What is going on?

[Gonz]

Have the Dems become so boring that the NY Times & it's underlings have started doing Iraq is going well pieces? There have been more & more stories showing the progress being made there lately.

None, however, top this: the most liberal, Anti-American, pro-socialist rag in Germany is seeing the light.

Someone, check the temp in hell.

When describing Iraq, the word "peace" is seldom used. Truth be told, the Americans have restored order to many parts of the county.

The Iraqis in Ramadi, almost all Sunnis, had been worn down by chronic violence had finally come to the realization that, in the long run, the Americans were less of a threat and offered more hope than the fanatical holy warriors from Iraq and abroad.

The Americans run into acquaintances in the crowd. After being stationed in the city for 10 months, they have become a familiar sight. Bearded men greet the soldiers with hugs and kisses, and passersby hand them cold cans of lemonade. "Thank you, Mister," "Hello, Mister," "How are you, Mister?" they say. They talk about paint for schools and soccer jerseys, and they invite the Americans over for lunch. The Iraqis pose for photos with them, making "V's" for "victory" with their fingers.

Der Spiegel

A very long read.

 

[2minkey]

well if this is accurate then that's super.

given the track record, i'm mnot holding my breath.

but a constructive "win" would be fabulous.

 

[Cerise]

The good news in Iraq shouting so loud that even the left wing hack media can't ignore it.

The dems already see the writing on the wall and are running from their "this war is lost" and "our soldiers are murderers."

 

[2minkey]

"our soldiers are murderers."

i haven't heard that from anyone not within the .000003% of the farthest left wing tenured professor fringe.

don't turn this into another cartoon.

 

[markjs]

Nobody in their right mind wishes for failure in Iraq. Sucess or no though it doesn't make the pretenses under which we went in under any less false!

So Cerise....

 

[Gato_Solo]

i haven't heard that from anyone not within the .000003% of the farthest left wing tenured professor fringe.

don't turn this into another cartoon.

That, IMO, is not the cartoon. The real joke is that too many people are buying into the line that this 'war' is unwinnable, too expensive, or as a pretense to acquire wealth. Slowly but surely, the first assumption is proving false, the second is never wrong (all 'wars' are too expensive), and the third is laughable. What is always forgotten is that once the meat is in the grinder, you can only make sausage. You can't put the meat back together again.

 

[Gonz]

i haven't heard that from anyone not within the .000003% of the farthest left wing tenured professor fringe.

A US Congressman.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., told "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" in an exclusive appearance that reports a group of U.S. Marines may have killed 24 Iraqi civilians following an IED explosion in Haditha, Iraq, was "worse than Abu Ghraib," calling their actions war crimes committed "in cold blood."

ABC News

 

[Cerise]

i haven't heard that from anyone not within the .000003% of the farthest left wing tenured professor fringe.

don't turn this into another cartoon.

Ring any bells?

(CNSNews.com) - The parents of a U.S. Marine accused of killing three Iraqis execution-style in Haditha in late 2005 said Thursday they would ask Congress to censure Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for saying that the Marines "overreacted" during the incident and killed civilians "in cold blood.

"There was no firefight. There was no explosion that killed civilians in a bus. There was no bus. There was no shrapnel. There were only bullet holes inside the homes where the Marines had gone in….Our troops over-reacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood" said Murtha.

Murtha is pretty far left.

 

[Gonz]

Nobody in their right mind wishes for failure in Iraq. Sucess or no though it doesn't make the pretenses under which we went in under any less false!

So Cerise....

You mean that when the US Congress voted to give the President authorization to use force in Iraq , they were in on it? If I recalll correctly, the vote was 98-2.

How about when the UN Security Council authorized the US to use force, that was 15-0 wasnt it?

 

[2minkey]

That, IMO, is not the cartoon. The real joke is that too many people are buying into the line that this 'war' is unwinnable, too expensive, or as a pretense to acquire wealth. Slowly but surely, the first assumption is proving false, the second is never wrong (all 'wars' are too expensive), and the third is laughable. What is always forgotten is that once the meat is in the grinder, you can only make sausage. You can't put the meat back together again.

which begs the question shoulda we inserted the sausage in the first place. often that leads to regret... and harrassing phone calls..

