Thursday, February 23, 2006

From the Foks Who Promised You a New American Century

A review of the global security situation...

Iraq:

A bomb shatters the golden dome of a Shiite Shrine in Samarra, a town 60 miles north of Baghdad.

In retaliation, Shiite militiamen go ape in Baghdad, firing rocket propelled grenades and machine guns at Sunni mosques. In total, 27 Sunni mosques are attacked. Three imams are killed and another is kidnapped.

Iraqi Army soldiers, called out to stop the violence, stand by and watch it all happen.

Violent protests erupt across the country.

Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia leads many of the protests, blames the bombing of the shrine on "occupation forces."

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iran's top Shiite cleric, says, "If the government's security forces cannot provide the necessary protection, the believers will do it."

Some Iraqi leaders blame the United States for failing to prevent the violence.

One Iraqi Shiite leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, American ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad's veiled threat on Monday to withdraw U.S. support if the Iraqis fail to form a nonsectarian government is to blame. "This declaration gave a green light for these groups to do their operation, so he is responsible for a part of that," Hakim says.

U.S. media pundits continue to argue over whether a civil war has broken out in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs chairman Peter Pace continue to complain that the media isn't reporting enough of the "good news" out of Iraq.

In other foreign policy news:

Our pals in Iran, who told us they'd build nukes whether we like or not, have pledged financial aid to Hamas, that terror group we don't like that won the elections in Palestine which we didn't expect to happen.

Since he can't get Iran to cooperate on a nuclear deal, Mr. Bush is now trying to meddle in India's nuclear program.

Our cuddly ally in Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, is losing his war against al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

In Afghanistan, the "crown jewel" in our Global War on Terror, militants are attacking schools and teachers.

In the worst foreign policy news of all, Condi Rice has made a surprise visit to Lebanon. I guess she had to sneak up on them so they wouldn't run away and hide before she got there. The best diplomatic move George W. Bush could make would be to chain Condi to her desk at Foggy Bottom. Among her, Rumsfeld, and Chertoff, it's a dead heat as to who's the biggest screw up in the Cabinet.

And on the Homeland Security front:

Bush domestic security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend is getting ready to release a report that says the nation needs to revamp the way it responds to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. It took a whole staff of people to help her figure that out.

The folks who tell you "we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" want to spend $49.9 billion on homeland security in 2006, calling the outlay "a responsible effort to align spending with strategic priorities."

Last but not least, NYT's David Sanger tells us it doesn't matter if a Dubai company owns six American ports because security sucks at all American ports regardless of who owns them.

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Mind you, all this is taking place under the stewardship of an administration that claims foreign policy and national security are its strong suits.

The long pole in the policy tent, of course, is Iraq, and we need to shut down that circus right now. We're not weakening the insurgency, we're not averting the civil war, and we're not bolstering Iraq's new government. A shrine blows up, all hell breaks loose, Iraqi troops pick their noses and rubberneck, and leadership across Iraq's political spectrum blames everything on us. I'm not upset that we threatened to withdraw support from the Iraqis if they failed to get their act together. I just damn angry we didn't do it two years ago.

There is no excuse whatsoever at this point for one more American kid to be killed or mangled in a futile attempt to bring that country into the 21st century. Iraqi troops aren't standing up. They're sitting down.

John Murtha's Iraq strategy is the only one that contains an ounce of sanity. Every second we delay redeploying out troops to the periphery is a senseless and irresponsible drain of our national treasure and power.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:28 AM

    This entire "deal" stinks tp high heaven. I try to stay away from conspiricy theories, but honestly, is there any reason to really believe that this is on the up and up? Considering the track history (which put simply, is a total screw up caused by deceit, con, and stupidity)there is absolutely nothing to trust.

    Why was this committee put together only 4 months before this "deal?"

    Why wasn't the full cabinet informed of the details?

    Who and what "intelligence" agency did the vetting?

    Why are records to be stored in UAE instead of here?

    Why are we having a company that is owned by a foriegn government servicing our ports?

    The questions go on and on. But there is one more I would like to know, and unfortunately will find out soon enough. Everytime they are up to something really nasty, they chuck out a red herring, like Harriet Meyers. So what is really going on? Or is he following in the moral footsteps of his grand-daddy but on a bigger scale?

    I wouldn't trust these bastards to clean the cat box.

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  2. Meribeth,

    I take it you're referring to the DP world deal. I'm pretty sure it was a crony job. Snow and the other guy lining their pals' pockets.

    Hey, if you can't abuse power, what good is it?

    And what's one more scandal, especially when you're always looking to draw attention from the main sin of Iraq?

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  3. I see Rove is out of the bunker, and DPWorld is saying there'll be a slight delay. How convenient. W is doing his damage-control bit, getting to look all resolute and steadfast and such.

    And we all know this deal will go through as soon as our backs are turned. Say, around 4th of July holidays, when no one's around, late one night...?

    As far as news cycles, we're about to be catapulted into Roe v. Wade "sectarian violence" anyway, after the South Dakota abortion ban story. Expect that political football to be tossed around up till and through Election '06.

    "Iraq? where's that? oh, right -- are they pro-life?"

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  4. Anonymous11:03 AM

    Jeff, any occasion that Rove come out of the closet is the time people should really stop and think.

    And SD? I can just see the mileage they are going to get from that. And why? Because it's easy. Get the lather all frothed and pound the pulpit.

    I have mixed feelings. I fought long and hard for women's reproductive rights, and when I see young women with their heads in the clouds (idealistic) I really want to give up. There was a bill proposed in my state which will make it illegal for a single woman to receive artificial insemination. This is the same state that wanted to force a woman who has had a miscarriage to report it to the police within 24 hours...after they have saved and measured it. OK, they want to monitor how, when, who, and if we get pregnant.

    This is the same state that is also looking into getting rid of SOLs. That may have some validity, but I am sure that it is an attempt to teach ID in the public schools.

    Jeff H., does all this sound familiar? It should. Robertson, Falwell, Dobson are happy with Va. And you know what? It isn't just this state.

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