Obama: 'No good options left' in Iraq war

[Amianthus]

Monday, November 20, 2006
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Claiming "there are no good options left in this war," Sen. Barack Obama Monday called for a phased troop withdrawal from Iraq to begin in four to six months.

The Illinois Democrat called such a withdrawal the "first part" of a "political solution" that will force the Iraqi leadership to take control of the war-torn country, during a speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

"We must communicate clearly and effectively to the factions in Iraq that the days of asking, urging, and waiting for them to take control of their own country are coming to an end," Obama said. "No more coddling, no more equivocation."

The potential presidential hopeful also offered what appeared to be veiled criticism at possible White House rival John McCain's call to send more troops to Iraq.

"While some have proposed escalating this war by adding thousands of more troops, there is little reason to believe that this will achieve [victory]," Obama said. "It's not clear that these troop levels are sustainable for a significant period of time, and according to our commanders on the ground, adding American forces will only relieve the Iraqis from doing more on their own."

-- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Article

[Plane]

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=mch


Mona Charen

{quote]"...In my last column I argued that the 2006 election was lost by Republicans through a combination of corruption and complacency. Dissatisfaction with the progress of the war in Iraq didn't help (though I don't believe it was decisive).

The Democrats however, do believe the election victory was attributable to the war in Iraq and are now rushing to concretize that perception. Rep. Jack Murtha, chief spokesman for the "run away" faction of the Democratic Party, is dueling with Rep. Steny Hoyer for the majority leader post. Murtha's office released a statement reminding Democrats that "The record is clear: Jack Murtha has been a constant voice for change in Iraq and Steny Hoyer has not."

The writing is not just on the wall, it's on the floors, ceilings, tables and chairs -- we are about to give up.

The president's people continue to insist that he will settle for nothing less than victory in Iraq. But look at the Iraq Study Group (Baker-Hamilton Commission), from whom the president so looks forward to hearing recommendations. As the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin notes, the commission has claimed to be taking a fresh look at the situation but has already stacked its four subordinate expert working groups with committed opponents of the war in Iraq.

Rubin writes: "Raad Alkadiri, for example, has repeatedly defined U.S. motivation for Iraq's liberation as a grab for oil. Raymond Close, listed on the Iraq Study Group's website as a 'freelance analyst,' is actually a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which, in July 2003, called for Vice President Dick Cheney's resignation for an alleged conspiracy to distort intelligence, which they said had been uncovered by none other than Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The following summer, Close posited that 'Bush and the neocons' had fabricated the charge 'that the evil Iranian mullahs inspired and instigated the radical Shia Islamist insurgency.' To Close, the problem was not Iranian training and supply of money and sophisticated explosives to terrorists, but rather neoconservatism."

The rumors circulating about the commission's report, due next month, suggest that co-chairs James Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton will recommend a "grand bargain" among the warring factions in Iraq and enlist the cooperation of Iraq's neighbors in pacifying the country.

Iraq's neighbors? Iran and Syria? The nations that are bankrolling and supplying the internecine violence? The nations that are the world's top sponsors of terror? Iran: the nation that boasts of its genocidal ambitions toward Israel and the United States even as it races -- against the express wishes of the entire civilized world -- to obtain nuclear weapons? The nations that have the most to gain from our failure?..."[/quote]

[Lanya]

Bush has gotten us into a very tenuous situation.

Unfortunately, the best we can hope for now (in my humble opinion) is to get out without drawing massive attacks on our troops. 

Better to live to fight again (if we absolutely have to)  another day.   We must preserve our army, our resources. 

[Plane]

Bush has gotten us into a very tenuous situation.

Unfortunately, the best we can hope for now (in my humble opinion) is to get out without drawing massive attacks on our troops. 

Better to live to fight again (if we absolutely have to)  another day.   We must preserve our army, our resources. 

Giveing up means that we will be challenged soon by a larger enemy , what elese can we expect?

[sirs]

Giveing up means that we will be challenged soon by a larger enemy , what elese can we expect?

I'm still waiting for messers Brass, Lanya, or Terra, to explain how our complete  (or even partial) withdrawl, will cause the terrorists & insurgents to "calm down" their violence, and be nice in Iraq & elsewhere

[Xavier_Onassis]

Giveing up means that we will be challenged soon by a larger enemy , what elese can we expect?

