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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (51115)	12/1/2005 7:54:00 AM
From: Mannie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362857

Posted on Thu, Dec. 01, 2005 Distrust casts a pall on Bush's war plans ADMINISTRATION'S DIMINISHED CREDIBILITY HURTS CASE FOR OPTIMISM Mercury News Editorial President Bush laid out a strategy for exiting from Iraq in a speech at the Naval Academy on Wednesday. In it, he repeated his sharp criticism of those who call for a definitive timetable for withdrawal. But make no mistake: The overall number of troops, perhaps a significant portion, will decline next year, regardless of how the war is going. Since Rep. John Murtha's emotional call, in a House speech two weeks ago, for an immediate pullout, the administration has been under pressure to explain itself. Bush's speech -- an upbeat assessment of the war -- was a response and a rationale for a phased withdrawal. Bush has steadfastly said that as Iraqi troops stand up, American troops would stand down. And suddenly, the Iraqis are standing tall, in great numbers. Battalions of Iraqi soldiers who were ill-prepared six months ago, by our own generals' admission, are fit, trim and hardened now. Cadres of police will take charge, enabling U.S. troops to retreat from cities and go chase down the main terrorists. Bush is right that a hasty retreat would be a disaster. We hope he's correct that, in transferring power to the Iraqis, the administration has learned from its mistakes (at least the few it's admitted). But Americans have great cause for distrust. The administration has deceived Americans about the reasons for, and progress of, the war. Two years ago, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld assured Americans over and over that the insurgents were in their last throes. That wasn't true then, and it's not true now. Resistance has grown steadily, to the point that on Wednesday Bush said that terrorists have made Iraq ``the central front in their war against humanity.'' The picture on the ground is more confusing and troubling than Bush acknowledges. With the growth of the Iraqi security forces comes the worry that they have been infiltrated by Shiite militias loyal to Iran or to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The New York Times reported that Iraqis in uniform have been terrorizing Sunni neighborhoods and assassinating leaders. On Wednesday, two experts from the Army War College who eerily predicted U.S. postwar troubles in Iraq offered a counterpoint to Bush's optimism. W. Andrew Terrill and Conrad C. Crane wrote, ``It appears increasingly unlikely that U.S., Iraqi and coalition forces will crush the insurgency prior to the beginning of a phased U.S. and coalition withdrawal.'' And, ``It is no longer clear that the United States will be able to create (Iraqi) military and police forces that can secure the entire country no matter how long U.S. forces remain.'' Terrill and Crane agree with Bush that announcing a timetable for withdrawal would be ``catastrophic,'' because the insurgents would simply wait out the Americans, and those cooperating with America would jump sides. There would be civil war. Only if circumstances were ``irredeemable'' would a withdrawal be justified, they said. Could the administration be trusted to tell Americans if that were so?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (51115)	12/1/2005 3:00:50 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Respond to of 362857

The Autumn of the Patriarchy By MAUREEN DOWD 11/30/05 "New York Times" -- -- In the vice president's new, more fortified bunker, inside his old undisclosed secure location within the larger bunker that used to be called the West Wing of the White House, Dick Cheney was muttering and sputtering. He wasn't talking to the pictures on the wall, as Nixon did when he finally cracked. Vice doesn't trust those portraits anyway. The walls have ears. He was talking to the only reliable man in a city of dimwits, cowards, traitors and fools: himself. He hurled a sheaf of news reports with such force it knocked over the picture of Ahmad Chalabi that he keeps next to the picture of Churchill. Winston Chalabi, he likes to call him. Vice is fed up with all the whining and carping - and that's just inside the White House. The only negativity in Washington is supposed to be his own. He's the only one allowed to scowl and grumble and conspire. The impertinent Tom DeFrank reported in New York's Daily News that embattled White House aides felt "President Bush must take the reins personally" to save his presidency. Let him try, Cheney said with a sneer. Things are nowhere near dire enough for that. Even if Junior somehow managed to grab the reins to his presidency, Vice holds Junior's reins. So he just needs to get all these sniveling, poll-driven wimps and losers back on board with the master plan. Things had been going so smoothly. The global torture franchise was up and running. Halliburton contracts were flowing. Tax cuts were sailing through. Oil companies were raking it in. Alaska drilling was thrillingly close. The courts were defending his executive privilege on energy policy, and people were still buying all that smoke about Saddam's being responsible for 9/11, and that drivel about how we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here. Everything was groovy. But not anymore. Cheney could not believe that Karl had made him go out and call that loudmouth Jack Murtha a patriot. He was sure the Pentagon generals had put the congressman up to calling for a withdrawal from Iraq. Is the military brass getting in touch with its pacifist side? In Wyoming, Vice shoots doves. How dare Murtha suggest that Cheney dodged and dodged and dodged and dodged and dodged the draft? Murtha thinks he knows about war just because he served in one and was a marine for 37 years? Vice started his own war. Now that's a credential! It always goes this way with the cut-and-run crowd. First they start nitpicking the war, complaining about little things like the lack of armor for the troops. Then they complain that there aren't enough troops. Well, that would just require more armor that we don't have. Then they kvetch about using incendiary weapons in a city like Falluja. Vice likes the smell of white phosphorus in the morning. What really enrages him is all the Republicans in the Senate making noises about timetables. Before you know it, it's going to be helicopters on the rooftop at the Baghdad embassy. Just because Junior's approval ratings are in the 30's, people around here are going all wobbly. Vice was 10 points lower and he wasn't worried. Numbers are for sissies. Why do Harry Reid and his Democratic turncoats think they can call the White House on the carpet? Do they think Vice would fear to lie about lying about the rationale for going to war? A real liar never stops lying. He didn't want to have to tell the rest of the senators to go do to themselves what he had told Patrick Leahy to go do to himself. Now all these idiots are getting caught, even Scooter. DeLay's on the ropes and the Dukester is a total embarrassment, spending bribes on antique commodes and a Rolls-Royce. Vice should never have let an amateur get involved with defense contracts. Republican moderates are running scared in the House, worried about re-election. Even senators seem to have forgotten which side their bread is oiled on. Ted Stevens let oil company executives get caught lying about the energy task force meeting, while Vice can't even get a little thing like torture chambers through the Senate. What's so wrong with a little torture? And now John Warner wants Junior to use fireside chats to explain his plan for Iraq. When did everybody get the un-American idea that the president is answerable to America? Vice is fed up with the whining of squirrelly surrogates like Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Wilkerson on behalf of peaceniks like George Senior and Colin Powell. If Poppy's upset about his kid's mentor, he should be man enough to come slug it out. Poppy isn't getting Junior back, Vice vowed, muttering: "He's my son. It's my war. It's my country." informationclearinghouse.info