Sen. Brownback’s Solution For Iraq: ‘Park’ Cheney ‘In The Region’
Sen. Brownback’s Solution For Iraq: ‘Park’ Cheney ‘In The Region’
One of the key recommendations of the Iraq Study Group was direct, unconditional engagement with Iran and Syria. It was quickly rejected by the Bush administration.
This morning on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Sam Brownback — one of the most conservative members of the Senate — embraced the recommendation, but with an unusual twist. Brownback said that the administration should “park” Vice President Cheney in the region, leading the diplomatic effort. Watch it:
Of course, Cheney has been one of the primary forces within the administration resisting direct engagement with Iran and Syria.
Transcript:
BROWNBACK: I’m not — I’m not jumping ship. I just think it’s time that we really put pressure on the situation. And we’ve been very patient with this, and we’ve invested a lot. I do think as well it’s time for us to put diplomatic pressure to the point where you just park the Vice President and Secretary of State in the region. It’s shuttle diplomacy going back and forth between the countries that will receive us, really pushing on them to stop funding things into iraq and start working with us, because they don’t need a civil war in that region either, and to really have them start coming to the table instead of just sitting back and even hurting the situation inside of Iraq.
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62 Responses to “Sen. Brownback’s Solution For Iraq: ‘Park’ Cheney ‘In The Region’”
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Dick Cheney…Peacemaker.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:03 amNo, I don’t think so.
A Cheney decoy?
December 10th, 2006 at 10:08 amI thought the ‘Mission’ was ‘Accomplished’ back in May of 2003 ?!!
December 10th, 2006 at 10:09 amLet the Bulldog do something for a change!
December 10th, 2006 at 10:11 amSounds like Cheney is rubbing some people the wrong way finally. It’s about time.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:12 amPark them in the middle east, tow them away and impound them!
December 10th, 2006 at 10:22 amPark them in the middle east and then tow them away!
December 10th, 2006 at 10:23 amCheney is the kidnapper holding all of us ransom. Republicans will call for his ouster with increasing volume becasue he alone holds the key to the wind-up GWB toy’s Chatty Cathy phrases. Stay the Course, the way forward, tactics, success and strategy will only be replaced with diplomacy, staged withdrawal, etc. when the key is yanked from Cheney.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:25 amMr. Brownback that is an excellent idea. I have heard our posters use that idea several times.
And I try not to take it personally.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:33 amAnd no worries, you won’t be “gettin’ some ForTruth”, I don’t have a blog.
Chickenhawk Cheney, whose idea of hunting is to have paid servants scare up quail so he can shoot at them, isn’t exactly the reality-based executive to do the job.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:36 amBut on the other hand, Baghdad is only about 2,400 miles from the Hague, whereas Washington D.C. is about 3,800 miles. So it may be more efficient to send Cheney and Rice — hell, get Rummie, Bush, Wolfie, Perle, and the rest of ‘em over there as well — it’s a shorter trip to their war crime trials, than it would be from the U.S.
The simpleton mindset and mentality of Senators like Brownback is simply astounding. Conservative wingnut suggestions usually boil down to don’t let FACTS stand in the way…. just continue to spew unadulterated bullshit intermixed with sheer ignorance !
December 10th, 2006 at 10:40 amCount me as one of those supporting placing DICK Dastardly right in the middle of any Middle East conflict.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:44 am“Dick” must have pissed off Sen Brownback. :(
What the hell. Send “Dick’s” ass over there, and he can join the March to Democracy. Use some wingless quail as a decoy.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:47 amParked?
Before that, perhaps he deserves to be renditioned, stripped bound at the hands and feet, gagged, blindfolded, and paraded throughout the streets of Sadr City?
In response to the horrific attacks of 9/11, Messers Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush, et al should have gone after UBL instead of empowering Islamic fundamentalists throughout the ME.
9/11 + Iraq = Bush’s fundamentalist Islamic Middle East
WTF?
Iran looks like the winner of the Iraq war
The Islamic Republic’s clout in the region, confirmed by the Iraq Study Group, could cost the United States.
By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writer
December 10, 2006
Far from spreading democracy through the region, the Iraq war has strengthened a theocracy in which unelected religious figures make many of the crucial decisions.
“So far, Iran won the Iraq war,” said George Perkovich, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “They gained the most by far.”
