Reconciliation? Impossible !
Bushies have been pretending that a few moves
by Shiite/Kurd govt., to appease Sunnis, will pacify
the insurgents.

Absurd.
As long as Sunni Quaeda suiciders (often Saudis)
can slaughter Shia wholesale, Shia will never make moves to appease Sunnia--and Sunnis know this,
so they won’t be pacified.

The only solution: split Iraq into 3 ministates: Kurdland, Sunni/ArabLand and ShiaLand. A civil war between regions is less bloody than one between neighborhoods.

 
DANGEROUS INFO:
UNITED PRESS (UPI.COM) regularly publishes ‘Bencharks’:: statistics on the number of killed AND WOUNDED GIs each month.

No other mainline media publishes this vital info.

There is criticism—NOT of the accuracy of UPI info—but some say such info should not be published at all !

Such critics aren’t worried about the insurgents getting info—they know it already.
These critics don’t want naïve AMERICANS to get this info—
especially about tens of thousands of MAIMED OR WOUNDED GI’s—
some injuries (e.g., of brain) are worse than death.

 
Who’s On First?
Iraq ‘parliament’ rests for a month. A Kurd said, “There’s no reason to think any compromise will be effected after we come back.”

People blame Maliki. Ja’afri wants to replace Maliki.
Earlier, Bushies forced Ja’afri out and put in Maliki.
USATODAY,31JY
It’s ever so obvious that the ‘govt’. cowering in the GreenZone in Baghdad is
a puppet, with a stupid puppet-master.

 
‘We can win !” says UPI.COM writer Lind—
by redefining ‘winning.’ (foiling Quaeda in Iraq).

We’ve destroyed the State in Iraq; UNTIL WE PULL OUT, no state can be recreated there.

The nature of the State doesn’t matter. A State (esp. one dominated by SHIA) would wipe out rival Quaeda.

However, no one state ruling both Sunnis & Shias, is possible. What would work is split into 3 ministates: Kurdland, SunniArabLand, and ShiaLand.

Shialand would have MOST Iraqis, MOST OIL, & the only seaport. Like it or not, it would be friendly with giant Shia Iran next-door.

 
US BOMBERS kill too many civilians in Afgh.
What’s their solution?
Use smaller bombs !
Financial Times 30Jy.
Bombing (NECESSARILY INDISCRIMINATE)
helps recruit new guerillas among enraged survivors.

 
SAUDIS in Iraq:
Former US amb.toIraq says Saudis are DESTABILIZING Iraq.
(Story almost hidden in rMtnNews, 30jy.)
US commanders identify recent suiciders in Iraq as Saudis fighting for Quaeda. An author claims MOST foreign suiciders are Saudis.

USATODAY,30jy

(Bush family has been in bed with Saudi royals for decades.Bushies now propose sale of billions of $ worth of sophisticated weapons—with Israel’s approval.)

When we bug out, Saudis will back IraqiSunnis, Iran the Shia.Shia outnumber Sunnis 3 to 1. Saudis can contribute only weapons. Iran will contribute mil. Leadership by battle-hardened Iranian officers.

 
CONGRESS (NOT BUSH !) shdManageWar,
say 2 in 3 Americans.

55% (vs 32%) trust Congr.Dems to lead.
2 in 3 : ‘war is not worth fighting.’

55% of GOP : ’Bush won’t change.’(78% of all Amer.)

Only 22% say SURGE improves Iraq security .

2 in 3 say SURGE will NOT succeed in next few months.
ABC,29Jy.

SURGE makes successful attack on our new small bases more likely; such a massacre would finish the tipping at home.

 
David Ignatius (DenvPost28Jy) worries about HOW we’re leaving Iraq. He correctly notes that Iraqis know we’ll pull out soon; so Sunnis and Shias are now arming for their full civil war that will follow our pullout.

Any problems from Congressional signals of pullout are already caused. The worst we could do is signal pullout, then not pullout…and put our GIs in the midst of the full civil war.

Even worse, with Sunnis already killing GIs, our generals are trying to start a war with the Shia, who are 3 in 4 of Arab/Iraqi population. We may end up with the whole population attacking our GIs.

A ‘gradual’ pullout may not be possible, just as this was impossible in Vietnam. We may have to pull out all our troops at once, leaving tons of war-equipment behind.

The good news is that this will justify trillions more dollars to the war-corporations, to replace this equipment.

