Joe gets it right again

I’m certainly not gonna say anything better than Joe Lieberman did.

What is remarkable about this state of affairs in Washington is just how removed it is from what is actually happening in Iraq. There, the battle of Baghdad is now under way. A new commander, Gen. David Petraeus, has taken command, having been confirmed by the Senate, 81-0, just a few weeks ago. And a new strategy is being put into action, with thousands of additional American soldiers streaming into the Iraqi capital.

Congress thus faces a choice in the weeks and months ahead. Will we allow our actions to be driven by the changing conditions on the ground in Iraq--or by the unchanging political and ideological positions long ago staked out in Washington? What ultimately matters more to us: the real fight over there, or the political fight over here?

The new strategy at last begins to tackle these problems. Where previously there weren’t enough soldiers to hold key neighborhoods after they had been cleared of extremists and militias, now more U.S. and Iraqi forces are either in place or on the way. Where previously American forces were based on the outskirts of Baghdad, unable to help secure the city, now they are living and working side-by-side with their Iraqi counterparts on small bases being set up throughout the capital.

We of course will not know whether this new strategy in Iraq will succeed for some time. Even under the most optimistic of scenarios, there will be more attacks and casualties in the months ahead, especially as our fanatical enemies react and attempt to thwart any perception of progress.

But the fact is that we are in a different place in Iraq today from even just a month ago--with a new strategy, a new commander, and more troops on the ground. We are now in a stronger position to ensure basic security--and with that, we are in a stronger position to marginalize the extremists and strengthen the moderates; a stronger position to foster the economic activity that will drain the insurgency and militias of public support; and a stronger position to press the Iraqi government to make the tough decisions that everyone acknowledges are necessary for progress.

Unfortunately, for many congressional opponents of the war, none of this seems to matter. As the battle of Baghdad just gets underway, they have already made up their minds about America’s cause in Iraq, declaring their intention to put an end to the mission before we have had the time to see whether our new plan will work.

There is a lot more.  Read it all.  I (and the WSJ Opinion Journal!) report - you decide.  One thing I know for certain...as of this day, i am proud and glad that I voted for Joe.

Posted by JimK at 06:42 PM on February 26, 2007
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Tags: military war iraq media congress Joe Lieberman

on’tday entionmay uccesssay!

Shhhh… The Surge is Working

A gloomy haze has settled over the nation’s prosecution of the War on Terror as of late. It seems like we can only watch helplessly as Nancy Pelosi and Jack Murtha size up new angles of attack for undermining the war effort. The media is chomping at the bit the tell the story of an America, bruised and humbled and exhausted, heading for the exits in Iraq.

But something interesting is happening on the way to the “new direction.” Early indications are that the troop surge into Baghdad is working. It hasn’t been reported on widely, but murders in Baghdad are down 70%, attacks are down 80%, Mahdi Army chief Moqtada al-Sadr has reportedly made off for Iran, and many Baghdadis who had fled the violence now feel it’s safe enough to return. The strategy that Congress is busy denouncing is proving to be our best hope for victory.

In Iraq, there’s a sense that change is in the air—literally. Omar of Iraq the Model spots a B-1 Bomber in the skies of Baghdad for the first time since the end of the major combat. On the ground, Omar writes that the signs that Iraqis are getting serious about security are more palpable. With the help of Compstat-like technology, security forces are cracking down at checkpoints (even ambulances are getting stopped) and getting nimbler about locating them strategically so the terrorists don’t know what to expect.

This turnaround in Baghdad is confirmed at home by the media’s near-deafening silence. If it seems like you’ve heard less about how Iraq is spiraling into civil war in the weeks since the surge was announced, this is why. Even some discordant voices in the media are starting to wonder what’s happening. Time magazine worries that it’s “Quiet in Baghdad. Too quiet.” That’s right—a dramatic reduction in violence is actually bad news.

It’s too early to claim victory just yet; the operation is just two weeks old. But U.S. troops have been able to accomplish all of this with just one more brigade in-country, with four more on the way by May. These encouraging early returns show the potential for success when we apply concentrated military force to the security problem. When the Army and Marine Corps are on offense, carrying out combat operations and clearing out insurgent strongholds, we win. When we lay back, carrying out routine patrols and playing Baghdad beat cop, we lose.

