Sen. Warner (R) says we're losing Baghdad, 'center' of Bush's terror war

[bigtree]

October 05, 2006

Senators: Iraq situation bleak

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the armed services committee chairman, said Iraq “is imply drifting sideways” because the new government has been unable to exercise the reins of power or find a way to disarm the secular militias that are endangering lives.

Warner flatly declared that the U.S. is “losing the Baghdad campaign” as the number of casualties rises.

“War grinds on and we taking distressing tolls of life and limb every day,” he said.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the armed services committee’s ranking Democrat, said at an earlier, separate news conference the he does not think the Iraqi government understands that the U.S. will be leaving someday.

He described Iraq as being “on the verge of an all-out civil war” and said Iraq’s leaders “clearly do not want us to even think about reducing troops,” an attitude that “is just going to be an endless quagmire” for the U.S.

In fact, he said Iraq’s leaders seem to think the U.S. presence is the only thing preventing a full civil war from breaking out, believing “we will save their bacon.”

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2155617.php


my take:
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Baghdad is Bush's Last Stand in Iraq
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_060824_baghdad_is_bush_s_la.htm

[lapfog_1]

1. How's that ditch or moat or whatever working out for ya??? - n/t

[kenny blankenship]

2. The Freedom Latrine?

they'll be about halfway done when the last of our helicopters dusts off from the Embassy roof.

[lapfog_1]

16. Apparently we can still get Kissinger to go negotiate a

"peace with honor" or something.

[ProSense]

3. "Warner said he sees the next 60 to 90 days as most critical juncture"

That's pretty alarming! Are they waiting for the per-day U.S. death toll to climb into the double digits?

[bigtree]

6. 2-3-4 soldiers getting killed there every day

[alfredo]

14. Seems like I have heard something like that

before.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. and today, at a news conference I heard him FLATLY DENY

he said we'd "lost." denied it. then backtracked when confronted with the quote.
what a remarkable display that entire segment was. he sounded like a dithering old fool, going ON and ON about how the insurgents were blowing up multi million dollar vehicles with fifteen dollar detonators, and finding new ways to blow stuff up as soon as our guys figured out a way to counter them.

he kept apologizing for saying things like the above, as he realized how bad it sounded; no editing ability in realtime, eh, John? it was an amazing performance. can't remember anything else off the top of my head, but there were several other examples of his painting a VERY bleak picture while trying to just the opposite.

funny in a holocaust sort of way.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. Warner seems to always be astounded by the ability of the Iraqis

to foil the US military. Warner is very naive about the history of Iraq.

[bigtree]

10. he said it. I just listened to his comments

he said we've in lost Baghdad, hesitated, and then added, "too many (soldiers) have lost their lives"

to that effect. It will read perfectly as Warner saying 'we've lost in Baghdad', depending on where the editor chooses to put the period.

Too bad for Warner that his comments squared with reality for once in his life and he's backtracking from that.

[shain from kane]

5. “...we will save their bacon.” Moslems have bacon? n/t

[lvx35]

8. HEHE. Maybe that's the problem, we're TRYING to save their bacon! nt

[shain from kane]

15. I'd rather be eating a bacon sandwich, than the Iraqi sh*t sandwich that

this administration is eating.

[lvx35]

7. I don't think you can blame the government of Iraq.

They probably understand the situation quite well, unlike Levine's statement. But if they don't have the political capital to pull together the people, they don't have it. I mean to say if the democratic majority doesn't want the US sponsored government, its not gonna fly, no matter what tactics we use.

[bigtree]

11. they are as impotent as the administration here which props them up

[demnan]

12. I write to this man very couple of weeks

I beg, I mean beg him to have some respect for our military (he chairs Armed Services) and develop a plan for bringing our soldiers home. I begged him not to go along with Bush and vote for torture. The hell with him. I hope there's another guy as tough as Webb when his time comes to run for reelection.

[bigtree]

13. thank you for your diligence

keep hounding him into his eventual retirement.

[ninkasi]

17. The moron in chief

is not worthy to even be in the same room as the men and women he sends to death so arrogantly, to fulfill some inner need of his to be better than his daddy. He is most certainly not worthy, or fit, to be the president of our once proud country.

I know America has made mistakes, and has never been what we have grown up to believe it is. The genocide against native Americans, and the shameful fact of slavery prevent that. For most of us, though, we have at least tried to live up to that ideal.

Under the Bush cabal, however, we can no longer even to pretend we hold some moral high ground, not after our politicians have oked torture, and trial without jury, and prison without charges being brought.

The least we can do now is bring our troops home, and pay reparations to Iraq for destroying their country. We have created a thousand times more enemies than we had before Bush's illegal war of choice.