The total of troops in the surge apparently is a fluid number. On top of the 21,500 that President Bush ordered in January, he now has approved 8,200 more for deployment in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House said Saturday that the 4,700 additional troops going to Iraq will be in support roles rather than combat. But the news raises new questions about the surge’s true size and duration. It’s beginning to look like the surge will continue "well beyond the summer," in the words of Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in Iraq.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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48 Comments
occupation.
I like the way they express the number with surgical precision: 8,200.
Not 201, that would be too many, nor 199, for that would be too few.
Exactly 8,200 will completely solve the problem.
You know, this is how insane people think.
If we’re going to send in a troop increase, well hell, go for another 150,000.
That might actually do something.
“If we’re going to send in a troop increase, well hell, go for another 150,000.
That might actually do something.”
I agree, capn.
Was there ever any doubt that Haliburton and Cheney meant for this incursion into Iraq to be permanent?
…. and where would you get 150,000 troops, Fleet. The recent MSNBC article that I posted a day or so ago said that they were having trouble coming up with the troops for the 21,500 Surge.
The People of the United States don’t want this Iraq slaughter disguised as a war to satisfy Israeli greed, and if congress wasn’t paid-off by AIPAC we wouldn’t be spending billions and scarifying soldiers lives and limbs.
The election was about stopping this carnage, so congressional staff members need some whistelblowers to set things right.
The question to me has become what will qualify as success and how much longer should we stay to try to achieve that. I think we are doing good things there, but will we be able to achieve our ultimate goal.
Not so sure we shoudln’t pull out of all our bases and let everybody fend for themselves. Think I’m becoming an isolationist:)
A wise poster to this forum used to say it best.
“No occupying force has ever defeated an armed and determined insurgency.”
This will not be the first time.
Iraq has to fix Iraq. There is, of course, much money to be made by some in postponing that as long as possible.
What do you call a permanent surge?
Uh – something against the laws of physics?Uh – a military base?Uh – what Pmom said, that sounds about right too.
A travesty, and an affront to the people of this nation.
All of this shit lies at the feet of Dick Cheney. The reptilian fascist who couldn’t even serve when it was his turn now has no qualms sending thousands of others to fight and die for his colossal blunder. He is most likely the worst person living in the United States at this time. Cheney deserves far, far worse punishment than impeachment.
The Bushco propagandists are admitting to 2 million refugees and the best reliable estimate is over 1 million Iraqi dead.
This is not a war , it’s a mass murder if not genocide.
This terrible crime needs to stop now.
I never believed America could stoop as low as what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians, but it’s there for the all the world to see, and by survey they’re seeing it.
Cheney is going to live forever. He has a hi-tech pacemaker that we paid for ($250,000) that has a built in defibrilator.
The only thing that can take Cheney out is a microwave.
yeah but ws, that doesn’t mean he’ll live in good health, just that he’ll exist.
Cheney make Charlie Manson look like a saint.
Cheney makes Charlie Manson look like a saint.
Seriously, what’s wrong with the neocons to make them act this thing out?
Is there a name or category for that deranged mind?
“What do call a permanent surge?”
I call it, see your doctor. That’s not normal . . .
Cheney was preaching to the choir today AIPAC saying democrats are undercutting the war. AIPAC should be outlawed for manipulating our politicians.
This is some serious bad news for our men and women in the Armed Services.
“The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq”
http://www.salon.com/news/2007/03/11/fort_benning/?source=rss
One definition of insanity is doing the same stupid thing over and over again expecting a different reault. Therefore I call it insanity.
Why are troop numbers made public?
Oil services giant Halliburton Co. will soon shift its corporate headquarters from Houston to the Mideast financial powerhouse of Dubai,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070311/emirates-halliburton
Yes, exile – they’re pulling out – and with them will go multi-millions in tax revenue.
Maybe they got sick and tired of all the finger-pointing from the Democrats…..?
Maybe halliburton knows somwthing we don’t. Could it be that Houston has a mushroom cloud in its future?
Joe, because we’re supposed to own the government, that’s why.
This isn’t China. You want China Joe?
I beat Rhonda to the punch on posting this story in my Blog entryPosted by: Republikhan | March 12, 2007 at 08:32 AM in the open thread
It was from the Houston Chronicle and explained the reasons for the extra troops from two Generals in the field in Iraq.
Probably Halliburton is pulling offshore to be even LESS scrutinized by the US government.
Another reason to end their revenue stream by winding up our operations in Iraq.
I would guess that Haliburton is there for the large contruction contracts in the Mideast other than Iraq.