 

[2minkey]

Ring any bells?



Murtha is pretty far left.

okay fine murtha is a weenie.

but i still think it's a pretty teeny-weenie bunch of folks that are in the "baby killer" camp. i don't know anyone personally that thinks like that. and i work with a bunch of ph.d.'d commies.

 

[Gonz]

How about the 1st tier, runner-up contender to the 2008 Presidential elections?

"Now you have narco drug lords who are helping to finance the Taliban, so we've got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops that we are not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there."

Source, including Winkys favorite-Youtube

 

[2minkey]

How about the 1st tier, runner-up contender to the 2008 Presidential elections?

hmmmm maybe i been tuning that out... for good reason...

but is that really indicative of how many real everyday americans think? i dunno... i don't think so...

i mean, gee, those folks in hollywood say a lotta shit, but does anyone real actually buy into that crap?

 

[Gonz]

Wjen Hollyweirders say that crap, we ignore them. When current members of Congress say it, we should be scared for our future.

 

[Cerise]

Nobody in their right mind wishes for failure in Iraq. Sucess or no though it doesn't make the pretenses under which we went in under any less false!

So Cerise....blah blah blah waaaaa

I agree with you that Clyburn is not in his right mind, but I do believe he did say this in an interview to the Washington Post.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party's efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.

Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.

"I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us," Clyburn said. "We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report."

But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing something more generally positive. Clyburn said that would be "a real big problem for us."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001380.html

What exactly do you think that means if not that he's hoping for failure in Iraq? And what do you think possessed him to say it? Bush Derangement Syndrome?


By the way, markjs, Harry Reid has something for you:

 

[2minkey]

Wjen Hollyweirders say that crap, we ignore them. When current members of Congress say it, we should be scared for our future.

well that's a good point. i'm just saying that most regular folk ain't at all that way. maybe a few folks in government trying to pull some of the greenie vote. maybe some piss-filled college students intoxicated by the wade churchills of the world. but not me, you, smurfette, pepe le pew.

 

[Gonz]

Most regualr folk I know want us to kick their ass & be done with it....not a single one wants to leave with the job half finished (unllike Congresss). In fact, I've not met many heartlanders who are against the war.

 

[2minkey]

well dude you know that i've been ambivalent about the war from way back at OCN. despite my generally hawkish foreign policy views i've been really concerned about basic competence in planning and level of resources, not to mention the less-than-perfectly-understood can of worms that was about to be opened.

when the war started, i was in some second floor shit-ass chinese restaurant in portland. i rememeber explaining to my friend about various types of guided munitions and all that. and i have to admit, i was kinda happy to see the footage of shit getting blown up - despite tha fact that i knew the whole al quada in iraq stuff was a near ideological impossibility at the time...

and there was this nagging doubt...

"our commander in chief is not so smart... i wonder if he'll fuck it up..."

at this point i'd be overjoyed to see something positive come out of the effort.

 

[markjs]

You mean that when the US Congress voted to give the President authorization to use force in Iraq , they were in on it? If I recalll correctly, the vote was 98-2.

How about when the UN Security Council authorized the US to use force, that was 15-0 wasnt it?

Yeah based on the intelligence that they had WMDs, so where are they Gonz? Are you hiding them in your closet?

 

[Cerise]

1.) Well, there was this
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,123680,00.html

Duelfer also told Fox News that about 10 or 12 sarin and mustard gas shells have been found in various locations in Iraq.

2.) and this
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in576372.shtml

Kay said his team had, however, found "dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002."

"We have not yet found stocks of weapons," Kay told Congress, according to a declassified version of his remarks, released by the CIA after his closed-door briefings.

3.) and this
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...120720,00.html

Mustard gas found by Iraq weapon hunters...
Paul Harris in New York
Sunday January 11, 2004
The Observer

Dozens of mortar rounds believed to be armed with mustard gas have been discovered buried in Iraq, Danish troops said yesterday.

