IRAQ: "The largest reenlistment ceremony ever held"!

[Plane]

It was a good idea, in the sense that the payroll clerk had a good idea when he figured he could "borrow" $20K from the company over the weekend and pay it all back with what he'd win with it at the track by the time Monday morning rolled around.  Had the Iraqi people been the pushover the U.S. had been led to expect, they'd be sitting on a gusher of  windfall oil profits funding the "repayments" that the Iraqis now "owed" to them for "reconstructing" the damage that they had themselves inflicted on the poor dumb bastards in the first place.  What would a mere $50 billion be when compared with the income to be generated from the world's second largest proven oil reserves?

Now that the price of Oil is up (even in Euros) and the USA is in firm controll , and the pumping of oil in Iraq is surpassing all records, we must be rolling in the windfall profits .

Or no , we arn't because it can't work like that.

[Plane]

First of all, this is staged (which is obvious to everyone and Plane rightly called it "propaganda").
The patriotism "believe-in-the-mission" aspect is fluff. It is a job and a lifestyle.

The stuff about army people being desprate for a job is propaganda too , but not the true kind.

[_JS]

First of all, this is staged (which is obvious to everyone and Plane rightly called it "propaganda").
The patriotism "believe-in-the-mission" aspect is fluff. It is a job and a lifestyle.

The stuff about army people being desprate for a job is propaganda too , but not the true kind.

I don't recall ever saying that anyone was "desperate for a job."

[Plane]

First of all, this is staged (which is obvious to everyone and Plane rightly called it "propaganda").
The patriotism "believe-in-the-mission" aspect is fluff. It is a job and a lifestyle.

The stuff about army people being desprate for a job is propaganda too , but not the true kind.

I don't recall ever saying that anyone was "desperate for a job."

I am sorry I misunderstood the "you have to remember that a lot of these people have nothing else to go back and do." part of your statement.


I must also have misundrestood the "Also take into account that the standards are very low. There are soldiers with criminal records, terrible test scores, and other issues that would have precluded them from being in the American military at one point. "
part as well.

There is nothing like the military I know , and I have been involved in the military all of my adulthood.

[Michael Tee]

Now that the price of Oil is up (even in Euros) and the USA is in firm controll , and the pumping of oil in Iraq is surpassing all records, we must be rolling in the windfall profits .

Or no , we arn't because it can't work like that.

================================================================

Of course not.  Your oil companies are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.  Halliburton and KBR are virtually charity cases. 

The folks who were intended to benefit from this little fiasco have done pretty well so far. 

The U.S.A. has a very tenuous grip on Iraq, it's riding the back of a tiger and there is no indication of any real lasting success other than this "The surge is working" total bullshit campaign, which is obviously a lie because nobody will still lay down any realistic deadline for the removal of all U.S. troops.

[BT]

The surge was never tied to a timetable for withdrawal.

However the dems did campaign on bringing the troops home now.

The surge has delivered.

The dems haven't.

[Plane]

Now that the price of Oil is up (even in Euros) and the USA is in firm controll , and the pumping of oil in Iraq is surpassing all records, we must be rolling in the windfall profits .

Or no , we arn't because it can't work like that.

================================================================

Of course not.  Your oil companies are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.  Halliburton and KBR are virtually charity cases. 

The folks who were intended to benefit from this little fiasco have done pretty well so far. 

The U.S.A. has a very tenuous grip on Iraq, it's riding the back of a tiger and there is no indication of any real lasting success other than this "The surge is working" total bullshit campaign, which is obviously a lie because nobody will still lay down any realistic deadline for the removal of all U.S. troops.

The way our oil companys have been makeing money lately has been driven by the oil itslf becomeing scarce, so our encouragement of Iriqui pumping is contra the oil company profit.

This might change , if American companys land the contacts that are gonna be awarded in the next few months , but much like drilling in ANWAR it will not be enough to cause price relief enough to kill the high oil profit.

[Plane]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/05/bin-laden-144-oil/

[Christians4LessGvt]

"The surge has delivered. The dems haven't".

WOW BT
That is a very good line and very true.
President McCain should use it often.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The surge has delivered.

The dems haven't.

=================
What exactly has the surge delivered?

Fewer deaths of US troops and even higher expenses which Juniorbush has again borrowed from the Chinese et al. and which the America people, not Juniorbush and Cheney, will have to repay in money and inflation.

The Democrats have tried to pass bills to end the war, and every time the asshole Republicans have prevented the defunding. So the War continues because the Republicans want it to continue, preferably forever.

A surge would be a rise in the number of troops, followed by a decline. The number has barely declined.

The goal of the Republicans is that the US stay in Iraq, with the taxpayers paying all the bill's, forever. The profits, or course, will accrue to the profiteers: Halliburton, Blackwater and other exclusionary deals by which only the oligarchy benefits.

It is not so much a war as a device for looting the people of the US buy their unfriendly neighborhood oligarchy.

[BT]

What exactly has the surge delivered?

You answer your own question.

Fewer deaths

The dems can't deliver even though they have a majority. Pity.

How embarrassing it must be to be out maneuvered by knuckle dragging republicans.

[Xavier_Onassis]

It is not so much as an embarassment to the Democrats as a disgrace to the entire country... engaging in imperialism in this modern age, and not even getting the resources they were planning to pillage.

Two words: incompetent imperialists.

[ZoSo]

The U.S. military in Iraq celebrated the Fourth of July with what it billed as "the largest reenlistment ceremony ever held," and 1,215 soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen raised their hands and re-pledged allegiance to America.



Wow, that's almost a thousand!

They must have  heard there's a good chance they'll finally have a Commander in Chief that actually gives  a shit whether they live or die. Talk about a enlistment bonus.....

[BT]

It is not so much as an embarassment to the Democrats as a disgrace to the entire country... engaging in imperialism in this modern age, and not even getting the resources they were planning to pillage.

The only thing certain in the above statement is that the dems campaigned to end the war. And they didn't deliver.

[Michael Tee]

Whether the Dems can or will deliver on their promises is an entire issue unto itself.

Whether the surge has succeeded or not (and I say it has failed) is a whole nuther issue.

The re-enlistment of a bunch of brain-dead bozos all at the same time in the same place has about as much bearing on either issue as the mass marriage of one thousand couples by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon would have on the issue of marriage.