Frank Rich to Bush, in the NYTimes: "This war is over"

[understandinglife]

Someone Tell the President the War Is Over

By FRANK RICH

August 14, 2005

LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?

A president can't stay the course when his own citizens (let alone his own allies) won't stay with him. ....

But our current Texas president has even outdone his predecessor; Mr. Bush has lost not only the country but also his army. .....

<clip>

WHAT lies ahead now in Iraq instead is not victory, which Mr. Bush has never clearly defined anyway, but an exit (or triage) strategy that may echo Johnson's March 1968 plan for retreat from Vietnam: ....

<clip>

Thus the president's claim on Thursday that "no decision has been made yet" about withdrawing troops from Iraq can be taken exactly as seriously as the vice president's preceding fantasy that the insurgency is in its "last throes." The country has already made the decision for Mr. Bush. We're outta there. Now comes the hard task of identifying the leaders who can pick up the pieces of the fiasco that has made us more vulnerable, not less, to the terrorists who struck us four years ago next month.

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/opinion/14rich.html?pagewanted=print

Well, we all know exactly where one of those leaders is -- in a ditch in Crawford, Texas.

I'd suspect one of them is on a much earned vacation somewhere in the Detroit area -- but he knows how to blog and ain't hard to find -- Congressman Conyers.

And, then there's that General -- you know the one who had sex -- no, not the one who approved sexual torture of prisoners -- the one being fired -- right, you got it -- General Byrnes.

And, what about Congresswoman Slaughter, and Waters, Woolsey, Jones, Lee, and ....

We've got leaders; they just need to step forward and tell Bush and the neoconsters it's time for them to resign and face some down-home justice.

Peace.

[merh]

1. Mission Impossible to Accomplish!

Bring Our Troops Home!

[HEyHEY]

2. If he had qualified the racist comment

I'm sure I'd take it much better

[progressivebydesign]

24. If you're refering to Rich, he used a line from a non-racist joke.

It was about Lone Ranger and Tonto and had zero racism to it, in fact it was poking fun at the Lone Ranger.

[Lorien]

54. I wasn't alive in the '50s, but a lot of my friends were

"What do you mean "we", white man"? is a common comeback from many of them when they feel that a request is excessive or absurd.

[rodeodance]

61. Yes, it is an old line--but effectively used by Rich in this article.

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

3. Put that in your fucking pipe and smoke it Mr. Chickenshit ranch hand. n/t

[Faygo Kid]

4. Please retitle this: The War Is Over.

Frank Rich is right. I am 54; this is like Vietnam, without the street protests. This war is over. The worst and most immoral war in American history - yes, worse than Vietnam - is over, and Richard Clarke et al were right. It's only a matter of how we leave, now. If it goes on any longer, GWB would have to raise taxes on his Rangers and Pioneers, and he can't do that. Cindy Sheehan has stepped in for Gene McCarthy; it would have been Paul Wellstone, I believe, had he not died. The Dems tick me for not standing up for what was right; I believe Kerry lost the election - whatever the fraud - when he said, what he knew now he still would have voted that way then. If he had said that he would have voted otherwise, even Rove could not have stolen it. It's over. Lots more to say, but bravo Frank Rich.

[understandinglife]

9. Done, as requested.

I'm as white a male as they come and I just love that one sentence.

And, your comments are most welcome.

Peace.

[Faygo Kid]

10. Hell, I am whiter than you, from Michigan, and know John Conyers

On Tuesday, I am having lunch with Dennis Archer. Very deep roots in Michigan. My grandparents came over from Norway and Sweden about 1910, respectively; if you are whiter than that, by Yumpin Yiminy, I would like to hear about it. Seriously, this was a great post; you beat me to it. The War Is Lost. He's right, of course, but the tragedy is the war was lost immediately, and we lost the real war, against those that genuinely attacked us, because of the neocon diversion, which was obvious to anyone in 2002. Tell me, my friend, why is Cindy Sheehan the point person? Where are our political "leaders?" The American people, the same group that almost half think the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, have HAD IT. Who is going to take that to the bank? Wish my Great Senators in Michigan, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, had the guts. They are behind the American people. Thanks for the post. Dammit.

