But when a president is appointed instead of elected, it matters little – as the last eight years have shown. He’ll do whatever he damn well pleases ’cause he knowns the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will rubberstamp any presidential powergrab.

Great strides have been made in that they are in control of 10 out of 18 for now
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So we should be able to bring home half of our troops then? Less than half – maybe a quarter? Or at least be able to give them some dwell time between deployments? I mean, if the Iraqis are standing up, shouldn’t we be able to stand down? When did you get home?

Voice_of_Reason Says:
Great strides have been made in that they are in control of 10 out of 18

Sure you want to stick with this bullcrap? We (USA)are not even able to prevent regular attacks on the “Green Zone”

I’m done with you until you start making some sense and talking about the real world instead of your imagined utopia in Iraq.

It was a waste of lives and money. Your idiot leaders got us into it by lying. The only justification for invading Iraq was WMD. Your feckless leaders could not have made this happen without lying. We would never have went in just to remove Sadam…..try again.

Voice_of_Reason Says:
At least two of you have claimed that the freely elected governemnt of Iraq has asked us to leave and we have refused, thus making this an “occupation.” Please provide credible links.

We’re not here to justify our knowledge to you. You are just as capable of finding the facts as anyone here, problem is you are not interested in the facts.

On a different note….with de-regulation setting in I’m thinking we might be a little concered that the same thing might happen to us again…..republicans are piss poor managers…..

April 28th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

Initial reasons for invading Iraq :

The objectives of the invasion, according to U.S. President George W. Bush and U.K. former PM Tony Blair were “to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.”

There were never any WMD’s , Saddam is dead , and the Iraqi people are now “free” to choose what to do next ; time to leave…………

44. I’m not adamant about staying. Unlike Hillary Clinton, I wasn’t a strong supporter of us going there to begin with. But now that we are there, we should finish what we started and get all 18 provinces under Iraqi security control.
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That will never happen. For one, they just don’t have the incentive, as long as we are doing it for them. For two, most Iraqi security forces are Badr Corps. They are Shia, very pro-Iran, and mainly looking for some payback on the Sunnis after 35 years of oppression. I helped train a lot of them at Dogwood in 2003/2004. Also, most of the poorer Shia neighborhoods do not trust the Iraqi police and military. Many of them are from Jaish Al Mahdi and Fadhilla. They were once part of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (the political arm of Badr), and after leaving they are fearful of retaliation.

And I’ll throw in the first $100.00 for your plane fare to Bagdad. Anybody else want VOR to put his body where Bush’s war is? How about it, VOR. Are you going to fight your convictions or wimp out like your ‘leaders’?

So, propose the bill, have a vote on it, and get the PM to sign it. Then we’ll have something to talk about. For now, it is just a “proposed bill” asking for a “timetable.”
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Ah, therein lies the rub. It has been voted on, even passed. However, the PM will never sign it because if he did, we would stop paying for everything. Maliki is no idiot. He knows that if we ever leave, they will actually have to take care of themselves. So, Voice Of Reason, when did you get home, or are you still deployed? If oyu are still in theater, let me know where, I have friends all over Anbar and Diyala.

VOR: Go read for yourself and discover the truth for yourself. Don’t believe me or anyone else here at TP (or any blog). READ FOR YOURSELF. The country has made numerous decisions in your name. Wouldn’t you want to know what they did and why?

April 28th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Please explain the purpose , legality and inital intelligence in proposing a “bill” that is to be signed by the PM of a sovereign nation whom we are not officially at “war” with ………

Hey, you’re still here. I was beginning to think you had left. So, back to my question – are you a veteran? Where do you get your passion for wanting US troops to stay in Iraq? Most civilians I talk to couldn’t care less one way or the other, so it surprises me when I see someone so adamant about staying.

April 28th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

Please provide credible links as to the legality of Chimpy’s Idiotic Iraq Adventure 1st , Voice_Of_Treason

Oh, and another one.

“BAGHDAD — A majority of Iraq’s parliament has expressed support for a proposed bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and freeze current troop levels.”

Here’s even more.

And then there is this:

“According to this poll commissioned by the BBC, ABC and NHK to assess the effects of the US military’s surge strategy, 70 percent of Iraqis believe the strategy has made Iraq’s security situation worse. The poll finds 47 percent of Iraqis want US-led forces to leave Iraq immediately and 34 percent want the troops to leave when the security situation improves. The results of the survey indicate the surge has hampered conditions for political dialogue, reconstruction and economic development and has not improved security.”

“On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq’s parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal”

April 28th, 2008 at 3:43 pm

Ummmmmmm

We shouldn’t be there AT ALL …………..