From Think Progress:
The Washington Post revealed this morning that “the Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction.” While the article does a nice job of summarizing the continuing reconstruction challenges and the unmet promises made by President Bush, it fails to ask one key question: What does this new information mean for our strategy in Iraq?
The Post story neglected to mention Bush’s “National Strategy for Victory In Iraq,” which was released just one month ago. Recall, in that document, the White House stated that our “strategy for victory is clear.” It involved a three-track strategy: the political track, the security track, and the economic track. Here’s what the document said about the “economic track”:
• The Economic Track involves setting the foundation for a sound and self-sustaining economy by helping the Iraqi government:
– Restore Iraq’s infrastructure to meet increasing demand and the needs of a growing economy;
– Reform Iraq’s economy, which in the past has been shaped by war, dictatorship, and sanctions, so that it can be self-sustaining in the future; and
– Build the capacity of Iraqi institutions to maintain infrastructure, rejoin the international economic community, and improve the general welfare of all Iraqis.The Bush administration has seemingly decided to drop the economic track of its strategy all together, particularly if foreign donors and the fledgling Iraqi government do not pick up the tab for the “tens of billions of dollars of work yet to be done merely to bring reliable electricity, water and other services to Iraq’s 26 million people.” If the Bush administration is abandoning its own strategy, it appears to be embracing that of Rep. John Murtha.
Here’s the argument Murtha made for redeployment in Iraq: “Electricity and oil production are below pre-war levels… Despite the addition of MORE troops, MORE equipment and MORE money, Iraq and the region have become LESS stable over time… My plan calls for a more rapid turnover of Iraq to the Iraqi people.” Isn’t this exactly what the Bush team is now claiming to do? And if so, isn’t this an acknowledgment that their strategy for Iraq is failing, not succeeding?
Even if true this is nothing like Murtha at all, not even close. Murtha advocates cut and run, right now, He said to bring the troops home immediately. Using the word “redeployment” as synonymous with the word “surrender” doesn’t change the spirit of the demand which was to abandon Iraq immediately.
I thouhgt liberals supposedly cared about the “brown” skin people, maybe not since Iraqis don’t vote in America and it isn’t election time. The Democrat’s message, if you could call it that, is very schizophrenic and incoherent.
This guy gets it, and in peotic form too.
Force Multipliers
Wikipedia: force multiplier-a military term referring to a factor that dramatically increases (hence multiplies) the combat-effectiveness of a given military force.
In Iraq an IED explodes,
An American soldier dies,
But that blast will grow as the media blow
It up before our eyes.
And trumpet to the watching world,
These fifth column falsifiers,
Like sheep they bleat we face defeat,
Our foe’s force multipliers.
Osama and his minions know,
In combat they can’t beat us;
So they hope and pray will come a day,
Our own media will defeat us.
Ignoring all the good we’ve done,
Liberals focus on the gore,
On losses mounting and body counting,
To prove we’ve lost this war.
They disgraced us once in Vietnam,
So now these leftists feel,
That again they’ll win with media spin,
And make America kneel.
But defeatists aren’t the only ones,
Learned lessons from the past;
Back then we swore we’d lose no more,
This time we’re standing fast.
The Internet’s exposed them,
As elitist media liars;
They stand unclothed and widely loathed,
Our foe’s force multipliers.
Some day when all our troops return,
With Iraq on freedom’s path,
The liberal elite who sought defeat,
May face some Righteous wrath.
Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66
Collection of his works;
http://www.smalltownveteran.net/posts/russ_vaughn/index.html
This has nothing to do with Vietnam or the media. Would it be perfect over in Iraq if there was no press coverage?
Stupid, powerful men predict what will happen, and when they’re wrong, they turn around and blame everyone but themselves.
I know how it feels to wear the uniform, and politics are often nothing more than noise. These people have bigger fish to fry. I respect his opinion, but for a soldier to so blindly ignore a lack of leadership in the planing and follow through in Iraq, I’d only ask:
‘what if someone under your command made a mistake and blamed the media?’
Redeployment is not the same as surrender. You move your forces to a tactical position in the rear and assess the situation day to day, just as you would have before.
