NYT: 3 Senators Say Iraq Needs More U.S. Troops and Money

[Nambe]

Senior senators from both parties urged the Bush administration today to send thousands more American troops to Iraq and said many billions more dollars were needed to stabilize and rebuild that country and Afghanistan.

Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican who was in Baghdad the day the United Nations headquarters was bombed, said that "at least another division," about 18,000 American troops, was needed. "Time is not on our side," he added on the NBC News program "Meet the Press."

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, appearing on the same program, put the need at 40,000 to 60,000 more troops, a substantial increase over the current 139,000.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who accompanied Mr. McCain on his trip, said that while he considered the troop level in Iraq to be sufficient, billions of dollars of additional spending is required there and in Afghanistan. ---

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Mr Biden needs to be reminded that...

...he who lies down with dogs, gets fleas.

[Cha]

2. Does this sound familiar to all you People who were around

and paying attention during Viet Nam? :-(

[eileen from OH]

6. Oh, yeah. . .

it's deja vu all over again.

I wonder how long till serious draft talk starts. The exodus to Canada won't be a trickle, it'll be a flood.

eileen from OH

[saigon68]

17. ITS THE SAME AND ITS DISGUSTING

Viet-Nam Redux 2003. We only need as few more troops and victory will be ours!!!

[Jacobin]

19. "Big Time" as Cheney would say

It's practically identical...the mindset of conquering and occupying in a place where the culture is not understood at all and which has a history of repelling invaders, particularly infidel invaders, for millenia.

Poor Dean...I support him but he's gonna have his work cut out for him figuring out what to do in Iraq...even with UN help, it probably is not going to work.

[Doctor Panacea]

3. Open your veins for the GOP neoconservatives!

Forty million people in the U.S. have NO health coverage, and many millions more have inadequate coverage, and prescription drugs are astronomically high — but who cares as long as we spend money and blood for the neoconservative agenda?

Why have health care when you can have perpetual war without victories?

This evil, unelected regime must be turned out of office in 2004!

[Journeyman]

4. Most interesting. . .

Rummy and the Pentagon say no additional troops needed, just better use of the troops we have; McCain calls for another division to be sent, at least 18,000; Biden sees a need for 40 to 60 thousand more troops; while Lindsey Graham wants only to throw money at the problem. And they wonder why we, as a people, have lost faith in their ability to so much as assess the problems, let alone resolve them.

[Erika]

8. Why Are We There?

Maybe Biden would like to explain that. Why is he ignoring that Bush lied to us that we needed to be there for national security? WMD's, etc. As a Democrat, why is Biden giving Bush a pass on his lies?

[Flying_Pig]

9. Excellent observations and post...

Journeyman. This, as another poster pointed out, is ALL TO familiar. I swear there was this same type of confusion (read: bullshit) going on during the Viet Nam war. Only it happened hundreds of times, until the public was numb. 10,000 troops here, 10,000 there. 10 billion here, 10 billion there. Pretty soon, your talking a serious amount of lives and money, all escalating one troop ship, and one dollar at a time....:puke:

[QuietStorm]

12. they are playing Americans for fools

this is arrogance personified. they are banking on reelection and they are in to death do us part. They could care less about Americas. BUSH NEEDS TO BE IMPEACHED I hate to be cynical but they escalate my sense is BUSH will take the white house next election. Something crazy could happen if people start to protest enmasse. These guys are seriously psychopathic. Please someone reel me in...

[Maple]

5. More troops, more money

as they said for Viet Nam

For years

[Dover]

7. I think it would be a REALLY good idea for protesters to get out ahead

of the draft issue, which is seeming more and more inevitable.

Don't even let this one get off the ground.

[PartyPooper]

11. For starters...

Let's propose that ALL of those in Congress who voted for this idiotic odyssey...help pay for it with their friggin' tax cuts! Then let's have them send THEIR sons and daughters into Iraq and Afghanistan to "keep the peace".

BTW, all of the crazy, blood-thirsty Freepers...well, they can go along, too! All of them. Chickenhawks are particularly welcome! And, they can help pay for it, too!

Let's see how long this farce will last without UN cooperation, support, and control. And, besides, the Republican Congress and their Freepers don't have the stomach for the long haul.

Geez, what a mess they've gotten us into!

:evilfrown:

[RamboLiberal]

20. I agree with you - the flag-wavers should be first to line up

or to send their kids.

Then the good senators ought to ask for the tax cut back to pay for our adventure in Iraq - watch the support drop like a lead balloon from the Freepers and GOP.

Yes it's déjà vu Nam all over again.

[QuietStorm]

10. second article on this the other one is McCain

is getting ready to request tons more troops... looks like we are in for the ride.

and there are so many flag wavers out there ready for the fight too. They believe the red white and blue propaganda with no knowledge of any facts thing they are the intelligent ones. You can not even have a discussion with these people. As soon as they see you are not on there page they start waxing superior tell you you don't know what you are talking about. They are the authorities. Scary it is ... very scary these flag wavers ... many from military background grew up with it. Think because their brother is in intelligence they can preach doctrine instead they have the facts... very twisted. really.

[Gloria]

13. Is this another trick? I mean, one day we have Rumsfeld wanting

to do more, but not with more troops....then we have the chorus demanding more troops. Seems to me it would be an acknowledgment of failure to want more troops. So Rummy doesn't have to say it...McCain, Biden, and idiot boy Graham step in and do it for him....thus, once againg, the Admin. doesn't take the direct fire over the issue of more troops!!!!

[legin]

14. That's what i've been thinking Gloria

sort of make it look like bush* has been talked into sending more troops when in reality that's what he has wanted to do all the time, but it would have politically a bit dodgy to just announce one day out of the blue "more troops are being sent to Iraq".

[Old and In the Way]

15. Biden provides this administration with cover......

they'll spin it as a bi-partisan call. And the House/Senate will again get the chance to vote on whether the Democrats are Patriots or Traitors.

Thanks Joe....really, why not just come out and admit that you are more comfortable with the Republicans running foreign policy?

[pfitz59]

16. Lindsay Graham was policing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy...

as well ferreting out the truth of Bedouin sexuality.....

[Flying_Pig]

18. This needs a...

:kick: