Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Iraq & Afghanistan Run out the Clock

Just to get the ball rolling.

We can all expect that General Petraeus' report in September will be, "The surge is working, slowly. We can see signs of success is some limited areas, if we look very carefully. We are seeing more Americans killed and maimed, but that is a sign of our success. The Iraqi government (the one that does not exist outside the Green Zone) has failed to meet any of the benchmarks discussed in January, but we hope they might in the future. We need more time for the surge to work."

The translation is, "President Bush needs to stall for sixteen more months, until January 2009, so he can get out of town, declaring that 'we were winning when he left', and let others clean up his mess". And a P.S. "Anyone who disagrees, hates our troops!"

Unfortunately, 100% of Republicans (Plus Zell Miller Joe Lieberman), no matter what they say now about, "running out of patience" will back this White House line and block any action whatsoever from Congress to force Bush to do anything other than what he is doing right now... stalling for time.

And, what will the Conservative media do? Of course, declare this all the Democrats fault. It wlll make perfect sense on FoxNews, and the rest of the spineless media (meaning you, Chris Mathews) will echo this line, without a single, original thought.

Makes you wonder how many more service men and women will die until the time runs out. I wonder if we, the voters, have learned anything from this white house since 2003? It is a toss up whether they are lazy or stupid. I still have many friends and readers who are behind President Bush 100% and when I tell them the war is based on lies and manipulations they think I'm a traitor.

Had President Clinton done this, they would have taken the doors off the white house and pulled him out physically. I was shouted down by a poster on another forum that Iraq did have WMDs but I noticed he does not have the courage to say it here on RR.

I'm glad to find you still here Steve. I am so impressed by this forum and how it debates our problems at home and in Iraq. I just had to get on my knees and beg to be let in again. It feels good.

Running out the clock is as good a way as any of describing it.

I think we are in the "Iraqification" phase where we want the Iraqis to put on the oven mitten so that we may hand them the hot potato of our own making.

Truman ran out the clock in Korea, handing the problem to Eisenhower; however, the new administration did get the matter reasonably resolved within six months.

Nixon essentially did the same thing with "Vietnamization" - handing the steaming turd to the very weak and unpopular regime we had essentially created and propped up following our sanctioning of the deposition of the previous weak and unpopular regime.

Johnson essentially handed the problem he had created through the spurious Gulf of Tonkin incident to Nixon - whom claimed he had a "secret plan" to end the war - who took another five years to get out of what we shouldn't have been in the first place.

Ron, does it matter that another 1000 servicemen might die? While we watch the white house celebrate Christmas on June 25th? Did you see the mock Christmas party where black tie was required for the cameras?

The Balkans aren’t worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. - Otto von Bismarck

No. I don't rubberneck the goings-on of the Inside-the-Beltway brie and chablis crowd.

Line 'em up. Let the President who when faced with the possibility of stepping up and being a man got his daddy to help him weenie out of serving his country in the manner of being up close and personal, where the real deal separates the mouthy and s*** hearted from the men who walk the talk; let him line 'em up and tell them they are going to die. Let the Vice President, who was so very truly self-serving that he got 7, SEVEN, draft deferments because he "had other priorities"; let him line 'em up and tell them, face to face, "you are going to die". Let the this chickenshit, bullshit, nutless Congress line them up and tell them. Let the "Christians" who love Jesus but want to use dead GIs as leverage, let them line up the troops and tell them that their children, fathers, grandfathers, sons, daughters, husbands and wives are going to die so that the war we have already f*cking lost, the war the Administration lied us into, will eventually play itself out. Line 'em up and look them in the eyes, and tell their loved ones YOU can accept their suffering and their deaths.

Tell the parents BEFORE it happens, tell them face to face, tell the families, tell their children, tell the loved ones that YOU, the President who couldn't face the commitment, that YOU and the VP who pissed on being an American, that YOU, lover of Jesus, are willing to have their son have their penis and balls and a leg cut off in surgery; that YOU are willing to have their father come home blind; that YOU are willing to have their daughter return home without the ability of ever having children or being able to walk; that YOU are willing to have their child return home deaf and blind; that YOU are willing to have their husband return home a psychological basket-case so that the war war can wind down on its own and play out.

YOU TELL THEM YOURSELF THAT YOU CAN LIVE WITH THAT HAPPENING TO THEIR FATHER OR MOTHER, OR SON OR DAUGHTER, OR HUSBAND OR WIFE. YOU TELL THEM THAT FACE TO FACE, EACH ONE!!!

YOU go to Iraq and Afghanistan on the terms that the troops face it - no entourage, no safe tour of secured areas, no cleared camera op - and YOU tell them that tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and on and on that they are going to have wake up once again and again and again and again and again, knowing the terror of being in the s***, and do once more. Tell them YOU faced it, tell them YOU'VE sucked it up everyday and walked back into hell untold, and gutted it out day after, day after day after day. Tell them you've seen the elephant, you know first hand what it is like facing the terror alone (because in the real world you do face it alone) and tell them YOU would give up YOUR own life so that they would not have to face the monster one day more and put YOURSELF out there so that they would not have to do it again and again and again and again. YOU tell them that. Live with them for 24 hours exactly as they live and tell them YOU want them to gear up and move out and get maimed and die. What man or woman is worth that? Give me their names and tell me YOU have told their loved ones that YOU support their pain and suffering and sometimes their death. Which Americans are worth that? Tell me their names and tell me how it is YOU, along with President George Bush, who went AWOL during Vietnam and how VP Dick Cheney who f*cking weenied and whinned out 7 times! have decided that they and YOU can live with it.

Which people are YOU willing to suffer for a lifetime and which people are YOU willing to die to buy time for Bush's war? Which ones? Give me their names and tell me YOU are willing to tell the people they love that YOU can live with their sacrifice.

Tell me that's what Jesus would do.

OMG, Mick. That was amazing. Thank you (even though it hurts).

Thank you Mick. Words like yours are what brought me back to Reader Rant. I need to see a clean point of view of the damage caused by our last 3 Presidents. I need to know that others are as shocked and horrified of our positions in the world at this time.

Life is cheap and not worth keeping safe when they are volunteers in our Army. I often think that our leaders are using them to profit from their sacrifices.

Our history books are filled with cowards who lead only through their words and never by example. Those who stand up for our servicemen and women stand out as true Americans. Speeches and prayers do not justify their lack of responsibility.

If General Petraeus' report is anything less than a glowing success story of the surge and all the good things happening in Iraq then he will simply be replaced. Such is the way our president "listens to the generals"
Can the USA really afford to be in Iraq for another 10 years? Or following the Korean agenda another 54 years? At that point would there be any Iraqis left or would it be entirely an imported army of insurgents? In four years we have seized and secured part of one city and it appears that the surge has succeed mostly in increasing attacks on that small area. Tom Englehart lists some of our "successes" here....

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062707C.shtml

Down here in Florida when a hurricane blows through we all "hunker down" and ride out the storm, in essence, run out the clock. We can only hope that once this storm has passed the levies will hold.

Great post from Tom Engelhart of TomDispatch. He rarely misses the target.

Not so long ago, Greger, truthout was often labeled a far-left tinfoilhat site here on the Rant, despite the fact that most of their postings were linked to primary sources. Engelhart's assessment is true to form, with copious links.

Ken Hill pointed out the other day that it's hard to get an accurate assessment of what's going on in Iraq because reporter's lives are in so much danger, they dare not get too close to the truth. And yet, despite this glaring impediment, it is still possible to extrapolate a great deal.