White House dismisses Obama's Iraq visit (News Feature)
Middle East News
By Mike McCarthy Jul 22, 2008, 22:29 GMT
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Washington - The White House has dismissed suggestions presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama's first trip to Iraq this week complicated President George W Bush's ability to work out an agreement with Baghdad on the presence of US troops in the country.
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I agree - Bush can screw this up all by himself, as he's proved over the past 8 years.
How many vain attempts has Bush made (intermittently) to achieve peace in the Mideast?
Why has it taken 5 1/2 years to get an Iraqi government in place to take over? The surge may have provided some breathing room, but the ministries are still corrupt and padded with patronage, and it takes a bribe or ten to make anything happen.
Iraq's technicians abandoned the country, and are now immigrants - 2 million within the country, and 2 million in Jordan and other places. Who is going to handle infrastructure?
Oh, yeah - Halliburton.
Aside from the oil as an allure, you can be sure that the contractors were lined up for this war from the get-go; and they expect to make a living off it well into the future; as do makers of spare parts for worn-out weapons and vehicles. We have no means of getting that equipment out of Iraq, which has been flooding there for years. We don't want it to end up in the hands of insurgents. Think about the hundreds of HumVees that a single brigade has, and the need to transport them to a ship to get them back home, and you see the problem. We've probably stripped the Guard armories of gear as well that needs replacement.
This war has been one giant feeding trough for the oil interests, defense industry and the contractors, and Cheney is neck-deep in collusion with all interests. Bush, who claimed to be against nation-building, got suckered into this, and is now brainwashed to think it's about 'terrorism'; when al Qaeda did not even EXIST in Iraq prior to Saddam's ouster (more Cheney bullcrap), and the problem is now in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Bush needs no help whatever in creating complexity out of simplicity.
I agree with everything you say except for: 'and the problem is now in Afghanistan and Pakistan.'
The problem is in Washington. The problem, also, is in the US citizenry for being such blind-minded sheep and following and believing their 'leaders.' So, to put it bluntly, the problem lies with the US.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4206730.ece
The Taleban is believed to be stockpiling vast quantities of opium after a bumper crop last year sent the price of the drug spiralling downwards.
The Taleban, which relies on sales of the drug for arms purchases, is hoping to hold onto its stock for long enough for the value to rise again, officials in Kabul said today. A Western counter-narcotics official said opium from the harvested poppy crops was currently valued “as low as $50 a kilo”.
Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said: “Last year Afghanistan produced about 8,000 tonnes of opium. The world in the last few years has consumed about 4,000 tonnes, so this leaves a surplus. It is stored somewhere and it’s not with the farmers.”
'The problem, also, is in the US citizenry for being such blind-minded sheep and following and believing their 'leaders.''
media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/22/AR2008072201079. html
We went to Afghanistan first because it is the central front in the war against terrorism. That is where the 9/11 attacks were planned, and today in Afghanistan and the border region of Pakistan Al Qaida and the Taliban are mounting a growing offensive against the security of the Afghan people, and increasingly the Pakistani people, while plotting new attacks against the United States.
The situation in Afghanistan is perilous and urgent. We must act now to reverse a deteriorating situation.
I called over a year ago for additional U.S. troops to be placed in Afghanistan as well as more nonmilitary assistance and more support from our NATO allies. And I'm glad that there's a growing consensus back home that we need more resources in Afghanistan. We should not wait any longer to provide them.
In our meetings with President Karzai and the other Afghan leaders, I stressed my strong commitment to Afghanistan security and economic development, and urged them to work on a more for more basis -- more U.S. and NATO support for Afghanistan and more action by the Afghan government to take on corruption and counter narcotics, to improve the rule of law and to make sure that resources and services are actually delivered for the Afghan people.
We also need a policy, as both Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel mentioned, that compels Pakistani action against terrorists who threaten our common security and are using the FATA and the Northwest Territories of Pakistan as a safe haven. And we have to do this at the same time as we deepen our relationship with the Pakistani people and the recently elected democratic government.
Together, I believe we have to succeed in taking the fight to the terrorists in order to protect the American people as well as the Afghan people. And to do that, we're going to have to support lasting stability for Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as economic opportunity for their people.
(After 8 long years, we get to hear well-formed statements from someone with a functioning medulla)
Finally, someone who sounds like a President, instead of the guy at the feed store.
So Bush is his dumber brother 'Homer'.
And take batshit-crazy Cheney with you. Tell him not to shoot anyone else.
...after 2(?) years as a US senator, which, at any time, he could have intro'ed legislation to stand up another 10,000 troops, or publicly back the Afghan war, he did nothing.