The key to success is staying power.

Not much else to say...it goes on to talk about the Daffyd ab-Hugh post I mentioned the other day.

Hat tip: Wizbang

Posted by JimK at 02:47 AM on February 26, 2007
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Tags: military war iraq media

Another side of Iraq, presented without commentary

Medical operation helps soldiers build trust

The opportunity to help the residents in the area is a way the Soldiers from COP Callahan are trying to build a relationship with the Iraqis so they can help provide better security to the area.

“It shows them another side of us,” Gregory said. “It shows them we are not here to shoot up their town. We’re here to help, and we hope that leads to information; information we can use to help clean up the streets for them, so they can have a better life.”

...Providing medical assistance for those who need, Gregory said, is what makes the deployment worthwhile.

“It felt great to help these people, it gives us a sense of purpose,” said Gregory. “We can go out there five times a day, but to actually help someone makes it feel worth leaving your family for.”

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The Real News Behind “The Surge”

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the new security plan is the increased aggressiveness of the Iraqi Army as it conducts counterinsurgent operations. The Iraqi military defeat of the cultist “Soldiers of Heaven” planned attack on Najaf in late January provides a dramatic example. With coalition backup, Iraqi forces launched a spoiling attack and killed or captured several hundred militants.

Maliki’s national reconciliation program remains the key Iraqi political endeavor. That program began well before “the new security plan,” but no security plan will succeed unless reconciliation occurs.

The Office of National Reconciliation conducts “engagements” with the entire spectrum of ethnic, religious and political groups. Last week, in a phone interview with journalists and commentators, coalition spokesman U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell discussed how his Strategic Effects Office works with the Iraqi government on this issue.

“In the last three months on any given day of week we’re doing (numerous reconciliation) engagements,” Caldwell said. His office has helped coordinate the meetings. Caldwell said that the reconciliation office had also been “talking to insurgent groups.”

That makes sense. Maliki’s “new security plan” includes a reformed “de-Baathification” program designed to permit former members of the Baath Party, on an individual basis, to integrate into the new, democratic Iraq.

An Open Letter Home by CSM James Pippin

We win every time whenever they stay and fight. But mostly, they hit us, then run away and blend into the crowd. We’re winning a day at a time. And we are taking the fight to them.

...

We need our nation’s support and prayers, not criticism, second guessing, and Monday morning quarterbacking.

Five Sadr militia members arrested in Baghdad

The statement said a special Iraqi forces, supported by Multi-National Force (MNF) consultants, raided Al-Karada area and arrested on Wednesday two people from the Mahdi militia.

The force also raided an undisclosed location and arrested three other militants specialized in working with explosives, the statement added.

According to the statement the arrested were in responsible for sectarian violence, kidnapping, torture, and civilian killings in Baghdad.

Eastern and southern Baghdad has witnessed a drop in violence since the start of new Iraqi security plan on February 14.

Soldiers On The Ground Hopeful For The Future Of Iraq

There are hundreds of missions going on EVERYDAY that you all back home do not hear about. It does not meet the media agenda I guess. We have teams here that specialize in rebuilding Iraq, and they carry out tons of projects to better this place. They are repairing sewer systems, building wells, building schools, even repairing the roads in this country. The truth is that there are hundreds of them going on everyday in this country without the media attention reserved for the “blood and guts” coverage. We have even started women’s schools for the advancement of the women in this country, which is a far cry from the treatment of women throughout the Middle East.

...

To win, it takes commitment, and if you are TRULY “for the troops” then you cannot be against the war. If you are “for the troops” then what people need to say is “get the job done, then come home” rather than trash the efforts we are sweating and bleeding for over here. See the positives in bringing freedom to a decimated people and creating a democracy in the middle east. We know this is serious business, but making it into a quagmire isn’t going to help- it will only make this thing drag on.

JUDGING BRITAIN’S PULLOUT PLAN

Sadr has withdrawn to Iran, apparently to wait until the British, and maybe even the Americans, leave Iraq. He’d then be able to return to Iraq at the head of a new “volunteer army” that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard is raising for him in Iran. That, in turn, could plunge the “deep south,” now relatively calm, into a bloody guerrilla war.