 
MALIKI VS. PETRAEUS:
These men have clashed—mainly over US arming SUNNI militias because THEY SAY they’ll fight Quaeda.

Maliki has said he might ask for Petraeus to be replaced—as if he had any power with Bushies !

M. has also threatened to arm SHIA militias in retaliation.

He will not cut his ties to SADRITES, which US is attacking regularly.

He has not been able or willing to push thru Parliament the ‘oil-bill’ Bushies demand.
GUARDIAN

Bushies seem determined to start war with Shia (8 of 10 of Iraqi/Arabs !)

 
NO BENCHMARKS.

SECTARIAN squabbles in Maliki Govt.

Sunni members accused (plausibly) of siding with insurgents!
Sunni cabinet members have dropped out.

Little chance that ‘benchmarks’ will be attained by Sept.

REUTERS,27Jy

 
BASES PIPEDREAM
RMtnNews devoted nearly a full page to D. Pipes’ pipe-dream about ‘salvaging’ our Iraq project. “We’ve lost the occupation, but we can win the war.”

Pipes wants us to retreat to desert bases . He hopes this will
a) unseat Syrian & Iranian regimes
(b)assure free flow of oil and gas (c) and fight Qaeda.

In other words, he wants to set up permanent bases in Iraq. Now the House of Representatives must fund such bases. But the House has passed 7 resolutions opposing permanent bases. The last measure passed by a uniquely bipartisan majority: 400 votes (vs. 24 against the ban).

We already have over 100 overseas bases (aggravating both our federal and trade deficits). The most notable is our torture base at Guantanamo,Cuba.

 
Who’s believed?

Iraqis say dozens of civilians killed in recent US airstrike.
US says no civilians were in that neighborhood.

Whom do you think Iraqis generally will believe?

It doesn’t matter what really happened.
As long as we keep launching indiscriminate airstrikes at Shia neighborhoods,
We will increase Shia hatred for us.(75% of Iraqi/Arab population!)

 
GORBACHEV says US is sowing world disorder by Bushies’ IGNORANT unilateral moves to attain a world empire.
REUTERS27JY

 
US still Attacking Shia !

While generals chatter about alliance with Anbar Sunnis, they’re still attacking Shia neighborhoods with air-strikes.

Bushies seen determined to push Shia
(8 in 10 of IraqiArabs)
(a) into full-scale attacks on GIs;
(b) into leaning more on Iranian help.

 
CONTINUED SILENCE:
Voice of America and NYTimes (also Lehrer News on Public TV yesterday ) finally ran stories about the incredibly bipartisan vote (400 to 24) forbidding permanent US bases in Iraq. (House would have to finance such bases.)

USATODAY remained silent on this bombshell story.
No other mainline media ran this story, acc. To Google index.

 
GreenZone harbors US & Iraq/govt HQ:
MortarsIntoGreenZoneMoreAccurate,
In the 3 months of SURGE;
General says this shows Iranian training.
USATODAY

That implies the mortars are from SHIA militia—no evidence of that! Why would Shias attack HQ of Shia-dominated govt.?

If true, we’re in big trouble, with a real TWO-FRONT war!

 
AMAZING MEDIA SILENCE:
How have mainline media reacted to BOMBSHELL story about OVERWHELMING, bipartisan House vote (400 vs. 24) to ban PERMANENT US BASES in Iraq?

Lots of OFF-mainstream media have noted this—but GOOGLE index shows NO MAINLINE media references in first dozens of stories cited. (And it wasn’t mentioned in ABC Evening news !)

Are mainline media practicing self-censorship?

Give Lehrer News on public TV credit; they did mention the story—but they just said the House ‘easily’ passed the bill—not mentioning the historically unique bipartisan support (400 to 24 !)
The main GOP argument against the measure was that the House has already passed SIX OTHER resolutions against permanent bases !

Did you know that? I didn’t.

 
US/SunniAlliance?
UnitedPress(Sieff)25Jy
US has some success in Anbar allying with Sunnis (even insurgents) vs. fanaticQaedists.

Bushies may dream of putting Sunnis back in power over ALL Iraq (Saddam-lite strategy).
This idea would get approval from SunniSaudiArabia and Israel. However…

This ignores fact that Kurds/Shia (hating Sunnis) are 4 in 5 of population ! Also, that we have given Shia govt. huge stocks of weapons !
Most likely result: we’ll unite Sunnis & Shia—against our GIs !