[understandinglife]

14. "Tell me, my friend, why is Cindy Sheehan the point person?" Because ...

.... of a long-standing tradition on this continent of one or a few deciding it's time to kick-butt for truth and justice and doing it.

Ms Sheehan gets it and is kicking butt.

And, you win! You are definitely 'whiter.' The "1/2 of my genes" that are 'whiter-than-white" (dating to one of my relatives who signed the DoI) are diluted, but no less rebelliously though, by the "1/2" that are Italian -- I used to have very brown skin in my sun-tanned youth ;)

Many of us know the drill and that's why we are doing what we are doing.

America is going to emerge a more enlightened and humble Nation -- that will be good for humanity and the planet.

Peace.

[Faygo Kid]

20. I am glad you are here.

Actually, I am both an honorary Sicilian and an honorary Armenian, and I mean Family. I hereby designate you, by the power vested in me by my genes and crappy attitude, an honorary Scandinavian. So, be skeptical, and remember, Walter Mondale is our idea of a wild and crazy guy. But thanks so much for the best post of the night.

[understandinglife]

38. That is most kind of you. Thank you.

Peace.

[FreedomAngel82]

51. It's way over I think as well

I think the country is showing Bush they're fed up. Only the really really die hard freepers still support Bush and those making money. But I've always agreed that this whole ordeal was just like Vietnam. No wonder I sense dejavu. Heh heh. Will we be out of Iraq before the end of this year? :shrug: But I think this whole thing has been like Vietnam only faster and no Kent State and things like that. Expect them to keep holding onto this war though for a while. It'll be a tough battle to win. But I think we can do it. We're not in the minority no matter what the media says.

[fujiyama]

73. While I do agree

our senators (I'm also from MI) should be speaking out more, I think we should give them some credit considering they atleast had the forsight to vote against the initial war resolution. I can only think of maybe two other states where both senators had the sense to vote against the war.

[rodeodance]

64. Jr. will not risk being labeled as weak as Poppy was when he broke

his promise with the infamous "no new taxes"---you are right.


....and Richard Clarke et al were right. It's only a matter of how we leave, now. If it goes on any longer, GWB would have to raise taxes on his Rangers and Pioneers, and he can't do that.

[psychopomp]

76. faygokid how can you say this is worse than a war

where literally millions of civillians were killed? And that is just in Vietnam alone, not counting Laos and Cambodia...

[SpiralHawk]

5. Some juicy tidbits from the article, with snide SH commentary

"The resolutely pro-war New York Post editorial page begged Mr. Bush (to no avail) to "show some leadership" by showing up in Ohio to salute the fallen and their families."

A major boner for Bush. He cannot stand to face the consequences of his actions. He will not take responsibility. He has not been to one soldier's funeral yet. He totally dissed the Ohio 14, their families, and the whole of the Buckeye state.

"A Bush loyalist, Senator George Allen of Virginia, instructed the president to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother camping out in Crawford, as "a matter of courtesy and decency." Or, to translate his Washingtonese, as a matter of politics. Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7."

He is trapped again -- this time at the Imperial Pig Farm Upon Crawford.

[jbnow]

48. His not going to Ohio

actually surprised me. It's not that I think he really cares and he likes them as numbers, not people. I know he doesn't want to be discomfited by the raw grief. I know all that.
But with approval rates falling fast and America so shocked and saddened by this loss...that he would go if just for political reasons. He met with the boy scouts! (Well not on schedule)

Not going to Ohio is colder then not meeting with Cindy.

But something else that surprises me is that though it is bush Cindy is asking to meet with, if I were a Senator who had voted for the war act, I would get down there and I would face her and answer her questions, apologize and offer my deep regret for her loss, for all the losses.

I think so little of our political leaders that it's pretty sad that they are bad enough to surprise me.

As long as I am ranting...what is "stay the course" about. That just sounds stupid. The course is a horrible one. Even if he wants to say we will stay there until some goal is reached, he'd sound a lot better if he said we are reconsidering our course.

Can we make a citizens arrest?

[Buns_of_Fire]

68. "Stay the course" = "I screwed up, but I'm too arrogant to admit it"

"Sure, I led this country into another VietNam-like quagmire. Sure, I trashed the economy with more Voodoo Economics (tm, GOP). But I was anointed by God and who cares what you think, anyway?"

