Yup, we're making progress in Iraq. Gens. George Casey and John Abizaid appearing before the Senate admitted that we seem to be back sliding in Iraq.
Casey and Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the number of Iraqi security battalions able to operate on their own without U.S. forces had declined in recent months. Of the roughly 100 Iraqi battalions, only one was able to operate independently, down from three, they said, but did not elaborate.
'We fully recognize that Iraqi armed forces will not have an independent capability for some time, because they don't have the institutional base to support them,' Casey said.
That's right we've turned the corner, except fewer Iraqi troops are able to operate on their own than the last time the Pentagon was held accountable.
And remember Wolfowitz's assertion that the Iraqis would be able to pay for things like security, new cars, electrical plants, water treatment plants, and health care with all that oil money? Well, that was just wishful thinking.
Casey also said the Iraqi government had been unable to pay an unspecified number of the 67,000 Iraqi police, who are among the 192,000 U.S.-trained Iraqi forces.I'm sure the fat cat cronies at Haliburton and Bechtel got paid though for all that "reconstruction" they've been doing.
Just imagine how bad things could be going in Iraq if we hadn't had that accountability moment last November. Just imagine if that guy with a "plan" had been elected. I mean really.
Among the people George Bush's pardoned is
Jesse Ray Harvey, Scarbro, W.Va.That's right Bush pardoned someone who apparently blew up some kind of energy facility. Sure sounds like someone who should be pardoned. Of course, it was all just a big misunderstanding. Just like this person really didn't make counterfeit money
Offense: Property damage by use of explosives and destruction of an energy facility; 18 U.S.C. 844(i) and 1366(a).
Rusty Lawrence Elliott, Mount Pleasant, Tenn.So don't be surprised when Bush pardons Tom DeLay, I mean if Georgie is willing to pardon people who blow things up and who make counterfeit money the sky is the limit. It's all about values.
Offense: Making counterfeit Federal Reserve notes; 18 U.S.C. 471.
Bush sends crony who doesn't really know what she's doing instead of an expert. This from the Washington Post on Karen Hughes public diplomacy tour of the Mideast.
Hughes betrayed some nervousness in her first diplomatic foray, which will also take her to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. This is her first visit to all three countries, and as she spoke to reporters she clutched briefing papers that appeared to be the diplomatic equivalent of Cliffs Notes. Turkey was a "democratic state" and Egypt was the "most populous" country in the region, the document said.
Asked if she was meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hughes turned uncertainly to an aide and indicated she wasn't quite sure of the answer. The aide whispered back and Hughes replied, "We are respectful of Egypt's laws."
The activities of the Muslim Brotherhood are officially banned, but it is regarded as the country's largest opposition party and has pressed for a more open political system in Egypt, the stated goal of U.S. policy. She also has no plans to meet with representatives of Kifaya, an umbrella opposition group.
Great so despite having seen how relying on cronies instead of people with knowledge and expertise doesn't work so well, Bush still sends Karen Hughes on a mission to convince people that we really care about the Middle East, its peoples, and the issues that concern them. Hughes qualifications for this mission and for the job as an undersecretary of state are what exactly? Beyond loyalty to Georgie and the ability to lie pretty well, what in her background, training, etc. makes her suitable for this role? Ohhh....right she was able to hoodwink large numbers of American voters into thinking that George Bush was qualified to be President of the United States.
It appears that after another week in which the last throes of the insurgency continue the U.S. military is reduced to Vietnam era style body counts.
Coalition forces killed six insurgents in northern Iraq on Sunday during raids on al Qaeda in Iraq safe houses, the U.S. military said.The CNN story goes on to recount how many insurgents we and the Iraqi government have captured or killed since mid-August. The fact we're still capturing and killing isurgents in such numbers makes it clear we're not making much headway. We had no real policy for dealing with the insurgency before hurricane Katrina and now that the 'brain trust' at the White House is scrambling for their political lives it's likely that we'll see the U.S. military left twisting in the wind. Meanwhile the insurgency doesn't seem to be bothered too much by our military "successes." The insurgents appear just as capable of striking whenever and where ever they choose. The same CNN story notes how despite our killing of six insurgents and capturing a bunch more, Faris Nasser Hussein a member of the Iraqi parliament, his brother, and their driver were killed while on the road to Baghdad from Mosul. Haidar Qassem Shanaw another member of parliament was wounded in the attack. Oh, and the insurgents also managed to blow up a train carrying fuel outside of a Baghdad refinery. But rest assured, Rummy, Bremer, etc. did a "heck of job in Iraq." Heck of job.
CNN reports that the New Orleans school system is broke.
New Orleans teachers will not get paid for periods after Hurricane Katrina because there is almost no money left in the city's strapped school system, an executive of the outside firm that runs the schools said Wednesday.I guess it was a good thing for that hurricane to hit after all. Or maybe not. The system was in the process of finding an additional $50 million in order operate when the storm hit. This is George Bush's America. A major school system is out scrounging for money to keep the doors open and to pay teachers. Kind of makes you wonder about all that "no child left behind rhetoric." This in of itself is a disaster. The kind of "quiet" disaster happening every day in George Bush's America. Tax cuts for the rich, not even crumbs for the poor.
