Palin Declares ‘Victory’ In Iraq
Palin Declares ‘Victory’ In Iraq
In her interview with CBS’s Katie Couric that aired yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) outlined some of her foreign policy positions. After laying out why Afghanistan is so different from Iraq, she then called for a surge of troops into Afghanistan, exactly as the Bush administration did in Iraq. She noted that it had led to “victory” in Iraq and would therefore do the same in Afghanistan:
COURIC: Why is it much more challenging there? Can you explain that?
PALIN: The logistics that we’re already suggesting here, not having enough troops in the area right now. The–things like the terrain, even, in Afghanistan and that border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where, you know, we believe that bin Laden is hiding out right now and is still such a leader of this terrorist movement. There are many more challenges there. So again, I believe that a surge in Afghanistan also will lead us to victory there, as it has proven to have done in Iraq.
Watch it:
There has not been victory in Iraq. Gen. David Petraeus has reportedly banned the use of words like “triumph,” “victory,” and “we’re winning.” “This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade. … It’s not war with a simple slogan,” he told BBC News earlier this month.
Like his running mate, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) frequently declares success in Iraq, recently stating that the country is now “peaceful and stable,” and the United States is “winning in Iraq.”
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So, what did we win?
September 26th, 2008 at 10:36 amPalin Declares ‘Victory’ In Iraq
– - I bet she had to be told who Gen. David Petraeus is.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:37 amThis woman is proving to be the best thing ever for Obama – people are flocking to him out of fear she’d be a (very old and feeble)heartbeat away from being our President!
September 26th, 2008 at 10:39 amPallid is a neoCON pentacostal warmonger liar. McStain isn’t releasing his full medical record. And if he gets in – most likely he’ll won’t complete a full term and this airhead will be prez.
I am flabbergasted.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:39 amWhat is ripping this woman going to get you?
She truly is, after all, ONLY A HOCKEY MOM!
September 26th, 2008 at 10:40 amKeep talking Sarah. :D
September 26th, 2008 at 10:40 amWhat makes you so certain she knows who he is?
September 26th, 2008 at 10:40 amThey need to be planning a surge at the debate because if mccain doesn’t show now it’s gonna look really bad for him.
He put on his mighty mouse uniform and flew to dc to represent the people and when he got there he sided with the corporations…..
dems should have a press conference.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:40 amUMMMMM….UMMMMMM..Sorry, can’t really think of anything witty to say. It’s just too sad and to think that the Conservatives are excited about this choice for a running mate is equally sad.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:41 amDidHeJustSayThat Says:
What is ripping this woman going to get you?
She truly is, after all, ONLY A HOCKEY MOM!
September 26th, 2008 at 10:40 am
And Bush was ONLY a dry drunk, frat boy loser.
What’s your point?
September 26th, 2008 at 10:41 amPallid is a neoCON pentacostal warmonger liar puppet — just like the chymp has been the last 8 years. They’ll mold her.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:41 amPalin told Couric, “I’ll bring ha some”.
So, Katie should follow up within a week to let those who watched this Palin train wreck know what Palin “brung her”.
Next question for Katie to ask Palin is, how many Russians have you actually met prior to being nominated to be V.P.? She can see Russia but has she actually met any Russians? After all, diplomacy isn’t about keen eye sight; it’s about keen intellect.
No more “C” student for president and no more “D”, “F” or did not compete students for V.P.!
September 26th, 2008 at 10:41 amhttp://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/53053.html
Victory!
September 26th, 2008 at 10:41 amNot any more. She threw her hat in the ring…..did you just wake up? She is no less deserving of scruitiny than any other candidate.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:42 amDoes the McCain Palin doll come with a language translator too? Or is it a separate purchase option?
September 26th, 2008 at 10:43 amI remember back in High School history class, they said this about Vice Presidents:
“The Vice President is one heartbeat away from the presidency.”
Sarah Palin would be one John McCain heartbeat away from being President of The United States.
That is really scary. It keeps me awake at night.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:44 amA PEZ dispenser would have been a better running mate.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:45 amThere’s an episode of the Simpsons where they’re at a county fair, and Bachman Turner Overdrive is the featured entertainment. As the band starts to announce that they’ll be playing all their old hits but first they want to play something off their new album, Homer shouts out “TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS!”