[Lorien]

55. * own lack of action has brought Cindy to Gandi's third phase

of a nonviolent protest for a just cause:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

[Hardrada]

59. I'm not sure that "Bush" and "boner"

can be used in the same sentence. Or even paragraph.

[GetTheRightVote]

6. I am grateful to this man for being so bold as Cindy Shenan to

confront the lies of this man and his admin.

:kick:

[understandinglife]

8. Exactly. He did it as the lead Op-Ed in the Sunday, New York Times ...

... and, perhaps feeling some guilt over their role in supporting propagandist-in-chief Miller, the NYTimes editors published it.

The NYTimes has a bunch of blood on its hands due to Miller and her extraordinary propaganda and you know, they know, We The People ... know it. If they don't they aren't reading their mail.


Peace.

[kentuck]

7. Damn ! Shine that light on those roaches, Mr. Rich !

The Democrats need to learn to follow the man with the light...

[Burried News]

11. Frank Rich has been kicking their ass for over a year now.

Outstanding writing.

Pretty fair piece of writing yourself Understandinglife:
"We've got leaders; they just need to step forward and tell Bush and the neoconsters it's time for them to resign and face some down-home justice."

No justice? - no peace!

[jaysunb]

12. Hey Frank !

Where the hell were you 2 years ago ???

Well....better late than never, huh ? :evilgrin:

[bleever]

13. We're turning the corner on the Iraq war.

Thirty years ago, the corner was called the Tet offensive.

In thirty years, maybe the reference will be Cindy Sheehan.

:thumbsup:

[Faygo Kid]

16. It should have been our leaders, but bless Cindy, and you are right.

When I was young, we had Gene McCarthy, MLK, and Bobby Kennedy. Damn, I would love to hear them about this war that GWB and the neocons couldn't wait for. At least LBJ was conflicted.

[bleever]

25. Honestly, I feel that great leaders like Conyers, Boxer, Levin, and my own

rep., Barbara Lee, were effectively sidelined by the neocon takeover of the press and the three branches of government.

I really think we reached a point where it took someone outside the system, like Rosa Parks, MLK, or Mohandas Gandhi to raise a voice that will be heard.


ed: sp, clarity

[Faygo Kid]

35. Point well taken, but that does not absolve our "leaders"

Hell, even a racist like William Fulbright knew enough to oppose Vietnam - and it was not nearly as cut and dried for pure evil as this war has been. I think Paul Wellstone would have been that voice. If there were ever a Wormtongue, it's Norm Coleman, and I live in Michigan, not Minnesota.

[bleever]

39. I have the privilege of saying that I used to pass Paul Wellstone

walking across campus, though I never had him as a professor.

The loss of Wellstone was a tremendous blow. I know he would have done all he could to transcend the system of power and make the truth known, just as he did as a teacher and political thinker and organizer.

He would have been a powerful voice, not just in the well of the Senate, but out amongst the people he represented, and whose views he spoke for.


:patriot:

[Faygo Kid]

45. Very thoughtful. Thanks. I was only 16 when Bobby and MLK were shot down

I will be 54 next month, and can't believe it myself. I am so very tired of not having the leadership we need; it should not have to come from Cindy Sheehan. Anyway, I will redouble my efforts. Thanks.

[rodeodance]

65. I am so glad this initial sign came from Cindy ("the people") and not

from the 'leaders'.

[Generic Other]

15. How long before he flees into exile?

The French probably won't grant him asylum. Maybe he can try Haiti.

[understandinglife]

19. He's already in exile ... let's just have erect a statue of Cindy ...

... at the gate of that damn ranch and he'll never dare to leave ;)


Peace.

[Kire]

17. Greatest line from "Dead Man"

What do you mean we, White Man?

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_man/

[Kire]

18. Hitler wanted to destroy Germany when he learned he couldn't destroy the..

..Jews.

Rent this movie. It's only been out two weeks.

[natrat]

21. worst administration ever?