 
BushiesWantCutback? John Murtha says he gets signals that Bushies would accept cutback to 70,000 GIs (with no deadline).
http://today.reuters.com/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N25310458

Could this be their plan to keep thousands of GIs PERMANENTLY in friendly Kurdland--risking war with Turkey ? !
House just OVERWHELMINGLY (bipartisan) opposed any such plan..

And House must finance such a plan.

 
OverwhelmingVoteVs.Permanent Bases
IndiaTimes

Only 24 GOP diehards voted vs. the House motion—
vs 400 in favor of ban !
(The most one-sided , bipartisan vote in recent House history.)

There’s no doubt that Bushies INTEND to set up permanent bases in Iraq.

This motion will at least call this perfidious plan to the citizen’s notice.

BUT: GOOGLE index didn't mention this story!

One MUST read foreign media to get full story.

 
Stay’Forever’:
NYT (24Jy) ran a story that Gen.Petraeus & Amb. Crocker have submitted a plan for staying in Iraq past ’09 !
Amazing that this should be leaked, given the determination of Congress’ Dems plus some GOPS AND 70% OF AMERICANS to get out by Spring ’08 at the very latest !

Possible Explanations:
(optimistic) Petraeus & Crocker are defying Bushies, admitting how long WE’D HAVE TO stay to make a difference.
Since we WON”T stay that long, we CAN’T make a difference--so the sooner we pull out the better.

(pessimistic) Since they feel sure they can get a GOP hawk OR HAWK HILARY into the Presidency, they think the next President will back the absurd continuation.

(super-pessimist) If a dove candidate wins, they may plan to CANCEL THE ELECTIONS and have the Pentagon take over OPENLY instead of ruling us as it now does covertly. (The Pentagon could squash any rebellion with its new army of robots.)

This last scenario has a small but real chance of being true. So once again I’d hope that my grandchildren become able to emigrate: which means (a) learning several foreign languages (hundreds of millions of humans speak Spanish—an easy one to learn)
and (b) picking up a scarce SKILL that other nations would covet in their immigrants. This would be a skill that can’t be robotized or outsourced to supercheap Indians & Chinese: (e.g., auto-repair or hands-on health skills or teaching English as foreign language--or managing outsourcing!)

 
SelfConfidentIgnorance:
Not only are our GOVT. ‘intelligence’ agencies pretty incompetent (the outgoing CIA chief said we couldn’t develop a competent intelligence in less than 5 years; the Iraq embassy has only 10 out of 1000 functionaries who understand Arabic !)—

Our traditional NON-govt. sources have also got pretty incompetent along with the general ‘dumbing’ of America.
(ABCNEWS used to have 37 foreign correspondents; now 4/ generally for every ten foreign correspondents after WWII, we now have only 1.)
UnitedPress/Borchgrave/24Jy.

What to do? Emergency recruitment of youths into studying foreign languages and cultures—but for years in the meantime, we must pull out of complex foreign affairs and concentrate on defending our Homeland from terrorists(e.g., INSPECTING the thousands of huge ship-containers entering our ports each DAY, each capable of carrying deadly terrorist weapons.)

We won’t do any of this, because ignorance is a disease that conceals its own symptoms—and our leaders don’t FEEL ignorant of other cultures.

 
FiftyFive% of GOPs nationwide want Bush to be ‘more flexible’ about Iraq.
ABC/TVNEWS23Jy.

That’s euphemistic loyalist code for
‘Get the hell out !”

So there’s some hope that GOP Senators going home will be told we should get the hell out.
Twenty-one of them must run again in ’08.

One ‘HomeNOW’ vote was 57 pro vs. 42.
Not many more GOP converts would be needed to set up a veto-proof majority.

 
ANOTHER GLOOMY EXPERT told Congress he doubts if we could create a stable Iraq in a few years, with the small number of troops we have there.UnitedPress/Security/23July

'Doubts' is likely a great understatement.

 
SuiciderBombsProUS Sunnis:
They can’t seem to keep their meetings secret (time/place).
CNN

 
LargeMajoritiesDemandHighTaxForWealthy:
In Europe and US, most want wealthy taxed more,
and even pay-caps for CEOs.
FinancialTimes,22July

Question is, does it really matter what ‘large majorities’ want?
Perhaps you can't fool all the people all the time, but Rove-types are skilled in
fooling a large enough minority at election-times..
getting them excited about abortion or gay marriage.