Instead, he opposed the war in Iraq, missed on the surge and now he thinks a visit to a secure base and a set of obvious suggestions makes him commander in chief...
It's like everything else with this guy...he craps and it's the Messiah crapping. He gets softballs from the libnazi press. If this guy loses, it will be a miricle.
Anyone buying this yet?
...that potty humor again. This is the result of a person who cannot make a cogent case for any particular subject. The more I write, the more he realises how poorly informed he is. This is alright with me, as long as you learn something.
oh yeah, none of that makes me wrong, either.
Obviously, a rectal delivery.
LISTEN to Obama, you retarded ass-kissing piece of crap:
www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2234877520080723
Obama was asked repeatedly on 'CBS Evening News' whether the surge has worked.
He explained why he would still oppose a troop increase in Iraq, saying it does not meet the long-term U.S. strategic goal and that the emphasis on Iraq had taken a toll on the U.S. effort in Afghanistan.
'If we have shifted away from the central front of terrorism as a consequence of enormous and continuing investments in Iraq, then that's a poor strategic choice,' the Illinois senator continued.
Pressed once more on whether he gives the surge any credit for reducing violence in Iraq, Obama said he did, as one factor of many.
''No, no of course I have,' he said. 'There is no doubt that the extraordinary work of our U.S. forces has contributed to a lessening of the violence, just as making sure that the Sadr militia stood down or the fact that the Sunni tribes decided to flip and work with us instead of with al-Qaeda -- something that we hadn't anticipated happening. All those things have contributed to a reduction in violence.'
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The word 'worked' is wrong! A light switch 'works' when the light goes on, or goes off. Nothing in between.
The failure has been that of the Iraqi leadership, and the sectarian infighting that's tied Parliament up in knots. Today, the Kurds refused to participate. This is a fractured country; and more so with oil revenues to fight over.
Petraeus has done everything humanly possible, while Col. McMaster ACTUALLY designed the entire strategy of getting the Sunni on our side. Our troops have done everything humanly possible, and more.
The 'surge' of 6 months has now lasted far longer, so let's just call it an 'intermediate term increase in forces', and be accurate. It was designed to accomplish certain things, and al-Maliki and the rest have let us down.
You cannot disconnect OUR contributions from THEIRS - the 'surge' covers both. On that basis, it has HELPED; but it has not WORKED - because the mission has NOT been accomplished.
When you take your car in for a tune-up, are you happy to find a flat tire when you pay for it?
Are you running his campaign? Whine, whine whine. Lie, lie, lie.
Now McCain blamed Obama for the rise in gas prices. McCain used to be honest; but in his desperation for office, seems to have lowered those standards.
SP4, on the other hand, began at the bottom, and has nowhere else to go.
(Since the point of the surge was to let Iraq meet their benchmarks, the surge did NOT work. Success is not negotiable, unless you're running on the GOP ticket)
www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/23/mideast/kurds.php
BAGHDAD: The Iraqi Parliament approved legislation to govern provincial elections, but Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the session, vowing to force the measure to be rewritten and probably delaying the balloting for months.
Provincial elections had been scheduled for October, but because of delays in reaching a compromise on the election law, they had already been set back to December. Now, the new legislation, which was approved Tuesday, is likely to be rejected by the Presidency Council, and with more work necessary to reach an agreement, it will be difficult to hold elections before next year, said Iraqi politicians from several parties.
'Those who wanted to accelerate the electoral process delayed it, whether intentionally or unintentionally,' said Khalid al-Attiya, the deputy speaker of Parliament and a Shiite.
The libnazi dems have, for 30 years touted energy alternatives that, to this day, do not exist. Obama is just anopther in a long line of promisors who are floating this line in the blind hope that he can be just one more pol who can retire before he is held accountable, while your fuel prices go up.
McCain, correctly, put the blame squarely on them. For seven years GW Bush warned us about increasing dependence on foreign oil and you ignored him. Now, you are getting exactly what you deserve.
On the wars, it is exactly the same: For 5 years, the libnazi dems have obstructed Bush, but now, in order to win a general election, this neophyte goes to a secure base for 48 hours and now masquerades as commander in chief. His desciples in the libnazi press are all too happy to throw a whole other round of softballs at him, so he can appear as such.
Obama, in a word, blew it. He was on TV trying to insunuate that Sunni cooperation came in spite of the surge, instead of because of the surge, to rationalize his being wrong about it. They, of course, ate it up.
No, this guy cannot lose, He has a sychophanitc press, sychphantic followers, and the novelty of being black. If that were not true, Edwards would be there right now.
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