About that surge™ and it's so-called "success"

In one way, and one way only, the Surge™ has been a stellar success. It has allowed the miserable failure posing as a president to buy a year and hand his unholy clusterfuck off to the next president. But as the sand slips through the hourglass, he is furiously getting down to business setting up the chess board so it will be an utter albatross around the neck of the next president.

Wednesday the White House confirmed that aWol's budget, to be revealed next month, won't fully fund the war in Iraq for the coming year. Immediately upon the new Congress being seated and the next President taking office, major cost questions will have to be confronted. And the criminal enterprise passing itself off as a presidency will skate out of town leaving the troops in the field unfunded. Should McCain prevail in securing the nomination and gaining the presidency (fat chance, I know) leaving the troops unfunded and in harms way would be a final "Fuck You" from Bush to McCain. Remember, McCain is making perpetual occupation a centerpiece of his campaign.

But not only is aWol not funding it - he is strong-arming the Iraqi puppet government, insisting it give the United States broad authority not only to conduct combat operations, but also to guarantee that mercenaries like the thugs from Blackwater be granted legal protections that would continue to shield them from Iraqi law. The current international mandate will expire before the end of the year.

This emerging American negotiating position faces a potential buzz saw of opposition from Iraq, with its fragmented Parliament, weak central government and deep sensitivities about being seen as a dependent state, according to these officials.

At the same time, the administration faces opposition from Democrats at home, who warn that the agreements that the White House seeks would bind the next president by locking in Mr. Bush’s policies and a long-term military presence.

The American negotiating position for a formal military-to-military relationship, one that would replace the current United Nations mandate, is laid out in a draft proposal that was described by White House, Pentagon, State Department and military officials on ground rules of anonymity. It also includes less controversial demands that American troops be immune from Iraqi prosecution, and that they maintain the power to detain Iraqi prisoners.

Basically, what the bastard is trying to do is put in place a security arrangement - which in normal times with a law-abiding president would require a treaty and senate ratification. But these are not normal times and this is not a law abiding president. The reality is, he could not get the approval of 2/3 of the Senate, so he is bullheadedly going on his own merry way and the rest of the country be damned. Representative Bill Delahunt (D, Mass) pulled no punches:

“Where have we ever had an agreement to defend a foreign country from external attack and internal attack that was not a treaty?” he said Wednesday at a hearing of a foreign affairs subcommittee held to review the matter. “This could very well implicate our military forces in a full-blown civil war in Iraq. If a commitment of this magnitude does not rise to the level of a treaty, then it is difficult to imagine what could.”

Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, who raised concerns in a letter to the White House in December, said the negotiations were an unprecedented step toward making an agreement on status of forces without the overarching security guarantees like those provided in the NATO treaty. He added that the Democratic majority would seek to block any agreements with the Iraqis, unless the administration was clear about its ultimate intentions in Iraq.

Senator Jim Webb was outspoken about his disgust with aWol's ploy. “There’s no exit strategy, because the administration doesn’t have one,” Senator Webb said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “By entering this agreement, they avoid a debate and they validate their unspoken strategy.”

And then there are the eighteen benchmarks set forth to measure the success of the "New Way Forward" that Resident Evil™ laid out when he decided to "surge" troops back to previous levels. A whopping three of the eighteen have been met. Two of eight governmental benchmarks and one of eight security benchmarks have been met. None of the economic goals have been realized.

Remember that the ostensible purpose for the troop buildup was to give the Iraqi government "breathing space" to achieve political reconciliation. A year later, and the surge by necessity drawing down, progress has been minimal, and what has been achieved is not sustainable. Iraqis have not made the necessary compromises to achieve reconciliation. The only thing they seem able to agree on is that vacations are a grand notion, so they have adjourned parliament and spent fully two of the last twelve months on vacation.

They will never step up and deal with the hellish reality the idiot Bush has created for them, so long as Americans occupy the battlespace. Not only is there no military solution, the presence of our military precludes the political solution from occurring.

The only way the political leadership in Iraq is going to step up is for the United States to set a date certain for withdrawal of American forces. It is the only way to prompt the recalcitrant Iraqi leaders to make the compromises necessary for political reconciliation. As American forces redeploy over the remainder of 2008, the best hope is for a "diplomatic surge" to take place among Iraq and all of the neighboring states. But the current administration is not likely to be amenable to such an approach - remember that Syria and Iran are bordering states, and the Bush administration considers them "bad actors."

When one puts the pieces together, it is easy to see that aWol's decision to go forward with the AEI's Surge™ strategy, the only success the shell game (with live shells!) has realized is running out the clock so the next president will be the one who has to clean up his murderous mess.

Heckuva job, there George, you mendacious drooling cretin. Heckuva job.

The cynic in me...

...says that Resident Evil™ and his minions making their surprise trip to Anbar today is a headfake.

Think about it...

The Brits are done, they turned over the Palace Complex in Basra and are out of combat operations. The Iraqi flag now flies over the palace, and the Shiites are firmly in control in the south.

Not only have the Brits withdrawn from the theater of operations, but British Generals have been blasting the Bush administration for being morons and turning Iraq into the biggest cock-up in the history of western meddling in the region - and they know from cock-ups...Suez anyone?

What is a swaggering, smirking goon to do when his mates bail?

There is only one appropriate course of action...Photo op!

Stop off in the war zone for a bit of Kabuki in al Anbar (where there is some progress, but it has nothing to do with the so-called Surge™ and everything to do with making deals with the devil) on your way to Australia - where by the way, your Man in Baghdad Petraeus has already popped in to soften 'em up for you - Talk to a couple of Marines in Anbar...ask them about morale...they report morale is high...that bit gets picked up by the media, but the media doesn't report the part about Marine deployments being SEVEN months - the Army deploys for over twice as long, 15 months, and there were no soldiers anywhere near the pathetic, failed dullard.

And the cocktail-weenie-wagging shills of the M$M fawn, and fail to live up to their Constitutionally protected role once again.

THIS is what the doofus gets pissy about???

Oh sweet mother of pearl! The Resident Idiot of Duh-merica can't be bothered to notice when he is handed a memo warning of an impending terrorist attack, but let him have his wardrobe criticized, and he hits someone with his purse!

Last week Marques Harper, a reporter at the Austin American Statesman, wrote a short article on Resident Evil's choice of attire when he visits the "ranch" in Crawford.

The following passage from the article really set him atwitter!

Bush has two distinct looks when he's in Texas: the ranch-hand man and the crisp appearance of a ranch owner. In recent months, with his sliding popularity, he's opted to look more like "Walker, Texas Ranger" than a sweaty, tough ranch hand.

"As he loses popularity, his image is more and more critical," said Sara Canaday, an Austin-based communication and image consultant. "He's being advised wisely. He'd better step it up. He wants to have this sort of bravado image when he's on that ranch."

If that's the case, it's unlikely we'll see Bush with his 2002 Crawford photo-op accessories: aviator sunglasses, grungy, sweaty T-shirt, cowboy hat, light-colored jeans and Ford F-250.

When I say it set him atwitter, I am not exaggerating...

The article was reprinted Tuesday in a Waco, Tex., paper, and the leader of the free world was not pleased.

Harper received a phone call that morning from White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino, who, Harper told friends, said the president read the article and was unhappy about the way he was portrayed.

"I was surprised," said the style writer, who declined to repeat the off-the-record conversation with Perino when we called.

Well, at least he has his priorities in order...