 
PAK ATTACK?
US attack InPakistan?
‘Force not ruled out’ say Bushies, with Dem approval.

Tempting to cover Iraq bugout by moving troops to Afhan/Pak border.

But this might enable Islamist fanatics to take over Pak openly…and Pak has nukes !
Guardian

 
Turk Islamists Win.
The present ruling Islamist party in Turkey won yesterday’s election ‘decisively’ vs. secularists, getting about 50% of the votes.
Reuters23Jy

Hard to tell if that makes war with IraqiKurds more likely.

Two sure conclusions:

a) Bushies are crazy to preach majoritarian democracy in Muslim countries, where large majorities hate US.

b) Bushies were crazy to invade Iraq, getting involved with Byzantine middle-east conflicts.

 
‘Cut back US troops in N.Iraq’, hopes US general.

However, previous attempts to cut back Gis have been frustrated by UNPREDICTED insurgent resurgence.
Govt.forces have proved unwilling or unable to take over.
SeattlePI

Americans don't care about local troop cutbacks unless they result in lower CASUALTIES.

 
Shia neighborhood air-bombed; civilians killed.
Ho-hum…of course.
Just after generals said they were now going after Quaeda,not Shia !
GUARDIAN

Helpless neighborhoods are such easy fun to bomb!

 
LOGISTICS OF BUGOUT:
Getting troops out is manageable;
but how about 180,000 civilians working for US?

What about tons of equipment?

SixMonths is estimate of time required.
SeattlePI

The longer it will take, the sooner we should start.

 
BUSHIES ADMIT FAILURE: Progress in only 8 of 18 (44%) of ‘benchmarks’.
--No progress in reconciliation between Sunnis/Shia;

--no provision of ‘fair oil-sharing’ with hated Sunnis (bloody likely !)

--No readiness of Iraq forces to take over security when we leave.
UnitedPress, 21Jy

 
IraqWon’tBeQuaedaHaven.
An expert at right-wing CATO think-tank notes that there are fewer than 2000 Qaedists in Iraq, that Kurds/Shia who HATE Quaeda are 4/5ths of Iraqi population!
UnitedPress

The ‘Quaeda haven’ story is just Bushie propaganda.

 
YEARS NEEDED before StandUp/StandDown.
Bushies have bragged of success in Anbar Province; but US general there said Iraqi forces would not be ready to take o ver in less than 2 years (!)
REUTERS,

 
WHY QUAEDA REVIVED?
“Nation that attacks everywhere gains nothing.”
Quaeda has revived on Pakistan/Afgh border. Forces we oppose them with are MINUSCULE compared to forces we’re wasting in Iraq.
UnitedPress/20Jy.

 
BAD GOP NEWS!
‘PostponeWar-Judgment’, says General.
(Boston.Com,20Jy)

The longer we delay starting pullout,
the closer to election’08 will be the days when
awful GI casualty rates are still hitting the media.

Perhaps nobody hates Bushies now as much as GOP Strategists !

 
“Hilary questions help Enemy!’ says Pentagon aide.
NYTIMES, 20July

Nonsense ! Insurgents and all Iraqis already know we’ve lost the war. Pentagon wants to keep this news from Americans.

 
INFRASTRUCTURE WARNING:
The dramatic steam explosion (70-year-old pipes) in NY symbolized the ancient city of pipes and wires beneath every big US city (not to mention the collapsing bridges,etc.)

We’re told there’s really nothing we can do about this; the cost would be over one trillion dollars. (ABCTVnews19Jy)

Nonsense—this one trillion dollars is just what we shovel to the useless Pentagon every TWO years.

Forget about the good works weapons-money could do in the way of education, health, poverty-relief. Middle America doesn’t care much about these projects.
But middle-America BETTER care about our infrastructure—and about our grossly underfunded Homeland Defense.

 
AFGHAN FAILURE
GUARDIAN
Bushies will go down in history for losing THREE WARS AT ONCE (Afghan,Iraq, & ‘war on terror’.)

 
SEVEN INSURGENT GROUPS (EXCLUDING QUAEDA) HAVE AGREED TO WORK TOGETHER TO OUST US.
GUARDIAN
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2129675,00.html

Over 300 Gis killed in last 3 months; over 2000 wounded (likely 1000 seriously maimed or wounded.

Amb/Crocker sees ‘some improvement’. It would be surprising if, among awful deteriorations, there would be no trivial improvements to point to !

