Tag: Iraq

Poll: Only 14% Agree with Bush That Iraq Conflict Is Not a Civil War

Jon Ponder

After months of polls that show around 30 percent of Americans — let’s call them “Dead-Enders” — approve of or agree with the president, there is a new poll out that indicates that no more than 14 percent of Americans believe that the crisis the president and his team have created in Iraq is not a civil war. And the poll is from no less a conservative bastion than the Wall Street Journal:

Sixty-eight percent of U.S. adults said they believe there is a civil war in Iraq, the online poll from Nov. 13 to Nov. 20 found, compared with 14 percent who disagree and 18 percent who aren’t sure…

About half of those polled would like the government to set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq, while 18% favor withdrawing all U.S. troops now and 19% favor sending more troops to stabilize the situation.

The 18 percent who aren’t sure whether it’s a civil war are a bit scary but maybe they’ll see reality soon too.

Bush Team Tries Rovian ‘Spin & Smear’ Tactics with Maliki

Jon Ponder

The Bush team tried some of their patented political tricks on the international stage this week, but their run of luck appears to have played out, no matter what stage they are on.

As the president headed to Jordan for a summit meeting with King Abdullah and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, the Bush team leaked a memo written by National Security Adivsor Stephen Hadley in which he was critical of Maliki to the New York Times:

[The] reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.

Maliki was already in trouble at home with the head of a Shia faction who threatened to pull his followers out of the Iraqi parliament, which could cause the government to collapse.

While it’s possible that the leak to the New York Times was intended to give Maliki cover back home, his reaction to it seems to indicate that he was offended by it. He canceled an appearance at a state dinner with Bush and the king last night.

Maliki finally met with Bush this morning and at a news conference afterwards, the body language between them was not good.

Iraq Study Group Recommends Cutting and Running

Trish

This should be interesting.

The independent, bipartisan panel studying U.S. policy in Iraq has unanimously agreed to a report that will call for a gradual pullback of American combat troops in Iraq but stops short of setting a firm timetable for withdrawal, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

But Brave Bushie said we’d never, ever do that. Remember? His is not the party of “cut and run.” His is also not the party that matters anymore.

Still, it will be interesting to see how Rove et al frame this. After all, you’re either with them or against them.

Webb Gives Bush a Slap in the Face, Not a Pat on the Back

Trish

Many Congressional Democrats spent the days right after the election victory in Washington pulling their punches with the recently “thumped” president. Not Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), who stuck to the subject.

Webb has my admiration for his restraint. Most of us would have been unable to keep from saying, “He’s in Iraq, you moron. How the hell do you think he is?”

At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia’s newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn’t long before Bush found him.

“How’s your boy?” Bush asked, referring to Webb’s son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

“I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

“That’s not what I asked you,” Bush said. “How’s your boy?”

“That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President,” Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.

Webb has my admiration for his restraint. Most of us would have been unable to keep from saying, “He’s in Iraq, you moron. How the hell do you think he is?”

“I’m not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall,” Webb said in an interview yesterday in which he confirmed the exchange between him and Bush. “No offense to the institution of the presidency, and I’m certainly looking forward to working with him and his administration. [But] leaders do some symbolic things to try to convey who they are and what the message is.”

…The White House declined to discuss the encounter. “As a general matter, we do not comment on private receptions hosted by the president at the White House,” said White House spokeswoman Dana M. Perino.

Yeah, sure they don’t. Not to mention it’s just one more example of how profoundly her boss doesn’t get it.

Did Bush really think Webb would gush over him for remembering that Webb’s son is doing what Bush himself was too weak and selfish to do when it was his turn? The man’s son is in Iraq. If Bush really expected his question to be met with, “He’s great, and thanks for asking. How are the twins?” then he’s even dumber than I thought. And that can’t be possible.

Pelosi: Bush’s Tired Claim That al Qaeda Is Fueling Iraq Violence Is ‘Sad’

Jon Ponder

CNN:

House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said Tuesday she feels “sad” President Bush blamed insurgent violence on al Qaeda while he dismissed notions Iraq is in a civil war.

“My thoughts on the president’s representations are well-known,” Pelosi told reporters while meeting with Deputy Italian Minister Francesco Rutelli. “The 9/11 Commission dismissed that notion a long time ago and I feel sad that the president is resorting to it again.”

Rightwing Drone Rich Lowry Joins Ranks of Anti-American ‘Bush Haters’

Jon Ponder
Of course, Mr. Lowry does not acknowledge — much less apologize for — his own full-throated support for Pres. Bush while he was taking the country to war on nothing more than a tissue of lies and an aristocratic whim.

It wasn’t so long ago that the conventional wisdom on the right was that Pres. Bush was a perfect leader whom God had sent to lead the nation through perilous times. When things did not go well, it wasn’t the fault of Dear Leader — who, after all, took his cues from God’s voice in his earpiece — instead the fault lay with liberals who dared to criticize him.

They called us “Bush haters” — and attacked our patriotism by suggesting that criticizing the president equalled hating America. (Unless the president’s name is Clinton or Carter — in which case it is the duty of rightwing patriots to rip the President of the United States to shreds.)

Now how the worm has turned. If there is a more rightwing doctrinaire idealogue than Rich Lowry toiling in the vines of punditry today, I can’t think who it might be. So it is worth noting that now even Rich Lowry hates Pres. Bush and America:

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The Horror: Web Postings from Iraqis

Buck Banks

Cries of desperation: As if we needed more examples of the chaos our government has wrought in Iraq, here are some truly chilling Web postings from inside the country. I have (possibly unwisely — hello Washington goons!) been monitoring several related Web sites: Electronic Intifada, Electronic Iraq and Electronic Lebanon.

These sites provide some insight (if they are real, and they certainly seem so, but check them out for yourself) into the situation on the ground in Iraq, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern hotspots, as well as news and analysis not filtered through the Western press. From Healing Iraq, a weblog purportedly by an Iraqi dentist named Zeyad, comes the following harrowing posts to Iraqi message boards by people at today’s Ground Zero. They constitute a sampling of how average people are trying to survive an increasingly untenuous situation for Iraqi citizens:

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Iraq Plan Unmitigated Disaster

Trish

Oh yeah. We’re getting closer by the day to being able to hand this thing over to the Iraqis and walk away. Because, you know, their police and security forces have really taken to this whole training thing.

Shiite militiamen doused six Sunni Arabs with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and killed 19 other Sunnis in attacks on their mosques Friday, taking revenge for the previous day’s attack on a Sadr City slum…

The bloodshed underlined the impotence of the Iraqi army and police to quell determined sectarian extremists at a time when the United States appears to be considering a move to accelerate the handover of security responsibilities.

Six Car Bombs Kill 146 in Baghdad – 268 Wounded in Sadr City

Jon Ponder

All hell is breaking loose:

Six car bombs killed 146 people in a Shi’ite stronghold today in the bloodiest attack in Baghdad since the US invasion and the authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on a city fearful of a sectarian civil war.

A further 268 people were wounded in the series of blasts in the capital’s Sadr City slum, a Health Ministry official said.

The blasts came at the same time as gunmen surrounded and fired on the Shi’ite-run Health Ministry in one of the boldest daylight assaults by militants in Baghdad. Mortars later crashed down on a nearby Sunni enclave in an apparent reprisal attack.