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You are here: Home / Politics / So Much For Freedom Fries

So Much For Freedom Fries

by John Cole|  June 13, 200511:47 am| 31 Comments

This post is in: Politics

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It appears that freedom fries are going the way of the Iraqi WMD:

A pro-Iraq war US congressman who campaigned for French fries to be renamed “freedom fries” is now calling for US troops to return home from Iraq.
Republican Representative Walter Jones is to introduce legislation demanding a timetable for the withdrawal.

The renaming of fries in Capitol Hill’s cafeterias in March 2003 expressed disapproval among some US lawmakers with France’s opposition to the war.

French toast was also re-branded “freedom toast”.

“I voted for the resolution to commit the troops, and I feel that we’ve done about as much as we can do,” Mr Jones said on US network ABC.

“I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that’s all been proven that it was never there.”

He said his change of heart about the war came after he attended the funeral of a US sergeant killed in Nasiriya, Iraq, in April 2003. Mr Jones said he was moved by the soldier’s widow who read out her husband’s last letter.

Withdrawal without a functioning Iraqi military and government would be a complete disaster. Many in the military agree:

A growing number of senior American military officers in Iraq have concluded that there is no long-term military solution to an insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and more than 1,300 U.S. troops during the past two years.

Instead, officers say, the only way to end the guerilla war is through Iraqi politics – an arena that so far has been crippled by divisions between Shiite Muslims, whose coalition dominated the January elections, and Sunni Muslims, who are a minority in Iraq but form the base of support for the insurgency.

“I think the more accurate way to approach this right now is to concede that … this insurgency is not going to be settled, the terrorists and the terrorism in Iraq is not going to be settled, through military options or military operations,” Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said last week, in a comment that echoes what other senior officers say. “It’s going to be settled in the political process.”

Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, expressed similar sentiments, calling the military’s efforts “the Pillsbury Doughboy idea” – pressing the insurgency in one area only causes it to rise elsewhere.

“Like in Baghdad,” Casey said during an interview with two newspaper reporters, including one from Knight Ridder, last week. “We push in Baghdad – they’re down to about less than a car bomb a day in Baghdad over the last week – but in north-center (Iraq) … they’ve gone up,” he said. “The political process will be the decisive element.”

The recognition that a military solution is not in the offing has led U.S. and Iraqi officials to signal they are willing to negotiate with insurgent groups, or their intermediaries.

“It has evolved in the course of normal business,” said a senior U.S. diplomatic official in Baghdad, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of U.S. policy to defer to the Iraqi government on Iraqi political matters. “We have now encountered people who at least claim to have some form of a relationship with the insurgency.”

interesting anddangerous problem. Military action alone will not solve the problem, yet military withdrawal will most certainly not solve it either.

Here is an entirely pessimistic take on the situation. Positive news here, in the interest of ‘balance.’

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31Comments

  1. 1.

    metalgrid

    June 13, 2005 at 11:59 am

    Is this guy up for re-election in ’06? Cuz it sounds like his pollsters and focus groups have been telling him to pander to the ‘bring our boys (and girls) home’ crowd.

  2. 2.

    KC

    June 13, 2005 at 12:07 pm

    Agreed. It does sound like he’s making a preemptive strike on the 2006 election. Then again, he may be tiring of this war too.

  3. 3.

    Big Worm

    June 13, 2005 at 12:11 pm

    As opposed to the not-quite-complete disaster we’ve got now?

  4. 4.

    jmh

    June 13, 2005 at 12:13 pm

    Is this guy up for re-election in ’06? Cuz it sounds like his pollsters and focus groups have been telling him to pander to the ‘bring our boys (and girls) home’ crowd.

    If the majority of his constituants want the soldiers brought home, then I would call this “pandering” something else: doing his job. For the record: I was against this war from the start, but think it would be immoral to leave now. However, if the majority of the people want the soldiers brought home, then we have to give in to the will of the people. When you have a democracy you have to take the good with the bad.

  5. 5.

    Marcus Wellby

    June 13, 2005 at 12:21 pm

    looks like a lot of the yahoos who wanted this war so freaking bad didn’t realize that things like “casualties” are, in fact, a part of war. I guess they thought Rambo was a documentary.

    honestly, who make the country look weaker: those who opposed this fiasco from day 1, or fucking idiots like this guy who want out because the realities of war aren’t what the reruns of Hogan’s Heroes and McCales Navy portrayed?

  6. 6.

    Mike S

    June 13, 2005 at 12:22 pm

    Count me as one who has felt the same way about withdrawl. But I also don’t see enough progress to make me believe that there is much hope that a functioning army and government is anywhere near possible in the next few years.

    I’m totally torn on this whole thing. I was against the war but once we went in I wanted it done right. This administration has shown no evidence that they will ever get on track and correct the fiasco they started.