Years To Go

So, yes, we’ve built a few schools and done some work on the electrical grid.  That’s excellent news and should be commended.  But all the new schools in the world aren’t going to win hearts and minds if parents are worried about their children being blown up on the way there.  There can be no peace without security.  Let’s give it a few more months, see if Petraeus can pull off a Hail Mary.  If he can that would be wonderful.  But if it doesn’t work, we need to be prepared to deal with that forthrightly without looking for convenient scapegoats.

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Posted by JimK at 07:26 PM on February 23, 2007
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A post about Iraq I wish I had written

Dafydd at Big Lizards discussing the oft-made Iraq as a game of Whack-A-Mole analogy and how that is only half of the story.

We’ve already whacked a number of moles: we killed quite a few, captured others, and drove a lot of very big moles right out of the country (such as Muqtada Sadr, Iranian puppet, and his top lieutenants). Now we’re busily sealing the holes.

Let’s give the new strategy some time, for goodness’ sake.

No, better to flail about hysterically, trying to convince anyone who will listen that everything to date has been in vain, all these soldiers died for a failed mission, Iraq is Vietnam, we shouldn’t try to fix anything because it’s too late, frame everything in the most negative way possible, pass meaningless resolutions that tell the troops how much we really despise them and then, when all that is said and done, we’ll de-fund the frigging military and cause the loss rate to double or triple, all because we don’t like Bush and we have no other way to get under his skin, as he is apparently made of Teflon and could not care less what we think of him as a leader or a decider or a doofus with huge ears.  He just doesn’t care, and so people are looking for any way they can to get to him.

I’m pretty sure telling soldiers that everything they do is worthless, then taking their money away is not the right answer.

Before anyone asks, the answer is yes.

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This post, in part, is a response to the tone Lee has taken the last few days at Right Thinking.  Anyone who knows the two of us knows I like Lee, I respect Lee, but in this particular case, I think he’s flat-out wrong in his approach.  Lee and I have never been two guys that are afraid to tell the otehr one when he’s being a dick.  :)

I also think he isn’t seeing how vitriolic and negative and yes, defeatist his posts have been.  It’s coming off like this need to prove that Iraq is a total and complete failure and to convince everyone else that is the case.  He disagrees.  But that’s what I’m seeing, and I’m not exactly a BushBot or an idiot.  To me, it looks like he’s decided the glass isn’t half full or empty, but rather the glass has been smashed on the floor and cannot be made to hold water ever again, and anyone who tries to fix it or supports the effort to repair the glass is a moron, out of touch with reality and not worth listening to in any way.

We talked about this on the phone last night, and he said something that floored me.  I was mentioning a laundry list of things that have gone well, things the troops themselves are proud of having accomplished - infrastructure, water, schools, hospitals.  He said “That stuff is immaterial.”

What?  No, it’s not immaterial.  It’s the entire point. You can’t scream and yell about Bush not having a plan to win the peace for like two years and then dismiss out-of-hand half of the way that you win the peace against an insurgency!  Well, you can, but it’s intellectually dishonest.  Military might is only half the equation.  Police action and military patrolling only secures the street while the cop and/or soldier is on it.  The other half is making the people like you at least a tiny little bit more than they like the terrorist or insurgent, that way - even if you’re not their best friend - they won’t be actively helping and supporting an insurgency.  The way you starve an insurgency is by denying it the aid and comfort it needs to live.  The way you do that is by making sure that the people would rather deal with you than with them.

Immaterial?  No.  It’s 50% of any strategy to win the peace. 

Our troops have accomplished miracles in Iraq.  It’d be nice to see anyone, but especially someone I consider to be a smart guy, acknowledge that fact once in a blue moon.  The reality of Iraq is nowhere near as bleak as Murtha and Pelosi make it out to be.  Anyone with a computer can find out by listening to and reading a wide variety of soldier-authored emails and blogs...not just listening to media reports and whatever one or two particular bloggers or pundits think this week.  I’m not suggesting sunbeams are flying out of anyone’s ass and that Iraqi children live in a kite-flying paradise either...again, the hyperbole is out of control.  The truth lies somewhere in the middle of Cheney and Murtha.  Cheney seems to want us to think it’s all sunshine and roses, and Murtha needs to make us believe it’s the worst part of the worst pit of Hell.