================================================================
What larger enemy do you have in mind?

The Peoples' Republic of China? Why would they attack us? We are payibg them interest on all that money they lent us.

I would say that Iraq is a bigger enemy that we actually have the resources to beat.

Panama and Grenada were easily beaten.

My guess is Albania is about as big a place as we could really wallop good without a draft.
I would suggest getting out of Iraq and then doing a decent job with Afghanistan. The Iraqis no longer have Saddam, there are no WMD's and there is little for US troops to do but train Iraqis and get shot at. They should really work on the former,  avoid the latter, and stop picking fights.   

This was the constant blather we heard about Vietnam, by the way: "If we leave 'Nam, no one will take us seriously ever again."

About all that happened was that the Khmer Rouge nabbed some soldiers that we nabbed back. The Marines that died, as I recall, outnumbered the hostages we finally got back.

There were no real repercussions to the US' embarassing rout from Vietnam. There was no Chinese power grab in Taiwan, the North Koreans did nothing, and pretty much everything was quiet in Europe for the rest of the 1970's.


My guess is that even if the US had turned Vietnam into a successful Disney theme park, the USSR would still have invaded Afghanistan.

[Plane]

Giveing up means that we will be challenged soon by a larger enemy , what elese can we expect?

================================================================
What larger enemy do you have in mind?




Radical Islam of course, but with a grand new base of operations and a great new sorce of funds and a success which will form a greater recruiting tool than any that they have ever had.

Then we will have to return to fight again on the same ground but against a greater enemy with more allies and with Nuclear wepons.

How could we expect any other outcome?


To save ten thousand wounds we will submit to a billion later?

This is an example of penny wise and pound foolish.

[Lanya]

This is an example of penny wise and pound foolish.

No, the way the Iraq war has been run is in itself an example of being penny wise and pound foolish.
War on the cheap, with not enough men. That is the very essence of how a fool builds a house, from the bible. "Don't start building lest ye count up the cost first: for he that buildeth and runs outta money is shewn to be a fool to all his neighbors." Or something like that.  AND He doesn't get the house built, AND he is out of cash.  That is almost us. We have lost this war at huge cost.  We will never ever recoup the cost.   
 Fire Shinseki. Fire gay Arabic speaker translators.  Great move.
  War on the cheap, let's use old body armor and old un-uparmored Humvees. Forget the fact that many many many (thousands) of soldiers will get horribly wounded, burned, have amputations, brain damage, killed... at a cost of billions in the future....let's not count the future cost and say we did! In fact, let's just not support those injured troops.  They're too bad off to protest very loudly, who's gonna know?  Heck with them. 
Let's use torture, that's fast and cheap and won't have any blowback. And if it does---hah, it ain't our kids, who cares? Cheap cannon fodder, and "I'm sure it's working out very well for them" as Barbara Bush said. 
Let's use contracting services so all the boots on the ground will be actually fighting, not cooking, washing, transporting supplies---who cares if the troops get E.Coli from dirty water? Who cares if they get enough water, or enough food?  Not KBR.  And not Rummy.  And then we don't have to get more troops...cheap cheap cheap! 

Sometimes I wonder if there aren't terrorists among us  posing as uber-patriots.  Manchurian citizens.
Because they're doing a great job of tearing down things we've held dear for a couple hundred years now.  (Habeas corpus, for one.)  If they aren't terrorists, then we are burying ourselves.  Hell of a note.  Just a hell of a  note. 
 

[sirs]

No, the way the Iraq war has been run is in itself an example of being penny wise and pound foolish.  War on the cheap, with not enough men. That is the very essence of how a fool builds a house, from the bible. "Don't start building lest ye count up the cost first: for he that buildeth and runs outta money is shewn to be a fool to all his neighbors." Or something like that.  AND He doesn't get the house built, AND he is out of cash.  That is almost us. We have lost this war at huge cost.  We will never ever recoup the cost....Sometimes I wonder if there aren't terrorists among us  posing as uber-patriots.  Manchurian citizens.  Because they're doing a great job of tearing down things we've held dear for a couple hundred years now.  (Habeas corpus, for one.)  If they aren't terrorists, then we are burying ourselves.  Hell of a note.  Just a hell of a  note. 

Well, that's 1 opinion