Rumsfeld hails Iraq's liberation; regrets Turkey 'blocked' northern route

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/iraq2yearsus

However, appearing on US television talk shows, Rumsfeld said he wished US troops had not been "blocked" from entering Iraq through Turkey, saying this had enabled the post-war insurgency in Iraq to flourish.


"It's a wonderful thing to see 25 million Iraqis liberated. To see their economy improve as it has been. To see their political process move toward democracy. To have the successful election and now the seating of their constituent assembly," the defense chief said in an interview with Fox News Sunday.


The toppling of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime has not come without human cost for the United States: Some 11,000 American troops have been wounded and over 1,500 US soldiers have been killed in the conflict.


Questioned about the ferocity of the insurgency two years on, Rumsfeld said it was ongoing, but had weakened.


"The insurgency is continuing. It is at a lower level than previously, but at a higher level than had been expected, to be sure," he said, adding that Iraq's own security forces are continuing to grow.



And rummy who hates the troops, 60% of those 11,000 injured soldiers have TBI....

Brain injury therapy being underfunded (bush slashed funding)


http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20 ...

March 18, 2005

According to doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., 60 percent of the wounded soldiers coming back from Iraq have traumatic brain injuries.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration has recently completely zeroed out funding for the Federal TBI Act, which provides exactly this kind of help.

In Vermont, due to recent decisions concerning budgetary shortfalls, TBI survivors are now prevented from entering the Vermont TBI Medicaid Waiver Program, which delivers exactly this kind of help.

Please call the governor [phone] and our congressional representatives and ask them to support the Vermont TBI Medicaid Waiver Program.

[sasquatch]

1. "Their economy improve"

-The water system is still broken from where we bombed them.
-The power plants are still down since we bombed them.
-The unemployment rate is near 50% or over 50% because of the lack of infrastructure.

These guys lie as good as Micheal Jordan plays basketball.

[ProgressiveConn]

2. Lesson one. When you mess up a country blame the countries that didn't

want you to invade and say it was their fault. Can't wait till we get to turn Rummy and Wolfowitz over to Iraq. Wonder if they will end up hanging on a rope in Bagdad....

[NNN0LHI]

15. Our country currently has a working judicial system in place

It may not be perfect, but we can prosecute our own war criminals right here in America when the time comes. All of them.

Don

[htuttle]

3. Have any other fascists ever patted themselves on the backs so much?

I mean, really. The only thing these people do in their public statements most of the time is congratulate themselves.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. Yep, all Turkey's fault. Certainly everything would have

been just fine and the flowers and wine would have flowed without those bastard turks.

How dare they not let us occupy their land, fly across their skies and fill their ports and roads with the toxic by products of our military might.

How dare they not want us on their flank.

The bastards.

I say turn the Greeks loose on them again.

[Malva Zebrina]

5. Right, it's Turkey's fault

that Bush got us into a quagmire and killed 100,000 innocent people in the process as well as more than 1,500 of our troops.

Right.

The people of a democratic Turkey, made their wishes known and the government of Turkey went with the people.

Is that so hard for you to understand you old stupid fart? Or are you so used to ignoring democracy in your own country that you fail to recognize it elsewhere.

[tabasco]

6. You go to war with the routes you have, Rummmy ....

not the routes you'd like to have. Stop your whining.

Blaming the insurgency on the lack of Turkish help is absurd. Rumsfeld doesn't have a clue.

[Rose Siding]

7. With unemployment in Iraq topping 50%

-some say as high as 70%, (the coalition pegged it at 25-30% a yr ago), just what economic improvement is that joker peddling to fox watchers?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. Rummy sounding a little like Bilbo Baggins today

"The insurgency is continuing. It is at a lower level than previously, but at a higher level than had been expected..."

"...I don't know half of you half as well as I should like and I like less than half of you half as much as you deserve. ..."
-Bilbo Baggins-

[Kadie]

9. Rumsfeld Criticizes Iraq Attack Strategy

Rumsfeld Criticizes Iraq Attack Strategy
By SIOBHAN McDONOUGH, Associated Press Writer

Sunday, March 20, 2005


(03-20) 13:00 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --


The level of insurgency in postwar Iraq wouldn't be so high if the U.S.-led coalition had been able to invade from the north, through Turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday.


Rumsfeld told "Fox News Sunday" that if the United States had able to get its 4th Infantry Division into northern Iraq through Turkey, more of Saddam's Baathist regime would have been captured or killed, diminishing the insurgency.


U.S. forces had to enter Iraq from the south, so by the time Baghdad was taken, much of Saddam's military and intelligence services had dissipated into the northern cities, Rumsfeld said. "They're still, in a number of instances, still active," he said.


snip...
Rumsfeld told ABC's "This Week" that at least 30 projects are under way to reduce stress on U.S. forces. For example, he said, a new national security personnel system allows for the use of fewer military people in civilian positions, and the Pentagon is rebalancing the active force with the reserve component.

more...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/20/national/w102725S68.DTL

[Lizzie Borden]

11. I tried to listen to ABC's "This Week" but

I just couldn't. I was just screaming at Rumsfeld. Not a very adult response I admit but I just don't know what to do when confronted by people who just blatantly lie, and then lie some more. I hated the Nixon administration cabinet et al,but this one is worse. These people are vile. To blame the outcome of the war on Turkey though, well, that's just laughable!

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Sure Rummie

Looks like business is booming in downtown Fallujah.

[daleo]

12. Rummy will blame anybody but himself.

Mom, it is all Turkey's fault. They wouldn't play.

[Jacobin]

13. I want some of what he's smoking.

[oblivious]

14. If Turkey were a military dictatorship this wouldn't have been a problem.

Pesky democracies. Nothing but trouble.

[jbnow]

16. Oh sure everybody, mock blaming Turkey but

maybe it is their fault. It seemed dumb at first but I realized something.

See, my house is pretty messy, I have painting and laundry to do and I haven't done my taxes yet.
If Turkey had been more cooperative I wouldn't have these problems because I haven't done anything wrong, ever.
Turkey is with me or against me. In fact I suspect the lousy weather and my health problems are mostly Turkey's fault.

In fact any problem I ever have or anyone has with me I can now attribute to Turkey. And on Thanksgiving no more Turkey! I'll call it Freedom-to-betray-Native-American-bird.

[truthisfreedom]

17. ain't it just like a thug to blame someone else for our failure... in this

case, it's Turkey's fault for not letting us run roughshod through their livingrooms and gardens to kill innocent Iraqis.

[applegrove]

18. They have a democracy!!! Didn't the ambassor from the US to Turkey

just quit?

[applegrove]

19. If they had allowed the US in through Turkey there would be a big

pile of dead Shiites in the North. That is what Rumsfield is trying to say.

Mr. Rumsfield... if this crazy man routine "I will take over the world - I am a crazy neocon and we have big bombs" the US does scares people into giving up in war..without conventional battles to whittle down their numbers as planned.. will you have to start with the bumbling "I don't know what I am doing - I am stupid!" routine to lure them back to conventional war?

Rumsfield. Stop blaming the insurgency on the Turks. You whittled down the conventional war plans by 250,000 soldiers and that is why you didn't win the peace.

[diamond14]

20. message to rumsfeld from Istanbul, Turkey (caution: graphic photo)

this is the ANGEL OF DEATH
.

.


.


PHOTO from the Pro-Peace Rally in Istanbul Turkey. March 19, 2005