I hear you, and it’s a fair point. Bush has left us with very few good options at this point. We wouldn’t even be worrying about al Qaeda being able to operate out of Anbar if it wasn’t for this idiotic war. But, thanks to the super duper plan that couldn’t possibly go wrong, here we are.

Considering all the options, I’d say that it is a good thing that the locals in Anbar have turned against al Qaeda.

ninja97,

Haven’t you noticed that the statements from the White House regarding Iraq haven’t been terribly reliable for the past few years?

These are very similar words to those spoken by Emperor Hirohito conveying Japan’s defeat in World War II. Hirohito could not bring himself to admit defeat nor can the Bush clan. Sad that a country has to go down in disrepute to further the ego of ‘the decider’, then and now. Why can’t (couldn’t) they have the grace and good sense to admit defeat and move forward.

Comment by joe — September 7, 2007 @ 3:39 pm

And that’s my entire point. History has shown that we’re really good at creating monsters and not too good at dealing with them after they’ve done our bidding. That’s the problem I fear with the Anbar strategy. It looks good in the short term, but what happens years from now after we’ve armed everybody?

First, let me laugh a bit at your handle.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

Phew, ok. No, wait.

HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAA!!

OK, my second point. Yes, I read the report. There have certainly been tactical accomplishments by the military. If you fire off enough rounds, you can get your enemy to put his head down – but that doesn’t necessarily get you any closer to victory, if you can’t take advantage of that situation to, you know, capture his position or something. The report makes it quite clear that the tactical accomplishments haven’t moved us any closer to the political solution they were intended to bring about, and which everyone acknowledges is the only way for us to get out of this quagmire.

If the only thing you define as “good news” is the absence of American troops engaged in combat, then no, there is no good news.

If, on the other hand, you think that the fight against al Qaeda that Bush walked away from is something our country should be doing, then you have to acknowledge that having local, Arab forces turn from being al Qaeda allies to al Qaeda enemies is a good thing.

toasterhead,

You might have noticed, the Soviet Union isn’t there anymore, and its defeat in Afghanistan is universally acknowledged to have played a large role in that. Which is not to say that we couldn’t have been wiser in our policy, or that it didn’t spawn its own problems.

Your God Bush sux. And swallows.

You pathetic losers will defend the indefensible acts of Boy George, regardless of what he does. All intelligence from Iraq that isn’t spinning like a top points to no progress. 75% decline in sectarian deaths? F*cking bullsh*t and you know it.

Go blow the dog again, he’s lonely.

You people are pathetic. You have no idea the real progress that is made over there every day in every neighborhood. You’ve invested so heavily in defeat that you have no choice but to cheer for it and against success.

“We support the troops, we’re patriotic” — NO, you support your own arrogance and self-righteousness. You people should be deported. And you should be thanking Bush right now. He should trade each and every one of you for an illegal immigrant. Let’s make NAFTA work!!!

Comment by Joe Rizzom — September 7, 2007 @ 1:44 pm

That’s because you don’t understand the metrics of success Joe. Success is getting to January 2009 without having to admit that Dear Leader is an inadequate fool. Success is leaving office without “losing” the war in Iraq and maintaining the ability to accuse the next administration of losing Iraq.

From that measure, things are going swimmingly.

And the number of troops killed and maimed to get there, and the Iraqis killed, and the money spent, and the honor defiled are just the cost we have to pay to support the Chimp’s ego.

Are you with us or are you a traiterous defeatocrat?

We used our military to support an indigineous movement against totalitarian jihadists, and it worked. Just like when we did the same thing in Afghanistan and the Phillipines.

Yeah! Or like that other time when we armed and funded an indigenous movement against totalitarian Communists, and it worked! I see no problem with that plan at all!

As someone above said, this is a ray of honesty. I can’t imagine that Patreaus would have allowed his report to be scrubbed. Excellent tactical decision to send a letter out to the troops. The admin then cannot go against what he said.

Katy … you got it. The words were measured, but they were the loudest in the letter. He’s basically told the troops that they have done a good job reducing violence, but the politicians aren’t coming along. At this point I don’t see how things can continue.

Many of us had hoped this summer would be a time of tangible political progress at the national level as well. … It has not worked out as he had hoped. All participants, Iraqi and coalition alike, are dissatisfied by the halting progress on major legislative initiatives such as the oil framework law, revenue sharing, and de-ba’athification reform. At the same time, however, our appreciation of what this legislation represents for Iraqi leaders has grown. These laws are truly fundamental in nature and will help determine how Iraqis will share power and resources in the new Iraq. While much work remains to be done before these critical issues are resolved, the seriousness with which Iraqi leaders came together at their summit in late August has given hope that they are up to the task before them, even if it is clearly taking more time than we initially expected.

I disagree with you. Good men do not bow to people pressuring them to say things that are not true. Good men do not send their troops to their deaths knowing that it is a lost cause. Good men do not distort statistics to meat their political goals (like saying that there is a 75% drop in sectarian violence).

Four marines were killed while conducting combat operations in the western province of Anbar. No further details were given.

We lost four soldiers in Anbar today. To me, that’s not good news. There is no good news in Iraq and won’t be until after we leave and the people of Iraq put their country back together again.

7 troops dead today

The four Marines assigned to Multi National Force — West were killed Thursday in combat in Anbar,

Anbar is under seige, Falluja ,Ramadi , anybody out after 6 PM is shot by US snipers theres not much food or water and medical supplies are none existing

BULLSHIT you read this http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000605.php

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