I am watching Joe Lieberman on Face the Nation stating that things are “fine” in Iraq, and at the exact same time I am reading the Newshoggers, who have a discussion of this story:
The raid occurred at dawn Friday in the town of Janaja near Maliki’s birthplace in the southern, mostly Shiite Muslim province of Karbala. Ali Abdulhussein Razak al Maliki, who was killed in the raid, was related to the prime minister and had close ties to his personal security detail, according to authorities in Karbala.
The incident puts an added strain on U.S.-Iraqi negotiations to draft a Status of Forces Agreement, a long-term security pact that will govern the conduct of U.S. forces in Iraq. Members of the Iraqi government and security forces said the raid only deepened their reluctance to sign any agreement that did not leave Iraqis with the biggest say on when and how combat operations are conducted.
It is, I think, undeniable that the level of violence has dropped in Iraq in recent months. To state that things are fine, however, is a little inaccurate. More cowbell, Joe. More cowbell.
El Cid
I was more shocked that Bob Schieffer stammered as a complete idiot when Wesley Clark said “Being a fighter pilot and getting shot down is not a qualification for being president,” Schieffer replied “buh buh buh wha it doesn’t“(?), like the simple obvious fact had never crossed Schieffer’s tiny, McCain-a**-kissing mind in his adult life.
Dennis - SGMM
Lieberman should show us how fine things are in Iraq by announcing the date of his next visit there and then traveling by motorcade from the airport to Baghdad. Please.
JL
Why oh why couldn’t Lieberman and Clark appear together at the same time. I wanted to see some tears with those whines. Cheese extra
dr. bloor
Keep in mind that Joe defines “fine” a little differently than the rest of us. A situation in which lotsa brown people are killing each other and getting picked off by US troops is A-OK in his book. The implementation of a Status of Forces Agreement, on the other hand, however advantageous it might be for the US, is an inconvenient set of rules that will limit the army’s freedom to some extent and legitimize the positions of the Iraqi government.
Dennis - SGMM
OT: is it just me or does it take a while to load/reload BJ? When I do so, Firefox shows me what’s loading. Most of the stuff loads pretty fast until I hit “pixel.quantserve.com.” That one takes forever.
t jasper parnell
Why does the Army hate our troops?
Also, no scripts kills quantserve.
cleek
i’m guessing that AdBlock does, too, since i don’t seem to have any problems loading BJ today.
Dennis - SGMM
Thanks for the responses. I’ll try AdBlock. No Script gave me some headaches and the last time I tried removing it I had to nuke my Firefox install down to the folder level and reinstall FF.
Jim Henley
Isn’t the solution to fucking shut down Newshoggers already, if they’re going to impede the Global War on Terror by undermining Joe Lieberman’s leadership?
Brachiator
This shit is just sad. Lieberman and the Republican goons base their entire Iraq policy on something (post-surge reduction in violence) that has no significant military meaning. There is no stable, unified Iraq, and little to suggest that anything that the US is doing will lead to a stable, unified Iraq.
And there is this continued blindness, shared by many Americans of all political persuasions, that we can impose our will on a “pro-Western” Iraqi government no matter what the Iraqis want for themselves.
No good can come of this.
Odd. No problems here using Adblock and NoScript with Firefox 3.0.
Dennis - SGMM
I gave in and installed No Script. You’re right: page loads instantly now. Thanks to all for the suggestions.
Libby Spencer
Really. Bunch of subversives over there. They’ll be the first to go in the Homeland purge in October.
Libby Spencer
Totally OT in case Michael is reading.
SF gay pride parade being broadcast live at this link starting about now I think if I have my time change calculations right.
KC
Who cares what Joe Liberman thinks anymore? Why give him the time?
What I’m a bit concerned about is the feeling I caught while sitting in a hospital waiting room yesterday. While there, someone sparked up a political conversation because of something on the news (clips of Obama and Hillary). Sort of amazing to me, but people were discussing how McCain had a plan for oil and energy and Obama didn’t. Obviously this was a small sample size, but the conversation told me that Dems certainly can’t take anything for granted, that optics mean a lot, and that Obama needs to stay out in front of issues and start steering the conversation again (seeding more ground to the GOP by flopping on FISA did not help him either).
Brachiator
Lieberman is still nominally a Democrat. His vote matters a great deal with respect to non-war matters. Unless the Democrats can get a strong majority in the Senate, what Lieberman thinks will count for something.
