Day: July 26, 2006

Rumsfeld on Whether Iraq Is in Civil War: ‘Oh, I Don’t Know’

Jon Ponder

If the Sec. of Defense doesn’t know whether a country we conquered is in civil war, who does?

[Reporter:] Is the country closer to a civil war?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I don’t know. You know, I thought about that last night, and just musing over the words, the phrase, and what constitutes it. If you think of our Civil War, this is really very different. If you think of civil wars in other countries, this is really quite different. There is — there is a good deal of violence in Baghdad and two or three other provinces, and yet in 14 other provinces there’s very little violence or numbers of incidents. So it’s a — it’s a highly concentrated thing. It clearly is being stimulated by people who would like to have what could be characterized as a civil war and win it, but I’m not going to be the one to decide if, when or at all.

MoDo on Bush’s Foreign Policy Evolution: ‘Like Watching Dry Paint’

Jon Ponder

Maureen Dowd:

The more things get complicated, the more W. feels vindicated in his own simplified vision. The more people try to tell him that it’s not easy, that this is a region of shifting alliances and interests, the less he seems inclined to develop an adroit policy to win people over to our side instead of trying to annihilate them.

Bill Clinton, the Mutable Man par excellence, evolved four times a day; he had a tactical and even recreational attitude toward personal change. But W. prides himself on his changelessness and regards his immutability as the surest sign of his virtue. Facing a map on fire, he sees any inkling of change as the slippery slope to failure.

That’s what is so frustrating about watching him deal – or not deal – with Iraq and Lebanon. There’s almost nothing to watch.

It’s not even like watching paint dry, since that, too, is a passage from one state to another. It’s like watching dry paint.

Military-Industrial Complex Healthy — Boeing Blackmailing Army

Buck Banks

Washington bullets: “Congress Daily” reports that Boeing Co. and two subcontractors are threatening to stop development work and lay off as many as 1,300 employees working on the manned vehicle portion of the Army’s $164 billion Future Combat Systems program because it has run out of money, according to the Army said.

Of course, work can continue and employees stay employed if two congressional committees that oversee the defense budget approve a transfer of $295 million, the Army said Monday, as reported by Bloomberg News.

Boeing Co. reported a $1.1 billion second-quarter loss today.

“That money has now been exhausted and must be restored,” Army Lt. Col. William Wiggins said in an e-mail. Wiggins said he did not know when a stop-work order or layoffs might begin.

London-based BAE System’s North American unit and Falls Church-based General Dynamics are the primary companies developing eight models of manned tactical and support vehicles for the Army’s Future Combat Systems program.

A General Dynamics spokesman referred all comment to the Army, and a BAE Systems spokesman had no immediate comment.

But a Boeing spokeswoman said that “reports of imminent layoffs on the FCS program due to funding issues are incorrect.

“It is our understanding that a funding reprogramming request was submitted to the congressional defense committees and is proceeding through approvals,” she wrote. “The reprogramming approval needs to occur in a timely fashion, however, to allow the FCS program to continue to execute on plan.”

So the request is wending its way through the approval process, just not as fast as the Army — and probably Boeing — wants it to.

The Future Combat Systems program is described as “a new family of faster manned and unmanned battle vehicles linked by high-speed, digital communications, unmanned drones and new combat radios organized into brigade-combat teams taht are lighter than today’s Army.”

Interesting, but TradingMarkets.com reports today that Boeing is losing money wing over rudder:

Boeing Co. announced financial results for its second quarter, reporting a loss as the company took $1.1 billion of previously announced charges to settle government investigations into its defence unit and to cover the costs of delayed surveillance aircraft.

Ouch! I don’t suppose $294 million will go far to offset that kind of loss, but hey, it’s a start, right?

Midterm Alternatives Shaping Up to be ‘Pretty Pathetic’

Buck Banks

Hobson’s choice: “National Journal’s” Charlie Cook sums up the rather cynical state of our two-party system as we approach November:

For all the talk about Democrats needing to “be for something,” a stronger case can be made that the Democrats should just stay out of the way and let events take their course. If Democrats prevail on November 7, their success won’t be due to any great idea they have or great message they are selling.

It will be because they are not Republicans and because people voted against Republicans. The Republicans’ only hope of retaining control on both sides of Capitol Hill is to get across the message that “no matter how angry or disappointed you are in us, Democrats are far worse and would screw things up even more.”

Pretty pathetic, isn’t it: Either one side wins because of what it isn’t, or the other side wins because it convinces voters that it is the lesser of two evils.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

GEORGE W. BUSH: I’m looking forward to the feast you’re going to have tonight. I understand I may have the honor of slicing the pig …. I’m optimistic we can still get something done on the Doha Round. It’s going to take work, but G8 is a good place for us to continue the dialogue, and we will. And I guess that’s about all — we discussed a lot of things, in other words. And thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to that pig tonight ….

REPORTER: On both of these. Does it concern you that the Beirut airport has been bombed? And do you see a risk of triggering a wider war? And on Iran, they’ve, so far, refused to respond. Is it now past the deadline, or do they still have more time to respond?

GWB: I thought you were going to ask me about the pig.

REPORTER: I’m curious about that, too.

GWB: The pig? I’ll tell you tomorrow after I eat it.

— During a press availability event with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was going to be serving roast wild boar to President Bush that evening during the G8 Summit, Stralsund, Germany, July 13, 2006