[Faygo Kid]

22. Are you kidding? My ex father in law is 85. . .

A brilliant man, I love him dearly, he fought in WWII with permanent injuries, then fought that damned war as early as 1964. We went through Nixon together, and there is no doubt. This evil crew is the worst ever. Period. Ask those who were there, or who care about history. Bring them down, or at least laugh when they talk about "staying the course".

[Burried News]

23. Imagine the impact if the second set of Abu Ghraib photos are

released - his pole numbers for handling the war are in the low 30's now. What a disaster he has been as a president.

The Rethuglicans control everything and they can't do ANYTHING right and it sure isn't because Democrats are tripping them up. They are lying, crooked, incompetents.

[understandinglife]

26. From dKos ---- ""Women Wearing Black" -- do it!"

"Women Wearing Black"----do it!

by BoringDem

Sat Aug 13th, 2005 at 17:13:11 PDT

My mother, who is 83, is a lifelong Republican voter, moderate in politics but as staunch a Republican as Bob Barr. I don't talk politics with her much because I just try to get along. I am visiting her this week, and during lunch she told me that 2004 marked the first time in her life that she has not voted for the Republican presidential candidate. Presumably, in every election starting in 1940, she has voted for the Republican. She rips Bush like a Kossack charger in a blood rage.

I was shocked at the depth of her hatred for Bush.

This is the background to her suggestion, which I am passing along to all of you. She has been following the Cindy Sheehan story closely, and is completely supportive of her.

The title of my diary "Women wearing black", is her suggestion for an anti-Bush movement: Women who have lost their sons or daughters in Iraq, and those who support them, wearing black in solidarity, grief and anger against Bush.

<clip>

Link:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/13/201311/822

Damn! If only I were a woman!!

Well, I'll stick with my orange paper clip and my persistent hounding of everyone to take Bush and the neoconsters to trial.

Peace.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. hmmm I NEED to go shoping, need a black blouse or two.

[understandinglife]

36. Just one example of Cindy Sheehan's enormous strength and leadership

You can't fake this.

The first question of the morning pool came from a young soldier who had just returned from Iraq. He was polite, addressing her as Ms. Sheehan. Surrounded by cameras he told her he was sorry for her son's death -- he said he had lost many friends in the Iraq war also. "Death is a part of war and what we are doing is more important, bringing freedom to the world. Think of all the people who died for the freedom we enjoy. So your son's life is just a drop in the bucket."

Those of us standing behind the cameras gasped, but Cindy continued to listen to him calmly and openly. Caught short by the gasp, the soldier quickly added, "But I feel for your son." At this moment Cindy put her arm on his shoulder and, holding him to her side, walked with him out into the field. She asked the press to give them some privacy. They honored her in a way that I have never seen before. They were still shooting photos as the two walked away. Like a mother, Cindy drew the young man close, and they spoke for about five minutes -- during which the shift in his feeling was palpable. He stepped away and pulled out a book he had written about his experiences in Iraq and gave it to her. Then they hugged -- a long deep embrace. You could see the conversation continuing.

Cindy walked back toward s us and the press as the soldier left. Yet again, this woman had made me cry with her strength, her love and her courage. (Everyone else in the camp had tried to keep this young man from confronting her.)

As we walked back to our makeshift office in Casey's camper, she told me, "Do you know what that young man said as we were hugging? He said his mother agrees with me, and that if he had been killed in Iraq she would have done the same thing. And then he called me Mom."

From On Camp Casey... by Jodie Evans on August 13, 2005

Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/jodie-evans/on-camp-casey_5603.html

Now, that is leadership ......

I had posted it in a thread started yesterday as a tribute to Ms Sheehan, but I thought it belonged here, as well. The other thread is:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4330194&mesg_id=4330194


Peace.

[nadinbrzezinski]

49. thanks for making me cry

I said it many months ago, almost a year, ago, the leaders will emerge from us, and cindy is one of our leaders

[stevietheman]

56. This alone convinces me Cindy really is the Rosa Parks of our time. n/t

n/t

[understandinglife]

58. Doctorow explained the core defect almost a year ago. Problem then ...

.... he didn't have someone on the polar opposite of the scale as a contrast. Someone to amplify the vast immorality and craven greed of George W Bush.

Ms Sheehan now provides the contrast, so let's revisit E.L. Doctorow's essay.

