, and CIC. It is the CIC who has to green light "hot pursuit" either broadly, in limited cases, or on a case by case basis.

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  55. And by the time it could arrive from the CiC, that "hot pursuit", it'll have grown cold.

    General P and the MNF Iraq, will not be expanding that conflagration by mistake, in error or without direction.

    Whether or not the President follows a "Plan", let alone the "approved plan" that is for him to decide.

    Only him, there is no oversight Committee that certifies the validity of his determinations as being in compliance with the needs of others to have input or even knowledge.

    Maybe Mr Bush did not have full faith and confidence in his management team, at the Dept of State. It would not surprise me if Mr Bush did not.

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  56. It is my firm belief that when you have to come out and state, in the most touchily defensive manner, that you are The Decider...you are, in all probability, the type of person who lets himself be led by others.

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  57. And by the time it could arrive from the CiC, that "hot pursuit", it'll have grown cold.

    - Rat

    That does happen.

    There are ways around it, but again the CIC has to in the first instance give some authority to the SEC DEF and/or DCI to make that decision as warranted. It never gets as far down as Fallon (CENTCOM COM), decision-wise, much less to Petraeus.

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  58. The last one to talk with him, before he signs. The most influental position in the land.

    Mr Bush got that letter on the 22nd, skimmed it, saw where the Iraqi people thought he was a heroic figure, almost a demi-god.
    He fully supported all of Mr Bremers' program to improve Iraq for the Iraqi, said so in reply.

    Did not even realize the import of what he gave his support to.
    More than likely.

    Flashed right on by.
    Or Texican memoritous

    It's one or the other, no?

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  59. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  60. Team 43 has avoided both Iran and Syria, like they carried eboli or were lepers.
    Even the rhetoric is terribly refrained, the jingoists looking for any phrase to beat upon their drums. Reaching out to Frenchmen to find their cuurent case of cajones.
    The President himself, some months ago, gave proof that he is willing to let the Iranian Government skate on the responsibilities for the Revolutionary Guards.

    Said that both the Supreme Leader and the President of Iran could be incompetent, out of the loop and control. To not connect the actions to the Authority, that decision a Presidental one, also.

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  61. The Other War in Iraq
    I can't recommend Kimberly Kagans short history of the Iranian War effort against the US in Iraq, at the Weekly Standard , strongly enough.

    There are two points she repeatedly makes: first, the Iranians began deployments to Iraq in anticipation of OIF in December, 2002. Second, she describes the tactical alliances between Iran and Sunni/al-Qaeda fronts in considerable detail.

    This news report, which was noticed by Gateway Pundit, won't surprise readers of Kagan's report.

    Baghdad - An Iranian intelligence officer and an al-Qaeda terrorist network leader in Salahaddin province were killed in a US raid in the city of Samarra, while three people were killed and 13 wounded in another US attack in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City, sources said Tuesday.

    Twelve militants, including the reported Iranian intelligence officer and the al-Qaeda leader Abu Obeid al-Jazaeri, were killed in the US raid carried out Monday in Samarra, 125 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, in Salahaddin province, according to an official report. The unnamed intelligence officer was carrying an Iranian passport, but the report gave no further details.

    Wretch

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  62. "How can that be if it was all the fault of DOS and CIA?"
    ---
    I fessed up to that one in my first post in response to this subject 2 threads ago Trish:

    Don't judge others by yourself.

    I couldn't stand myself if I still acted like I'm always right like I did at 15.

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  63. As to the Quds being a part of the Iranian Government, the President made the position of the US clear, trish, on 14 Feb 07.

    Without doubt, cyrstal clarity

    QUESTION: And how can you retaliate against Iran without risking a war?

    BUSH: What we do know is that the Quds Force was instrumental in providing these deadly IEDs to networks inside of Iraq. We know that.

    BUSH: And we also know that the Quds Force is a part of the Iranian government. That's a known. What we don't know is whether or not the head leaders of Iran ordered the Quds Force to do what they did.

    But here's my point: Either they knew or didn't know. And what matters is that they're there.

    What's worse: that the government knew or that the government didn't know?



    Plain as day, no need from any back talk from the military ranks. The decision has been made, as regards the Quds.
    The Decider didn't need to see evidentiary documents spirited from Iran, actions speak louder than words on paper.

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  64. Which, when the B52 incident is over laid

    "... we also know that the USAF and that B52 is a part of the US government. That's a known. What we don't know is whether or not the head leaders of the US ordered the Air Force to do what they did.

    But here's my point: Either they knew or didn't know. And what matters is that they're there.

    What's worse: that the government knew or that the government didn't know? ..."

    ReplyDelete
  65. "Aren't you curious as to why that is?"
    ---
    I was curious as to why you always warp everything to fit the Iranian Deception Model, but no more:
    It's become obvious you have no intention of disclosing your real intent forthrightly, (although you gave it away 2 days ago) just as you evidently have NO intent to make your FIRST post on illegals.
    THAT remains a mystery, but somehow, I'll get by.

    ReplyDelete
  66. In W's case 'Rat, it's worse if he knows, cause he ain't close to battin 500 on good ideas!

    ReplyDelete
  67. "Maybe Mr Bush did not have full faith and confidence in his management team, at the Dept of State. It would not surprise me if Mr Bush did not."
    ---
    Nor did he for Rumsfeld, Garner, and DOS.
    In this case he did trust Wolfie and Feith, and his own good judgement to see that salvation was at hand for the Iraqis thanks to the benevolent hand of the All Compassionate GWB
    PBUB

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  68. One in twelve, 8%

    another civilian from Iran KIA.
    The majority of foreign terrorists KIA, in Iraq, are Sauds.

    Iranians make up the smallest percentage, not even mentioned by General Simmons or Odierno when discussing foreign terrorists.

    The Sauds anti-terror operations so successful, General P touts the Saudi terrorists taking the bus into Syria, instead of commercial jets, as a sign of success.

    The article not mentioning if that Iranian passport holder was legally in Iraq, visas stamped, fees paid. Not an illegal in that regard. The Iraqi Goverment is promoting cross border traffic, to increase economic activity in Iraq.

    The US is still not at War with Iran, despite the urgings of Senator Lieberman.

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  69. ""Petraeus says Iran involvement in attacks 'clear'"

    As I pointed out, Petraeus said no such thing.
    "
    ---
    Those are PETRAEUS'S OWN WORDS, Trish!
    LMFAO!

    ReplyDelete
  70. Wretchard noted, as an aside, that the Quds activity has diminished, as the Mahdi Army stood down and the Brits handed over the Basra Palace to Iraqi Federal Forces.

    Peace is at hand, negotiations are working well. Those meetings in Baghdad and the sabre rattling, sending the proper message to the Supreme Leader.

    Containment succeeded, over the pat six, eight months, since Mr Bush's statement on the Quds and the source of their Authority.

    If Wretchard was right.

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  71. "Team 43 has avoided both Iran and Syria, like they carried eboli or were lepers."

    They haven't been avoided, unless by that you mean the avoidance of open conflict - in which case, yes, they've been "avoided." Pakistan, too, has been "avoided."

    It's only a mystery to those who believed from the outset that a wider war was the whole friggin' point.

    They've been looking since for us to get sucked into that wider war inadvertently (Lang's belief) or to suck the other guy into it. (Just you wait til the Iranians step over the line!)

    The promise of troops in Iraq forever, for many, is the hope for the war they didn't get.

    Babbin's War we should call it.

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  72. Rat,
    The Generals on the Ground, I think including P, reported Iranian actions surged to match our surge:
    I'll take their word for it while Trish babbles on about Babbin.

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  73. To those that took Mr Bush at his word, the fact that the US did not strike at those States, but took up nationbuilding in Iraq, as the course to Victory in a World Wide War, came as a shock.