Things are in fact being accomplished, even in the worst parts of Iraq.  Every day, every week, every month.  But all we see is doom and gloom, the sky is falling, LIVE ON NEWS AT 10, YOUR DRINKING WATER MAY KILL YOU...hyperbole ain’t winning anyone any points.  If it’s wrong for people to gloss over the problems in Iraq, it’s just as intellectually dishonest to ignore the successes.

My real point here is that we should all calm the hell down and see if the new guy with a new strategy can make a difference before we yank the rug out from under him and start hysterically calling everything a total loss and a complete defeat. 

See also: complaining about what Bush and Rummy didn’t do 3 years ago is as useless today as tits on a bull.  Bush can’t be re-elected.  Rumsfeld is out.  They screwed up and there is no denying that.  As of today, at least some things are different.  Better late than never, in my humble opinion.

Then again, what the hell do I know, I’m just an idiot writing this crap in his underwear.

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Posted by JimK at 03:38 PM on February 23, 2007
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Re: the British troop reduction in Iraq

I am so sick of everyone’s hyperbole whenever any detail about Iraq is discussed.  This latest move by Blair is nothing more than a long-planned reduction that is being carried out as planned.  Any chance of people discussing this without turning into raving asses?

Here, check this news report out.  Literally nothing but the facts, no bias, no opining, just the bare data:

Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday that Britain would reduce its troop levels in Iraq by 1,600 over coming months, but its soldiers would stay in the country into 2008 as long as they were wanted.

“The actual reduction in forces will be from the present 7,100—itself down from over 9,000 two years ago and 40,000 at the time of the conflict—to roughly 5,500,” Blair told parliament. “The UK military presence will continue into 2008, for as long as we are wanted and have a job to do,” he said.

Why did I have to go to a Croatian news site to see the Reuters wire report stripped to just the facts?  Anyway...when you remove the emotion and the hyperbole, you can see this is just another step in a long-term British plan for their continued presence in Iraq.  It doesn’t mean success is at hand and it doesn’t signal imminent failure.

It’s just another in a long series of reductions in UK troop levels.  In fact, it’s a total non-story that has been blown completely out of proportion by a media desperate to pile on the White House and bloggers who can’t control themselves from being extremists.  I’m not saying Cheney is helping when he says stupid things like this:

“Well, I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well,” Cheney told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl.

“In fact, I talked to a friend just the other day who had driven to Baghdad down to Basra, seven hours, found the situation dramatically improved from a year or so ago, sort of validated the British view they had made progress in southern Iraq and that they can therefore reduce their force levels,” Cheney said.

But then Cheney is the source of the “We’ll be greeted as liberators” stuff.  Cheney is always spinning.  The man speaks in spin.  It may be cute and fun to claim he’s the real President but he’s not, and he definitely isn’t running the UK.  So let’s just slow our roll shall we?  I’d love to see some discussion of Iraq that did not involve insults or emotion.  I’d love to see some facts.

One place I suggest to see some hyperbole-free blogging on Iraq is Mudville Gazette.  I always feel more informed after I read that site.  Perhaps more importantly lately, I don’t feel insulted by the writing either.  Give them a shot, see what you think.

Posted by JimK at 07:38 PM on February 21, 2007
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RINO Sightings for Feb 19, 2007 - The Dashiell Hammett edition

The night was black as ink and cold, the kind of cold that makes a man wish he had a bottle of applejack and someone to drink it with.  I was waiting.  Just waiting.  Stakeouts are about the most boring thing you can do when you’re a gumshoe, but that’s the job, so we do it.  I knew that tomorrow I was hosting the RINO Sightings, but tonight - tonight it was just me, the night air and the job.

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In order to fight the night air, I brought a thermos of strong, black coffee with me.  It was the kind of coffee you read about in detective novels, the kind that could put hair on your chest and strip the paint off your car.  As I raised the cup to my lips, suddenly a voice rang out in the night!  I jumped, spilling the hot joe all over my best wool trousers.  “WHY?” the voice cried out, “WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG TO GET OFF THE GROUND AT THE AIRPORT?” “Mister” I said, “You need to calm down and go read Dan’s post at Searchlight Crusade.  He was an air traffic controller for 12 years and he’s got the inside dope, the real skinny.”