The Unfeeling President

by E. L. Doctorow
September 9, 2004

I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.

But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.

He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

<clip>

Finally, the media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail. How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves.

Link:

http://www.easthamptonstar.com/20040909/col5.htm

Yes, he attended a little league baseball game today and wants to get on with his life.

Everyone, we've got a murdering sociopathic nut-case in the White House and he's got a bunch of equally or worse creeps on the payroll.

End this gruesome nonsense, NOW.


Peace.

[rodeodance]

72. i recall this article. thanks

[glitch]

71. This needs its own thread - she is the Peace Mother. nt

[rodeodance]

62. rage at Bushs polices is better than saying "the depth of her hate for Bus

I do not think using the word hate will advance the cause.
and I do not mean to single you out--as I see it a lot--but it really hit me in the face in your memo.
And i certainly do not mean to offend you--just to make a point.

[Hubert Flottz]

27. DAMN! *************************** WOW!!!!!

I truly love it, but we can't ease up one bit now gang! That's the very best thing I've seen in a newspaper since 1998. I hope in the days to come, that more and more newspapers will finally come to the aid of our soldiers and our country, before one more mothers child dies for Bush's horrid sins!

[Faygo Kid]

29. I agree, but the People have spoken

I agree with Whitman on the People. And I believe they have spoken, and the media and our political "leaders" lag behind. It is indeed over; it never was on, after all.

[Zenlitened]

28. Wow. This column is a grand slam home-run. Rich sums up EVERYTHING...

... that's wrong with this Bush-orchestrated fiasco -- past, present and future.

EVERYTHING.

A definite must-read, and worth saving a copy for future reference as well.

[faithnotgreed]

30. one of the very few to actually and repeatedly tell it like it really is

thank you mr rich

[Karmadillo]

31. Hope Democrats read this excellent column. The majority of Americans,

who do not support this illegal war, deserve active representation. It's time to attack this administration for the endless lies that put us in Iraq and hold them accountable. Rich is right. We need to find leaders who can pick up the pieces, but the Democrats who keep shouting stay the course and more troops aren't those leaders.

[Hubert Flottz]

43. Any republicans in Washington, with the tiniest shred of decency

left, had better wake up NOW, before their GOP is a thing of the past!(But if the greedy GOP does vanish from America..."Like Jimmy Cracked Corn..................I WON'T CARE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

The entire world, excluding the far right wing GOP War Party, knows how wrong the neocons are. I hope the good people in the UK, slow roast Tony for his lies too! I'll bet there are some heart broken families there in Blair's country, that would like to question smilin' Tony also!

[stevietheman]

57. Attack the Occupier of the White House, AT WILL n/t

n/t

[bvar22]

32. Frank Rich dreadfully WRONG about one thing!

He seems to believe that the only mistake was sending too few troops to Iraq, and that if we could send MORE NOW, everything would work out.
He is DEAD WRONG!

NO amount of White, Christian, Western troops can successfully occupy an Ancient, Brown, Muslim country INDEFINATELY.
The Middle Eastern Countries have been invaded and occupied by White, Christian, Western agressors many times in the last 2000 years.
NOT ONE SINGLE OCCUPATION WAS SUCCESSFUL!!!
The Middle Eastern People KNOW how to make the PRICE TOO HIGH!
They have the patience developed over CENTURIES to wait out the Invader!

What has happened in IRAQ is NOT a NEW strategy.
It is as OLD as WAR in the Middle East.
WE told bush* this would happen.
The FAILURE of the Occupation was described IN DETAIL here at DU.
His OWN FATHER predicted the inevitable FAILURE in his book in 1997.
Those who don't know History.....

The "amount" of troops doesn't matter.


Aside from that little point, Rich was pretty ON with his column.

[understandinglife]

37. No argument from me; excellent comments. Thank you.

Peace.

[Just Me]

41. Yep. I still want indictments against these bastards for betraying,...

,...their own country and profiteering from that betrayal.

[Nothing Without Hope]

34. Did you see that the mayor of Baghdad has been deposed? And there is more.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4323053
Thread title: JESUS! We Have Lost Baghdad And It Was Barely Reported! WTF???

Baghdad Mayor Is Ousted by a Shiite Group and Replaced

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: August 10, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 9 - Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia.