    I fear that I am just like the people in the late 60’s who didn’t want to pull out of Vietnamn, hoping that things will change for the better. Too many people died for a failed policy before the plug was pulled. It’s hard not to think this is just a replay of that.

    So while I’m not at the “pull out now” phase of thinking I find myself getting closer by the day.

  7. 7.

    metalgrid

    June 13, 2005 at 12:24 pm


    However, if the majority of the people want the soldiers brought home, then we have to give in to the will of the people. When you have a democracy you have to take the good with the bad.

    It gets tiresome after a while to keep explaining to people that we don’t live in a democracy. It’s a constitutional republic and the 17th amendment was a Bad Thing ™.

  8. 8.

    Rick

    June 13, 2005 at 12:25 pm

    Well, this guy sure has his priorities straight: fried julienned potatoes, vs. nation building.

    I, OTOH, demand a timetable for withdrawal from Germany.

    Cordially…

  9. 9.

    ppgaz

    June 13, 2005 at 12:31 pm

    Once the dogs of war are unleashed, you have a lot of bad things become possible. Cleaning up the kennel behind the dogs is just one category of bad things. Especially when the kennel owners were so in love with their Ouija Board view of “getting rid of Saddam” that they forgot to plan for the aftermath.

    But of course, when Ends Justify Means (that is, when “the world is better off without Saddam”) all of this is just fodder for the America-haters.

    I’m sure that Pope George is praying on the problem now, and that a solution will be forthcoming. People of Faith all know this. The rest of us will just have to trust them.

  10. 10.

    SomeCallMeTims

    June 13, 2005 at 1:03 pm

    Guys, guys, guys. You’re forgetting: it’s hard work.

  11. 11.

    John Cole

    June 13, 2005 at 1:08 pm

    Well, this guy sure has his priorities straight: fried julienned potatoes, vs. nation building.

    That was the silliest thing about ‘freedom fries.’

    French fries aren’t ‘French fries’ because they are French, but because they are frenched:

    french, to

    1. To cut a vegetable or meat lengthwise into very thin strips. Beans and potatoes are two vegetables that are commonly “frenched.”

  12. 12.

    jdm

    June 13, 2005 at 1:09 pm

    So, ppgaz, just to be clear. When the WTC towers went down, was that before, during, or after the unleashing of your “dog of war”? Or what about the Cole? Or the bombing of the embassy in Kenya? Or the Blackdown down and subsequent events in the “feed the people” debacle in Somalia?

    Cuz these look like “a lot of bad things” to me, but I probably just don’t understand that these were really a lot of good things seen the correct (ie, pre-Bushitler) context.

  13. 13.

    ppgaz

    June 13, 2005 at 1:14 pm

    Nothing you listed has anything to do with Hussein.

    http://www.9-11commission.gov/

    When the Iraq Debacle Commission issues its report, you’ll find out that the entire adventure was a brain fart by neocons who had — and have now — ZERO data to support their nutty fucking ideas about the world and its realities.

    That report will be available to you …. oh, I’d say sometime after the 2008 election.

    In the meantime, only America-haters would ask for such a thing.

    But why are you challenging me? As a person of faith, you should not be troubled by the squeaks of doubters like me.

  14. 14.

    Nash

    June 13, 2005 at 1:40 pm

    french, to

    1. To cut a vegetable or meat lengthwise into very thin strips. Beans and potatoes are two vegetables that are commonly “frenched.”

    Boy, that’s sure not the definition of the transitive verb that I’ve been going by.

    I may owe some women an apology.

  15. 15.

    Rick

    June 13, 2005 at 2:38 pm

    Ba-dum-BOOMMMMMMMM!!!!

  16. 16.

    ppgaz

    June 13, 2005 at 3:18 pm

    I started calling them “freedom kisses” a long time ago. Let me assure you, it is a babe magnet.

    Onward, Christian soldiers!

    http://www.uschristianflag.com/yes.htm

  17. 17.

    David T. Beito

    June 13, 2005 at 3:47 pm

    A rapid withdrawal, according a announced timetable, is, at this point, the most realistic option.

    \In 1969, many people said the U.S. had to stay in Vietnam because it would create chaos and undermine the ARVN.

    Four years later the U.S. accepted a peace deal which was no better than that available in 1969. In the meantime, more than twenty-thousand Americans had died needlessly. The story of the French in Algeria was similar.

    Those who say “I was against the war but we have to stay” should keep this in mind. What do they hope to gain by sticking it out?

  18. 18.

    ppgaz

    June 13, 2005 at 3:54 pm

    The comparison is inapt. The war was bing fought against an organized adversary who could send representatives to a bargaining table and negotiate an end to fighting.