“Sir, I promise you, we’ll get to…”
“No talking, no new crap, TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS!”
So the band starts playing Taking Care of Business, even that isn’t good enough for Homer: “Get to the ‘Working Overtime’ part!”
Whenever I hear a Republican politician cravenly pandering to the GOP base by repeating the lie that “we won in Iraq/we’ve achieved victory/we’re winning,” I’m reminded of that scene. It’s what the base wants to hear, so who cares if, in any sense of context, it’s true or not. Give ‘em what they want, because they won’t pay attention until you give it to ‘em.
How sad a nation we’ve become that an intellectual dullards and bald-faced crooks have run our counrty from a surplus into near-insolvency in 8 years, and the responsible potential leaders can’t get above 50% in most national polls because righteous humps like McCain & Palin keep getting to the ‘Working Overtime’ part?
September 26th, 2008 at 10:47 amI wonder if McBush regrets choosing Pallid?
September 26th, 2008 at 10:47 amPaul Krugman described Sarah Palin very well on Democracy Now today. He said “I’m a college professor, and she reminds me of a student who didn’t open the textbook all semester.”
September 26th, 2008 at 10:47 amOh, my apologies, I was rash and didn’t fact-check myself.
The Simpsons were at a STATE Fair. So sorry.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:47 amWhat’s especially entertaining (in only the most frightening train-wreck sort of way) is the absolute void of awareness.
Much like Michael in “The Office,” the governor has no idea of her level of cluelessness, which leaves all to shake their heads . . . and laugh . . . and worry.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:48 amThe interview with Couric shows exactly why the repugs are desparate to get out of all debates leading up to this election. st. john doesn’t fare any better when he is on his own with no script to guide him. He will play this economic crisis for everything to try to show that he is above the fray and Obama is just another crass politician.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:48 amSarahcuda says it, so it must be true!
September 26th, 2008 at 10:49 amSarah Palin, the gift that keeps on giving.
Fred Says:
Not any more. She threw her hat in the ring…..did you just wake up? She is no less deserving of scruitiny than any other candidate.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:42 am
_____
I think he was being sarcastic, just fyi… :)
Besides, if she’s a pit bull hockey mom, she’s got no business complaining about a few bites from the critics.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:49 amMethinks the Tina Fey theatrics are f-a-d-i-n-g…
September 26th, 2008 at 10:49 amI have taken to calling McNumbNuts and Failin’ Palin the Unstable/Unable ticket.
They have both done an awful lot to earn that title this week.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:50 amI think if you open the small cover in the back of her head, you know, the one clearly marked ‘Mattel- Made in China’ you can find the computer chip that proves she a Stepford wife.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:50 amAnyone whose every flagged a fungal molecule knows ‘we’re succeeding, we are, and we’re going to come home in victory!!! Yeeeaaahhhhhh!’
September 26th, 2008 at 10:50 amI bet that Katie wants CBS to allow her to remove her muzzle so she can say what she probably wants to say about Sarah Palin. Of course she probably wants to shower first.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:51 amPalin is very Reaganesque!
Facts are stupid things.
Ronald Reagan
Lord have mercy on our country.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:51 amIf so, I apologize for being snide. I’m just not finding these things very funny these days.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:53 amWhat’s not victorious about chasing all of the witches out of Baghdad?
September 26th, 2008 at 10:53 amHere’s a Sarah Palin quote that you wingnuts should keep in mind:
“When you run for office, your life is an open book.”
Btw, when is the MSM going to jump on Palin’s Pastor Muthee the way they eviscerated Obama over Rev. Wright? Liberal media bias, my butt.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:56 amYes! Yes! We’re winning in Iraq! And we’ve completely lost here.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:56 amI only have one question, how and when will we know we’ve won in Iraq? Maybe when they finally bring home the troops from our big win in Iraq they’ll pass out some candy to us. I certainly would feel more liberated with some candy.
“The logistics that we’re already suggesting here, not having enough troops in the area right now.” – Gov. Palin
I can’t make heads or tails out of this. Could someone please tell me what it means?
September 26th, 2008 at 10:57 amReminds me of miss South Carolina answering the geography question. “..still such as a leader of this terrorist movement.”???
