Comments on: Bush Adviser: Iraq Must 'Step Up'

White House Aide Deflects Criticism; Democratic Senator: Iraq Needs 'Radical Change'

[meboard]

Watch it folks, One_American's up from his nap and back on his medication. I think he and janemcvee must be doing tag-team as the token right wing nut.

[heetseeker]

One_American

I must have missed it.... but I only read a stream of insults against those who... legitimately hold their democratic leaders to account... Do I take it that you agree that GWB is not being open transparent & accountable over Iraq or that he is?

Let me clear the air.... there are several areas of domestic policy where I fully support the president.... but on the issue of Iraq he has either been exceedingly deceptive, grossly incompetent or so far removed from reality that his continued fitness for leadership must be called into question.... so... which is it?

I don't care whether he is a Democrat, Republican or undecided ... he is the president & he he is failing in his duty to be accountable...

Confident people debate ideas... whilst those who fear, resort to abuse & insults... what exactly are you afraid of?

[rsoxfan1123]

One_American- don't forget, Bill Clinton (who you clearly despise) left our nation $2 trillion to the good. In two years Dubya reduced that to $2 trillion in debt, the fastest debt increase in history. Don't you find it ironic that you talk about respopnsibility and accountability as your hero runs our country into the ground faster than a drunken teenager with a credit card (this is bluestardad's comparison, credit where credit is due)?

[clestes-2009]

Hey One_American, ya got solutions out there not called "Stay the course" but mean the same thing. I'm sure Shrub would love to hear 'em.

Ooops, probly not since he hasn't got anywhere the brains Bill C has.

[rsoxfan1123]

heetseeker- it's called survival in the political game. that's why it is up to us to be able to see through that stuff so we can make intelligent choices in elections. Ironically enough, the standardized test mentality that emphasizes fact recall over thinking creates the perfect environment in which an administration like this can thrive. The fact that Bush was able to get re-elected despite his dismal failure shows the fallibilty of our nation's educational system.

[one_american]

Liberals shouldn't waste bandwidth bloviating about "accountablity", when their hero and saviour is the likes of bill clinton, john kerry and ted kennedy. These kind of pathetic jokes dodge accountablity every time they open their mouths, and can do nothing more than point their crooked little fingers at Republicans.

You must be proud of yourselves, liberals, to be able hold on to your flatulent idols and endure the sickening smell.

President George W. Bush has weathered the extreme criticism, the name-calling and the repeated waving of the white flag by Democrats, and taken all the heat for Iraq, even though your idiot Democrat leaders had the same intelligence data prior to the war.

When will you foolish liberal realize that your party is hypicritical beyond any salvaging of its reputation as a serious one?

[clestes-2009]

Hey folks, I just went to CNN and am about to split a gut laughing. According to the man, and I quote "Bartlett dismissed assertions that the Bush administration's strategy for Iraq is to "stay the course."

Read this for a good laugh or cry.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/23/us.iraq/index.html

Oh to stay or not to stay, that is the question. Whether it be nobler to stay the course....

[heetseeker]

rsoxfan1123....

As I am sure you know there are very practical reasons why the administration would not drean of holding iteself to standards of accountability...

In simple terms, to do so is to accept that there are clear measures of success and progress... it is to invite scrutiny & challenge... this is not acceptable to an administration whose default position is to brand as unpatriotic anyone who dares to critique its actions....

Rather, the administration prefers a flexible relationship with success.... pointing instead to meaningless blue riband events such the constitutional referendum and YES even the Iraqi general election... where we have helped to create a democracy to preside over a catastrophe...

Attacks on US troops up, oil output down, sectarian violence through the roof... But nevermind... Things are going well in Iraq... why?... because we say so?

[mjv2944]

Yup, step right up, there might be another half a billion for the taking. Oh my, what would Halliburton and Bechtel do if we pull out. I say write them a check for 50 billion and say, here it is, build your own country back, and don't ask for more. Bring our troops home and secure our borders with them. Bush, Chaney and Rummy are the only WMD.

[clestes-2009]

BigOlEag1e if you are indeed a double amputee and have already lost 3 kids to Iraq and your grandkids are going, I think you have lost your mind to grief!

[rsoxfan1123]

heetseeker-excellent points. for an administration whose buzzword in education is "accountability" (measured solely through standardized testing) that looks like a fair criteria to use as a measuring stick.

[heetseeker]

So then... what are we to believe about Iraq?

Forget media reports lets set up some performance metrics instead.... Why? well performance metrics tell us whether we are achieving our objectives... here are a few... you decide whether they are meaningful monthly measures of success in Iraq & if so, which ones are key measures & which are underlying ...

1)US military casualties (hostile fire)
2)US military casualties (non hostile fire)
3)Number of daily attacks on US troops
4)Number of US troops wounded
5)US troop levels in Iraq
6)Iraqi military casualties
7)Iraqi civilian casualties (sectarian violence)
8)Iraq civilian casualties (non sectarian)
9)Oil output (daily measure)
10)Attacks on oil facilities
11)Iraqi combat battalions established
12)Provinces handed back to Iraqi control
13)Number of kidnappings
14)%age of Iraqi's who state that security is their greatest concern
15)%age of Iraqi's who are optimistic about the future

Why doesn't the administration tell us what the top 10 success measures are in Iraq & how we are performing against them... then at least we could hold it to account... couldnt we?

[peterbaldwin-2009]

This Keystone Comedy is getting ridiculous. Bush sends out a White House attorney to expound on military tactics and strategy in Iraq. Kind of like having an Arabian horse trader head up FEMA. Think for a moment. Can you imagine Truman or Eisenhower using some kiss-*** lawyer to explain to the press how they planned on defeating the Germans in WW II or the North Koreans in the Korean conflict?

Lara Logan reports that for the commanders on the ground its, as John Kerry said, "same old, same old", that big meetings in Washington are all that is in evidence on the ground there.

American soldiers are sittings ducks in a civil war that is only getting worse, and Bush sends out a dissembling lawyer with slogan-heavy talking points to do a lawyerly tap dance. The only change in tactics is to add a few more inane talking points to give the American people false hope.

Biden is on the right track, but he needs to tell it like it is. The Iraqi Army has not stood up in the amount of time it took to win WWII because, quite simply, they are on Iraq's side and not America's side.

[clestes-2009]

rsoxfan1123, you are undoubtedly right.

[rsoxfan1123]

clestes- it is partly reaching for justification for the war that causes these whacky theories to emerge. it is part party line self-defense and part human nature to not want to feel that all of these lives and this money has been thrown away unnecessarly.

[shingles1]

Dude, three years on and we can't even subdue anything in Baghdad beyond the Green Zone.

It's the capital of the country, for god's sake!

That, right there, tells you all you need to know about how well things are going.

[clestes-2009]

And of course the reason those smuggled WMD were never exposed was because of the "liberal press".

What are we to believe now? That Russia and France are in some inept scheme to suck the US into a quagmire in the middle east so they can replace us as a super power? As they both have nuclear weapons, I can't imagine what else it could be??

Sounds too much like those absurd conspiracy theories that keep popping up.

[pakaal]

"Anyone who speaks against the continued U.S. defensive involvement in Iraq is unpatriotic."

Are you crazy? Here's a better quote:

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

President Theodore Roosevelt,Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918

[rsoxfan1123]

BigOlEag1e says russia and france smuggled the WMD out..that explains it all. there you go.

[rsoxfan1123]

BigOlEag1e-sounds like a conspiracy.....