The deposed mayor, Alaa al-Tamimi, who was not in his offices at the time, recounted the events in a telephone interview on Tuesday and called the move a municipal coup d'état. He added that he had gone into hiding for fear of his life.

"This is the new Iraq," said Mr. Tamimi, a secular engineer with no party affiliation. "They use force to achieve their goal."

The group that ousted him insisted that it had the authority to assume control of Iraq's capital city and that Mr. Tamimi was in no danger. The man the group installed, Hussein al-Tahaan, is a member of the Badr Organization, the armed militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as Sciri.

(snip)

And here is what Prof. Juan Cole wrote, published in Salon on July 21 and reported in this DU thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x141281
Thread title: Juan Cole (Salon): The Iraq war is over, and the winner is... Iran

The Iraq war is over, and the winner is... Iran

Hamstrung by the Iraq debacle, all Bush can do is gnash his teeth as the hated mullahs in Iran cozy up to their co-religionists in Iraq.
By Juan Cole

Iraq's new government has been trumpeted by the Bush administration as a close friend and a model for democracy in the region. In contrast, Bush calls Iran part of an axis of evil and dismisses its elections and government as illegitimate. So the Bush administration cannot have been filled with joy when Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and eight high-powered cabinet ministers paid an extremely friendly visit to Tehran this week.

The two governments went into a tizzy of wheeling and dealing of a sort not seen since Texas oil millionaires found out about Saudi Arabia. Oil pipelines, port access, pilgrimage, trade, security, military assistance, were all on the table in Tehran. All the sorts of contracts and deals that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney had imagined for Halliburton, and that the Pentagon neoconservatives had hoped for Israel, were heading instead due east.

Jaafari's visit was a blow to the Bush administration's strategic vision, but a sweet triumph for political Shiism. In the dark days of 1982, Tehran was swarming with Iraqi Shiite expatriates who had been forced to flee Saddam Hussein's death decree against them. They had been forced abroad, to a country with which Iraq was then at war. Ayatollah Khomeini, the newly installed theocrat of Iran, pressured the expatriates to form an umbrella organization, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which he hoped would eventually take over Iraq. Among its members were Jaafari and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. On Jan. 30, 2005, Khomeini's dream finally came true, courtesy of the Bush administration, when the Supreme Council and the Dawa Party won the Iraqi elections.

(snip)

[understandinglife]

40. Indeed. And, we are already reading of Bush and the neoconsters ...

... attempts to spin, "down-size" expectations in tomorrow's Washington Post lead story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/13/AR2005081300853.html

I supposed the 100 mph dash from the green zone to the airport will not be filmed by Fox or CNN as those chickens will have already departed .....


Peace.

[bvar22]

44. There are a few things missing from this analysis.

Saudi Arabia is Sunni, and has one of the most powerful military forces money can buy. They have been quiet as long as little george* has been doing their dirty work. If the US pulls out (like george*s daddy should have done) Saudi will oppose the Iranian Shiite takeover.
The DEAL isn't done yet. There are more pieces on this table.

[Nothing Without Hope]

46. The Saudi royal family have been reported to have set up a "suicide bomb"

network that would effectively destroy the entire oil infrastructure of Saudi Arabia. This would be a kind of poison pill to prevent attempts to depose them from power - whether the attack came from us or from a middle-eastern country.

Here's this story. Is it true? Who knows? But it's interesting to think about...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/archive/2005/05/embargoed-book-claims-sau_1.html

HUFFINGTON POST EXCLUSIVE: EMBARGOED BOOK CLAIMS SAUDI OIL INFRASTRUCTURE RIGGED FOR CATASTROPHIC SELF-DESTRUCTION

Huffington Post / Posted May 9, 2005 06:15 AM

According to a new book exclusively obtained by the Huffington Post, Saudi Arabia has crafted a plan to protect itself from a possible invasion or internal attack. It includes the use of a series of explosives, including radioactive “dirty bombs,” that would cripple Saudi Arabian oil production and distribution systems for decades.

Bestselling author Gerald Posner lays out this “doomsday scenario” in his forthcoming “Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Saudi-US Connection” (Random House).

