Jul 13 2007
Open Thread – Interim Report On Iraq
I will not insult my reader’s intelligence by interpretting the White House interim report on Iraq, you can read it for yourself. But please note the purpose of the report and the effort in Iraq:
Section 1314 of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 (Public Law 110-28) states that the President is to submit to Congress two reports assessing the status of each of the 18 benchmarks contained in the Act and declaring whether, in the President’s judgment, satisfactory progress is being achieved with respect to those 18 benchmarks.
These benchmarks relate to Government of Iraq actions believed to be important to advance reconciliation within Iraqi society, to improve the security of the Iraqi population, to provide essential services to the population, and to promote its economic well-being. These efforts complement other U.S. and Iraqi collaborative actions as part of the New Way Forward.
…
Current U.S. strategy — the New Way Forward — recognizes that the fulfillment of commitments by both the U.S. and Iraqi Governments will be necessary to achieving our common goal: a democratic Iraq that can govern, defend, and sustain itself, and be an ally in the War on Terror.
I note that the Surge just began a month ago and has 2 more months to before the initial full report is due. But the goals we want to achieve are not only within our reach, they would be a godsend to us and the world. We know there has been CONSIDERABEL progress, and more to come. Welcom to this open thread to debate the matter while I attend meetings today. I may way in more later.
I would like to see Pelosi and Reid produce an interim report on Congress. Before they shake their finger at the developing democray in Iraq, whose members have to avoid Al Qaeda each day, I’d like to see the limousine politians in DC tell us what progress they’ve made in the last six months.
Vets are going to Capitol Hill to testify for the mission. Read about it at their website and give them support if you can.
http://www.vetsforfreedom.org/tenweeks/
Dafydd over at Big Lizards has a good post up on this, including an outline.
His take on it is a tad more optimistic than the NYT.
What bothers me is things like the NYT (or was it the AP?) reporting several days before the report was issued that it would show NONE … not A SINGLE ONE of the benchmarks being met. They spread that around the world for almost a week before the report was issued.
Ask the average person on the street about that report and they will likely parrot back the the report that none of the benchmarks were met because THAT story was carried at the top of the hour, every hour, on every radio station in the country during the commute time. The report that some of the benchmarks WERE met was carried once and then not reported again.
crosspatch:
I don’t think the average person on the street even knows what a benchmark is. I did notice the same thing however, that they jumped the gun and said no benchmarks had been met and then they had to make it look as bad as they could to cover for their errors.
If the Iraqi government can actually get the Oil law passed it will help the political situation a great deal. It made it out of cabinet, but has not been brought up for a vote.
But you know what? They have accomplished more under much more difficult circumstances over there in Iraq than these guys have right here, safe and sound in Washington.
A.J.,
A while back, some commentators, including but not limited to myself, suggested you SPELL CHECK.
If you download the free excellent Firefox 2.x, it includes a built in spell checker. You could also use a different one.
The constant spelling errors, of which I’m equally guilty, are distracting and fairly or not, reflect negatively on you.
That said, I strongly support the content of this post.
Newsbusters brings us this little jewel
What’s the hurry?…
They have to do this while Bush is still president. If they don’t, there’s an even chance that they’ll have to make this decision, which will likely mean the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, with a Democrat in the White House. Will that gi…
OS2,
“Olbermann theorized” – hmmm.
hmm, could it be possible that Chertoff was given a pre-release copy of the report (which his job would have required him to see) and he made the comments based on that, knowing the report was coming out the next day?
oh no, that’s much too extreme a piece of straight-line logic for Olbermann.
OT but I just wanted to reiterate that I believe something HUGE is getting ready to blow sometime after the 15th and by huge I mean something coordinated in several different places in the world to include possibly in North America (Canada and US most likely) along with places in the middle east and possible Europe as well.
I am hearing all kinds of warning bells and it is looking not like one specific thing, but lots of different things converging on the same timeframe. I am not saying that it will be on the 15th, but I am saying it will be at some time most likely before Labor Day.
Stock up. And I am generally not one to say things like that.
Also note this just now from Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289305,00.html
I also saw a story out there concerning Pakistan massing troops in northwest Pakistan.
I’ve also heard a lot of chatter about something happening on or after the 15th. I;ve seen talk abount Iran’s allies like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Syria moving in concert in the ME.
Also, the Turks are massed on the Iraq border, Pakistan is massing troops expecting a major Taliban/AQ move.
I think people expect coordinated attacks here and in Europe as diversions while Iran and its allies move in the ME and North Africa to try to establish the Caliphate. I beleive that is why AQ and Iran have worked so hard with the Dems and MSM to get the US troops out – to give them a free hand.
I also think that is one reason Bush is being so stubborn about it – there are few people in DC who do not have their head buried in the sand. If they don’t look at the mortal storm brewing on the horizon then it is not happening….but it will.
