I just edited a slew of articles on the speech and the plan, and I have to give you points, Bird. Yours is the most interesting. Creative speculation is so much more stimulating than the usual bitching...

Dave

Bush is simply not a strategist. Such subtlety is not to his taste. He doesn't even understand the concept of a feint. No, this is not a ruse. Yes, he has unwisely revealed his feeble plan. Predictably, he will fail.

As usual, I disagree with Nalle; of ALL the things to ponder about this horrible speech, probably the LEAST important is to wonder about the purpose behind "giving away a strategy" to the enemy.

First of all, WHERE on earth did you hear anything about a "strategy"?

Bush hasn't had a strategy since the day our troops arrived in Baghdad.

And more importantly, IT WAS A COMMERCIAL, fer chrissakes!

A MARKETING SPOT meant to convince the American public that he needs more time to deal with Iraq. [read, "I want to leave it for the next President."]

Please NOT TO confuse Presidential Sales Pitches with substiative strategic plans.

Thanks.

Bush has no strategy except to deny, lie, & keep repeating the same old mantra over & over again, convinced that since he's The Decider that will make it so. He's obviously living in a world of fantasy, unreality, and total denial. The alternative is that he's an even colder, more homicidal monster than Hussein ever was, willing to sacrifice the lives of countless troops & their families to bolster his ego & his presidential legacy, which he thinks success in Iraq will retrieve. In either event, he's the same as he always was: a loser, a failure, and a fool.

I think the alternatives are that it was either a feint, a "misunderestimation" of the intelligence of the enemy, or the cynical knowledge 20 000 extra troops isn't enough either but it was all he could manage so he might as well get some loud press out of it.

I like the first or the third.

Well, again I hope the new congress has the guts to take a stand & refuse the financial support, thereby pulling the rug out from under this incompetent clownish asshole, but as I said elsewhere, given the track record of congressmaggots in general of either party, I'm not sanguine. On the other hand, maybe there is a ray or two of hope, since several GOP congressmaggots seem to have gotten the message from their constituents that we the people really genuinely don't like the US body bags, that an increase in these is not acceptable, and that if they continue to support the presidential fuckup in chief they can kiss their butts goodbye in the '08 congressional elections. IMO, however, they won't do anything until it's been made public that BushCo's wiretapping (& now exposed violation of the mails as well) involves not just purported terrorists, but illegal snooping into political opponents' stuff as well, something which is an open secret in political circles. Why the media are sitting on the story is anybody's guess.

What really kills me about all this is that the fool won't even listen to his own military leaders & bipartisan committee recommendations. He & that lying psychopathic vp of his have just dug in, & don't give a damn how many Americans die for their stupidity & incompetence. Those two really have crossed the line & become guilty of treason if not worse, between willfully sending US troops to death or mutilation in Iraq for their egos sake, and the equally lame but deliberate violation of the constitution. God knows there's ample grounds to string both of them up by their mesenteric tissues; so what's the holdup?

The Congress more than likely won't pull funding, for fear of looking as if they do not support the troops, who have done nothing wrong but try and do the job they were ordered to do.

If you want hope, keep an eye on congressional committee investigations on how the Administration has been spending $10 million AN HOUR in Iraq.

That will be a crucial key to it all, the tired old axiom that has caught countless criminals...follow the money.

We all keep hoping that Bush is smarter than he seems don't we? Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case in six years so hoping that he will change is as fruitless as Bush's hope that doing the same thing over and over again will redeem his mistakes in Iraq.

Well, again I hope the new congress has the guts to take a stand & refuse the financial support, thereby pulling the rug out from under this incompetent clownish asshole

And thereby making a mockery of the Constitution in a way which makes all of Bush's pety abusdes seem trivial by comparison.

Dave

And here I had thought the purse strings WERE the Constitutional responsibility of Congress.

Marianne is right: hoping for change in something immutable is pointless as well as a waste of time & energy. Oh well.

D'oh, I've been outraged since 9-11 by the spineless ceding by congress of every single responsibility/duty they've had to anybody who cared to take over, namely BushCo., with predictable results. What really adds insult to injury is that they have the gall to whine about the Executive impinging & infringing on THEIR rights-! What a pack of prevaricating pusillanimous invertebrates.

The speech reminded me of a commercial in which an old product is dressed up in new packaging and sold as "new and improved." There was no strategy there to give away. Minor tactical changes don't need congressional approval, or flashy speeches... I smell a rat, rather than a feint.

