Wednesday, November 29, 2006

INCOMPETENTS ABROAD

Straight from the "Oh Man, This Hadley Guy Is Sooooooo Fired" Files, the NY Times is reporting that after an October 30 visit to Bagdad, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley wrote the following in a November 8 report about Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki:
“His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change. But 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 . . . . If Mr. Maliki fails to carry out a series of specified steps, it may ultimately be necessary to press him to reconfigure his parliamentary bloc, a step the United States could support by providing “monetary support to moderate groups,” and by sending thousands of additional American troops to Baghdad to make up for what the document suggests is a current shortage of Iraqi forces.
Whoa. Change this guy's name to Diem and the Vietnam parallels get so obvious they speak for themselves. Now, if we can return from the exotic, desert heat of Iraqi politics to the more familiar climate of the Administration Bullshit Storm ("ABS"), let's see what the Big Boy and his spinners have to say. Well, AP reports that Bush himself said the following at a summit in that hotbed of NATO power, the Latvian capital of Riga:
"[Maliki & I] will discuss the situation on the ground in his country, our ongoing efforts to transfer more responsibility to the Iraqi security forces, and the responsibility of other nations in the region to support the security and stability of Iraq."
Americans are dying every day, the nation we've invaded is engulfed in civil war, and in a Saigon '75-like scene of chaos and anarchy, roaming bands of "militiamen" murder Iraqi civilians by the score. And Bush, before the eyes of the world, looks for solutions and shared responsibility from a man his own advisor says 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."

This man is unfit to be President of our nation. Unfit.

Whew. If I can lighten things up a bit (so I don't burst a cerebral blood vessel as I type in rage), a quick weather report from the ABS. From Bush, himself:
"We'll continue to be flexible, and we'll make the changes necessary to succeed. But there's one thing I'm not going to do: I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete."
He's lying. Again. There's something else he's "not going to do": devise a stategy to win, exit, stop the spending, or stop the dying. Then this, from a "senior administration" official, speaking on condition of anonymity:
"You have a constant reiteration of the importance of strengthening the Maliki government, the need to work with him, to augment his capabilities . . . [Bush & Maliki] have a personal relationship [allowing them to] talk candidly about the challenges."
I believe we've heard this about Bush and every foreign leader, potentate, dictator, or apparatchik he's met. Never anything about vision, strategies, plans, or strength. Nah. They like to hang, they're buds. Remember folks, this is the President you'd like to sit down and have a beer with. Another "anonymous" official (what's that about stormy seas, rats, and sinking ships again?) said about the Hadley Report and its suggestions, that it's:
"[not] a slap in the face, but it's how do we grow his capability."
I have no idea what that means. Any help? And finally (to drive this "Storm" trope so far into the ground it'll be deeper than the enriched uranium buried beneath the Iraqi soil), the Bullshit Miser himself, Tony Snow said:
"The president has confidence in Prime Minister Maliki, and also the administration is working with the prime minister to improve his capabilities. [Maliki] has been very aggressive in recent weeks in taking on some of the key challenges."
Key challenge? Like listening to Bush without laughing? Good for him. Let him read about all this from the shoes of an American (or one of the citizens from his soon-to be-doomed nation) and see if he can avoid crying, screaming, or both.

In the meantime, at least he can feel swelling pride that powerful men from the world's most powerful nation are committed to augmenting, improving, and most importantly, growing his less-than-impressive "capability." I'm sure Mrs. Maliki is pleased.

8 Comments:

Blogger DED said...

Change this guy's name to Diem and the Vietnam parallels get so obvious they speak for themselves.

Absolutely.

This man is unfit to be President of our nation.

Amen.

The president has confidence in Prime Minister Maliki, and also the administration is working with the prime minister to improve his capabilities.

Good job Brownie... errr uhhh Maliki.

1:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

All right! Now you've gone too far.

Let's not insult Maliki too much. He's the democratically-elected leader of a free nation.

Right?

1:46 PM  
Blogger DED said...

Yeah, sorry. He was elected. I suppose there's plenty of purple fingers over there to prove it.

2:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A little off the subject, but we had a covey of op-ed letters in the Chronicle this morning regarding a resumption of the draft. I responded with the offering below. I doubt it will be printed, so I will post it here for you and the other two guys that visit your site to read. I think that prick on CFN the other day would call it spamming. 




“I offer one more opinion in favor of returning to the military draft. I agree with other correspondents that the quality of the military would not be improved by the draft. I expect the professionalism of the uniformed services is at a higher level than any time in our nation’s history. A return to the draft would however force an improvement in the quality of the argument for going to war.

“Congress allowed this administration to commit U.S. forces to combat in Iraq based on information that was at best flawed, and at worst, fabricated—and with an analytical forecast for the post invasion environment that was beyond incredible in its optimism.

“Had there existed the potential that young men and women from families of privilege and political voice would be fed into this awful meat grinder, harder questions would have surely been asked and much, much better answers required.”

3:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WFTA-

With a gun to my head, and a demand that I answer yea or ney on the draft, I have to vote in the negative.

I just can't jive forced conscription in anything short of a national emergency with my other philosophies.

That being said . . . I agree with this idea from what you wrote: A return to the draft would however force an improvement in the quality of the argument for going to war.

The children "from families of privilege" are still gonna slime their way out of harm's way no matter what (see: Bush, George W.), but you're right-on with regards to children of families with a "political voice."

* * *

And by the way: for you and the other two guys that visit your site???

There've gotta be at least . . . uhhhh, well, uhhh, four regulars here, not two. You owe a sincere apology to at least the one other guy besides me, you, and the two guys you mention. WFTA, you've broken his heart, whoever he is.

3:24 PM  
Blogger DED said...

The children "from families of privilege" are still gonna slime their way out of harm's way no matter what (see: Bush, George W.), but you're right-on with regards to children of families with a "political voice."

Exactly! Unless a draft is raised without exceptions, there's no way I could ever support it. Whatever loophole is offered, it will be taken up by each every family member of priviledge. Health problems? You'll see a rash of rich kids with heart conditions. Conscientious Observer? Suddenly rich kids will become pacifists. Or maybe they'll spend the war in Europe going from Amsterdam to Bonn on Daddy's credit card.

4:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not to engage in too much class consciousness, when I say families of privilege I don’t mean to limit it to “extreme privilege,” but upper and middle/professional classes as opposed to working class. If it matters, I grew up in the latter and now reside comfortably in the second. The former is unlikely unless the two dollars a week ventured on lotto comes through.

5:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

upper and middle/professional classes

Those are the "political voice" families we spoke of earlier.

7:46 PM  

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