With that crisis averted, I turned back to sitting.  Watching.  Waiting.  Thinking about a woman.  Of course there’s a woman.  There’s always a woman.  This one was the cat’s meow; smart, sharp as a tack and ten kinds of gorgeous.  Eyes that could make a man sign over the deed to his house and then ask if there was anything else he could get for her.  Her name was Kiran Chetry, and nobody knew more about her than Digger.  He knew when she was leaving Fox News.  He knew when she was spotted on CNN.  He knew everything about her.  I bet he even knew what size dress she wore.  I wanted to know that too, but the night just wasn’t going to be that kind to me.

And so I waited.

I started to feel a darkness come over me.  Not the nighttime, that had already swallowed me whole and spit me back out to freeze.  No, this was more like a humorless funk, the kind of feeling you get when even a clown falling into a vat of pudding while wearing a three piece suit wouldn’t get a chuckle out of you.  I felt a little like Garrison Keillor doing his crotchety old man routine talking about Rudy Giuliani.  My buddy Eric at Classical Values told me all about it; about how Keillor seems obsessed with the fact that Rudy has done the whole “dress in drag and crack up the fellas” routine.  What I wanna know is who hasn’t?  if I had a nickel for every time I threw on a pretty frock to crack up the boys, I wouldn’t be out here shivering like a newborn colt at Christmas time.

Unfortunately for me, here is exactly where I was, and the coffee was running low.  All I could think about was other ways to keep warm.  Running.  A nice fire.  Dames.  It always comes back to the dames, doesn’t it?  Not every thought about dames is good, though.  Lately I’d been having some pretty negative thoughts about one Mrs. Nancy Pelosi, the “Honorable” Speaker of The House.  She’s not the kind of woman that inspires a man to warmth.  In fact, she seems to be inspiring her merry band of misfits and general unsavory characters to further disrespecting our boys.  The GIs.  The ones that go Over There so we don’t have to.  Everywhere we turn lately, it seems that one of Pelosi’s Pessimists is trying to break the spirits of our men and women in tan and camo.  Dane - you know, the guy that runs DANEgerus - is always telling me about it, and this week has been no exception.  He gathers information from all over and consolidates it for me.  He even wrote it up for me this week in a report titled Fardh Al-Qanoon.  Now I don’t know exactly what that means, but I know it rhymes with poltroon and that’s what that bunch is.

I know I’m not the smartest guy that ever came down the pike.  To me, brains are something that get knocked around when a guy owes me money.  Or worse, when I owe somebody else money.  Just because I’m not Einstein or Oppenheimer doesn’t mean I don;t know when someone’s being real low-class chump.  Take this story I read earlier today by Mark Coffey at Decision ‘08.  Charles Schumer is determined to create a Vietnam-like quagmire regardles sof how it affects the troops, the war or the country.  There’s only one thing to say about a low-down snake in the grass like that, and I’m still a little civilized, so I won’t be saying it out loud.  Just know that when I finally get Schumer in these two hands, he’s going to be missing one of his exit holes...it’ll be plugged up with my shoe.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m chicken too, just sitting here waiting for something to happen instead of charging up there with both guns blazing.  Then the cold wind reminds me that the heater is broken in this jalopy and my coat is not as new as it used to be.  It’s downright Arctic out there, and my thoughts wander to the latest in scientific-type religions; Global Warming.  I wish I could get some of it right now.  I’d kill a man in cold blood right now for some balmy temperatures and a good amount of humidity.  Instead I find out from my pal Don Surber that this is the Coldest. February. Ever. That’s great.  Just great.  This job better be worth it.

Most jobs aren’t.  Most jobs are like choking down a bad tonic the pharmacist recommended for that racking cough that just won’t go away; it’s something you do because ya gotta, not because ya wanna.  Of course not all jobs are ones you don’t want to do.  Sometimes - and in this crazy world you gotta take ‘em as they come - a job comes along that is both something that needs doing and something you can be proud of for having done.  Take the story of how the Phillipine government hunted down Islamic terrorists.  Barry at enveranche told me that one, and on a night like this, when my only comfort is a now-cold thermos of coffee, a barely-working streetlamp and the sound of distant traffic, I’ll take all the good news I can get.

