Bush Going Forward In Iraq

The Guardian is breaking a story along the lines of what I suggested the other day. It would call for 20k more troops and a final attempt at a push in Iraq before giving up.

Note - I heard on the radio that US forces have already taken command in Baghdad. According to the report, Bush is not yet ready to cut and run from Iraq. Syria and Iran figure into the mix, but not decisively so.

President George Bush has told senior advisers that the US and its allies must make "a last big push" to win the war in Iraq and that instead of beginning a troop withdrawal next year, he may increase US forces by up to 20,000 soldiers, according to sources familiar with the administration's internal deliberations.

Mr Bush's refusal to give ground, coming in the teeth of growing calls in the US and Britain for a radical rethink or a swift exit, is having a decisive impact on the policy review being conducted by the Iraq Study Group chaired by Bush family loyalist James Baker, the sources said.

Although the panel's work is not complete, its recommendations are expected to be built around a four-point "victory strategy" developed by Pentagon officials advising the group. The strategy, along with other related proposals, is being circulated in draft form and has been discussed in separate closed sessions with Mr Baker and the vice-president Dick Cheney, an Iraq war hawk.

Comments

[Phoenix]

I bow before the neo-cons.

[Dan Riehl]

That's just cause you like being on your knees. LOL

[Steel]

Pay very close attention to exactly what units are deployed.

I have a feeling they'll be engineers.

Time to 'redeploy' to Kurdistan and build a base.

[Dan Riehl]

I have a feeling they'll be engineers.

I don't know. It looks like they are going to try and stop the whack a mole philosophy where the insurgents just keep hitting them where they ain't. If they can tighten down baghdad, there'll be more troops to set across the other problem spots.

It's all about buying time, assuming you believe the Iraqi's can eventually take control.

[Terry Gain]

Send 200,000 if you have them and put a stop to the nonsense that the world's most powerful and best country can be defeated by a bunch of assholes in the middle east and America( represented by bin Laden and Moore respectively).

[Phoenix]

hahahaahahahaha.... I said BOW. Not genuflect. Although, come to think of how manly those soldiers are - you know the old 'guy in a uniform' thing.... allow me to kiss my fingertips and beckon one over quick.

ha ha ha .....

Hey... Dan... get out your Boy Scout uniform quick.... bring the knot-tying stuff..

[Phoenix]

(I know you aced that badge.)

[Dan Riehl]

that badge
Yeah, that and leather craft. ; ))

[Steel]

It takes almost 50,000 cops to keep Manhattan reasonably safe and even with that, it's not.

I can't quite get my brain around just what in the hell is wrong with Muslims.

But there are no Islamic nations without varying degrees of tyrannical governance.

As distasteful as it is for me to accept, I no longer believe Muslims want to be 'free'.

The very basis of their religion is obediance and subservience.

There's much comfort in having someone tell you what to do, how to think and rewarding you for doing so.

It is called being 'institutionalized'.

Common among career criminals.

Prison is preferable to confronting the reality of freedom.

I think that is what's in play in Islam.

As near as I can tell, the Kurds are not so afflicted.

There is no victory in Iraq.

I'll give them another winter.

We should withdraw before it gets too hot, next year and build a large base in Kurdistan.

The Peshmurga will keep the crazies out, we'll have a presence there and the Iranians will not be left off the hook.

Nor will Syria.

Providing that the military is not emasculated in the next few years by defeat-o-crats, assuming Turkey's population continues to reject religious control and Israel isn't nuked, that footprint will allow access to the Med, refueling of aircraft and perhaps, maybe, facilitate a modicum of stability in the region for another decade.

After that?

I wouldn't miss a few hundred million ragheads, would you?

[Purple Avenger]

Oddly enough, I think (now that its inevitable with the dems in congress) we need to sned a bunch of these troops in this withdrawl to Ethiopia/Eritria.

http://purpleavenger.blogspot.com/2006/11/after-iraq-pullout-then-what.html

[Bryan...aka, Point B]

I once was against pulling out, but now I think we need to set a doomsday date for Iraq to be self sufficient. It's time for the Iraqi police to take control. I say we pull out in 1 year.

[Phoenix]

I say stop this talk of pulling out. Start talking about one last big shoot-out in the OK Corral and no holding back.

Like when Clint Eastwood would appear in a cloud of dust on Main Street with that look in his eye: Make my day because if you don't, I'll make yours.

And then do it with all guns blazing. If we're going to pull out, the least we can do is have our soldiers leave with that 'make my day' grimace and a little dust on their helmets.

[ajacksonian]

Still need to stabilize the place?

But the road to do so runs directly through Damascus: http://ajacksonian.blogspot.com/2006/10/plan-to-stabilize-iraq.html

[basils]

Steel: Amen

[Phoenix]

Steel,

I know you'll know this. What percentage of Iraq is Christian and secular? What do you do with them in your plan?

A base in the region has to be and in the Kurdish area is near perfect. Would the Kurds welcome the Christians, secularists, and any other 'moderate' Muslim who wants nothing to do with civil war?

The Great Wall of Mesopotamia: Ninth Wonder of the World. Build it now.

[Steel]

Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%

The CIA Factbook.

[Steel]

No chance of the Kurds letting any Sunnis in and little chance of them allowing Shi'a in, either.

Christians? Maybe.

[Phoenix]

I have a bleeding heart for the Purple-Finger People.

Sigh.....

[Steel]

...The Great Wall of Mesopotamia: Ninth Wonder of the World. Build it now...

And who, pray tell, would build it?

Arabs and Persians consider manual labor beneath them and import Asians for that purpose.

Muslims practically invented slavery.

That high unemployment figure always bandied about in most of the Middle East, has little to do people seeking work.

They refuse to work and do so only grudgingly.

That ethos is thousands of years old.

Maybe we could send in a bunch of Mexicans.

[Steel]

I do as well.

My heart hurts for Africa too.

We can not allow altruistic idealism to overide logic and our own national security.

Some problems are simply unsolvable.

Or the solution is worse than the cure.

Admitting that will ultimately be better for everybody, because as long as we are strong, the West wakes up to its ignorance and stupidity in matters of immigration, Islam will either wake up or implode.

[Phoenix]

Admitting what?

[Steel]

As good as our intentions may be, we cannot impose sanity upon lunatics and crazies.

We can lock them up.

We can eliminate them.

We can lobotomize them.

We can try all sorts of new age, holistic methods and instruct them.

They'll still be lunatics and we need to protect ourselves and as many innocents from the insanity as we can.

I'm open to suggestions.

But if there are a bunch of crazy bastards with nothing but my destruction, in mind, in my block, I'll be inclined to facilitate their deaths and let their respective Gods sort it out.