Right, Bush pulling funding and troops out right after Murtha’s speech isn’t a coincidence!
Redeployment is not the same as surrender.
True, it’s being able to surrender without saying the word surrender. Murtha wants to heroically redeploy under the bed, completely abandoning our allies and the less fortunate, who would be the next mass grave inhabitants. Let’s redeploy at the moment of victory to save the memory of our loss in Vietnam, that is Democrat’s call.
You move your forces to a tactical position in the rear and assess the situation day to day, just as you would have before.
Except for Murtha and the other Defeatocrats, the rear is Oklahoma and Kansas. They’ll assess the level of terrorist attacks in Tennessee and everything will go back to post-Vietnam, America-is-a-loser mentallity saving the liberals best election material.
Right, Bush pulling funding and troops out right after Murtha’s speech isn’t a coincidence!
Months after, sure. He also “pulled funding” after I got my wife pregnant, is that also a coincidence? Besides, this “pulled funding” is the wind down of our purpose over there, we are going to slowly withdraw as Democracy takes hold. It’s going exactly as planned and now it’s up to the Iraqis to determine their own destiny, hopefully Democracy takes hold much to the NTY’s chagrin.
Right, I don’t know what wars you’re drawing this ‘surrender’ definition from, but when you do that in a war, you become a POW.
What are we going to do at this point? The utilities are worse than they were when we invaded. We’re screwing things up worse by staying there.
Calling a drawback ‘surrender’ is kamakazi logic.
Murtha’s plan had them in the region. As for ‘America-is-a-loser’ mentality – the only people who refer to those phrases are conservatives. When the news doesn’t talk to them in a nice nursery rhyme mama voice and reassure them that everything is fine everywhere all the time and even if they are cowards, all they need to do is buy a pickup truck, hang a flag, drink budweiser and you’re officially “tough, patriotic, twice divorced, etc”
I think Democracy will do just fine once we’re out of there. If sectarian disagreements cause problems down the line, we didn’t have a clue about any of it to begin with, and our opinion held absolutely no sway with the Iraqi voters.
They don’t give a shit about us. They’ll kill us until we get that message.
And who thinks we’re getting oil on the cheap once this is all over? Can’t fake a commodity price.
What are we going to do at this point? The utilities are worse than they were when we invaded. We’re screwing things up worse by staying there.
Well, if you would stop reading the NYT, you would know the truth that we are doing great things over there. Just how would you propose we install a brnad new electrical grid across the entire nation of Iraq in 5 months. it’s taken the U.S. 40 years. Why do you hold Iraq to a standard higher than here in Aerica. Besides, we are in the utility business, or the grocery business or the car business. We build democracies and that is going great, no matter what the NYT says.
Murtha’s plan had them in the region.
Yes, the mysterious “helper” government who would allow us to statio0n troop 5,000 miles away so we could make uneducated and uniformed random military strikes into Iraq. Come on, the guy is a coward and cut & runner. Surrender is surrender whether immediate or part of a complex strategy to lose while keeping unclear as to why we lost.
This loser now says that he wouldn’e even join the military today if he had the chance. So much for caring about the military that has given him everything.
I think Democracy will do just fine once we’re out of there.
I do too and we have George W. Bush to thank for it.
They don’t give a shit about us. They’ll kill us until we get that message.
Who is they, the terrorists? They would kill us whether we were in Iraq or not. Remeber 9/11, we weren’t in Iraq then.
And who thinks we’re getting oil on the cheap once this is all over? Can’t fake a commodity price.
That’s a great point. The left was the only ones who said this war was about oil and now your complaining that we aren’t getting cheap oil. You are critiquing a position that never existed. Bush never said that was about oil.
DI: What are we going to do at this point? The utilities are worse than they were when we invaded. We’re screwing things up worse by staying there.
RT: Well, if you would stop reading the NYT, you would know the truth that we are doing great things over there. Just how would you propose we install a brnad new electrical grid across the entire nation of Iraq in 5 months. it’s taken the U.S. 40 years. Why do you hold Iraq to a standard higher than here in Aerica. Besides, we are in the utility business, or the grocery business or the car business. We build democracies and that is going great, no matter what the NYT says.