 
SOME SPLIT !
“Americans SPLIT over withdrawal’says REUTERS headline. (19Jy)

But STORY says 7 in 10 want pullout by Apr.’08 !

 
EXTRA-CHOOSY FEMALES produce worse eggs. (among Iguanas)
UNITED PRESS

Analogous problem among humans:
women—during fertile period--have an instinct to MATE with muscular, testosterone-heavy men (tho they may be married to good-provider WoodyAllen types).

This instinct (inherited from a world of 10,000 years ago) is now outdated—today’s human children need non-abusive, steady fathers,
NOT fathers who can fight off sabre-tooth tigers.

 
CHEAP SOLAR POWER !
Before, solar chips had to involve expensive silicon. Now chips can be ‘painted on’ ordinary walls and ceilings ! Your electric car could be plugged in overnight, without drawing power from power companies !

UnitedPress,19Jy.

Enthusiasm over this discovery does NOT contradict my general LUDDISM, my technophobia. I hold that megatech advances will do MUCH good, but EVEN MORE harm.

In fact, if electric cars postpone the day when we switch to MASS TRANSIT from our highway culture, (slaughtering and maiming Americans more than any war does), then historians may see this ‘advance’ as regress.

Expensive gas, like expensive cocaine, is a good thing.

 
TAME WashPost !
‘SENATE REJECTS IRAQ WITHDRAWAL’ says TAME WashPost(18July)

52 voted to pull out; 47 to continue.

Dems should continue to demand votes, so they can count # of times each GOP candidate voted to continue. (21 need to run in’08)

 
Most Detained ForeignInsurgentsAreSaudis !

So much for Bushie chatter about Irans/Syrians as main groups interfering with our Iraq project.
SeattlePI, 18Jy

 
“WhatIfIraqFellApart?!” thunders US honcho.
UnitedPress,18Jy

We’d better ask that question seriously--because Iraq WILL split into 3 ministates: Kurdland/Sunni-ArabLand/ and Shialand.

Only SenBiden has courage to discuss this outcome.

 
GREATER KURDLAND:
Iraq Constitution, which Bushies hurried to be adopted, calls for election in North, to see which places wanted to be absorbed into the de-facto independent Kurdland. Now the names on the electoral roll are being listed, as a first step.

Hussein expelled the Kurds from this oil-rich border, but now they’ve returned to be the majority.

The election could bring peace to the region like the peace now reigning in actual Kurdland. Or it could bring a new civil war; a bomb this week caused 300 mainly Kurdish casualties.

And Turkey would be furious to see an expanded, oil-soaked Kurdland. On the other hand, they can export oil only thru Turkey.
Till now, they’ve exported little oil; the Sunni insurgents have been able to blow up their pipelines.

One would expect all Sunnis to be expelled from Greater Kurdland, and the borders defended by their fierce ‘Peshmurga’. Then they might wait in poverty till they can develop their huge oil resources. America & Israel are their allies.

FinancialTimes

 
TwoMillionRefugees INSIDE IRAQ (plus 2 million more outside). SIXTY THOUSAND more flee their homes every DAY.
SeattlePI,17Jy
Iraqis are voting with their feet, fleeing to areas dominated by their sect.
Partition looks more inevitable every day
(into Kurdland,SunniArabLand, and Shialand.)

After partition, 'oil-sharing' can't be enforced;Sunnis won't be reconciled.

Then civil war will be like US North vs. South, less bloody than
neighborhood vs. neighborhood.

 
Radiation-LEAKS from Japan’s biggest n-electric-plant
from Earthquake.
Reuters, 17 Jy

For US, a bigger worry is SABOTAGE: small planes loaded with explosives crashing into 104 vulnerable, radioactive WASTE-PONDS.
'Dirty bombs' easily made.

 
COASTAL WINDS can produce huge amts. Of electricity, for coastal areas which consume 70% of US elec. And production is high during
high-consumption times.
But European demand (& low US production !) means shortage of wind-units.
UnitedPress

 
B-1StrikesInIraq: Over 14 a day. Necessarily Indiscriminate.
(In Viet war, B52s sometimes bombed next-door Thailand!)

Helping insurgents recruit new suicide volunteers.

(Ft.Worth)Star-Telegram

ROBOT planes to Iraq, each loaded with 1.5 tons of bombs.
US pilots would not, presumably, bomb Americans;
American robots wouldn't hestitate !

