In a speech at the University of Minnesota last week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell added his voice to those raising questions about the Bush administration’s strategy for waging war in Iraq.
Powell said that U.S. troops will have to stay in Iraq for “some time” longer. “But there is a limit to the patience of the American people,” he added.
In Iraq, Powell said, “staying the course isn’t good enough because a course has to have an end.”
Where is the end in Iraq? How will we get there? The American people deserve a better answer than they’re getting.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- ProudMan on Too many exemptions
- ANTI on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- JimJohnson on Open thread 11/23
- SolDevVB on Open thread 11/23
- donndublin on Open thread 11/23
- JimJohnson on Open thread 11/23
- JimJohnson on Open thread 11/23
- CapnAmerica on Open thread 11/23
35 Comments
Bush and his bunch are only good at starting wars. They have no idea of how to win the war. Their only objective was to get the oil and profits from the war machine and hang out until Bush’s term is over.
We will forced to wait until our next president figures out a way to get the US out of the mess Bush has made of everything.
God help us all.
Oh, NOW Powell gets a pair of balls! Where wewe you two years ago? You knew of the BS bush and Cheney were doing and you said nothing! You waited until muck braver men stood up before you said anything. Gen. Batiste turned down a promotion so he could tell Congress and the nation of the BS of this administration. This is a man of integrety. You are at best a coward and at worst a traitor!
Contrary to my usual course, I somewhat disagree with Lucee and k.
I don’t want Bush making any changes in what he’s doing. Not that I favor more of our troops getting killed by any stretch. As my buddy Greg Palast says, the only saving grace of the the Bush administration is their utter incompetence. If they were able to do what they wanted to do, it would be much worse. While it is very bad for us, let’s not let Bush get creative with other plans — we would surely regret that more.
k, I think you are a little hard on Powell. He did stand up Rumsfeld and Bush about certain things (the Niger uranium, for one) that were to be part of the UN speech. It is interesting that Powell is choosing this time to speak, right when Bush and the Repubs are most vulernable. As an outsider, I am wondering if it indicates that he is a true party loyalist and is trying to pull the teeth of this rabid administration.
I agree, we’ll only see the end of this mess when someone else is president, Bush is going to just keep his head down and repeat the same rhetoric for another 2 yrs.
Powell is a racist dick weed who will screw a white person every chance he can and will even burn a black person ocassionally just to make him look good.
jc, how stupid.
Let me see…
The only solution offered by you on the left is to cut and run.
And I can guaruntee that is not going to make things better here.
So all you have is to sit on the sidelines crying about staying the course.
Staying the course… what does that mean anyhow?
It seems like little more than some political phrase to make things look worse than they are and to ignore what is really happening.
Lets look at your questions Randy:
“Where is the end in Iraq?”
Setting up an artificial time for an end is only going to give the enemy a time to wait us out.
I can tell you things are getting better as far as training Iraqi police and army and transitioning control over to them.
How long it will take exactly, I don’t know and trying to say is only going to make things worse.
“How will we get there?”
Basically by doing exactly what all the liberals keep crying about.
Continue to provide security while the infrastructure is rebuilt and the transition of control is done.
Both of which are getting better.
But once again, saying that it will be done on day X at time X is just inviting those in opposition to do wait it out or prepare for it.
I recently went to see the Commandant talk
Wrong once more, Nathan.
I have suggested on this blog and others have elsewhere:http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/2428.cfm that a three-state solution might be the best way to deal with the sectarian violence. The three states would have a loose Federal government to split up the oil wealth among the three factions.
Problems with the plan:1) How to keep the Turks and Iranians out.2) How to give the Sunnis enough, but not too much, of the oil wealth.And probably others I have not considered.
A risky plan, but better than staying the course. But please, allow the next real president to implement this or a similar plan.
Stay the course might be alright, if ever there were a course set out!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003294455_iraqtoll08.html
Injuries to U.S. troops in Iraq soaringBy Ann Scott Tyson
The Washington Post
Daily outbreaks of violence just business as usual for most IraqisWASHINGTON — The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest level in nearly two years as Americans fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war.
Last month, 776 U.S. troops were wounded in Iraq, the highest number since the effort to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, according to Defense Department data. It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The sharp increase in American wounded — with nearly 300 more in the first week of October — is a grim measure of the degree to which the U.S. military has been thrust into the lead of the effort to stave off civil war in Iraq, military officials and experts say. Beyond Baghdad, Marines battling Sunni insurgents in Iraq’s Anbar province last month also suffered their highest number of wounded in action since late 2004.
More than 20,000 U.S. troops have been wounded and 2,700 killed in the Iraq war. While much reporting has focused on the number of dead, military experts say the number of wounded is a more accurate gauge of the fierceness of fighting because advances in armor and medical care allow the survival of many service members who would have perished in past wars. The ratio of wounded to killed among U.S. forces in Iraq is about 8 to 1, compared with 3 to 1 in Vietnam.
“These days, wounded are a much better measure of the intensity of the operations than killed,” said Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
The surge in wounded comes as U.S. commanders issue increasingly dire warnings about the threat of civil war in Iraq, all but ruling out cuts in the current contingent of more than 140,000 U.S. troops before spring.
Last month, Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander in the Middle East, said “sectarian tensions, if left unchecked, could be fatal to Iraq,” making it imperative that the U.S. military focus its “main effort” on Baghdad.
Thousands of U.S. troops have been ordered to the city since July to reinforce Iraqi soldiers and police who failed to halt — or in some cases were complicit in — hundreds of killings of Iraqi civilians by Sunni and Shiite groups.