The usual Rovian/BushCo smoke & mirrors....

Does ANYBODY outside the WH believe any of it anymore? I do believe most of the public is finally seeing the emperor naked, even the most willfully blind of them.

Good question, Nancy.

Try this poll and it's results.

Right now it's more than 2 to 1 of people not being fooled, again. Check for yourselves.

It's about bloody time people woke up & used their brains for a change instead of just swallowing whole whatever pap the WH shovelled out.

"And thereby making a mockery of the Constitution in a way which makes all of Bush's pety abusdes seem trivial by comparison."
- Dave Nalle

Easy to agree with the escalation when you don't have to go yourself, eh Nalle?

Dave, it would just be tit-for-tat, given the admins consistent abuse of the constitution, which stands in spite of your hilarious attempts at rationalization. BushCo opened the door to abuse. Infact, by dishonoring constitiutional and traditional government operation he has forced his opposition to such use in desperation.

"Does ANYBODY outside the WH believe any of it anymore?"
- Nancy

Uh, let's start with Dave Nalle, Clavos, Matthew T. Sussman, RJ Elliott, JOM, RedTard, Arch/Bing, David Flanagan, Eric Olsen, Phillip Winn, Franco, Baronius...

Shall I go on?

I think that those of us who stood STUNNED for years while the build up for this war was going on (after 911) and said nothing, need to learn from this as well.

I was scared to say anything. I would whisper to speak to anyone about my concerns and disagreement with the entire thing. Not only would I whisper, whomever I was speaking to would whisper too. Whether at the grocery store or and the gym, at work, etc. It was if we were in a different country.

How did WE let this happen.

Its great to be right. We've known we were from the start though. We said nothing, now thousands of young men and ladies are DEAD. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis are DEAD.

It took Cindy Sheehand to loose her mind after her son died and say something. Then we started speaking up, a little at a time.

Nancy, Biffle, MCH, D'oh and the rest. Where were WE.

Zedd;
I've been writing letters to the editor and on blogcritics in opposition to this war and occupation since the invasion.

If I were to take a straw poll of the comments so far I believe that Bush would be voted to be, 1. and idiot; 2. a criminal and; 3. not a very popular guy!

The only comment I will make in reply to all of this is that his speech was undoubtedly vetted by both the Department of Defense (civilians) and the Pentagon brass (military). If Bush is an idiot for giving away the farm (anti-terrorist strategy in Baghdad) then they must all be idiots, too!

While I recognize and respect your almost universal loathing for President Bush you have not given me anything to really "chew on" regarding my question at the end of the post. Nothing, that is, except vitriol.

Unfortunately that does not taste very good and won't be eating (or drinking!) any of it today.

Anyone have something substantial to say?

Re: #17 - Bliffle, I believe you just came up with a new maxim - two wrongs DO make a right.

Dave

You want something to "chew on"?

Very well.

Distinct possibility that this is nothing more than a repeat of the Cambodian incursion, meant to be able to bypass the Congress and goad Iran into touching a U.S. asset, like the carrier fleet sent out there, so that "retaliation" can be taken directly.

Putting aside all that could be called wrong about that, it would be sacrificing the real progress being made in internal Iranian politics by those actively striving against the current leaders of Iran in a try for a more secular government and to join the rest of the world in the 21st century.

All this for political points and an attempt at "legacy".

A solid argument could be made that more can be done on that front diplomatically with a little behind the scenes help to those internal factions interested in ousting the mullah regime.

Oh yes, and two wrongs do not always make a right, but three lefts do.

Does ANYBODY outside the WH believe any of it anymore?

It's not a matter of believing or not believing. You need to think about things and figure them out for yourself and then decide who you think is actually acting in your best interests regardless of what they say or who they are.

Dave

"Tit-for-tat" is vengeance, not justice. It's morally wrong (for that diminishingly small number of people who think morals are important enough to actually have some!), but it's understandable: you KNOW that if you screw someone they'll spend the rest of their lives looking for an opportunity to screw you back! In spades! So The Golden Rule is your best policy.

Would someone please inform GWB?

"'Tit-for-tat' is just vengeance"

"What is a tat? Where can I get one? And where can I trade it in for that other thing?"

Quoted by somebody or other from somewhere or other. Some SNL shtick, I think.