September 26th, 2008 at 10:57 amKay Says
September 26th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Methinks the Tina Fey theatrics are f-a-d-i-n-g…
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As the reality sets in that this woefully unqualified person could be one heartbeat away from the most powerful job on the planet, we are going from amused to deeply concerned.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:59 amWould someone ask her when the US is going to stop paying the $300 a month to the members of the Awakening brigades>? And what’s going to happen when that cash flow gets cut off?
How many of those former Sunni insurgents are going to be integrated into the Iraqi armed forces? What are the remainder going to do without their bribe/hush/payoff money?
Answer that, Ms Palienation!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:00 amstewarjt Says: #36
It means if you can understand her, you’re dumb enough to vote for her.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:00 amB-L-O oh, I don’t know, Cause I’m a blond, yeah, yeah, yeah!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:00 amI am willing to bet that Frau Sarah was “that girl” in High School – not exactly pretty or smart, but aware enough to see where the power lay. And just charming or shrewd enough to know how to play people to do things for her, to subtly bully people out of the picture – making others’ lives a living Hell for crossing her. If a real poll could have been taken of her peers, I would bet they’d vote her Most Feared.
What training. Now, she’s just a small town bully who never left high school, never learned anything that wasn’t advantageous to her assent, no critical thinking skills and no awareness of the world around her. A brainless bully.
Thank you, John McCain, for Sarah Palin – the gift that keeps on giving to the Barack Obama Campaign.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:00 amSeriously, ripping on Sarah’s stupid statements would be like picking on the stupid kid’s spelling errors…
if she weren’t in a position to assume the presidency in a few months.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:01 amI haven’t read all of the responses so far, so I apologize if this has been asked already:
What is “victory in Iraq”?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:01 amIf this is the best of the interview, I can’t imagine what was left on the editing room floor. Yikes!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:01 amFred @#1 ~ A plastic turkey?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:01 amstewarjt Says
September 26th, 2008 at 10:57 am
I can’t make heads or tails out of this. Could someone please tell me what it means?
___________________________________________________________
She’s using a political buzzword randomizer, which means it’s gibberish. No translator in the world will help you.
In a more general sense, it means “I think I succeeded in putting the correct keyword into the randomizer — at least I didn’t mention health care this time.”
September 26th, 2008 at 11:02 amAny bets on what excuse will be used to allow Palin to avoid the single VP debate? I’m betting on her daughter having a (convenient) miscarriage.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:02 amSarah; you ignorant sl*t! You are more than 5 years too late. Chimpy declared “mission accomplished” in 2003, aboard the USS Lincoln.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:02 amShe’s completely incoherent! Aaaarrrgh!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:03 amWitness
Immediately after Gov. Palin’s CBS interview ended she was approached off camera by Campaign Manager Steve Schmidt where this took place:
Schmidt: “Sarah, healthcare? Seriously?”
Palin: “Awe, I know Schmitty, but…”
Schmidt: “You don’t call me that! It’s Steve or Mr. Schmidt to you! It was all right there on the green note card.”
Palin: “I know, but the questions were coming so fast and I was flipping through and saw the one with dollar signs and figured…”
Schmidt: “Rick went over this with you ten times: green is for the economy, green like money!”
Palin: “Well what is this one with the dollar signs all over it?”
Schmidt: long sigh.
Palin: “Well?”
Schmidt: “Those are money quotes Sarah, you use them if you have to or if you can!”
September 26th, 2008 at 11:03 amimpeachcheneythenbush Says
September 26th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Any bets on what excuse will be used to allow Palin to avoid the single VP debate? I’m betting on her daughter having a (convenient) miscarriage.
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If she does, will she still marry Mr. Redneck?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:05 amstewarjt Says:
“The logistics that we’re already suggesting here, not having enough troops in the area right now.” – Gov. Palin
I can’t make heads or tails out of this. Could someone please tell me what it means?
– - Yes, can someone find Lancome’s Beauty Pageantese Dictionary
September 26th, 2008 at 11:06 amPalin has made Reagan and Bush look downright smart. If the woman had any brains at all, she’d be too embarassed to do another inteview. Loved the look on Couric’s face!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:08 amFritz Says
September 26th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I haven’t read all of the responses so far, so I apologize if this has been asked already:
What is “victory in Iraq”?
