Yes, He Will Cut and Run--Because He Wants A Legacy

Now that the so-called surge has "worked" in the collective wisdom of the Washington DC establishment, the acceleration of the withdrawal of US troops can start--so that George W Bush can depart the Presidency with troops being drawn down. He can do this because coverage of the war is non-existent, it makes people feel good about him, and it allows him phony coverage so he can claim he "won" the Iraq war, handed it off to someone else, and brought the boys home by Christmas.

The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago.

Such a withdrawal would be a striking reversal from the nadir of the war in 2006 and 2007.

One factor in the consideration is the pressing need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there.

More American and allied troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May and June, a trend that has continued this month.

Although no decision has been made, by the time President Bush leaves office on Jan. 20, at least one and as many as 3 of the 15 combat brigades now in Iraq could be withdrawn or at least scheduled for withdrawal, the officials said.

The desire to move more quickly reflects the view of many in the Pentagon who want to ease the strain on the military but also to free more troops for Afghanistan and potentially other missions.

Prepare to be sickened by the praise for the Bush Administration. They know the only chance McCain has is to eliminate the Iraq War as an issue, so the Bush Administration and the DC Establishment is going to do whatever they can to praise Bush for his "leadership" and to show that only John McCain can be trusted to "finish the job."

This cynical, unrealistic and untenable position on the war is all these people have left. They are fighting tooth and nail to keep the American people from seeing the costs of the war--in deaths and injuries, in lost souls and wandering, homeless Veterans. They desperately need to draw down to around a hundred thousand US troops or slightly less--so they can say that there are "more" troops deployed in Europe, Japan and Korea than in the Middle East. It's a sham, and no one should buy it.

--WS

How Republicans Have Failed to Protect The American People

Everyone will probably be talking about this, so why shouldn't we? It's not a shock to anyone that al Qaeda is using Pakistan to reconstitute itself. So why is it a shock to anyone when people criticize the relationship between the man who runs Pakistan and the Bush Administration?

Just as it had on the day before 9/11, Al Qaeda now has a band of terror camps from which to plan and train for attacks against Western targets, including the United States. Officials say the new camps are smaller than the ones the group used prior to 2001. However, despite dozens of American missile strikes in Pakistan since 2002, one retired C.I.A. officer estimated that the makeshift training compounds now have as many as 2,000 local and foreign militants, up from several hundred three years ago.

Publicly, senior American and Pakistani officials have said that the creation of a Qaeda haven in the tribal areas was in many ways inevitable — that the lawless badlands where ethnic Pashtun tribes have resisted government control for centuries were a natural place for a dispirited terror network to find refuge. The American and Pakistani officials also blame a disastrous cease-fire brokered between the Pakistani government and militants in 2006.

But more than four dozen interviews in Washington and Pakistan tell another story. American intelligence officials say that the Qaeda hunt in Pakistan, code-named Operation Cannonball by the C.I.A. in 2006, was often undermined by bitter disagreements within the Bush administration and within the intelligence agency, including about whether American commandos should launch ground raids inside the tribal areas.

Inside the C.I.A., the fights included clashes between the agency’s outposts in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Islamabad. There were also battles between field officers and the counterterrorism center at C.I.A. headquarters, whose preference for carrying out raids remotely, via Predator missile strikes, was derided by officers in the Islamabad station as the work of “boys with toys.”

An early arrangement that allowed American commandos to join Pakistani units on raids inside the tribal areas was halted in 2003 after protests in Pakistan. Another combat mission that came within hours of being launched in 2005 was scuttled because some C.I.A. officials in Pakistan questioned the accuracy of the intelligence, and because aides to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld believed that the mission force had become too large.

Current and former military and intelligence officials said that the war in Iraq consistently diverted resources and high-level attention from the tribal areas. When American military and intelligence officials requested additional Predator drones to survey the tribal areas, they were told no drones were available because they had been sent to Iraq.

Some former officials say Mr. Bush should have done more to confront Mr. Musharraf, by aggressively demanding that he acknowledge the scale of the militant threat.

Western military officials say Mr. Musharraf was instead often distracted by his own political problems, and effectively allowed militants to regroup by brokering peace agreements with them.

There, in a nutshell, is how the Republicans have led this government in the fight against terrorism: they demonstrate that they have no idea what they're doing, and they bully everyone into believing the opposite is true. They suck at the game so they work the refs. They can't do details or substance so they dissolve into bitter infighting, ineffective taunts and indifferent policies that achieve nothing. Their track record is abysmal and a future with them running things--unthinkable.

And the American people are to believe that John "stop the bullshit" McCain is going to be a better diplomat, be more "detail oriented " and pay better attention to the problem? Focus on the needs of agencies he has long derided and devote the necessary resources to it? Will he undertake these efforts before or after the 100 year war in Iraq is up? During a 40 hour workweek or on weekends, because McCain doesn't do weekends, you know. Before or after McCain snarls at everyone when he doesn't get what he wants?

You can't make this stuff up--and it gets scarier every day.

--WS

Good! Now maybe the right questions will be asked! In court! Under oath!

Dan Rather is suing CBS News for $70 million dollars over the treatment he received in the wake of the fallout over the story Rather presented on the midweek edition of 60 Minutes that accused the incumbent president of failing to fulfill his obligations to the champagne unit of the Texas Air National Guard his daddy’s connections got him attached to.

Since the story tracks, but the documents weren’t authentic, I would love to see this aired in open court.

In the suit, filed this afternoon in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Mr. Rather charges that CBS and its executives made him “a scapegoat” in an attempt “to pacify the White House,” though the formal complaint presents virtually no direct evidence to that effect. To buttress this claim, Mr. Rather quotes the executive who oversaw his regular segment on CBS Radio, telling Mr. Rather in November 2004 that he was losing that slot, effective immediately, because of “pressure from ‘the right wing.’ ”

He also continues to take vehement issue with the appointment by CBS of Richard Thornburgh, an attorney general in the administration of the elder President Bush, as one of the two outside panelists given the job of reviewing how the disputed broadcast had been prepared.

Frankly, let me say right now that I am not shedding any tears over the outcome of the suit no matter how it is resolved – unless there is a quick, sealed settlement that sweeps the whole thing under the rug. (If that happens, I might have a stroke. Fair warning.)

I am glad to see this lawsuit, because anything that brings attention to the fact that it is at least possible that the incumbent president is Absent With Out Leave from military service in the Air National Guard to this very day is a big freakin’ deal, and I want answers.

It was just too convenient, you know? If the idiot and his minions could manage to organize a two-car parade I would almost think that Rather was set up – but c’mon…the idiot and the cast of evil clowns are a pathetic fucking joke. If brains were dynamite, they couldn’t blow their collective nose. There is no way they could pull off something like that. (Excuse me while I wipe a tear from my eye - I am laughing so hard I nearly embarrassed myself...)

And because they are not very bright, I have a glimmer of hope one of ‘em will slip up and step on the incumbent president’s genitals. I never pretended to like the smarmy little prick, and I hope daily that he gets a heaping helping of comeuppance.

If this makes that happen, hell, I am liable to get religion.