Colin Powell: "The U.S. is losing in Iraq"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Colin Powell believes U.S. is losing Iraq war

Secretary of State Colin Powell has privately confided to friends in recent weeks that the Iraqi insurgents are winning the war, according to Newsweek. The insurgents have succeeded in infiltrating Iraqi forces "from top to bottom," a senior Iraqi official tells Newsweek in tomorrow’s issue of the magazine, "from decision making to the lower levels."

This is a particularly troubling development for the U.S. military, as it prepares to launch an all-out assault on the insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi, since U.S. Marines were counting on the newly trained Iraqi forces to assist in the assault. Newsweek reports that "American military trainers have been frantically trying to assemble sufficient Iraqi troops" to fight alongside them and that they are "praying that the soldiers perform better than last April, when two battalions of poorly trained Iraqi Army soldiers refused to fight."

If the Fallujah offensive fails, Newsweek grimly predicts, "then the American president will find himself in a deepening quagmire on Inauguration Day."

-- David Talbot

<08:55 PST, Oct. 31, 2004>

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/#insurgents

[July]

1. Lots of blood on your hands, asshole. nt

[fortyfeetunder]

2. Rat leaving a sinking ship?

Powell better hope * loses so he has an easy out....he should have extricated himself earlier....

[Nikepallas]

3. This is IT!!! This is Bush's Death bell sort of speaking

For Mr. Powell to say this means that he might as well say Kerry is your man.


I hope EVER news organization picks up on this and run.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

4. For him to say it means he knows he's unemployed, Bush win or lose

He knows he's out of there, regardless of the outcome.

[TwilightZone]

6. I think he was already planning on leaving, so he has nothing to lose.

Is this the political equivalent of trying to buy your way into heaven?

[Nikepallas]

8. Poor Powell has known. I think he is just getting frustrated with Bush

I think he also has been wanting to say these things publicly for a LONG time

[madrchsod]

5. Powell always believed

it was a mistake along with bush1 and all the major players in gulf war 1. Powell hated cheney for interfering in the war with his stupid ideas about how to do certain campaigns. he just sold his soul to the devil and he was paid in full

[Blue Gardener]

7. Too late Mr. Powell

You've already lost your credibility.

[ThomWV]

9. Good

Great for him to say it but it doesn't change the fact that Powell is either a dupe or worse. And what did the man do it for? Was it for the glory of the title of Secretary of State? This is a position in which he has been utterly ineffective in persuading the Bush Administration to act in any rational way with its foreign policy. Was it so his son could rise to the lofty position of head of the FCC? If so it adds a whole new branch to the notion of selling out for 30 pieces of silver. This is a man who could have been President if he had taken the same turn as Wesley.

[Ima]

10. good post

He threw it all away, what a let down, he could of run for Pres.

[AlinPA]

11. Powell lied in front of the world at the U.N. Our people and many

thousands died for the lies of Bush*, Powell and Rumsfeld.

[mitchum]

12. He's still just a tool feathering a nest for his worthless son

[Selatius]

13. Powell should suffer the full consequences of this war.

He should not be allowed to quit. If I had the power, I'd force him to stay. He needs to own up to the consequence of lying to the American public and the people of the world when he went before the UN and said Saddam had a stockpile of WMD ready to use. If we're facing a 2nd Vietnam, then we should let them burn for the shit they put us through. And how are we gonna address those who have lost loved ones in this war? This is the most poorly fought war since Vietnam, and if it continues this way, then we will look back on the Iraq War years from now and remember pain and humiliation.

[FlyByNight]

14. Mr. Powell, you have a knack for the obvious

Your boss: ignored advice from military commanders regarding recommended troop strength; ignored the writings/warnings of his own father regarding an Iraqi invasion; lied about WMD intelligence; conducted an elective war for which every pretext has been proven to be false; killed 1100+ of your former military brothers and sisters; killed tens of thousands of the people we were to "liberate"; and has created another Afghanistan drawing terrorists to fight US troops.

Oh, and you're a liar for that disgraceful performance in the UN. Whore. :puke:

[StupidFOX]

15. I call mexed missages!

errr... mixed missages!
errr... mexed messages!
oh, whatever...

[Born Free]

16. Colin Powell lost his credibility

Sorry, he gave it up for the bush coward, nothing can rebuild it now

[gratuitous]

17. "If the Fallujah offensive fails . . ."

How in the world can it succeed? How will we know it has succeeded? What will qualify as a success? A failure? And when will we be able to render a judgment on its success or failure? Within a week? A month? A year? A decade?

The Tet Offensive was a military loss for the North Vietnamese. But it was a public opinion victory in that they showed they weren't quite as "defeated" as the U.S. was trying to portray.

[Sarrek420]

18. My Thoughts

For any of you freepers who are lurking here in the DU. I would like you to take notice to this fact.

When "WE" were fighting our war of independence. We won, not because we kicked the Brit's ass all up and down. We won BECAUSE we kept our forces in the field fighting, and largely using hit & run guerrilla tactics.

In Vietnam, the Vietnamese didn't win any major victories over us -- they didn't kick us out of their country by force. No, they succeeded by keeping their forces in the field fighting us, and using hit & run guerrilla tactics. Wearing us down bit by bit until we finally said, enough is enough, and packed up and left.

In Iraq the nationalists (insurgent guerrillas) are not confronting us in open battle and beating us. Rather, they are keeping their forces in the field, engaging us with hit & run guerrilla tactics, slowly wearing us down.

So the question is: Not if we can clean up the mess that the power vacuum we created caused. But rather, how far is America willing to go, to force its ideal of government and order in Iraq. And I assert that at this time, nothing but a total scorched-earth policy will force that kind of submission. And since there is NO WAY in hell the U.S.A. is going to order a massacre on that scale. I contend, that the only "logical" conclusion is to pull out ASAP, with or without an Iraqi government to our liking.

And IMO, the best way to accomplish this, is to hold elections in Iraq - NOW. And let the insurgents put representatives on the ballot for all positions. Then let the Iraqis choose their own destiny.

[Vickers]

19. Too little too late, Powell

You're just as guilty as the rest of these idiots.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

20. our McNamara...amazing isnt it, how we dont learn from history.

Powell has become the new McNamara.

His roll and his silence was so similar to Macs during the LBJ adminstration re Vietnam..