    That we have since mismanaged that Nationbuilding project so thoroughly, not nearly as shocking.

    Once I realized the course was not to a wider conventional war, it was time to come home.

    We are on our way, one foot in front of the other.
    So Celebrate!
    5,700 home for Christmass!


    With more after that.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Petraeus was talking about non-state entities, was he not? Evidence of the direct involvement of one or more of those entities in activities which are cause for deep, brow-knitting concern.

    Just as Iran itself is cause for concern. That was Albright's term, right? States of Concern. A definite demotion from Rogue States, which was a bit harsh.

    Someone swiped my Axis of Evil, too.

    ReplyDelete
  75. "just as you evidently have NO intent to make your FIRST post on illegals."

    I'm open immigration.

    ReplyDelete
  76. We'll have 30,000 troops home, home from the war, to march in 4th of July Victory USA Parades, all across the continent.

    To grab victory by the balls when they're presented, in the Post-Modern ideological conflagration.
    Who Dares, Wins

    or so some friends I once had sure thought to be the case, lived like they believed it.

    ReplyDelete
  77. "It is increasingly apparent to both coalition and Iraqi leaders that Iran, through the use of the Quds Force, seeks to turn the Iraqi special groups into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq," Petraeus said.
    ---
    Far as I can divine he's saying something about Bubblegum and Lollipops:

    How 'bout you, Trish?

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  78. BUSH: And we also know that the Quds Force is a part of the Iranian government. That's a known.



    He's lying.

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  79. No, trish, not if he was talking about the Quds.
    Mr Bush made that plain, he's seen all the evidence he needs,
    He KNOWS.

    Said so on 14Feb07.

    It General P was dicussing the Quds, he was discussing the Iranian Government.
    Mr Bush has set that Policy, already.

    If that was not the approved Plan, ah well...
    So it goes with Presidents.

    ReplyDelete
  80. About The Other Surge — Iran In Iraq

    Mideast: Gen. Petraeus has spoken this week not only of the progress America has made in Iraq but also the progress Iran has made there. Those who worry that we might go to war with Iran forget we're already in one.

    America's commander in Iraq included evidence that one impediment to progress has been the actions of an Iran publicly willing to fill the power vacuum that would be left by the precipitate American withdrawal Democrats seek.

    Petraeus warned that Tehran is trying to use its Iranian Revolutionary Guard as "Hezbollah-like" militia in Iraq. He also noted that a "senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative" is among those who've been captured by U.S. forces in Iraq.

    In March, coalition forces captured Ali Mussa Daqduq, a Hezbollah explosives expert, near Basra. A 24-year veteran of Hezbollah — the Iranian creation that sparked a short war with Israel and is now trying to topple Lebanon's democracy — Daqduq had commanded a special operations unit and headed Hezbollah boss Hassan Nasrallah's security detail. In May 2006, he traveled to Tehran to meet with senior Quds Force officials and observe members of the special groups in training.

    Petraeus testified that the Iranian Quds Force had been connected to kidnappings of Iraqi officials, rocket attacks on civilian areas and the deaths of American soldiers, killed by high-tech Iranian improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

    "It is increasingly apparent to both coalition and Iraqi leaders that Iran, through the use of the Quds Force, seeks to turn the Iraqi special groups into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq," Petraeus said.

    Attacks on American-led forces using Iranian-supplied explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) reached a new high in July, according to the No. 2 commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno. EFPs fire a semi-molten copper slug that can penetrate the armor on a Humvee.

    The devices were used to carry out 99 attacks on American-led forces in July. Of the 69 coalition troops killed that month, 23 died as a result of encountering EFPs. "I think it is because the Iranians are surging support to the special groups," Odierno said, referring to the American name for Iran-backed cells in Iraq.

    Odierno reports that Iranians have provided Shiite militia groups with 107-millimeter rockets and the launchers for firing them, as well as 122-millimeter mortars. "Over the last three to four months, it has picked up in terms of equipment, training and dollars," he says.