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It’s whatever the Republicans say it is. However, they’re playing a perpetual game of dodge-ball with this one, because theoretically if we achieve “victory”, we can pull up stakes and go home. Since there’s still money to be made for our contractors and the GOP still needs the war to distract from issues at home, we need to stay there.
And any thinking person knows you can’t “win” an occupation.
Therefore, the GOP strategy is to claim that we’re winning over there, we’re going to win, we’ve been winning for five years now, and we will be winning there for years to come.
I’m sure Sarah is using the word “victory” because it appears on her talking points cheat-sheet. Which means the term tested well with focus groups.
I realize this doesn’t completely answer your question, but the fact that you’re even asking means you’re probably not even a loyal American (snark).
September 26th, 2008 at 11:11 amI found myself yelling at those I love, those that share a similar opinion. Humor is the only salvation.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:11 amSome one should tell the republicans this:
“You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means!”
September 26th, 2008 at 11:13 amimpeachcheneythenbush Says:
——————————————————————————–
Any bets on what excuse will be used to allow Palin to avoid the single VP debate? I’m betting on her daughter having a (convenient) miscarriage
I bet it’s the baby-needs-mama-there-for-some-special-testing excuse.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:13 amNaw… they need that excuse for when she withdraws from the race when they realize she’s killing any chance Grampy has left.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:14 amPalin foreign policy experience:
1.Russia….it is not far from Alaska..so I’m qualified.
2.Iran: Palin describing Iranians in her last speech rallying
against Iran:”They have persecuted countless of people
simply because they are Jewish”.
3.Israel: “We can’t second guess Israel’..Israel is the
‘good guy’. Did she ever hear of Jonathan Pollard?!!
4.Iraq: “We achieved victory in Iraq”..
As a rising NeoCon, she told Israeli president Shamon Perez when she met him at the UN :
“The only flag I have in my office is the Israeli flag”.
Surprisingly ,not the US or Alaskan flag..!!
So, the world to Sarah is a ‘good guy’ vs. ‘bad guy’.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:16 amAs soon as McCain said he was suspending his campaign, I predicted he’d try to postpone the debate until next Friday.
When big-league politics becomes shallow enough for me to know the motives, it’s no longer “big-league”; it’s become middle-school — the age of my students when I was a teacher.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:17 amPalin was off-message. We have to worry about the situation on the “Iraq/Pakistan border”, according to John McCain, not the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:19 ambarracks9 Says:
I am willing to bet that Frau Sarah was “that girl” in High School – not exactly pretty or smart, but aware enough to see where the power lay. And just charming or shrewd enough to know how to play people to do things for her, to subtly bully people out of the picture – making others’ lives a living Hell for crossing her. If a real poll could have been taken of her peers, I would bet they’d vote her Most Feared.
What training. Now, she’s just a small town bully who never left high school, never learned anything that wasn’t advantageous to her assent, no critical thinking skills and no awareness of the world around her. A brainless bully.
Change the gender and you could be describing Bush!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:21 amFritz Says:
What is “victory in Iraq”?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:01 am
As John Hodgman explained last year on The Daily Show, victory is measured by the Eight Keys to Success
September 26th, 2008 at 11:24 am“a surge in Afghanistan also will lead us to victory there as it has proven to have done in Iraq. And as I say, Katie, that we cannot afford to retreat, to withdraw in Iraq.”
If we won, why can’t we withdraw?! Great, we won, let’s go home!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:37 amHere we go with the get adobe flash player thing again. TP please fix this.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:41 amAn example of speaking in tongues.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:54 amDaveyHart, ~ Yes.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:03 pmForked tongues.
Must have been witch craft…Ooops..I thought she was cured of that??
Hum…what’s the real story then…ugh..maybe her ‘briefers’ told her so?….no can’t be that stupid….uuggh…maybe the moose burger she had last night for dinner had a special message in the bun??….naa..uugghh… maybe Hugh Hefner said so?…naa…he just wants to see her in the buff…uugghh…. maybe Todd got a message from Russia as he went over the hill in front of their house to Russia to pick up some whale meat?..nnaa..too easy…uugghh… I know, she got a call from Limbaugh last night!! That’s it..Limbaugh and O’Reilly are now her advisers!! Got it..on the next virtual reality game….dduuhh…
September 26th, 2008 at 12:05 pmI have to say, watching Palin talk about, well… almost ANYTHING reminds me of one of those moments when a teenager finds him or herself in the a room full of adults and tries to act as though he, or she, of course knows as much about the subject at hand as everyone else present.