There are many of them and Haliburton is already in the works for quite a few.
And I imagine that they are sick of being picked on by the Democrats. :)
Nothing like chasing one the biggest construction countries in the World out of one’s country.
Not a good move regardless of what politics you believe in.
Sadly it is reality, if you begin with not enough to do the job in the first place. You will end up playing catch-up, you can not draw down if you can not have enough to do the job in the first place. By now we should have been to the point that the Iraqis were ready to run they own country.
What is the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan? In part it was the altitude of the way it was done, where Iraq there was a real attempt to micro-manage. Afghanistan the Administration wanted to get it over with, help to establish a Government and get to their real desire to get Saddam. But as a side benefit was that they allowed the natural course to proceed, the failure in Afghanistan is that the Administration virtually walked away. Instead of sating of curtain to help get over the rough spots, Bush basically said “Here it is, run with it. I have better things to do!”.
When in both Iraq and Afghanistan once they standing army was defeated, if the U.S. had simply stood as an ally instead of a controlling force. There could have been a stand down.
As it stands, the longer we are in Iraq the more it plays into the extremist hands, in recruitment, in propaganda, when the common fear of the people of the middle east is that the great devil is trying to take away their lands and Religion. A build up to the levels it should have been in the first place, only serve to reinforce their fears. Showing them proof that the extremists were right in their assertion that the U.S. wants to take away their way of life.
Chased out.
Yeah they were “chased out” in the sense that they are running FROM accountability and their tax obligations in the US.
Traitors. Nothing but bottomline feeding traitors.
Just goes to show how greed and money fuel the war machine.Where are they getting these extra troops? I thought we we’re already stretched pretty thin, do they just keep recycling the soldiers? I know several who are on their 3rd tour of duty in that hell hole.I’m so sick of Cheney and his cronies profiting from this fiasco, too bad the gun didn’t backfire when he shot his lawyer friend.
“Nothing like chasing one the biggest construction countries in the World out of one’s country.”
Halliburton is moving out of the USA to the United Arab Emirates because they have no corporate taxes, no corporate regulations and they will be closer to their natural customer base – oil producing countries.
That makes sense Mr. Clark. After all no corporate taxes mean more profit for the ownership.
“That makes sense Mr. Clark. After all no corporate taxes mean more profit for the ownership.”
… and therefore they should NEVER again get another contract with the American Government.
… and therefore they should NEVER again get another contract with the American Government.
Posted by: WSClark | March 12, 2007 at 07:55 PM
I guess that would depend on the nature of the contract.
For instance, if the U.S. Navy wanted a harbor somewhere in the Mideast or its proximity, it wouldn’t make sense to hire a company based in the U.S. that would have to charge higher prices to move its management to the area.
The truth is that we are going to be in Iraq for many many more years to come and if the assholes in DC were being truthful they would tell you this. We will probably be there for at least 10 to 20 more years because that is what it will take to stabilize that country most likely. And we will be there no matter who is elected in 2008 which is why Hillary is using her words carefully and not “regretting” her vote for war. She knows that, if she is elected, she will have to sell this war to her voters.
“I guess that would depend on the nature of the contract.”
If they do not pay taxes in the US, then they are not an American company and therefore should not recieve contracts from the American people.
Hopefully if Halliburton was hired to build a harbor for the United States Navy they would do a better job then they have the reconstruction of Iraq.
I think the following speaks for itself.
Please welcome General Paul. D. Eaton. General? [applause]
Maj. Gen. PAUL D. EATON [via satellite]: Hey, great to be with you, Bill.
MAHER: How are you doing?
EATON: Terrific. Sounds like you’ve got a great crowd out there.
MAHER: We do have a good crowd here. And I thank you for doing this show. I thank you for – for coming out and speaking, because I know when you’re a military man, probably the hardest thing to do is to speak out in a way that’s not positive about the people up above you in the chain of command. So, let’s start with the Walter Reed situation.
I heard a senator say the other day, “Let’s not point fingers and blame.” Why not? Shouldn’t we be exactly pointing fingers and blaming?
EATON: We’ve got a real mess on our hands. This is really a bad deal for – for the men and women coming back, who are injured, and they need the best support that they can. And I’ve got to tell you, it goes back to the very beginning of this administration’s prosecution of the war. We just didn’t prepare well, at the administration level, all the way down. So this – this train left the station in 2003.
MAHER: But shouldn’t we blame…[laughter] Let me put it another way. Who should we blame? [laughter]
EATON: You’ve got blame up and down. And the primary guy, you know, it’s not just about money, mold and mice. We’ve got a problem in managing the case load that we’ve got. And—
MAHER: Wait, wait, wait. You said “primary guy.”