According to the book, which will be released to the public on May 17, based on National Security Agency electronic intercepts, the Saudi Arabian government has in place a nationwide, self-destruction explosive system composed of conventional explosives and dirty bombs strategically placed at the Kingdom’s key oil ports, pipelines, pumping stations, storage tanks, offshore platforms, and backup facilities. If activated, the bombs would destroy the infrastructure of the world’s largest oil supplier, and leave the country a contaminated nuclear wasteland ensuring that the Kingdom’s oil would be unusable to anyone. The NSA file is dubbed internally Petro SE, for petroleum scorched earth.

To make certain that the damaged facilities cannot be rebuilt, the Saudis have deployed crude Radioactive Dispersal Devices (RDDs) throughout the Kingdom. Built covertly over several years, these dirty bombs are in place at -- among other locations -- all eight of the Kingdom’s refineries, sections of the world’s largest oil field at Ghawar, and at three of the ten indispensable processing towers at the largest-ever processing complex at Abqaiq.

(snip)

Of course, if the Saudis DID destroy their oil infrastructure, that would make the price of oil go very, very high for everyone else's supplies - a result that would appeal to some.

[hiley]

74. This right here really got me!!

Baghdad Mayor Is Ousted by a Shiite Group and Replaced

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: August 10, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 9 - Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia.
snip--
All that blabbering on the tv and no mention of this HUGE story that I have heard..

[Nothing Without Hope]

77. Amazing oversight, isn't it? Must be another one of those "final thoes"

...or should it be "final throws," as in "let's throw out the puppet mayor and take control of Baghdad."

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. Is this the you cannot win that war Mr Preisdent moment?

I fear it is... so who will be the last troop to die for a mistake? (to paraphrase Kerry)

[StefanX]

47. Wow!

Frank Rich hit it out of the park!!!

Recommending for Greatest page!

[Jack Rabbit]

50. Rich really hit the nail squarely on the head

The president's cable cadre is in disarray as well. At Fox News Bill O'Reilly is trashing Donald Rumsfeld for his incompetence, and Ann Coulter is chiding Mr. O'Reilly for being a defeatist. In an emblematic gesture akin to waving a white flag, Robert Novak walked off a CNN set and possibly out of a job rather than answer questions about his role in smearing the man who helped expose the administration's prewar inflation of Saddam W.M.D.'s. (On this sinking ship, it's hard to know which rat to root for.)

[annagull]

52. QUICK!! Someone tell the President-oh, that's right, on VACATION

amazing article, the comparison to LBJ really hit the nail on the head.

[stevietheman]

53. Someone tell the President his Presidency is over too.

I salute President Sheehan. Dubya Droopy-drores is merely a slug occupying the White House.

End the occupation of Iraq *and* the White House!

[rodeodance]

60. see this DU thread also

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x146972

[rodeodance]

63. the groundswell should and did come from the people (Cindy in this

case)---it will catch on with the leaders in due time (I hope).

[understandinglife]

75. Precisely. Here's a link to some comments you may find interesting ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4330194&mesg_id=4350061


Peace.

[Swamp Rat]

66. This is GREAT!!! n/t

[rodeodance]

67. and great comment about Cindy and her campout.

......These are the tea leaves that all Republicans, not just Chuck Hagel, are reading now. Newt Gingrich called the Hackett near-victory "a wake-up call." The resolutely pro-war New York Post editorial page begged Mr. Bush (to no avail) to "show some leadership" by showing up in Ohio to salute the fallen and their families. A Bush loyalist, Senator George Allen of Virginia, instructed the president to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother camping out in Crawford, as "a matter of courtesy and decency." Or, to translate his Washingtonese, as a matter of politics. Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7.

[0007]

69. A real class piece. Hope the freepers get a hold of it!

Rich indeeds chews out junior and cheney in the best possible way. One would think after these schmucks (the two footer & the bad ticker) read this article they would want to crawl to the nearest hole immediately, at least that is what one would think! But in reality, they are probably trying to figure out a way to kill Frank Rich.

What are they gonna do to save face? I'm holding my breath. Cheney wants to nuke Iran. junior sez all options are open.

[Democrats_win]

70. Exactly! Bush won't find a solution, we need someone who will do the job.