News is funny like that.  Good news, bad news, news you don’t care about.  News you would die to hear.  Then there’s news that just isn’t, like this story about an utterly meaningless and confusing poll.  I’m with Jennifer on this; unless they’re telling me that most Americans want to vote for the Kaiser or have declared that steak is the work of the devil, just leave the polls to the pollsters.  Regular Joes don’t need a poll to tell ‘em what to think or who to vote for.  That’s what our friends and family are for.

All this thinking about elections and politics is setting my nerves on edge, like a tightrope walker in a hurricane.  I root around in the glove box hoping to find the remnants of a pint and come up empty.  Oh well.  This is just not turning out to be my night.  And there’s just no getting away from the 2008 elections.  In fact, Fred - he’s the guy who has the office right across the hall from mine - was just telling me the other day all about the front-runners in the Republican field of candidates.  I still don’t know what to think.

One thing I know down to the tips of my wingtips is that all this waiting and watching would be easier if I had something with me to pass the time.  I hear that one day the bigwigs at Consolidated Electronications Unlimited will try to sell us all a magic little box that can let you carry around music and television and that anyone, even a John Q. Public type like you and me will be able to make shows and songs and anything else we want and share them with each other.  Down at the club, this character that calls himself Bloodspite was talking about kids - children, mind you! - that do these things, and about all sorts of futuristic technology stuff.  It boggles the mind, the idea of these “video Podcasts” he’s always talking about.  A palooka like me is just plumb out of his depth when it comes to this jibber-jabber. Just the very idea makes me feel like a skid row bum trying to get a meal at The Ritz.

Still, I sure would like to have something funny to watch on a night like this.  The good Lord knows it wouldn’t be that Fox Half-Hour News Hour show, though.  I haven’t seen anything that unfunny since Jerry McGillicutty beat his wife in the middle of Thirteenth Avenue and I had to shoot him dead just to get him to stop.  It was so unfunny it made Wolf Blitzer look like Stephen Colbert.  What I’m trying to say is it was not the kind of thing you would want to pass an evening watching.  It was more the kind of thing that makes you want to pass your dinner out the entrance ramp.

Dinner.  There’s something I wish I had.  All that’s left are two strips of stale crust and a soggy tomato slice.  That, and the wind.  The cold, biting wind that keeps reminding me that I’m on the job, that I’m here for a reason.

And so I wait.

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Posted by JimK at 09:10 PM on February 19, 2007
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Categories: Beautiful Women,  News,  Politics,  Technobabble (Technology),  The Blogosphere,  War,  U.S. Military
Tags: RINO sightings

Success and failure in Iraq

I’ve always had a weird ride as a reader of Daily Pundit.  I often find myself agreeing with Bill Quick - in fact almost all the time - but the few times I’ve opened my mouth in disagreement, we end up calling each other names and acting like kids.  It’s weird and frustrating because I almost always like what he writes, like 99.95% of the time.  But then I get all jerkstore at times I guess and he is not one to take kindly to things you can buy at the jerkstore.  :) Anyway, I read him (and his co-authors) every day, and once again, I find myself in lock-step with something he wrote.  Bill quotes Instapundit saying the following in regards to this New York Times article:

This sounds promising. Unfortunately, too many members of the U.S. political classes have now put themselves in a situation where success is politically more dangerous than failure.

Bill’s response, chopped.  Obviously you should hit the link for the whole thing…

You know, I’d take this sort of thing considerably more seriously if those burbling on about both “success” and “failure” in Baghdad and/or Iraq would define precisely what they mean by the words.

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Sure, I’ll go first.  Success in Iraq means an Iraq able to exercise self-determinism without fear of terrorist or other types of violence sponsored either by Iran or Saudi Arabia, and possessing a government that poses no terrorist threat to anybody else.

...

Failure is anything appreciably less than the definitions of success.  Defeat is cutting and running without ever really trying to achieve success in the first place.

