There are news coming out of Iraq and echoed by more than one news network that our friend Rummy (Rumsfled) has met with Saddam Husain in his latest visit to negotiate with him the possibility of relying a message through his lawyer, to Izzat Ibrahim, Saddam's deputy who is still at large and suspected of leading the Ba'athi and Sunni resistance, to agree to sit down with the occupation forces to negotiate an American proposal to withdraw from Iraq provided that they will be allowed to maintain 6 bases on pre-agreed areas whereby three of these bases will have a 5 years term while the other three will have a 10 years term. I know what I am saying is extremely dangerous but days will show you that I was right. I will not be able to reply to any of the members but I will keep you updated
Continuation: According the Arab new networks, Al Akhdar El Ibrahimi (UN Mid East special representative) has tried through his relationship with the eastern tribes of Jordan which extend to the western Iraqi tribes, specifically the "Dilim" tribes, to negotiate through them with Izzat Ibrahim. El Ibrahimi failed hence Rumsfled meeting with Saddam.
Uhm, lemme get this straight. Shortly after the President goes on Nationwide TV and gives a massively public speech about how we need to stay the course in Iraq, you and Reardon are ready to buy into the idea he's letting the country fall back into Saddam's henchman's hands? Are you guys high? That would mean the end of the Republican party, among other huge problems. Now I know that's what some of y'all want, but expecting Bush to put a gun to his head and pull the trigger is a bit unreasonable, don't ya think?
yeah, that's nuts. it'd be like.... like shouting and ranting about anthrax and unmanned transatlantic drones and nuclear mushroom clouds without having any evidence at all or... like cooking up story about a celebrity soldier being shot by "terrorists" despite knowledge it was friendly fire or.... using a US tank to pull down a statue, then using the staged photographs in campaign ads as a sign of iraqi revolutionary sentiment or... like making up a story about a 95lb girl fighting off dozens of iraqi savages singlehandedly, then claiming she has amnesia or... like putting a 50m wide color sign on an aircraft carrier, then saying that the yeomen on board did it, just as a prank, you know or.... like chest-thumping at every opportunity to shout a love of "the troops," then cutting their benefits and denying their discharge on the contracted dates or.... like spending half a trillion dollars to bring "freedom" to foreigners, then fining broadcasters for engaging in disapproved speech in the US and fighting for the power to jail US citizens indefinitely without due process ..... yeah, they'd be nuts to say stuff like that, they'd look like fools.
Unreasonable? The guy is dumber than dirt and tells lie after lie without concern for the ramifications. And, didn't he almost choke to death on a pretzel? Unreasonable? No, not at all.
I shy away from political discussions on boards but, the US lacks the political will and capital to destroy Iraq to make a point. No one should doubt that the US could return Iraq to the desert very quickly. But with a limited force structure in Iraq, the US has now fought to a stand-off - the US cant beat an insurgency that is fed by locals and the the insurgents are at a standstill as they didnt derail the elections and cant beat the US military plus their greatest fear is the US starts dropping daisy cutters on their huts every day. A political solution is the best way out for everyone. If Bush has convinced the Iraqi gov't that domestic politics force him to begin a timed withdrawal, they will seek a political solution sooner rather than later.
I see BDS is alive and well, perhaps some of you should explore cognitive dissonance (from the trader's perspective, not the shrink's - search ET), it might help your trading. Come Tuesday, we'll be in pretty much the same position in Iraq. And then I'll post a few "I told ya so"s. As a general rule, one should avoid relying on Al-Jazeera and their like for information. They've got even less integrity than your average politician. Don't let all that hatred and rage ruin your weekend. I was of course not refering to Tom's post above, rather the previous posts.
I would have said this was total BS but then I read an article yesterday that described how proud the US military was of the "nuanced" manner in which they had handled the notorious al Sadr, the young thug who made monkeys of them for months, murdered opponents and now is part of the government. Basically the general in charge thought it was smart not to win a decisive victory over al Sadr but instead let him run free to cause more trouble. I am convinced that 8 years of Clinton so infused the upper ranks of the officer corps with a deadly infection of PC virus that anything is possible.
lol. Always blame Clinton. It doesn't matter if he has been gone 5 years or 50 years, the Republicans will always fall back on this.
You forget the senior officers were promoted during his term. We know the Pentagon became highly politicizied and PC'd. Competent officers were hounded out of the service and craven opportunists like Wesley Clark and McCafferty got the juicy slots.