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Gates and Pace Say Congressional Debate On Escalation Does Not Harm The Troops

pacegates.jpg Conservatives have repeatedly tried to argue that opposition to President Bush’s escalation in Iraq undermines the troops. In January, Vice President Cheney said that a resolution opposing the Bush’s escalation would hurt the troops:

It won’t stop us, and it would be, I think, detrimental from the standpoint of the troops.

Rep. Duncan Hunter reiterated this talking point today, stating, “I do not think you can send a message that is going to raise the morale of the troops while at the same time sending a message that we don’t support the mission.” But in their testimony before the House Armed Services Committee today, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Peter Pace and Defense Secretary Robert Gates disputed these arguments.

Pace: As long as this Congress continues to do what it has done, which is to provide the resources for the mission, the dialogue will be the dialogue, and the troops will feel supported.

Gates: I think they’re [the troops are] sophisticated enough to understand that that’s what the debate’s really about.

Gates, apparently, has had a change of heart. On Jan. 26, he declared that any Iraq resolution opposing Bush’s escalation plan “certainly emboldens the enemy and our adversaries.”

Politics

A victory for truth on reproductive rights.

Last night’s Veronica Mars episode centered around a young woman who has a miscarriage after a friend slips her the abortion pill RU-486. But the CW network’s promotional materials said that the morning-after pill caused the miscarriage.

You wrote to CW to protest this false information, and CW today responded in an e-mail to ThinkProgress:

Last night’s episode of Veronica Mars dealt specifically with RU-486 and was referenced throughout the show. The episodic description in our press materials and on our website has been revised to reflect that.

CW told us that it has no plans to change the title of the episode, “There’s Got To Be A Morning After Pill.” See the updated website here.

Security

Webb ‘Very Worried’ Bush’s Iran Provocations ‘Might Set Something Off In There’

President Bush has ratcheted up military pressure on Iran in recent months, most notably by dispatching two naval carrier groups to the Persian Gulf, “the largest concentration of naval power projection in that region” since the start of the Iraq war. Vice President Cheney explained that sending the carriers “sends a very strong signal to everybody in the region” that “we clearly have significant capabilities…to deal with the Iranian threat.”

Tonight on Hardball, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) said that during his time as Navy Secretary under President Reagan — and “until very recently” — the U.S. “never operated” aircraft carriers within the Gulf because it risked confrontation. “The chance of accidentally bumping into something that would start a diplomatic situation was pretty high,” Webb explained. “With the tensions as high as they are, I’m very worried that we might accidentally set something off in there and we need, as a Congress, to get ahead of the ballgame here.”

Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/02/webb_iran.320.240.flv]

Transcript: Read more

Media

Right Wing Uses Erroneous CNN Report To Smear Gore

Last week, The Guardian reported that the Exxon-funded American Enterprise Institute was offering to pay global warming deniers to push back on the new IPCC climate change study.

This morning, CNN incorrectly reported that during an appearance in Spain, Al Gore had blamed the White House — not AEI — for offering to pay the scientists. The headline read: “Gore says Bush administration paying scientists to dispute global warming.” But hours later, the site issued a retraction saying Gore had “responded to a question” from a reporter “that incorrectly implied the Bush administration was making payments to scientists.” Gore was referring to AEI when he said, “They’re offering cash for so-called skeptics who will try to confuse people about what the science really says.”

CNN’s correction hasn’t stopped the right wing from recycling the false headline in order to smear Gore. A headline from today’s Drudge Report:

gore_warming.JPG

Following Drudge’s lead, Fox News’ John Gibson regurgitated the incorrect story. Gore “just won’t shut up about his climate change crusade,” Gibson said. “He’s now charging that scientists who doubt the global warming argument are being bribed by our government and others to betray science.”

Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/02/gibsongore.320.240.flv]

Transcript: Read more

Culture

Neon Bible

I’ve been anticipating my disappointment in the Arcade Fire’s followup to Funeral for about two years now. So imagine my shock when I started listening to Neon Bible and found myself . . . totally not disappointed. Maybe this means I won’t be disappointed by the successor to Set Yourself on Fire either?

Politics

Norquist: Bush’s Advisers Telling Him ‘Invade Iran. Then Everyone Will See How Smart We Are’

In this month’s issue of Vanity Fair, Craig Unger writes that the same neoconservative advisers who advocated for the Iraq war are now recycling the same tactics to push for the bombing of Iran. Unger reports that not all of Bush’s key conservative allies are pleased with the administration’s course on Iran:

“Everything the advocates of war said would happen hasn’t happened,” says the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, an influential conservative who backed the Iraq invasion. “And all the things the critics said would happen have happened. [The president's neoconservative advisers] are effectively saying, ‘Invade Iran. Then everyone will see how smart we are.’ But after you’ve lost x number of times at the roulette wheel, do you double-down?”

For example, Richard Perle, a former Bush administration official, has said, “I have very little doubt” that Bush would order “necessary military action” against Iran. “Make no mistake, President Bush will need to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities before leaving office,” wrote American Enterprise Institute analyst Joshua Muravchik.

Two other important points from the Unger article:

1) Retired Defense Intelligence official Patrick Lang told Unger that Bush has ordered StratCom — the military command responsible for “nuclear weapons, missile defense and protection against weapons of mass destruction” — to draw up plans for a “massive strike against Iran.” Lang noted that the shift away from Central Command “to StratCom indicates they are talking about a really punishing air-force and naval air attack [on Iran].”

2) Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi said, “I’ve heard from sources at the Pentagon that their impression is that the White House has made a decision that war is going to happen.”

Digg It!

Ryan Powers

Yglesias

More Inter-Blog Détente

Joe Klein really nails it here on the ethnic composition of the Iraqi Army and generally bogus nature of Iraqi state institutions. Really.

At any rate, it does occur to me now and again that the netroots could probably use some more good cops to go along with the bad cops. If, say, Klein not only got a torrent of critical email when he wrote something that pissed us off but also a torrent of positive email when he wrote something liberals liked, then he’d probably find himself writing more liberal stuff over the long haul, no? Being nice is no fun and I’m basically an asshole as a general matter, so I don’t really want to do it, but surely a big community site like dKos could get the job done.

Politics

Christian doctors back Texas HPV vaccine mandate.

On Friday, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) “signed an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer,” bypassing opposition from right-wing groups. The Christian Medical Association has now come out in support of Perry’s decision. CMA’s CEO notes that the HPV vaccine “will provide young women and girls with an important measure of protection against the virus.”

Climate Progress

IPCC: Mercury–and Sea Levels–Rising

The IPCC’s official total temperature increase since 1850 has gone from .6° Celsius to .76° C (or about 1.4° Fahrenheit).

The Fourth Assessment also explains that, “For the next two decades a warming of about 0.2° C per decade is projected for a range of [emission scenarios]. Even if the concentrations of all greenhouse gases and aerosols had been kept constant at year 2000 levels, a further warming of about .1° C per decade would be expected.”

Their best estimate for a low emissions scenario is still a temperature increase of 1.8° C by 2100. Their best estimate for a worst case emissions scenario projects 4.0° C–and recent research suggests that would give us sea level rise of 6 inches a decade in 2100.

Whaddya say we try to stick with the low emissions scenario?

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