I agree with this definition, but would add one thing; We need a permanent (yes, I said permanent) military presence in the Middle East, in a friendly country that isn’t Israel.  We need another Rammstein or Okinawa, only a little more hot and dry ifyougetmydrift.  I think success in Iraq depends not only on a stable government that is out of the terror business, but is also dependent on that stable government being not only friendly toward us, but acting in partnership with us.  I think Iran is all too well aware of what a stong-ish Iraq backed by a permanent US military base or two would mean.  I think that is why Iran is running this puppet insurgency.  Syria wouldn’t be too happy with that kind of success either.

Anyway, I don’t expect too many to agree with me, and I certainly don’t expect a single politician to say the words “permanent military base” out loud until it’s already built and staffed and has had its first bake sale courtesy of the Fort Green Zone Military Wives Auxiliary or whatever it will be called.

This is my definition of success; A stable-enough-to-run-itself Iraq, no funding or training or support of terrorism, and a military base that is nicely situated between Rammstein and Kadena (or maybe Pine Gap in Australia when they eventually relocate the Okinawa facilities).  If we can walk away with those goals achieved, no one, not even John Murtha or John Kerry could say that we lost.

Posted by JimK at 03:17 AM on February 18, 2007
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Non-binding, but it still makes my ass ache

Cowards.

The Democratic-controlled House issued a symbolic rejection of President Bush’s decision to deploy more troops to Iraq on Friday, opening an epic confrontation between Congress and commander in chief over an unpopular war that has taken the lives of more than 3,100 U.S. troops.

The vote on the nonbinding measure was 246-182.

“The stakes in Iraq are too high to recycle proposals that have little prospect for success,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, leader of Democrats who gained power last fall in elections framed by public opposition to the war.

Let me translate that for you.

Dear Joe Q. Soldier,

We, the duly elected Democratic Congress that represents 50% of your home country, think you’re all idiots and each and every one of you that feels a sense of pride and accomplishment over your mission is a dupe, a rube, and a misguided child.  You’re too stupid to make your own decisions about what you should be doing, and you are led by people even dumber than you.  We are far more qualified, since you know, we’ve never been there or if we have, we never left the Green Zone.  Just because the WWE and Kid Rock have seen more hotspots and danger zones than any ten of us doesn’t mean anything - we have the AP and Reuters and the New York Times to tell us what is happening.  You’ve accomplished nothing and every single person in Iraq hates you.  Furthermore, there are no foreign interests besides us operating in Iraq.

That having been said, not one of us has the courage to actually do anything to upset the applecart.  Well, except Murtha, but he’s senile, bitter, corrupt and crazy.  Even we don’t listen to him much.  The thing is, we won our positions based on empty rhetoric and empty threats.  We’re barely holding on here, and we have to be very careful so we don’t get destroyed in the 2008 elections.  Surely you can understand, right?  I mean, is it really so awful that we think you’re stupid, want to pull you off your mission well before you feel it’s complete and on top of all that, we don’t want to do it yet because it might jeopardize our shot at the White House?  Sure, we think thousands of you may die in the next two years.  Of course we believe that.  We also believe that your blood will float us to victory in 2008!

I believe that is what you signed up for...to ensure democracy, right?  Well we’re Democrats, and you don’t get more democracy than with a party that had mostly the same letters in the name!

Barely tolerant of your existence,

Queen Nancy of The Franciso

Yep.  That seems about right.

Supporters of the nonbinding resolution included 229 Democrats and 17 Republicans

I have searched high and low for one frigging news source to tell me the exact name of the bill, the res. number, or just point me to where I can see a roll of the vote so I can list the 17 weasels that wear the (R).  Unfortunately I can’t find that information, not even in a search through the House.gov site.  If anyone comes across it, please leave a link in the comments.

Anyone notice that in the 3,000+ news stories about this in Google, almost every single one is the AP wire story?  Does no one do any reporting anymore?