The Dems and the MSM have done everything they can to make our country and president appear weak and to leak everything they could to the enemy. They are as much of an ally to Iran and AQ as Hamas and Hezbollah. As far as I’m concerned, when the smoke clears, the NYT, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer and Murtha will have trouble washing the blood off their hands
I agree that I feel very apprehensive about the near future – but on the other hand I keep reminding myself of something I’ve observed (we’ve all observed) over the last few years. And that is, all Arabs are liars and blowhards, even the ones on our side. (I know that’s harsh, but look at the evidence!) The hard part is that every now and then one of them is just insane enough to try and carry out their idiotic plans (like the London bombers and wannabe bombers) so they can’t be ignored completely. There’s nothing more wearing than having to constantly deal with a culture that has pathological lying as it’s dominant personality trait – but I guess that’s also my biggest problem with the left these days as well.
To analyze any statement out of the middle east (good or bad) you have to start with the realization that the speaker is lying, and then you have to ask yourself “is there any chance they could be right without knowing it?” And what’s really hard is that a lot of the worst ones are stupid enough to actually believe their own nonsense. (I’m convinced that Aminadjad really believes that the 12th imam is going to descend from heaven, or wherever, any minute now)
The good part is that liars and lunatics can never put together any coherent or rational long term plans, which is what we’ve seen. Mindless destruction is easy however, and always the default option since that’s where you inevitably go when you combine rage with a complete lack of rationality. (many simply call that “evil”)
I was thinking about this when I was reading a story (out of Gaza!) about Yassar Arafat’s death yesterday. Remember when the Arabs accused Israel of poisoning him or of some way being responsible for his death? Of how he was whisked to France and given up to date medical treatment, of how no report was made on how he died, and how there was going to be some grand “investigation” of the circumstances of his death? And then, nothing. All of a sudden no one on the palestinian side wanted to talk about it anymore, and the French doctors sure weren’t talking.
Well you may have seen the report – the palestinians were given the full medical report, and the entire leadership (along with the French who did the report, of course) know exactly what killed him – AIDS. Needless to say, this doesn’t fit their image of the “heroic defender of Al-Aqsa” so now this is simply the topic that no one can talk about anymore. Not only are they lying now, but Arafat’s entire life, down to the most personal details, was a lie. Just par for the course.
Playing devil’s advocate, there are many ways to get AIDS. He could have got it from any blood transfusion he might have needed since the 1980’s or any medical procedure that was done with equipment that was improperly sterilized. Even GIVING blood would be enough if needles were re-used (as is common in poor parts of the world) and a previous user was HIV positive.
The majority of AIDS on the African continent isn’t spread by drug use or homosexual sex. It is spread though heterosexual sex and improper medical procedures.
Since no one should simply assert a fact to be true without proof (although this same story has been whispered everywhere except the MSM for 25 years now) I’ll source some people who have picked up on this. What’s brought it out in the open recently is the public acknowledgment of it by Hamas – ordinarily this would just be self serving bs like the rest of what they say, but in a moment of irony the truth about Arafat happens to be in their short term interest at the moment. (not their long term interest, but dogs and cats have a firmer grasp on the future than Hamas does)
from powerline, today: “Arafat’s homosexuality was an open secret during his life. In connection with her 1981 interview with Arafat, for example, Oriana Fallaci had observed Arafat’s preference for young boys. Ion Pacepa subsequently disclosed in Red Horizons that Rumanian intelligence had surveillance videos of Arafat engaging in orgies with his male bodyguards. ”
from Mark Steyn today: “Jonah, that Arafat-died-of-Aids story is “no shocker” to you, and pretty much an open secret in diplomatic circles. I’m in Madrid at the moment, and it prompted many knowing chortles among political types I mentioned it to today, along with fond reminiscences about Yasser’s corps of hunky blonde Scandinavian bodyguards – an odd bunch of chaps to find in Ramallah, but presumably they were doing the jobs Palestinians won’t do.
Yet this revelation no doubt came as news to most of the late Father of his Country’s citizenry. So it will be interesting to see the impact of this revelation on Fatah’s already collapsed standing. When Ahmad Jibril announces “to every honorable member of the Fatah movement that he should be happy that we got rid of the plague, which had been imposed upon them and upon the Palestinian people”, I would assume he knows whereof he speaks. If you were a Hamas publicity guy and you wanted to deliver the coup de grace to a regime of unloved secular kleptocrats, outing them as promiscuous gay secular kleptocrats would seem to be the perfect move.”
from the powerline blog Nov 11, 2004: “Late in his life Arafat took a wife for the purpose of keeping up appearances in a culture that loathes homsexuality. While his wife and political epigones fought over the billions he had stolen from his supposed beneficiaries, the scene of his death at a French military hospital outside Paris came to resemble a protracted farce befitting a second-rate Hollywood comedy. ”
end quotes – ever ask yourself why Fatah let Arafat’s widow make off with (reportedly) at least $25 million (US) in stolen Palestinian funds? (She lives very comfortably on the French Riviera today, and will for many decades to come) It was widely reported that she kept personal control of all of his Swiss accounts, which had all come out of Fatah operating funds. Why let her keep it without a word?
How about that’s the best way to keep her from telling what she more than anyone knew for a fact – Arafat’s partners of choice were either 10 year old boys or Swedish bodybuilders. She was never there for anything but show – and personally, good for her for making them pay $25 million to keep up appearances. I don’t begrudge a thief who only steals from bigger thieves.