Plan Floated to Divide Iraq Along Ethnic Lines October 24, 2006
PETER GALBRAITH: Our ability to influence events in Iraq is extremely limited. I see no purpose for a continued U.S. presence in the Shiite southern half of Iraq.
The New Middle East
Richard N. Haass
From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2006
Summary: The age of U.S. dominance in the Middle East has ended and a new era in the modern history of the region has begun.
“Iraq Is Not Winnable”
SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD HAASS
The old Middle East — an era which I believe has only recently ended — was one in which the United States enjoyed tremendous dominance and freedom of maneuver. [snip] It’s one of history’s ironies that the first war in Iraq, a war of necessity, marked the beginning of the American era in the Middle East and the second Iraq war, a war of choice, has precipitated its end.
IRAN’S GROWING POWER IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The Spider’s Web
By Georg Mascolo and Bernhard Zand
More people than ever are dying in Iraq while the United States looks on powerlessly. In the wake of its invasion of Lebanon, Israel is riven with self-doubt, while Europe tries to establish peace. But there is one country that is benefiting from every crisis in the region: Iran.
The Iranian nightmare
By Michael Schwartz
Now, over two years after Baghdad fell and the American occupation of Iraq began, Kagan’s prediction appears to have been fulfilled - in reverse. The chief beneficiary of the occupation and the chaos it produced has not been the Bush administration, but Iran, the most populous and powerful member of the “axis of evil” and the chief American competitor for dominance in the oil-rich region. As diplomatic historian Gabriel Kolko commented, “By destroying a united Iraq under [Saddam] Hussein … the US removed the main barrier to Iran’s eventual triumph.”
Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?
December 10th, 2006 at 10:49 amF. Gregory Gause III
From Foreign Affairs, September/October 2005
Summary: The Bush administration contends that the push for democracy in the Muslim world will improve U.S. security. But this premise is faulty: there is no evidence that democracy reduces terrorism. Indeed, a democratic Middle East would probably result in Islamist governments unwilling to cooperate with Washington.
Dicky Boy is going to be too busy mid-wifing Mary’s child to do such piddley things as negotiating a peace that he doesn’t want.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:57 amI e-mailed those guys at our Government and told em’ Iraq’s gonna have to be split up, now they will say it was their idea, sheesh.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:57 amGreat idea from Senator Brownback.
December 10th, 2006 at 10:59 amHuh?…Put Cheney in charge of a diplomatic effort?
Is Brownback trying to take Inhofe’s place as dumbest sonofabitch in the Senate…or is this his way of ensuring Bush’s goal of endless war?
December 10th, 2006 at 11:00 amBetter use of “dead-eye” Dick. Park him in the middle of the battle with his shotgun. OK, he won’t be able to kill many of the bad guys, but five deferment Dick will finally get a taste of what war really is. In fact, let’s send all the chickenhawks over there and put them on the front line. That way, we won’t have to endure their constant babble over here.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:02 amThe Bush/Cheney cartel has nothing to offer to Iran and Syria other than demands on these countries. Without honest negotiations with Syria, Iran, Isreal, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, it will remain the same old same old…idiots and lunatics staying the course.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:03 amThey should up-armor his pacemaker, give him the Italian shotgun, and some extra bird shot. Fill up the cooler with beer and send him off to clean that shit up.
Comment by ForTruth
Let’s have just a little mercy on the old boy. We’ll send Lynne with him. She can read him dirty stories from her horrible novels, and they can cuddle when they’re not being shot at. :P
Heh.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:08 amI never thought I would agree with any of these a-holes, but parking Cheney’s fat ass right in Baghdad would be a good idea. He could go fishing. Good idea.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:12 amWhat else can you expect from Sam Brownback who will be running for president in 2008 as the “Evangelical Candidate?” He, like all the Republicans who simply ignored earlier warnings, mainly by the U.S. military top commanders like General Eric Shinseki. Shinseki in congressional testimony recommended three times as many ground troops to restore order and put down armed resistance in Iraq following a Bush invasion.
Brownback, belatedly, decided to jump ship and begin his criticism of the disastrous Bush policies. He’s more than a day late and several hundred billions of dollars short. But, he’s also a typical political panderer who speaks in high and mighty tones while building on divisiveness and wedge issues — the favorite tactics of the radical, evangelical extremists.
Sorry, but America is not ready for a dogmatic, faith-based tolerance-for-none government immersed in biblical certitude.