Learning to drop buzzwords at the right moment or memorizing some talking points isn’t proof of anything. Talk about thin soup…
September 26th, 2008 at 12:19 pmI win every time I finish my plate of food first at the dinner table. I win, I win, I win. Others at the table, eyes rolling,”yeah, that’s right, you win.”
September 26th, 2008 at 12:20 pmPut her in a flight suit and make a sign–Mission Accomplished
September 26th, 2008 at 12:24 pmThe Couric interview where palin disagrees with Henry Kissinger’s encouraging diplomacy rather than isolation with other countries is just astounding. Couric’s face when she asks palin “do you think Kissinger is naive?” tells it all.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:26 pmEven Scarbourough is finally agreeing palin is a sign of bad judgement on mccain’s side. They, mccain’s group, could change V.P.’s, family emergency you know.
Put more troops in Afghanistan….hmmmm….where have I heard that before…..hmmmm
o, that’s right
IT WAS OBAMA’S RECOMMENDATION!!!!!!!!!!
when are these guys going to get called for copying off someone else’s test answers????????????????????????
September 26th, 2008 at 12:27 pmThe sick GOP just love to listen to her use the sexual language of war. It does not matter to them if there is any Truth or sense to the language.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:30 pmPalin must of missed the day in Home Economics where the future homemakers were taught not to stand with your legs apart, because sooner or later your brains will fall out!
September 26th, 2008 at 12:30 pmWoohoo! Victory in Iraq! Victory in Iraq! We won we won we won!
…then let’s bring the troops home NOW.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:41 pmSpeaking as a former military officer, non-commissioned officer and enlisted soldier—with five years of Vietnam era active duty and ten years of active reserve component assignments, and a broad understanding of decades of military strategy and tactics—one does not ‘win’ an occupation: one withdraws and ends an occupation.
It is reasonable to say the we ‘won’ the initial engagement with Iraqi forces, as they melted away in the face of our assault. With insufficient resources, a poorly crafted, almost non-existent post combat plan, and saddled with the ridiculous decisions to purge Baathists and disband the Iraqi army, we could NEVER have prevailed in the long term.
We shall NEVER be in a position to say we ‘won’ this engagement, any more than we ‘won’ in Vietnam more than three decades ago. Every member of the military should know this. ‘Victory’ to the degree that it exists, is purely on a personal level. If you left Iraq with life and limb intact, you won to some degree on that level alone.
But, the overall operation was lost as Baghdad fell, long before that pipsqueak of a President ever set foot an the aircraft carrier off of our west coast. We were fools to launch the invasion, ill prepared to conduct anything beyond the initial combat phase, and have poured billions of dollars into this cesspool. When will Repubicans wake the hell up and come to terms with this reality?
September 26th, 2008 at 1:19 pmAs an Army veteran (got out in 1964) and U.S. Naval War College Graduate (with distinction) I shudder at the thought that such a naive ignoramus might be CINC!
September 26th, 2008 at 2:19 pmYay, we won! In your face, Iraq!
I just knew Ms. Palin would be a great leader, what with all her vast experience. But who knew she would end the war before even taking office?
September 26th, 2008 at 3:22 pmMichael Lafferty & Doc Roc–
Thank you, and welcome home.
September 26th, 2008 at 3:26 pmthe word..
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm“draft”
would scare them out of making wars..
the thoughts of losing their own child,
may teach them a lesson in fear..
draft all the legislature, senate, house, republicans, everybody…bush, send in your twins, and cheney,
send in your daughter, with that other one..
heather mills..
if you had blood on the lines,
then maybe you would really fight for our soldiers,
our young men and women out there today..
that ought to wake them up..
sohbetSallie Mae put a hold on that and actually has the nerve to tell you on the phone that it’s not is not good for students to consolidate econmically based on the current rates.cetCompanies like that have been pushing deregulation in that market heavily. They’ve removed Bedava mp3 indirbasic bankruptcy protections entirely. They’ve managed to get things federally guaranteed.
April 26th, 2009 at 12:54 pm