    No such situation exists in Iraq.

    Leaving behind a mess would only make a bad situation worse. Every effort must be made to leave a stable government in place.

  19. 19.

    Barry

    June 13, 2005 at 4:35 pm

    “I, OTOH, demand a timetable for withdrawal from Germany.

    Cordially…”

    Posted by Rick

    Reading Rices’ ‘American History as Told by the Bush Administration’, again?

  20. 20.

    Rick

    June 13, 2005 at 5:22 pm

    Barry,

    No, I’m dictating a chapter to her.

    I want an exit plan from mittleurope. Mission accomplished.

    Cordially…

  21. 21.

    David T. Beito

    June 13, 2005 at 6:55 pm

    If you want a stable government in a Democratic Iraq (probably a pipedream), the chances for it are slightly more likely if the Iraqis learn to stand on their own feet. Like welfare recipients, they can never do so as long as they know that American troops are always there to clean up the mess. On the side of insurgents, the continuing presence of our troops provides a covenient targic and a means to rally more recruits.

    In any case, you are assuming that Uncle Sam has the ability to clean up a “mess” and not instead make it a bigger mess by sticking around. The evidence for that assumption is dubious at best.

  22. 22.

    David T. Beito

    June 13, 2005 at 6:58 pm

    That’s “target”

  23. 23.

    Kimmitt

    June 14, 2005 at 12:21 pm

    Aren’t our bases in Germany an asset at this point, rather than a liability? Since Germany no longer faces a serious security threat, I was under the impression that we were taking advantage of our ally’s relative proximity to the Middle East.

  24. 24.

    Rick

    June 14, 2005 at 1:25 pm

    Kimmitt,

    Our bases in Germany are cash cows for the burghers working

    They’re a liability to our soldiers, and we taxpayers, given the current exchange rate, and in any event, the rather high cost of living in Germany.

    No point having armor tucked in the middle of a continent facing no armored threat. Better to move the armor, and other combat units, to the periphery of the continent, if not home.

    Cordially…

  25. 25.

    Nash

    June 14, 2005 at 2:21 pm

    Because, after all, the Turkish Lira is so much a better bargain at 1 USD per 1,500,000 . Far better to move the armor to that periphery, our good buds the Turkish, the ones who so generously allowed us to slip the 4th Infantry thru on Saddam. What’s that you say? Oh, er, nevermind. There’s always air space rights, right?

  26. 26.

    Rick

    June 14, 2005 at 5:06 pm

    Nash,

    Some argument for keeping ill-sited kasernes open in the middle of nowhere advantageous.

    There’s more to periphery than just Turkey. If I had to pick, and an agreement could be worked out, I’d say around Naples, Bari or in Albania.

    I just don’t think Putin’s armor is going to thrust through the Fulda Gap, so why guard it?

    Cordially…

  27. 27.

    Kimmitt

    June 14, 2005 at 5:40 pm

    While the armor is definitely obsolete, I was under the impression that the forward supply, air, and medical resources in Germany were still extremely useful.

    Which is to say, there is not ‘timetable for withdrawal’ from Germany because the forces there are not deployed for combat, they are placed for usage. It’s like asking what the ‘timetable for withdrawal’ is for the American South.

  28. 28.

    Rick

    June 14, 2005 at 9:44 pm

    Or Kosovo. Which itself might be handy. We indeed value staging areas, and those in Germany have fallen way, way behind. That is, they are no longer anywhere near “forward.”

    The examples I dropped, and Kosovo, would be closer to the likely theaters of use, and better access to shipping. Railheads in Kosovo would be problematic for a time, though, I would think.

    In making my suggestions, I avoided greater Eastern Europe. However welcoming and amenable such locales might be, it would just stir up Rooski revanchism for no purpose. We *can* and should leave Germany because the bear is soundly sleeping.

    And the E.U. has their rapid strike force with which to fend off a thrust should Pootie-Poot get frisky.

    Cordially…

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Mudville Gazette says:
    June 14, 2005 at 5:40 am

    Dawn Patrol

    Iraq It Is Well With My Soul [Dadmanly – in Iraq] I had a hard day yesterday. I received a pillow case signed by several of the unit families during a recent pool party, and great book on VE Day…

  2. The Debate Link says:
    June 14, 2005 at 8:40 pm

    Worst of All Worlds

    Balloon Juice tells us that the Representative who brought you “Freedom Fries” and “Freedom Toast,” our little jabs at the French for not supporting the war in Iraq, has decided the troops need to come home.

    Guys like this are the worst of all wor…

  3. Watcher of Weasels says:
    June 15, 2005 at 1:01 am

    Submitted for Your Approval

    First off…  any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here,  and here.  Die spambots, die!  And now…  here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council link…

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