Our country is still a democracy and it still is representative of ALL the people, not just the self-named chosen few whose only goal is to hasten the End of Days while they selfishly promote their sense of moral purity by ramming through punitive legislation that seeks to punish those who disagree with their repressive, minority ideology.
Brownback needs to go back to Kansas– to the 6,000-year-old Earth is Flat antediluvian throwback to the Scopes Monkey trial days. And stay there.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:13 amImpeachment Rallies Country-Wide
December 10th, 2006 at 11:24 amImpeachment is too good for GDumbya and Dick the Prick.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:27 amI am all in favor of “parking” the entire Bush (mis)administration in Baghdad, specifically in the Sadr City neighborhood.
Surely they would not be in danger, as we’ve been told time and again by the Bush cultists that Baghdad is no more dangerous than Washington DC.
I would be more than willing to contribute to the general fund to pay for their rent and meals. No additional personal security detachment for any of them though. They obviously don’t need it.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:30 amThey should up-armor his pacemaker, give him the Italian shotgun, and some extra bird shot.
Comment by ForTruth — December 10, 2006 @ 10:59 am
Conservatives, by nature, are about clinging to traditional methods regardless of the benefits of modern methods - right? Well, therefore, due to Tricky Dick II’s persuasion that the old ways are best, let’s give him a sword and send him into battle on a horse (the horse, however, can be a mechanical horse so that none are harmed for Dick’s heroics).
December 10th, 2006 at 11:32 amNo additional personal security detachment for any of them though. They obviously don’t need it.
Comment by Gregor Samsa — December 10, 2006 @ 11:30 am
Absolutely! Because, if god is on their side, then by all means, god will protect them…. :D
December 10th, 2006 at 11:33 am#28, Gregor Samsa: Surely they would not be in danger
I am quite sure hordes of Iraqis would happily lay down their AKs and would be fighting over the chance to enthrone Boy Bush upon their shoulders so that they can march and parade him through Sadr City while singing `For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:39 amCheney is all about the flowers and candy! He should go get himself some of those. After all it was he and his puppet chimpy who made Iraq the democracy that it is today.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:47 amEveryone who still supports this war, including Dick and crew, should be parked in Iraq to fight it themselves.
They should also be required to pay for it instead of burdening our children and granchildren with billions in debt.
The point many seem to miss is, we never had a right to be there in the first place.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:14 pmNeocons still don’t grasp what “diplomacy” means.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:26 pmYeah, I’d like to see Cheney parked in the region all right. How about Sadr city? Let’s see him walk the streets there and look for the candies they will throw at his feet.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:30 pmLet’s send Georgie with him. They can stroll together among the flower petals.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:31 pmUnbelievable,
Yes, I like that idea. I’d like to add that no medical services would be provided under the same premise that they enjoy divine protection. Let their god heal them from whatever hits them.
Goodscarrier,
Now, that would be a sight! Straight out of Monty Python’s circus ;-)
December 10th, 2006 at 12:39 pmI don’t know how much diplomacy can you squeeze out Dick Cheney. Brownback is dreaming…Dick is not the right guy to do diplomacy…he is the right guy to give orders…and orders is not what is needed now in the Middle East….All of them,Dick, Condi and others are not suited for diplomacy…Colin Powell was the best of them all…that’s why they did not get well together and someone has to leave..and that was Powell. Condi suits Cheney well…These people think that talking means surrendering your principles…not true….that is why they don’t like to see J.Baker talking about engaging Syria and Iran…James Baker was a diplomat…George Shultz was a diplomat….Cheney is not…..Cheney and Condi…philosophy is “either you are with us or against us……” But you can disagree with someone and not be against him or his enemy..your father or mother might not agree with you….but they are not against you,so is your teacher or professor….on and on. They believe that if you don’t follow our path…then there is no need to talk to you….but the world does not work that way..and the benefits of talking are always outweigh the expensive cost of wars that could be avoided by talking….
December 10th, 2006 at 1:03 pmI’d like to add that no medical services would be provided under the same premise that they enjoy divine protection. Let their god heal them from whatever hits them.
Comment by Gregor Samsa — December 10, 2006 @ 12:39 pm
LOL… Talk about a real test of their so-called faith… :)
December 10th, 2006 at 1:09 pmThis clown Brownback has had a string attached to his chin for four years so he would always nod his agreement with bushco. Now he’s searching for a life raft. His comments are totally fatuous and totally unlikely to happen but he can point to distance between himself and the administration for the benefit of the rubes who elected him or tune in to Fox News.
