How To Further The Neocon Mess In Iraq

Nation: Those Who Sold War On False Pretenses Want Escalation

(The Nation)  This column was written by Ari Berman

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Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol walked into the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) yesterday with a big grin on his face, as if to say "they're listening to me again!"

Wolfowitz, Feith, Rumsfeld, Bolton and other architects of the war in Iraq may be gone, but the neoconservatives' stature inside the Bush Administration has hardly diminished. The same people that sold us the war, often under false pretenses, are now leading proponents of escalating the conflict by sending tens of thousands of additional troops.

An event at AEI yesteday brought together the intellectual progenitors of escalation: military historian Fred Kagan, retired General Jack Keane and Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman. The focus was not on how to clean up the neocons mess, but on how to deepen it.

"The surge must be substantial and it must be sustained," McCain told a packed room. That means keeping an additional 20,000 to 35,000 troops in Iraq for 18 to 24 months. Under such a plan, 160,000 plus troops could be deployed well past 2008 at an untold cost.

Over 300 protestors convened by MoveOn.org gathered outside AEI to protest such a scenario. "John McCain, John McCain, escalation is insane!" they chanted. Around the same time, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid sent a letter to President Bush expressing their opposition to any troop increase.

"After nearly four years of combat, tens of thousands of US casualties, and over $300 billion dollars, it is time to bring the war to a close," they wrote to Bush. "We, therefore, strongly encourage you to reject any plans that call for our getting our troops any deeper into Iraq."

But Lieberman, the self-described "Independent Democrat," was having none of that. "The battlefield is in Baghdad and Al-Anbar, not in Washington," Lieberman said. "We need to support the President as he goes forward."

Who needs to support the President? Only 12 percent of Americans want to escalate the war. Most now want the US to get out. Nothing they've heard from the neocons since the beginning of the war has turned out to be right.
"I believed the initial invasion was going to be easy," McCain admitted today, echoing statements he made before the war. "Most of us did. I believed we were going to be welcomed as liberators. We were."

Little wonder why McCain and his fellow neocons can't bear the thought of ending the war they helped start.

[andy_f90]

Bill Kirstol and his neocon gang are the godfathers of the Iraqi fiasco.

He has absolutely no credibility who deliberately scared the American people yet still is paraded on the morally bankrupt, Bush "right or wrong" FoxNews channel.

That tells us a lot about the moral state of our nation, esp. letting FoxNews get away with it, much less the President.

[andy_f90]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v2f-WC4cjo

Thank you for that and his treatment by the right-wing media its not surprising.

[andy_f90]

As usual the neocons, pro-Israeli, fascist-warmongers who took us to war with Iraq are now planning their next victim: Iran... as Bush was hinting in his address yesterday.

Surely if Iraq had been a "cakewalk" as the Project for the New Israeli (Arrrhmmm, I meant American) Century (PNAC) you would have seen the "democracy through a barrel of the gun" folks preying on Iran and Syria already.

As one respectable Republican (who is not an Israeli apologist NEOCON like Wall Street Journal or FoxNews) said: "The only lesson we learn from history is that we do not learn from history."

[shingles1]

Classyperson says, "-also HARBORING THE TERRIORISTS FOR 9/11 and ALLOWING THEM TO 'TRAIN' AT SALMON-PAK ON A 747 COMMERCIAL AIRLINER??--HOW SOON WE FORGET."

Wrong. This idea that the Salman Pak facility was a terrorist training camp, was spread by Chalabi's INC before the war in order to get us into Iraq. And like most things pushed by the INC, this has turned out not to be true.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the CIA, and the DIA have all concluded that these INC reports of Al Qaeda training at Salman Pak were not credible. The DIA told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2006, "fabricators and unestablished sources who reported hearsay or thirdhand information created a large volume of human intelligence reporting."

But, like most myths in in the empty cheeto bag infested basements of Wingnutistan, this one just won't die. It continues to be repeated endlessly as "proof" no matter how many times one points out that it doesn't prove ANYTHING.

Anything other than gullibility on the part of its boosters.

[bluestardad]

JuanMari; when Genghis Khan's troops took Baghdad they killed everyone in the city. Everyone!

[bluestardad]

geo1671; watched it what is apac?