This is a great point. People will easily embrace bad plans because to them it is at least doing something, even if the plan can never work. It is tough for a candidate to succeed just by pointing out the flaws in an opponent’s plan.
Drilling for oil offshore or in Alaska, or reducing the gas tax, is something real and tangible that people can relate to. And when the right wing media lies to the people by suggesting that there is more oil in Alaska than in all of the Middle East, they give the GOP an advantage that is hard to beat.
This is a tough one, since the people who think that McCain has an energy plan probably don’t care about FISA.
Dennis - SGMM
These are the same people who believe that the Chinese are drilling off of Cuba. They also believe that if the moratorium on drilling off the coasts is lifted on Monday, gas will be two dollars a gallon on Tuesday.
You know: morons.
ed
How’d Wes Clark do?
sleepy
here it is, dude:
the level of violence has dropped in iraq only if you don’t consider it “violence” when we bomb people. we’re regularly dropping tens of thousands of pounds of explosives on some of the densest slums in the world. we’re still holding untold thousands of iraqis in prisons, with no intention of ever charging them with anything. we still have 130,000 troops (plus an unknowable number of “contractors”), all armed with the latest in violent technology.
armies are for killing lots and lots of people. as long as our army is in iraq, there will be plenty of “violence” to go around.
Tim (The Other One)
There are two sides to the surge coin and it’s very frustrating to see only one side discussed (“reduced” violence) to the total exclusion of the other (NO Iraqi political or national autonomy headway).
mellowjohn
correct me if i’m wrong, but the surge was supposed to be a MEANS to an end, wasn’t it? and not – you know – the END in itself?
El Cid
You are correct. The surge was a MEANS to an END.
The END (the goal) was the removal in 2006 / 2007 of any serious domestic moves to change the U.S. policy toward occupation of Iraq given the election of Democrats to control Congress and the silly temporary media storm over the Iraq Study Group.
The surge completely accomplished that end, so it was 100% a success.
cbear
Schieffer is just another village hack and today was yet another example of that fact. 15 fucking minutes of letting Smarmy Joe peddle his bullshit without question or criticism—yet on the attack from the get-go with Gen. Clark.
Fuck Schieffer.
Steve S.
“It is, I think, undeniable that the level of violence has dropped in Iraq in recent months. To state that things are fine, however, is a little inaccurate.”
I’m afraid the neocons finally have a policy whose competence equals its mendacity. “The Surge” is a masterstroke. It reduces violence just enough to get the mainstream libs on board with the “it’s sorta working” narrative, but not so much that Johnny can come marching home anytime soon. Well played, Cheney et al. You’ve hashed pretty much everything else you’ve attempted, but now The Empire will be occupying Iraq for the foreseeable future, as you wanted all along.
TenguPhule
The Clap Louder Iraq Plan continues….
Fwiffo
Well, there’s where you made your mistake.
Dennis - SGMM
Cool. Five years on and they raise the number of troops to 2/3 of what the then Army Chief of Staff recommended. He was fired at the time for the recommendation and now we’re all supposed to pat the administration on the back for partially doing what they should have done completely in the first place.
If we do nothing else in the future, let’s make sure that Lieberman is replaced with a Democrat.
Cernig
Hi John,
I’ve just updated my post at Newshoggers.
The Irish Times reports that it was one of Maliki’s cousins who was killed. The cousin also served on Maliki’s personal guard. He was shot while other members of the family were being held in another room.
The Kerbala province governor has called for the soldiers involved to be turned over to the Iraqi courts. Fat chance of that happening.
Regards, C
Nellcote
>Obama needs to stay out in front of issues and start steering the conversation again
How would you suggest we get the media to cover anything Obama does that doesn’t include a Clinton?
LanceThruster
Everytime I see Quisling McLieberman’s ugly mug, I think of the Al Franken bit about the “Al Franken decade.”
“What you need to ask yourself is how this will affect me; Joe Lieberman.”
OriGuy
Whatever happens in the presidential race, Lieberman will lose some power in January when he won’t be the 50th Democrat (counting Bernie Sanders.) He’ll be just another Republican unless the Democrats make it to 59, including Bernie. An unlikely turn of events; generally the more, the better, but I’m hoping it won’t happen.
Hedley Lamarr
Things were fine before aWol invaded. Now we are broke, the military is broke, and many have died in vain in the sands of Iraq.
Cyrus
Words fail me. Ummm, ya think they might want that, maybe?