December 10th, 2006 at 1:38 pmPark them? How about drop them from 40,000 feet? Just lash them under the wings of an F-16…
December 10th, 2006 at 1:52 pmDoes anyone know what Wingnut bloggers think of Brownback. It would be
interesting the know what that group right of GW is thinking about his comments?
LindaC
December 10th, 2006 at 1:53 pmCheney Cheney.
Condi’s still working from her Cold War musical score.
Don’t we hire PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMATS just for this PURPOSE????
December 10th, 2006 at 1:59 pmThis all presumes that Cheney and his cabal actually intend to wrap things up and leave Iraq any time soon. Peace and withdrawal are not the goal. Permanent occupation is the goal, else why would they be building a 3,000-person embassy with 3x the normal security in Iraq?
Brownback has backed Bush in this horrible folly every step of the way, repeated every lie, defended every move no matter how disastrous.
Brownback is just a political opportunist trying to pose as someone with a fresh idea. He was with the Bush-Cheney oil cabal all the way and shares blame for this whole mess.
December 10th, 2006 at 2:40 pmThat includes leeches instead of band-aids, and trepanations instead of vaccines ;-)
Comment by Gregor Samsa — December 10, 2006 @ 1:15 pm
LOL… Well, that is the traditional way they are so fond of clinging to… :)
December 10th, 2006 at 2:42 pmLet’s hope this guy rises fast and flames out early. America does not need another nutjob who thinks God wants him to run our country.
He supported Bush’s war from day one, and all those Bush supporters need to be purged from our government along with Bush.
If Brownback had been up for election this year in Kansas, he would have been voted out of office like Rep. Jim Ryun was.
December 10th, 2006 at 2:43 pmParking the Dick in Baghdad would be karmic justice, but as has been said, he’s incapable of diplomacy, and could hardly be helpful in re-aligning policies there. In fact, Cheney is the clog in the pipes preventing a big flush of the the last remnants of the disastrous Cabal. While weakened, he’s still in position, blocking. Because of this there is a growing vacuum in Washington.
December 10th, 2006 at 2:49 pmWith the US obstinately sinking in the Iraq quagmire, there is already a gaping power vacuum in the mideast; local players are rising to claim the space we have left by our paralysis.
This is to some extent true for the world at large- vis South America, China, Russia, etc…
These are dangerous times, and new alignments can happen rapidly that frame policies for a generation.
It’ll be jan 2009 before a new administration can take over. A long time…
Unless… unless… Cheney retires for health reasons, and Bush is impeached and quickly dispatched. (Congress Dems don’t want that neccesarily because they’d rather face a Bush-led republican party in 08, rather than an potentially refreshing replacement.)
[…] “‘Park’ Cheney ‘In The Region’.” Only Nixon could go to China? […]
December 10th, 2006 at 2:59 pmIs it just me, or is anyone else getting a kick out of watching these jackanapes chewing on each other?
December 10th, 2006 at 4:11 pmWow. Brownback. Gordon. I just love watching the rats jump from the sinking ship.
December 10th, 2006 at 4:13 pmPark Cheney in Iraq, somewhere outside the Green Zone. He might learn something.
December 10th, 2006 at 4:13 pmI don’t like Brownback, but he did say a few rational things this morning.
Yes, by any an all means : please do park Cheney’s A$$ over there, and leave it there until he can find ANY common interest with these two countries. If he says “we don’t have any common ground”, then leave him there until we do - a life sentence.
That ought to teach the SOB, some merit in the value of diplomacy.
December 10th, 2006 at 7:00 pmI’d make him stay outside the green zone.
December 10th, 2006 at 7:59 pmIS THERE A LEASH LAW IN BAGHDAD?
I agree that we should just send Cheney and Condosleezza Rice to the Mid East and leave them there. But maybe Abu Ghraib would be an appropriate residence for them.
December 10th, 2006 at 9:02 pmThey would have one thing in common with Bush - they would be in government housing - right?
I think this is a great idea but not for the reasons Brownback thinks. WHile we at it sending Dickhead and Condi there, how about more–or even all–of the PNAC people, such as Wolfowitz, Perle, Kristol, etc?
December 11th, 2006 at 12:16 amI posted this in another thread, but it is relevant in this one too, so here it goes.