The US is 20+ times the size of Iraq, and Saddam did a better job of maintaining utilities than we have. Where’s this 5 months coming from? We’ve been there for YEARS Right. When the service levels drop from month to month this far into the mission…no big deal to the ‘WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE, BE SCARED’ faction of the right-wing. It’s not their electricity going out, what do they care?
DI: Murtha’s plan had them in the region.
RT: Yes, the mysterious “helper” government who would allow us to statio0n troop 5,000 miles away so we could make uneducated and uniformed random military strikes into Iraq. Come on, the guy is a coward and cut & runner. Surrender is surrender whether immediate or part of a complex strategy to lose while keeping unclear as to why we lost.
5000 miles away? Again, just like the 5 months reference above, I have no idea where you’re getting these figures from. Surrender isn’t a catch-all word. If we surrender the country of Iraq to the Iraqis, that’s more like it…but we’ve stated since day one that we’re not occupiers.
RT: This loser now says that he wouldn’e even join the military today if he had the chance. So much for caring about the military that has given him everything.
So if a GM retiree said that with the way the corporation is run now, he wouldn’t work there again if he had the choice…that guy’s dogshit too? I love how right-wingers get all hot when they can trash a veteran. You guys love to do it.
DI: I think Democracy will do just fine once we’re out of there.
RT: I do too and we have George W. Bush to thank for it.
OK, so this nitpicking you’re doing over Murtha is really just political then. Becuase on the one hand you call it surrender, but on the other hand you feel that when we leave, Iraq will be alright. Kind of going in two different directions there Right.
DI: They don’t give a shit about us. They’ll kill us until we get that message.
RT: Who is they, the terrorists? They would kill us whether we were in Iraq or not. Remeber 9/11, we weren’t in Iraq then.
The Iraqis. They don’t give a shit about us. Over 50% think it’s alright to kill Americans troops. Lack of gratitude perhaps…my point is, when someone from your state who enlisted gets his head blown off over there, the Iraqis smile. Not the insurgents…this is polling done in the general Iraqi population.
DI: And who thinks we’re getting oil on the cheap once this is all over? Can’t fake a commodity price.
RT: That’s a great point. The left was the only ones who said this war was about oil and now your complaining that we aren’t getting cheap oil. You are critiquing a position that never existed. Bush never said that was about oil.
Paul Wolfowicz estimated the cost of the war at under 2 billion dollars, and said that the oil revenue would pay for rebuilding the country. What actually happened was we paid for their reconstruction ourselves with money borrowed from the Chinese, oil production is lower than before Saddam, and the price per barrell hasn’t gone below $60 yet.
Are you denying that the administration said that oil would pay for the reconstruction.
Who/what is DI in the dialogue with RT?
That’s me, short for Deadissue
Are you denying that the administration said that oil would pay for the reconstruction.
That wasn’t what you implied, you were talking about cheaper oil for Americans and then you equate that with Iraqis selling oil on the world market to fund their government. So, yes, their oil would go to pay for government and no, the was wasn’t ever supposed to be about free gas for Americans.
Just to check:
1. Iraqi oil hasn’t funded the reconstruction, China has.
2. We’re not getting it any cheaper.
Just to check:
1. Iraqi oil hasn’t funded the reconstruction, China has.
2. We’re not getting it any cheaper.
1. No yet, but it will.
2. it wasn’t supposed to.
It hasn’t yet, but it will???
Right, are you honestly believing that oil execs will cut profit to build up Iraq’s infrastructure?
Right, are you honestly believing that oil execs will cut profit to build up Iraq’s infrastructure?
No, but when the Iraqis sell oil to the oil execs the proceeds will go into Iraqi coffers through some sort of tax system that they will soon enact. Maybe we can get some of the money back from those frauds at the U.N. and from France for the oil4food scam.
China and Russia won’t give back any of their ill gotten gain but the French fear their own shadows so maybe we can lean on them a bit. Bush already invaded one country, France could be next. Now that’s funny.
If winning the peace in Iraq was this hard, I’d hate to think of the mess we’d have in store for us in France! At least they wouldn’t be blowing themselves up, but poison would be everywhere I’d imagine. ‘The Pastry Massacre of ’06’