*UPDATE*

Thanks to Bartley in the comments…

The 17 Republicans without spines are:

Castle (DE)
Coble (NC)
Davis (VA)
Duncan (TN)
English (PA)
Gilchrest (MD)
Inglis (SC)
Johnson (IL)
Jones (NC)
Keller (FL)
Kirk (IL)
LaTourette (OH)
Paul (TX)
Petri (WI)
Ramstad (MN)
Upton (MI)
Walsh (NY)

Posted by JimK at 06:15 PM on February 16, 2007
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Categories: News,  Politics,  The Middle East,  War,  U.S. Military
Tags: Nancy Pelosi Congress democrats military war iraq

Joe gets it right

Joe Lieberman on the “non binding resolution” the Democrats want to pass about Iraq:

If it passed, this resolution would be unique in American legislative history. I contacted the Library of Congress on this question last week and was told that, never before, when American soldiers have been in harm’s way, fighting and dying in a conflict that Congress had voted to authorize, has Congress turned around and passed a resolution like this, disapproving of a particular battlefield strategy.

I ask each of my colleagues to stop for a moment and consider this history carefully. Even during Vietnam, even after the Tet Offensive, even after the invasion of Cambodia, Congress did not take up a resolution like this one.

Past Congresses certainly debated wars. They argued heatedly about them. And they clashed directly with the Executive Branch over their execution. But in doing so they accepted the consequences of their convictions.

This resolution does no such thing. It is simply an expression of opinion. It does not pretend to have any substantive effect on policy on the ground in Iraq.

But again, I ask you: what will this resolution say to our soldiers? What will it say to our allies? And what will it say to our enemies?

We heard from General Petraeus during his confirmation hearing that war is a battle of wills. Our enemies believe that they are winning in Iraq today. They believe that they can outlast us; that, sooner or later, we will tire of this grinding conflict and go home. That is the lesson that Osama bin Laden took from our retreats from Lebanon and Somalia in the 1980s and 1990s. It is a belief at the core of the insurgency in Iraq, and at the core of radical Islam worldwide. And this resolution—by codifying our disunity, by disavowing the mission our troops are about to undertake—confirms our enemies’ belief in American weakness.

This resolution also sends a terrible message to our allies. I agree that we must hold the Iraqi government to account. That is exactly what the resolution Senator McCain and I have offered would do. But I ask you: Imagine for a moment that you are a Sunni or Shia politician in Baghdad who wants the violence to end—and ask yourself how the Warner-Levin resolution will affect your thinking, your calculations of risk, your willingness to stand against the forces of extremism. Every day, you are threatened by enemies who want nothing but to inflict the most brutal imaginable horrors on you and your loved ones. Will this resolution empower you, or will it undermine you? Will it make you feel safer, or will it make you feel you should hedge your bets, or go over to the extremists, or leave the country?

And finally, what is the message this resolution sends to our soldiers? I know that everyone here supports our troops—but actions have consequences, often unintended. When we send a message of irresolution, it does not support our troops. When we renounce their mission, it does not support our troops.

Thank you, Senator Lieberman.

Posted by JimK at 09:58 PM on February 08, 2007
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Categories: News,  Politics,  The Middle East,  War,  U.S. Military
Tags: military war iraq politics

A soldier needs tunes, man!

Check this out.  It’s one of those things I really like to get involved with, as I know the people involved and I know that anything I give goes right directly to the person who needs it.

As most of you know, our resident Marine and Iraq War veteran Rick F. is about to head back to Iraq for his third (yes, third) tour.  He’s part of the surge.  He mentioned to me the other day that he’d like to take some CDs over there to give everyone something new to listen to, and I came up with an idea.

If you have an iTunes account, and would like to donate money to let Rick download music, you can send him a gift certificate.  Follow these steps.

1) Launch iTunes.  On the main screen, look in the top right corner in the Quick Links section.  In there you will see Buy iTunes Gifts.  Click it.

2) On the page that comes up are your options.  Scroll down a little and you will see Email Gift Certificates.  Click Buy Now.

3) The next page you see is the form.  Fill it out with your name, the amount you wish to send, and a message if you choose.  Where it asks for Recipient’s Email use the following address:

rstfehr6 at juno dot com

Just replace the “at” and the “dot” with the proper symbols.  if you don’t have iTunes, Lee has a way to Paypal some green Rick’s way.  Rick’s going for his third tour in the sandbox, and if all he’s asking for are some tunes, then hell...I can do that.  So can you.

Posted by JimK at 08:10 PM on February 01, 2007
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Categories: The Blogosphere,  War,  U.S. Military