It has been revealed that the Bush administration does negotiate with “them terrists” after all:
SECRET talks in which senior American officials came face-to-face with some of their most bitter enemies in the Iraqi insurgency broke down after two months of meetings, rebel commanders have disclosed.
The meetings, hosted by Iyad Allawi, Iraq’s former prime minister, brought insurgent commanders and Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, together for the first time.
Secret American talks with insurgents break down
After years of tough talk and bravado, we learn that, once again, Pres Bush said one thing while doing the opposite.
December 11th, 2006 at 12:21 amBrownback’s comments are almost totally incomprehensible. The only thing that was clear is that he thinks diplomacy is a good thing. That’s a step in the right direction, but simply “parking” Cheney and Rice in the region would not have any meaningful impact (unless they were forced to “park” themselves outside the Green Zone).
December 11th, 2006 at 1:46 amSen. Brownback is right that we need to talk with the Iraqis, not just we, but President Toni Blair, and the U.N. Representative Cofi Anan! They simply are not doing enough diplomacy with President Talabani, Prime Minister Maliki, and al-Sadr. Perhaps Sen. Brownback should be sent to Iraq, and “parked” there until he convinces the three Iraqi leaders to accept the Biden-Gelb regional devolution plan … to save Iraq! The autonomous zones should be established, and Talabani should move his Kurds to Kurdiraq, while al-Sadr should move his Shiites to Shiaraq, and Prime Minister, Maliki should move his Sunnis to Sunniraq! The oil revenues should be reparted equitably between the three and a Marshall Plan set up to help them rebuild.
December 11th, 2006 at 9:05 amgood idea.far away from a hospital
December 11th, 2006 at 10:19 amHaven’t we already done enough harm to the Middle East?
December 11th, 2006 at 12:45 pmI really don’t think that Dufus Dickie is the man to conduct this nation’s diplomacy. In fact NO member of the present administration has the moxie for that.
But diplomacy is the only solution to the problem. You have to talk to your enemies on an equal basis. The Briish found that out when dealing with the Irish terrorists. They used military force for decades, but only succeeded in ending the violence through negotiation.
I am afraid that the Bush Bunch is going to have to be turned out of office, one way or another, before sustantive progress will be made in the Middle East.The War President just doesn’t have what it take to do intelligent negotiation.
December 11th, 2006 at 7:29 pmPlacing the Cheney-Devil and the Condi-Lizard in the Middle East would accomplish nothing.
All they would do would be to hide out in their billion dollar Embassy with the 2-3 swimming pools, jacuzzi’s and other palatial luxuries that the US has set up as a direct smack in the face of the starving, maimed and homeless in Bagdhad!
These ‘people’ do not know the meaning of the word diplomacy. All they know is brute force and plunder and pillage of those they wish to conquer~they are a huge step backward on the Evolutionary Scale!
They are, in a word: BARBARIANS.
December 14th, 2006 at 9:00 amBARBARIANS? No way!
DINOSAURS!
Bob,
December 17th, 2006 at 11:13 amaka Adastra, the Wizzard of Jacksonville
I’ll bet tht there is a very simple solution to America acheiving respect and gaining at least a peaceful break in thewhole Middle-East, as well as releif and probably applause from the rest of the world’s nations: 1.) Immediate and swift World Wide TV replays of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Powell’s public statements that led us to an unprovoked attack on a broken oppressed Sovereign nation that many (they should be named also) American companies were profitting off of. That aving been shown, an immediate impeacment of the Pres and VP. Powell stripped of his rank, medals, and pension. The exile of Pres and VP and their immediate families, including Pres41, and ALL of their Banks, Corps, and any other assets any where that are under their. 3.) Immediately quit purchasing Any Oil from the mid-east, while uncapping the oil in Texas and Oklahoma, and start a new refinery to be completed in three years to increase domestic production. Begin switch grass and other modern technology boon in alternative energy use. Put a wind mill on ever viable building and land area all across the country. Join Canada in the extrusion of the oil sands deposit in Alberta, which is as much as if not more oil than the mid-east. 4.) Tell Israel to obey the Geographic Boundaries of 1948, and no more aid to them or any other nation other than for Educational materiels, clean Water projects, Medicines, and medical supplies, food stuffs, and Loan Grants for public projects (libraries, hospitals, etc.).
December 24th, 2006 at 2:36 am