 
OIL SPIKES to $73 to $77 a barrel worldwide(Spike has lasted 3 weeks!)
Reuters

Have speculators guessed Bushies are going to foolishly bomb Iran?
Media say no, it’s because of production-drops in North-Sea oil.

However,the vulnerability of world oil-supplies shows how dumb it would be for us or Israel to bomb Iran !

 
RussSuccessfullyTestNewSubMissile:

It’s intercontinental, meaning it could wipe out US cities in retaliation for any attack on Russia.
Thus our world-dominance by reason of our thousands of H-missiles is more clearly ended.

World’s dependence on oil made Russ rich enough to develop this missile.
UPI.COM
And the spending of trillions on ‘missile-defense’ is shown
even more clearly to be nutty.

 
A respected observer in UnitedPress says that 4th generation war needs the realization that Western culture faces many different kinds of cultural enemies, that mass immigrations of ‘3d-world’ peoples into Western countries pose a bigger threat than Iraq !

Why can’t Western governments realize this?
One reason is the belief that all cultures are good EXCEPT the tyrannical Western cultures.

Another reason is that the low-tech approach needed (study of alien languages and cultures) doesn’t fill the war-corporation pockets.

 
USATODAY devotes whole pages (16July) to the scandal that Pentagon, knowing all along the vulnerability of humvees to road-bombs, and the safer character of MRAPS, still balked at producing & sending over MRAPS for over FOUR YEARS OF WAR.

Even now Mraps will be produced at a leisurely pace.

Half of all GI casualties are from road-bombs.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-07-15-ied-cover_N.htm
Pentagon doesn’t really care about GI casualties.

Why should it? It's not a war-machine, but a money-machine, concerned mainly to shovel trillions of dollars to its masters, the war-corporations.

 
BUSH REJECTS GOP SEN.PLAN:
Warner/Lugar now know how useless it was to offer a ‘toothless’ alternative to Dem ‘Home Now’ bills.

Why are Bushies so self-confident? They act as though they’re sure 60 Senators (veto-proof majority) will never be recruited to demand ‘Home now.’
Yet 21 GOP Senators have to run again in ’08, and 70% of Americans favor ‘Home Now’!

Pentagon trillions can covertly be spent to undermine Senate candidates (by financing primary rivals) .

Indeed, while 4 GOP Congressmen sided with Dems in one vote, TEN DEMS SIDED WITH BUSH-BACKERS.

 
BODY COUNT:
When pessimists describe awful situations in Iraq/Afganistan, Bushies pout that media downplays the GOOD news: e.g., all the insurgents we’re killing.

But what counts is how many insurgents are LEFT, compared to how many it TAKES to disrupt our generals’ plans.

In Viet war, US generals bragged about the thousands of VC they were killing, until Americans thought the war was practically won.

Then came the TET OFFENSIVE, when VC ferociously attacked in many places. Then Americans decided
(a) that they could never trust the generals again,
and (b) that the war was lost.

Some historians say we actually won that Tet chapter. But the point is that lying governments forefeit the trust of their people.

 
HORSE/RABBIT STEW AGAIN:
Colo.State U will mix search for truth(university research) with search for profit (corporate research).

Guess which is horse in this stew.

 
CLEARvs.HOLD:

“There must be a force to hold for govt. the areas cleared of insurgents by US’, says US general..
"This force will NOT be coalition (i.e. US) forces !” he warned.
SeattlePI
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq.html

It won’t be Iraqi forces either.
Number of units able to fight alone sank from 10 to 6.

 
OBAMA:’FIGHT OSAMA’.

Candidate Obama says plausibly that we should pull our troops out of Iraq and send them to Pakistan border to attack Qaeda and binLaden.
SeattlePI
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1131AP_Obama_Terrorism.html

This particular recommendation is just a pol’s evasion to say ‘BugOut of Iraq’ without sounding Soft on Defense..
But the general point is valid: the Iraq fiasco is weakening our Homeland Defense efforts.

 
WesternForce ‘doing its best’ to discourage Afghan opium production and prevent civil war—says a UnitedPress commentator.


They’re obviously failing at these tasks; so IF they’re now doing their best, they’d better admit failure and pull out.
-----------
'Afghan situation much worse than realized!" says Brit 'Pentagon'
GUARDIAN

 
Smarmy Catholic writers have 'interpreted away' this ancient doctrine: 'Outside the Church there is no salvation.'

But Pope Benny has reaffirmed the inferiority of all other religions.
LATIMES


I remember some blunt German-American priests who regularly referred
to Protestants as 'Our Separated Bastards.'