Anyway, to be more on-topic -- If this really was a reflection of Bush stupidity, I have to say at least he's not alone. Stupid seems to be going around in certain circles these days; cf. Olmert's atomic "slip of the tongue". OTOH, Bird may be onto something in suggesting a feint. If it ultimately turns out to have been a brilliant feint, I'm sure Bush will get no credit for it from the general media.
I recall that during Desert Storm (the '90-'91 Iraq war) Gen. Schwartzkopf suckered Saddam's forces into expecting an amphibious assault....So all their coastal guns were pointed out to sea when the actual attack came by land. Of course, to get Saddam to buy into the idea, Schwartzkopf had to convince CNN et al that he was gonna go amphibious.

I also recall that when the "amphibious assault" ultimately proved to be a feint, the reaction of the media was NOT one of "Hey, what a brilliant feint he pulled! Wow, he even had us really going!" The reaction of the media was basically "Well! The nerve of him! Schwartzkopf lied to us! How dare he?!"

Bird- Very interesting commentary. I think the short answer to your question is that Bush has telegraphed war plans because, like many conservatives, he suffers under the delusion that American willpower is an irresistible force, so it doesn't matter whether our supposed adversaries know what we want to do.

Sadly, the plain fact is that it doesn't matter what he does. Bush foolishly, tragically, fails to realize that the US is not fighting a war against terror, or against anything, in Iraq. We toppled Saddam and unleashed multiple civil wars, some religious, some territorial, that are totally oblivious to US aims or strategy. The US is simply a midwife to chaos, even as Bush continues to push the fantasy that Iraqi factions jockeying for power give a rat's ass about democracy or "the rule of law" Republican style.

The only real question is what excuses conservatives will come up with down the road to explain the failure of Bush's "surge" strategy. I look forward to the inevitable book by Ann Coulter blaming Bill Clinton for Bush's stupidity.

By the way, I don't see the Democratic Party riding to the rescue anytime soon. Democrats and some so-called progressives suffer their own delusions, the most dangerous being the fantasy that if we pull out of Iraq, the world will magically return to a status quo where America is loved and Islamic radicals either do not exist, or limit their activities to Europe and Israel, but never, never, ever bother spiritually evolved anti-war Americans.

BirdO'Paradise: You need to learn the difference between News and Marketing.

whoops! There's not any! Oh, my bad!

====

re: wanting something to "chew on" -

If you've got a health card and a food handler's permit, email me; I've got something for you to chew on.

====

xxoo
S

also ---

WHAT ALEX SAID.


best line: "...The US is simply a midwife to chaos, even as Bush continues to push the fantasy that Iraqi factions jockeying for power give a rat's ass about democracy or "the rule of law" Republican style."


re: "...Democrats and some so-called progressives suffer their own delusions, the most dangerous being the fantasy that if we pull out of Iraq, the world will magically return to a status quo where America is loved..."

I wonder if any of them have read the 9.11 commission recommendations?

I wonder what the world would look like if we'd have spent 3 years and $400 billion on the bulk of those recommendations?

y'know -- instead of invading a country that had nothing to do with 9.11...?

Zedd,
I think you're right, it's too bad that the majority is silenced by a minority in every case.
I'm proud to say that I marched on Washington in Oct. of 2002 and although I was appalled by the numbers missing, I was more appalled that you couldn't get anywhere near the whitehouse, but BETTER YET, Bush was holed up in Crawford.
Pitiful, but a sign of things to come.

This little advertisement from the other night, reminded me of memo from the desk of any Company CEO. This is what we're going to do, this is how we're gonna do it and this is why. The sad truth is that by his own admission this is now a police action, going from door to door, handing Iraqi's fistfuls of money.
This is the war on terror?

Meanwhile the true terrorists are hiding out in Pakistan and while BUSHCO. rattles the chain of Syria and Iran, his buddy over in Pakistan continues to allow the Taliban and AQ unfettered access to safe havens, weaponry and aid.

Too bad there wasn't huge oil reserves in Afghanistan, then maybe we could really save that nation.

Martin, MCH,

Lets hope our children will be more radicalized when insane things like this happen.

I'm Gen X. While we are great about thinking outside of the box, we sort of rolled out eyes to the extreme conservatives and went on our way having one adventure after another. Many of my generation knew nothing about politics. We mastered living for the moment and we get simplicity. For the MANY of us who did keep up with politics, we knew not to express our views less the Ditto Heads (Business School Drones) and Conservative Boomers (greed is good bunch) who were in higher executive positions (VP+) in the work place get wind and make life hellacious for us.

Many of us whispered and used code language, snickered and winked feeling intellectually superior but allowing our country to go down the tubes.

Never again.