Frank Rich: SURGE IS A SHAM & Forces that killed Cindy Sheehan's son now in control of Iraq

[kpete]

Frank Rich: Forces that killed Sheehan's son now in control of Iraq

"The day after Casey Sheehan's slaughter, Dan Senor, the spokesman for the American occupation, presided over a Green Zone news conference promising al-Sadr's woefully belated arrest on a months-old warrant for his likely role in the earlier assassination of Abdel Majid al-Khoei, a rival Shiite who had fiercely opposed Saddam. Today al-Sadr and his forces control 30 seats in the Iraqi parliament, four government ministries, and death squads (aka militias) more powerful than the nominal Iraqi army. He is the puppetmaster who really controls Nouri al-Maliki -- the Iraqi prime minister embraced by Bush -- even to the point of inducing al-Maliki to shut down a search for an American soldier kidnapped at gunpoint in Sadr City in the fall. (And, you might ask, whatever happened to Senor? He's a Fox News talking head calling for a "surge" of American troops to clean up the botch he and his cohort left behind.) Only Joseph Heller could find the gallows humor in a moral disaster of these proportions.

It's against the backdrop of both the Saddam video and the Ford presidency that we must examine the prospect of that much-previewed "surge" in Iraq -- a surge, by the way, that the press should start calling by its rightful name, escalation. As Ford had it, America cannot regain its pride by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned and, for that matter, as far as Iraq is concerned. By large margins, the citizens of both countries want us not to escalate but to start disengaging. So do America's top military commanders, who are now being cast aside just as Gen. Eric Shinseki was when he dared assert before the invasion that securing Iraq would require several hundred thousand troops.

The "surge," then, is a sham. It is not meant to achieve that undefined "victory" Bush keeps talking about but to serve his own political spin. His real mission is to float the 'we're not winning, we're not losing' status quo until Jan. 20, 2009. After that, as Joseph Biden put it last week, a new president will 'be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof.'"

more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Frank_Rich_Forces_in_control_of_0106.html

[flordehinojos]

1. if as this paragraph implies, this is true, then this--------->

calls for a revolution>

The "surge," then, is a sham. It is not meant to achieve that undefined "victory" Bush keeps talking about but to serve his own political spin. His real mission is to float the 'we're not winning, we're not losing' status quo until Jan. 20, 2009. After that, as Joseph Biden put it last week, a new president will 'be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof.'"

say no to bush

[az chela]

2. We all know that the evil one and his cohorts will never

back down or admit they were wrong so the killing goes on.Same game ,change the name.
We need to find a way to organize and get bush and cheney out of the white house.
This is murder no matter what bush calls it and it is evil and wrong.
NO MORE WAR!!!!!!!!!!

[babylonsister]

3. Right On, Mr. Rich. Thank God for writers like you! nt

[Lin]

7. I'm afraid that truthtellers such as Rich, Hersch & precious few others like them could be silenced

is things keep going on the way they have been since dimson's reign began-- who would've THOUGHT the killing, the propaganda, BALD FACED war profiteering could have gone ON this long? and now the little man wants more. More? wha? MORE HE SAYS?!?? Jesus Christ!

[Faygo Kid]

11. It's coming. Hold your nose and listen to right wing radio. It's all about silencing the media.

The Rove talking points have gone out: Firm up the base by blaming the media. Flame the hatred to prepare for efforts to silence dissent (martial law?). Of course that has been a message; now it's almost the ONLY message. Something is coming down the pike, and soon.

[MADem]

4. The real meaning of 'stay the course' you see! NT

[Peace Patriot]

5. It's on-going murder and planned murder, and it's also how many billions

week after week down the Iraq rathole and into the overstuffed pockets and Cayman Island bank accounts of war profiteers and Bush Cartel buddies? I can't keep track. The numbers are staggering.

I don't think it's just personal to Bush, monster that he is. Every week, every month, billions of dollars are 'disappeared.' And our war profiteering corporate news monopolies say almost nothing about it. They should all have $-counters on their TV screens and in the front corner edge of their newspapers and every radio news show should begin with how many unaccountable dollars were lost to us that day, next to $-counters of which corporations we know are getting what. This is what it's really about.

I think there are several other motives. As long as cannon fodder is dying, Bush thinks he and his regime have some sort of immunity from investigation and impeachment. One of our dear "Blue Dog" Democrats said almost this yesterday on C-Span. The "Blue Dogs" were yammering about the deficit and "fiscal responsibility"--and they went on and on--and then finally some reporter asked, what about military spending? I didn't catch the name of the "Blue Dog" who said it (heard it on the radio) but here it is: "As long as our young people, our solders, are out there in harm's way...blah, blah, blah...we must insure that they have the resources they need...blah, blah, blah." They would as soon take the tax cuts for the super-rich and the bloated pig of the military budget out of the hides of the poor, the young, the elderly, the sick, than stick it to the real culprits, those whom they truly represent.

The soldiers dying are the justification for the billions going missing. If you get tough on the billions going missing, you're hurting the soldiers out there dying.

They might as well have been Bush speaking. And the same for OTHER investigations and accountability. As long as he has a war going, he thinks he can escape.

As for his and Rove's political scenario--hanging on until 2008 and dumping it on someone else--the Democrats must not let that happen. That's all. End the war now. Stop all funding of it. Investigate now. Impeach now. That's what they've got to do. This callous, insulting, sniveling war criminal and his Junta have got to go!

[Me.]

6. Dan Senor

husband of Today hostess, Campbell Brown, was the guy who took over the helm of Lieberman's campaign. On This Week, last week, he proudly boasted of his neocon credentials as he urged escalation.

[Tuesday_Morning]

8. Senor always reminds me of

Slugworth from the 1971 Willie Wonka movie.

[omega minimo]

9. k&r

[Faygo Kid]

10. "Our long national nightmare in Iraq, far from being over, is about to get a second wind."

Brilliant on so many levels. This is a must read for all DUers. The Administration must have Frank Rich at the top of their "to be silenced" list.

And Dan Senor is particularly reprehensible scum, even for this Administration, as I can't believe he buys the bullshit (I think Rich sees that, too) - but he knows which side his bread is buttered on, and is more than happy to sell his soul for the perks of power and wealth he and his smug media toy wife, Campbell Brown, enjoy. They are somewhat young to have consigned their souls to hell, but so be it. I saw Paul Hackett rip Senor a new one a few months ago on one of the cable talk shows, calling him out as the scum he is with no hesitation. Senor was surprised by the ferocity of the personal attack. He should not have been, and it's great to see Rich nail him again.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. And the incoming body bags are out of sight out of mind.

Just numbers to the beancounters, on the GOP gravy train. The haves and the have mores are as guilty as Bush.

[Cameron27]

13. Biden's right.

Bush wants to surge this war right into the Democrat's lap.