Let's hope the strange political alliance breaks up between Protestant and Catholic fundamentalists--largely responsible for re-election of Bush.

 
“Removal of our tons of equipment from Iraq will take months.” says DOD HeadGates.

Then, of course, we should start removing it right away.

 
'War Not Lost!"says Bush.

He reminds one of the plucky bad knight in the movie: with blood pouring out of his amputated arms & legs, he says,
"All right--let's call it a draw."

 
HighestCasualtyRate, since end of invasion:

3.5 GIs killed each day in ’07.

(That means about 10 seriously wounded each day.)
FinancialTimes

 
Fewer Self-Reliant Iraqi Units:

The number of Iraq units that could fight without US backing has dropped from 10 to 6.

Nevertheless, Malik says they could get by if we withdraw.

That goofy statement shows that he has decided
that we WILL withdraw, soon.
SeattlePI

 
DOONESBURY recently featured Zonker complaining that he gets lower pay than a high-school grad at their fast-food workplace--"and I have twelve yearsof college under my belt."
I would prefer to hire a high-school gradwith good SAT scores over a typical liberal-artsgrad from a university.
The former has only 12 years training in laziness.

 
'MIXED RESULTS':Bushies say that Iraq Progress shows 'mixed' results.
Think of success as a rabbit, and failure as a horse.
We're asked to swallow a 'horse-&-rabbit' stew, involving
one horse and one rabbit.
------------
NO MOVE TO RECONCILIATION: 'top intelligence analyst' says that SURGE has not created conditions that would persuade Sunnis & Shia to 'reconcile'.
rockyMtnNews,12May
--------------------------
AlQuaeda is at pre-9/11 level of power: says Bushie intelligence services.
rockyMtnNews, 12May
Part of trouble is weakness of our intelligence system.
SeattlePI,12July

 
My computer has crashed. Posts will resume after 10July.

 
NewStrategy ForeseesPullOUT:
US forces are going to go after Shia less, and after Quaeda more.

Partly this is because generals expect Congress to impose a timeline for withdrawal
(they must expect that enough GOP Senate rats will abandon Bushies’ sinking ship to provide a veto-proof majority).

They hope that Shia will then lessen their attacks on Americans.

“After all, it is Qaeda who’s doing the bombing!”
LATIMES

Yeah, why didn’t they realize this before, instead of attacking Shia neighborhoods with tanks?
===========
(Australian media says that toughtalking PM will bugout of Iraq this coming February.)

 
Iraq Civilian Deaths Down Sharply..BUT
REUTERS
GI DEATHS have spiked to HIGHEST LEVEL IN WHOLE WAR.

 
NewSoftware to make US commanders ‘more aware of situations’ worldwide.
UnitedPress

What good is new software when we have so few US agents who understand foreign languages and cultures? (Only ten in 1000 in Baghdad embassy!)

We must quit our ignorant meddling in foreign affairs, and concentrate on HomelandDefense.(Attacks like those in Britain—and worse—WILL happen here !)

 
LocalAfghans:”US airstrike killed 100 civilians.”
US says number was ‘signifcantly lower.’
What Afghan will believe these alien invaders?
...any more than they believed SOVIETS,
whom they later DROVE OUT.

WashPost

GUARDIAN says we bombed this village for THREE HOURS.

 
DenverPost must be desperate to show ‘balance’ about the war, by devoting many inches (1July) to a tired hack pushing the new hawk line: “Admittedly, our invasion was a mistake; BUT we can’t just pull out now.”

She advances several tired arguments.e.g.: ‘Our bugout will embolden terrorists.’ On the contrary terrorists are emboldened by seeing us STUCK STUPIDLY in this pointless, bloody war, with our casualties last quarter THE HIGHEST IN THE WAR. We read that Arab extremists are filtering into Afghanistan to ATTACK OUR GIs stuck there !

The terrorist attacks in Britain show the folly of saying “We must keep fighting them
in Iraq so we don’t have to fight them here.” Polls show Americans know we will face terrorists here, whatever we do in Iraq.

One good thing: the people who will even read this silly editorial are mainly the one in three Americans who would follow Bush to Hell—bon Voyage !

“We rushed into Iraq too quickly; we must not rush out too quickly.” At first this sounds wise; but consider a parallel maxim: “If you rush too quickly into a raging river, don’t make a similar mistake by climbing out too quickly !”