While conservative commentators are blaming the poor and local officials, Nicholas Kristof reminds us that, "the number of poor people has now risen 17 percent under Mr. Bush." That's right, 17% more people with just a bus or subway pass and maybe enough food to eat for the week and thus have no way of renting a car or buying a plane ticket to escape a natural disaster or a terrorist attack.
Should there have been a better evacuation plan for New Orleans? Sure. But imagine if there weren't so many poor folks to start with. That would have meant fewer folks at the Superdome or the Convention Center. Or imagine if FEMA or DHS had actually helped the local and state leaders develop an implement a real evacuation plan. Four years after 9/11 and DHS and FEMA clearly don't have a clue on how to deal with diasters "that no one ever thought could happen." Four years of the Radical Republicans telling us they'll keep us safe and FEMA and DHS have done little to help cities prepare for diasters. Conservatives will like to pass the buck and say that it's the fault of local (Democratic) leadership, but when you're paying for one "terror alert" after another in order to keep Georgie's poll numbers up, it's hard to find the cash to do such things. All those billions sent to cronies or to tax cuts could have gone to help local and state officials plan for responding to a disaster instead of making a big show of doing something. These problems are too big and complex to pass onto one city or one state. The diaster in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast shows why we need a functioning federal government. One run by people who know what they're doing (not old buddies from college suddenly in need of a job).
It's time for America to grow up and remember why the founders of this country ditched the whole confederation idea in which states were pretty much on their own. They did so because it didn't work. And Rebulicans only push the whole "state's rights" thing becuse they believe they can control a state without an active press much easier than they can the entire country. It's time for America to realize that the America the Republicans want to bring us is based on a model that didn't work all that well and was ditched because of it. That model brings us more poor people, more people without health insurance, schools that are beholden to narrow minded special interests who can intimidate local and state officials, a country where the powerless and the poor are at the mercy of nature, chance, and the whims of the powerful, and brings us a federal government woefully unprepared to respond to disasters. The best way to avoid disasters like we're seeing in New Orleans is to have a more equitable distribution of wealth and having a Congress that really reflects the people who elect it. That means an end to voter intimidation, special "junkets" paid for by the powerful and wealthy, and electoral districts that reflect the communities they represent rather than some political interest. Republicans like to bemoan the loss of community, yet they draw electoral districts that no more resemble communities than George Bush resembles a compassionate leader. It's time for a change. It's time we once and for all reject the Republican vision of America. The Repulican talking point of "personal responsiblity" sounds great until an event like a hurricane, a stock market crash (or just the company you work for going broke because of the corrupt criminals in charge of it have sucked it dry), or a terrorist attack disrupts even the best laid plans of being "personally responsible."
The levels of incompetence displayed by BushCo is just staggering. From Reuters.com comes this,
Up to 30 gunmen in 10 cars fired on Iraq's interior ministry at dawn on Monday, killing two police and wounding five, ministry sources said, in what appeared a carefully coordinated attack on a sensitive target.Yet more evidence of the lies of George Bush. We never had control over Iraq, the elections, the Constitution, the elections, etc. never would and most likely never will quell the insurgency. These aren't "propaganda" attacks as the U.S. military claims. They are real, they are reminders of what happens when you invade a country based on lies and follow that up with a thoroughly incompetent job of managing the invasion and its aftermath because you were more concerned about rewarding political loyalty at home than doing the right thing. Attacks like these are the result of corruption in the Iraqi "government." The same Reuters story notes that there appear to very good reasons for Sunnis to distrust the Interior Ministry,
On Sunday, the influential Muslim Clerics Association said it had discovered the bodies of two Sunni clerics and three other men in a morgue in Baghdad, three days after they were arrested by Interior Ministry troops.Oh yeah, that's democracy and freedom for you. All of this bloodshed, torture, carnage, and human misery is the fault of George Bush and his political cronies who were more interested in making a quick buck or scoring political points. Bush appointed political cronies to run things in Iraq after he and Dick Cheney brow beat the CIA and military into invading the place. We're reaping the fruits of that policy. We blindly pursued a policy of "market driven solutions" instead of doing what was best for the people of Iraq once we had invaded their country. Bush and his cronies were more interested in lining their pockets and proviing some "political point" about the power of the "market" than in rebuilding Iraq economically and politically. The results are clear to see.
Is it too much to hope that the reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will be managed by professionals instead of cronies? Is it too much to hope that we don't reap the same fruits in this country as a result of Bush's failures?
CNN.com is running the following quick poll "Should President Bush nominate a current Supreme Court jurist for chief justice or pick someone new?
Current justice
New nominee "
Too bad there isn't an option, "Neither. President Bush and his entire administration should resign. Congress should pass a law calling for new Presidental elections."