    U.S. forces recently thwarted an attack at a military base used by forces from the Third Infantry Division. Fifty launchers equipped with rockets were discovered within range of the facility. Serial numbers taken from the launchers indicated they were made in Iran.

    In July, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Iran was directly involved in a Jan. 20 attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala. Five U.S. soldiers were killed — four of them murdered in cold blood after being kidnapped by Iranian-backed radicals wearing American-style uniforms and carrying forged identity cards.

    According to the June 4 issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology, an American reconnaissance satellite over Iran found a mock-up of the Karbala facility that apparently had been used to train for the attack.

    Bergner revealed that Iran's puppet, Hezbollah, is involved in organizing and training Iraqi jihadists in these special groups. He added that the Quds Force was spending up to $3 million a month to bring groups of up to 60 Iraqi insurgents at a time to three training facilities near Tehran.

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  81. No, trish, he has decided.
    Determined.
    He is the Judge, not the Staff
    Not the evidence as judged by others

    He is Authorized by Law to make that DETERMINATION, as he alone sees fit.

    Authorization for Use of Force
    14 Sept 01

    Only the President stands alone as Judge.
    So if he says he KNOWS
    He KNOWS.

    Ain't the USA Grand!

    ReplyDelete
  82. He added that the Quds Force was spending up to $3 million a month to bring groups of up to 60 Iraqi insurgents at a time to three training facilities near Tehran.
    ---
    He's probly the only one that knows of those facilities.
    Iranians don't, fer Shure!

    ReplyDelete
  83. "He's lying."
    (Bush, this Time!)
    EVERYBODY that does not go along with Trish's
    STRANGE DELUSION
    re: Iran,
    IS LYING!

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  84. Cept us here:
    We're just dumb shits.
    Just ask.
    Her, or us!

    ReplyDelete
  85. "Mr Bush made that plain, he's seen all the evidence he needs,
    He KNOWS."

    Of course he does.

    There's just nothing to back him up.

    ReplyDelete
  86. "I'm open immigration."
    ---
    Justice for you and Larsen would be having to live in Los Angeles.

    But, hey, all those gangs and death, destroyed schools and hospitals, no big whups right?

    Highly honorable and patriotic position.
    Support the Outlaw President!

    ReplyDelete
  87. Up is down, 'Rat:
    Get used to it.
    Black is also white,
    fwiw.

    ReplyDelete
  88. "Daqduq had commanded a special operations unit and headed Hezbollah boss Hassan Nasrallah's security detail. In May 2006, he traveled to Tehran to meet with senior Quds Force officials and observe members of the special groups in training"
    ---
    Nothing whatsoever to back anything up.
    ...at least in someone's fevered immagination, which is easily mistaken for a nightmarish mess.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Trish just says she's for open immigration cause she's ticked off right now. Couple of Fine Fellows Here Make good citizens.

    ReplyDelete
  90. "He is Authorized by Law to make that DETERMINATION, as he alone sees fit."

    Absolutely. And more power to 'im.

    ReplyDelete
  91. NO, trish really is open immigration.

    ReplyDelete
  92. I think it's obvious it's just the 'Iranian man in the street' that's causing all the trouble.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Well then you should be supporting the President.

    ReplyDelete
  94. She's been a little reticent to express her opinion for oh, the last year or two, AlBob:

    Probly not quite ready to march in public in support of the Outlaw.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Oh, but I do support the President, bob. I do.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Quietly, regarding immigration, to this point.

    ReplyDelete
  97. "Silently" would have been more accurate, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  98. In the first half of the last century California was a kind of a paradise really. It's a shit hole now. Listening to KGO last night the topic was why have things gotten like this--caller after caller described the third world horror show it is transforming itself into. Yup we need open borders we sure do. Jesus. Save. Us.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Seriously, I think it takes 60 years like I've got, and stories handed down, to get really fed up with the immigration. When you've seen something beautiful get destroyed, and I've seen a lot of it--Cal., Idaho, Hawaii, Vegas--I remember all that stuff and it was always better in the past. Always. Seattle too--hell everywhere, almost. It's really sad, is what it is.