[geo1671]

Here is what is wrong with America-Watch Video and you be the judge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v2f-WC4cjo

[oibooks]

The tactics proposed by Bush on Baghdad is as old as Genghis Khan and to wage war against it is just as old. Defense to this tactic is simple... Americans occupy , Resistance withdraws... with a warning to it's citizens, that those that collaborate and refuse to help the resistance will die when they return... and since the Americans will not stay forever... it would be better to stay neutral or help the resistance or get out of town. For the Americans it is a waste of time, lives and money... Mr. Bush must read history or better ask somebody to read it for him... and explain, sentence by sentence what it means maybe that way he will understand. Read him ... Vietnam, Algeria, Palestine, Lebanon, South Africa etc. etc. Only fools do not learn from history.

[exusmcsgt]

grumpas-

Lieberman is a Jew and obviously hates Muslims (at least in public so as to pander to his Jewish constituents)..

[grumpas]

"The battlefield is in Baghdad and Al-Anbar, not in Washington," Lieberman said. It's obvious Lieberman has been into George's crazy weed smoking some of it! I don't know how any intelligent person could buy that nonsense! There is no proof whatsoever that these people are "going to follow us home" if we leave! And we are going to be battling them in this country! This has to be one of the most blantant lies the Bush administration has told yet! Why people even bother repeating it certainly shows the ignorance of some. If Lieberman is so gung ho for war then why isn't he over there????

[exusmcsgt]

bluestardad-

...or going hunting with Cheney.

[bluestardad]

A person is more likely to be killed fishing than by a terrorist.

[exusmcsgt]

singinrick-

FYI - the Bible also states that Christianity is the only true religion. There is nothing unique about a dogma manual that claims it is the only true path to heaven.

Never heard of "Onward Christian Soldiers"?

[mjv2944]

Neocons make the most die hard liberal look like a conservative. They have spent us into oblivion, sold us out for the sake of profit. At least liberals spend the money on domestic issues not off on some made up reason to wage war. All this BS started with the "I'll show daddy" how its done mentality. The Bush administration will go down as one of THE worst in history. Name me one domestic issue that has been addressed during this administration.

[langsinc1]

classyperson- Yes Clinton did sign it. But he used everything tool he had so we could contain Iraq instead of having to run the country.

NO WMD found Clintons way worked.

Its called Diplomacy. Something George Bush cant spell say or understand.

I guess you enjoy having 750 billion spent, 3000 americans killed 100,000+ iraqis dead on a nation no one in this country gives a *** about on made up intellignece. .

Can seem to bring yourself to the reality that Bush has been wrong on all accounts on Iraq.
He rushed to war. He kicked the inspectors out and told them Im bombing. I got Haliburton contrats to
make.

Clinton signature did not make him do it.
You must be an idiot if you cant see this is all on BUSH

You can blame clinton if it helps you sleep better at night but this one is all on the cons.

And your just an idiot who refuses to see the reality.

[langsinc1]

If you are scared of terrorism you are a coward.

Bush is one of the biggest cowards I have ever seen.

A person willing to send your kids to fight when Bush and Cheney used every connect within their fathers powers not to go to Vietnam.

They havent been right about one thing in Iraq.
If we leave they may just make up.
I dont beleive that but I would beleive that befoer I beleive anything Bush or Cheney have to say.

[oysterfloyd]

Maybe you'd be happier with the results of the fox poll. Let us know.

I think your poll results are slanted by the mainstream news bias and your news is clearly the nost biased. Neocons is spoken like it's a bad word when you in CBS news have chosen to slant the definition to suit your desires to demonize the Bush Administration. How about a little truth in your Polls for a change. Clearly state the number of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents polled, where they were polled and their demographic makeup.

Also, Can you please cease your obsession with the number of US troops killed in Iraq? The number of troops killed is certainly tragic but that number pales with the auto deaths in the US in one week. Give us a break from your Liberal hand-wringing.

[bluestardad]

The entire middle east and all the people in it are not worth one hair on my kids head! They have been fighting for thousands of years and some idiot thinks he can insert American troops to stop them. All the military leaders in the past could not stop them from killing each other and we cannot either! We need to quit covering them in the media and let them kill each other!

[bluestardad]

my kids have three tours already!