If confirmed, the find will be the first discovery of chemical munitions in Iraq by coalition forces scouring the country for the weapons of mass destruction used as justification for the US-led invasion.

'All the instruments showed indications of the same type of chemical compound, namely blister gas,' the Danish Army said in a statement on its website. Final test results will be announced within two days. . .

The Danish team has found only 36 mortar rounds buried in desert about 45 miles from Al Amarah, a southern town. But it added that up to a 100 more could still be hidden at the location. The rounds were in plastic bags and some were leaking. It seems they had been buried for at least 10 years.

4. and this

Beginning in May 2004, ISG recovered a series of chemical weapons from Coalition military units and other sources. A total of 53 munitions have been recovered..

the Duelfer Report

5. Inspectors also found uranium laced R-60 missiles in iraq

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/arti...9/154650.shtml

6.
and this

May 04: 155mm Chemical Munitions Used as an
Improvised Explosive Device
Military units recovered a 155mm artillery round near
Baghdad International Airport. Analysis of the residue
at the bottom of the round by ISG fi eld labs returned
positive indications for sulfur mustard CW agent.

the Duelfer Report

7. and this

16 May 2004: 152mm Binary Chemical
Improvised Explosive Device
A military unit near Baghdad Airport reported a sus-
pect IED along the main road between the airport and
the Green Zone (see figure 2). The munitions were
remotely detonated and the remaining liquid tested
positive in ISG field labs for the nerve agent Sarin and
a key Sarin degradation product.

the Duelfer report


8. and this

An Iraqi source turned over to Polish Forces two
122mm rockets obtained at the Khamisiyah Depot—a
former CW storage site declared by Iraq to have
housed 122mm filled rockets (see Figure 6). Details
about the provenance of these rounds remain unclear
but the source Sarin/Cyclosarin believes the missiles
were housed in a bunker struck during the Gulf war
and subsequently hidden in canals and lakes in the
area. Analysis of the liquid residue revealed the nerve
agents Sarin (GB) and Cyclosarin (GF) as well as a
number of impurities and known degradation products
of GB and GF.

the Duelfer Report

9. and this

25 June 2004: 17 Additional 122mm SAKR-18
Artillery Rockets. July 2004: 22 Additional 122mm
SAKR-18 Artillery Rockets

An additional 17 rockets from the same cache
described above (d) were identifi ed at the Khamisi-
yah Depot by the same source. (See figure 8). Six-
teen were returned to ISG for analysis and one was
exploded onsite because it retained an intact rocket
motor that posed safety concerns. Most of the rounds
had been severed, exposed to heat, or were partially
destroyed. Four intact rounds were separated for
testing and returned a preliminary positive result for
G-series nerve agent.

Duelfer report


10 and this

http://www.americanthinker.com/artic...53&search=wmds

“One of the reported incidents occurred near Karbala where there appeared to be a very large “agricultural supply” area of 55-gallon drums of pesticide. In addition, there was also a camouflaged bunker complex full of these drums that some people entered with unpleasant results. More than a dozen soldiers, a Knight-Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman, and two Iraqi POWs came down with symptoms consistent with exposure to nerve agent. A full day of tests on the drums resulted in one positive for nerve agent, and then one resulted in a negative. Later, an Army Fox NBC [nuclear, biological, chemical] Recon Vehicle confirmed the existence of Sarin. An officer from the 63d Chemical Company thought there might well be chemical weapons at the site.

But later ISG tests resulted in a proclamation of negative, end of story, nothing to see here, etc., and the earlier findings and injuries dissolved into non-existence. Left unexplained is the small matter of the obvious pains taken to disguise the cache of ostensibly legitimate pesticides. One wonders about the advantage an agricultural commodities business gains by securing drums of pesticide in camouflaged bunkers six feet underground. The “agricultural site” was also co-located with a military ammunition dump, evidently nothing more than a coincidence in the eyes of the ISG.

Sorry to have to intrude on your delusional worldview with pesky details like facts and objective reality.....