    ReplyDelete
  100. My neighbor, who became the local Jersey Milkman when he retired, use to always say:

    "Just too much crime in the city"

    Then he'd climb back into his '49 3/4 ton truck, and drive 1/4 mile down the road to the next house, his.

    All in describing his preference for country life.
    But he was just a dumb farmer, not like sophisticated folk that can make crime and mayhem invisible.
    In their minds.
    (as long as it's SOMEONE ELSE!)

    ReplyDelete
  101. See no evil in Tehran or South Central.
    Spread the good news!
    PBUH!
    Viva La Raza!

    ReplyDelete
  102. Sending Trish anywhere to get the goods would be like sending Joe Wilson to find the trail of the Yellowcake Crumbs.

    Joe's spouse got him the Gig.
    Maybe Trish will work out something like that.

    ReplyDelete
  103. But in the end, is forced to admit that Mr Bush is the Decider, and that he has decided.

    His Staff in the miltary, they are indecisive, looking for legally binding evidence, whilest they are shocked that the Judge has already Ruled.

    Slam Dunk, too!

    ReplyDelete
  104. General Mattis has been called a “warrior-monk” because he is a life-long bachelor and owns a very large personal library. He is said to combine the attributes of a brilliant scholar with those of a back alley, dead-of-night street-fighter.
    ---
    Fine.
    But how can he know what REAL warfare and Black Ops are like if he's a life-long bachelor?

    ReplyDelete
  105. I thot that legal pursuit of Terror was proved illegitimate by Bubba, and is now considered VERY pre-9-11.
    But then I think a lot of things, signifying nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  106. One thing I learned in my personal Jihad is that the enemy can indicate surrender to the facts one day, and return another and swear not to have taken part in any such thing.
    Kind of a domestic version of Taquia, I guess.
    Prefer Tequila.

    ReplyDelete
  107. Will wonders never cease? I've found something to praise in DIRTY HARRY REID!!

    SENATOR SEEKS RULING ON FISH PASSAGE AT PRIVATE DAMS IN HELLS CANYON

    AP--Eric Barker, Tribune Reporter

    Letter to Regulatory Commission Asks for Requirement to be Written into New Multi-decade License for Idaho Power

    The top man in the U.S. Senate is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require fish passage at three private dams in Hells Canyon.

    Senate Majority Leader 'Dirty' Harry Reid, D-Belagio, sent a letter to commission chairman Joseph Keliher late last month requesting fish passage be a required feature of Idaho Power Company's new multi-decade license to operate Brownlee, Oxbow, and Hells Canyon Dams on the Snake River in Hells Canyon.

    When they were constructed, the dams blocked salmon and steelhead from reaching their spawning grounds in southern Idaho, eastern Oregon and a small portion of northern Nevada.

    "I ask that as your proceed with this relicensing effort that you seize upon this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make it possible for these great and endangered species to return to their historical spawning grounds in Nevada," Reid wrote in the letter.

    The fish once spawned in the Owyhee and Bruneau rivers and Salmon Falls Creek in Nevada as well as the Snake River in Idaho
    and some of its tributaries such as Rock Creek near Twin Falls. Shoshone Falls, near the town of Twin Falls, provided a natural barrier the fish could not pass.


    Good for Harry!


    I never knew til now that they had migrated all the way into Nevada. Amazing!

    I just can't figure out yet what the Belagio et/al is getting out of this.

    ReplyDelete
  108. Regardless of bubba, or because of him, does not matter, to me.

    SECTION 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES

    (a)That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.


    When combined with his Jan02 State of the Union text, there is ample reason to believe, in 2003, that Iraq was part of a larger grand campaign.
    By mid 2004 it was obvious that any further forward advance by the US miltary against State sponsors of terrorism had halted, and was not to be.