U.S. commanders have appealed for weeks for 3,000 more Iraqi army troops to help secure Baghdad, but had received only a few hundred as of Thursday, according to military officials. Mistrust of Iraqi police in Baghdad remains high, Abizaid said.
How do you save a stew once it’s been burnt? That’s the problem with Republican rhetoric about a “plan.” Of course the Democrats have no plan. There aren’t any good choices left. There’s no solution. Of course, the Republican plan is to keep on doing what it has been doing. Now there’s a plan.
Actually Steven I’m not being hard on Powell when you consider that for four years he knew what shrub and dick were up to. He knew their agenda. Yes he did stand up to them on a few items. He retired/resigned after the ‘04 election and we haven’t heard a peep from him. Now after two years and 6 military officers step up with what a cluster f!!k the administration has done in Iraq he finally grows a pair. He KNEW and kept quiet!
As for the charge of treason I make. He swore an oath to the CONSTITUTION. Not some Texas twit. I believe he knew about the Iraq intelligence and he knew shrub falsified it to lead the US into war. He said nothing. You could argue that before he resigned he didn’t have a choice. After he resigned he could have told Congress. He said nothing. General Batiste, former commander of the 1st infantry division, turned down a promotion so he could tell Congress of the administrations lack of leadership and general screw ups. He is also a self proclaimed lifelong republican.
The blood of every soldier that has died or has been injured in this misguided f#@k up of a war is on his hands just as much as it is on the hands of Texas twit and dick.
I have posted before that “stay the course” should be changed to “sit and spin”.
I got another candidate to replace “stay the course”.
“Second star to the right, then straight on til morning.”
Destination Neverland.
Powell IS late to this debate. He WAS right but too quiet early on. So instead of the policies of a prescient but pipsqueak Powell we got the policy of Peter Pan.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.Albert Einstein, (attributed)US (German-born) physicist (1879 – 1955)
Bush’s policies have left us with very little options in Iraq but to say Democrats want to cut and run is Karl Rove’s little soundbite to label Democrats as weak on terrorists.
This is not some chess game we are in people. We are losing soldiers every day in this mess.
But we have lost the moral ground that the US once enjoyed by going into Iraq, basically without a firm coaltion of our allies, and Bush expected to ride in with guns blazing and did he really think that some of the Iraqis would not fight back? How stupid was that?
Stay the course means more of the same with the same results. If that’s what you truly believe in – then by all means support Bush and his policies. If you want to see change in our strategy to actually win the war – then you oppose Bush’s policies. It’s really that simple.
After 9/11 the Bush administration gave into Bin Laden’s demands and moved the US military out of Saudi Arabia. Did Republicans criticize Bush for coddling the terrorists and “cutting and running”?
Powell went before the UN and lied about everything he could. Why should anyone take his word now since he already sold all his credibility?
If you want to know what a dumbfuck Bush is just read Woodward’s new book. Bush is a little snobby prick who stomped his feet to get into the presidency. He has no fucking clue about anything and then he has the balls to tell journalists that he often makes decisions based on the feeling in his gut.Holy shit!!! Whenever I haven’t a clue about something my gut will tell me to:1) admit I am clueless2) get arrogant and profess I will kick ass3) get all arrogant while inside I am a coward4) Ask for helpOur president appears to have chose #2 & #3.This beady eyed dumb mutherfucking smirk faced prick.He is the worst pres. ever….ever. The prick is illiterate, rich, and a snobby frat boy.Nothing more. Nothing less.
Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutelyAn observation that a person’s sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases. The statement was made by Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
twit and dick? I LIKE that!
So true, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Bush would not have made this big of a mess if his Republican cronies were not in power in both the House and the Senate.
I wonder what Bush will be like if after November the power shifts? Will he continue to throw his tantrums or will he make nice? On time will tell.
“Only time will tell”
“Stay the Course” – the motto for lemmings as they run over the cliff.
“After 9/11 the Bush administration gave into Bin Laden’s demands and moved the US military out of Saudi Arabia.”
Doug,Last I knew we drew down our troops there, but we still have a presence in Saudi Arabia.
But I could be wrong:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030430-psab01.htm
This undated link says in 2003 we went from 4500 troops in Saudi Arabia to about 500 – a very significant reduction.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/saudi-arabia.htm
For Republicans, it’s no longer stay the course, it’s stay of course!
Steven (Davis)–
According to Greg Palast, we pulled the troops out of Saudi Arabia.
There may be a few advisors etc. but the bases are closed as far as I’ve heard.
Doug–
I agree.
Colon Bowels could have been president if he had run.
Instead he served President Cuckoo Bananas and did whatever he was told.
Too little, too late.
Take you government pension and live out the rest of your life in shame, Colon.
You are a disgrace like all the rest of them . . .
Staying the course is not a plan. The left may not have articulated a plan for the “war on terror”, but neither has the right.
It is not reasonable to expect outsiders who have been denied full access to all the information to formulate a detailed plan. However, it should be obvious that those currently in power have no clue what is going on. Senile Dick, cokehead Shrub, and clueless RumNamara are hardly a trifecta. Instead they are the Three Stooges!
If I were facing a dangerous surgery due to malpractice of my doctor would I trust that quack to do the surgery. I think not. That is the case with this bunch!
I like making up “funny” names for people I hate. It makes me feel big and important. It hides the fact that I’m a big fat asian who smells of sweet & sour sauce.
Well, time to go make sweet love to my plastic sex doll. Bye.
Quick, hand me my troll rifle!
KA BAM!
Oooh, I love when the brains spatter . . .
You actually found brains to spatter? Surprising …
Powell looks like he’s doing an impression of Jon Stewart doing his impression of shrub.Wow, an impression once removed.That takes talent.