    The "Right" refused to believe, the "Left" did not care.

    The Middle, look positive short term results from a bad situation. Show a little style, some confidence, assume that when you start in Jan07 will show some positive results by Nov07, prePlan on it.
    Get the Story straight.

    ReplyDelete
  109. For the Greenies, bob.

    Of who you, they count in their number, sometimes.

    The Northwest Passage is Ice Free.

    Celebrate! Celebrate!
    The Ice Age is still fallin' back.

    The trends continue, the climate warms, as it has for the last 10,000 years, more or less.
    With a few bumps along the way.

    Old Gaia is a bit tempermental, you know.

    ReplyDelete
  110. Yeah, but you can be sure,
    she'll just keep rollin along.

    ReplyDelete
  111. Rat, I was reading the other day about an outbreak of pine bark beetle in British Columbia that sounded awful. Taken out an area the size of Sweden, when it could probably have been stopped or slowed some years ago if they had been allowed to take out some trees. Some of the commenters were saying the cause was a little warmer weather in the winters, which, whatever the cause of the warmer weather, makes some sense. Now they are getting desperate as to how to stop it, and are thinking about preventitively burning forests to stop it. I think they meant both the dead timber and some green too. Sounded bad.

    ReplyDelete
  112. We lost huge numbers of trees to bark beetle, staggering amounts in some areas around Payson. Hundreds of trees within the town, a real hassle to remove.

    The beetles attack trees by boring through the bark and laying eggs. When the eggs hatch,the larvae feed on the soft inner bark. Also, the beetles introduce a “blue-stain” fungus that spreads and clogs the water and nutrient conducting tissues and hastens tree death. Once the insects mature, they leave the infested tree and travel to a new host. Usually, they travel only a short distance, but they are capable of moving up to ½ mile or more. • Tens of millions of ponderosa pine and piñon trees have been killed. Overall, this equates to a loss of less than 2-3 percent of forests, although tree losses may be as high at 90 percent on some localized sites. This is the largest bark beetle epidemic ever recorded in Arizona. Many more trees are expected to die, especially if the drought persists. • Currently, most tree mortality is centered in “stress-zones” such as drier south-facing slopes, transition areas between ponderosa pine and piñon-juniper areas, recent construction sites, and areas heavily infected with dwarf mistletoe. However, as the drought progresses, those “stress zones” are expanding into adjacent areas. • Infested trees will start to turn reddish-brown within a month of attack.

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  113. Same thing in the Sierras.
    GD Human-caused GW.

    ReplyDelete
  114. We keep putting out small forest fires. That's how the tree population becomes cleansed.

    That's okay, though; the trick is to get busy and start using the infected trees as biomass. You can make ethanol out of them with a by-product of Char which is the best fertilizer in the world for forested areas, or we can use them for power generation. We can generate ENORMOUS amounts of fuel from forest waste. ENORMOUS AMOUNTS!

    ReplyDelete
  115. Oh, my takeaway, regardless of the headline, on that Northwest Passage article was that One Key Bottleneck is now "ice-free," and that the passage could be passable at some date in the future. Then again - Maybe not.

    ReplyDelete
  116. Hmm, Speaking of Trees, and Biomass

    Keep in mind this is a Euro article. They get kinda lost in the weeds, sometimes; but, I just happened to run onto it.

    ReplyDelete
  117. "We are on our way, one foot in front of the other."

    Well, look. There's no rush.

    120K at the start of 08. Pre-surge.

    It'll take us to 2012 to get down to 80,000.

    "When combined with his Jan02 State of the Union text, there is ample reason to believe, in 2003, that Iraq was part of a larger grand campaign."

    And Iraq *was* part of a larger grand campaign. As in: Iraq was the larger grand campaign.

    Years from now, when we come upon the image of GWB, what shorthand thought will we have?

    "Iraq." And only "Iraq." Followed immediately by "Should have stuck with baseball."

    ReplyDelete