EATON: Sorry?
MAHER: Who’s the primary guy? You started to say the primary—
EATON: Oh, I’ll – I’ll put it right on Rumsfeld’s shoulders.
MAHER: Oh.
EATON: This – Rumsfeld was the primary architect of the disasters that we’ve got going on right now. Now, he’s probably shrugging his shoulders out there, going, you know, “I’m guilty for Walter Reed as well?” It’s everything else. And he is. He set the stage for the management of this war and the management of the aftermath of combat.
MAHER: And I read in your op-ed piece in the New York Times this week, you said, “This is just the tip of the iceberg.” What is the rest of the iceberg?
EATON: We’ve got a distributed medical command out there that relies heavily upon case managers to help young men and women who have been injured. And some of these injuries get after the – the psyches of the soldiers involved. And if you can’t help them through this bureaucratic maze that – that’s always been there, we’ve got these old databases; we’ve got these old software systems, and it’s just tedious – and it takes seasoned case managers who have a rational case load to help these men and women through it.
And what’s happened is the families have had to kick in and interpret systems and help these guys and gals through it. And it’s just flat wrong.
MAHER: It seems like loyalty is a one-way street in that Bush Administration.
EATON: I’ve got real problems with this administration. We are in the midst of recovering right now from a constitutional crisis where you had the executive trump the other branches of government, and the executive concentrated in President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. And with the arrival of a Democratic-controlled Congress, thank God, in 7-November, we’ve got a chance to un-sort and to figure out how to get out from under this. [applause]
MAHER: But…I tell you, you don’t often hear military people use the phrase, “arrival of Democrats” and “Thank God” in the same sentence. [laughter] Right? And I’m just wondering, I mean, I’ve said this before, I feel like the troops have this dysfunctional, abusive relationship with George Bush. The more he mistreats them, the more they seem to like him. I mean, the only speeches he ever makes are in front of troops or toddlers—[laughter]—the only two groups of people who won’t boo him. [laughter] And I’m not that sure about the toddlers. [laughter] [applause] Why do they still like George Bush?
EATON: We…
MAHER: [he laughs] [laughter]
EATON: We’ve got this thing that, you know, so many military believe that Republican administrations are good for the military. That is rarely the case. And we have got to get a – a message through to every soldier, every family member, every friend of soldier, that the Republican Party, the Republican-dominated Congress, has absolutely been the worst thing that’s happened to the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps. [applause] [cheers]
MAHER: I didn’t know you felt that way. Well, let me ask you about this: there are two plans the Democrats seem to have, or that they’re floating in Congress. One is to de-fund the war. The other one is to set a timetable. The Bush Administration says both things would somehow hurt the troops. Would it hurt the troops if we de-funded the war? Would that affect them?
EATON: It would be a very serious problem for the United States Army, and it would be political suicide for the Democratic Party.
MAHER: Wow.
EATON: We have got to come after this problem in a – in a different vector. We’ve got to go after some of the things that this president – I hate to use the word “contain” – but there is a containment opportunity here for the executive branch of government today.
MAHER: But General Petraeus, who is our man in charge there now, and by all accounts, a brilliant guy, incredibly capable. You’d agree?
EATON: I’ve known Dave for a long time. He is a superb human being. He is a superb soldier, and he is a great leader.
MAHER: Well, that would qualify as an…unqualified recommendation. [laughter] But, he said, the other day, “Any student of history recognizes there is no military solution in Iraq.” To which I would say, “Then, general, what are you doing there?”
EATON: Well, I tell you, this administration has dropped this load on the shoulders of the United States Army and the Marine Corps. And you have seen absent the State Department and the rest of the president’s Cabinet in trying to get after the political, the economic, the diplomatic solutions that we need to work to get this thing done right. But the military has been shouldering the entire burden of this drama since 2003.
MAHER: Boy, they sure have.
EATON: [overlapping] And it’s high – it’s high time that we get the rest of the United States government into this fight. [applause]
MAHER: Well, if there’s anybody who knows a lot…anybody who knows about “high time,” it’s me, general. I thank you very much for being here, and I thank you for your service to our country. [applause] [cheers]
Scuttlebutt was that Major General Eaton was refused promotion recommendation to Lieutenant General by Rumsfield and he has been bitter since.
Because when one thinks of competence in war plans, one thinks of Rumsfeld, right ye of many nics?
RumsFAILED.
Jeez, Capn’, you have to REALLY suck to get fired by George W Bush.
Or you have to try to tell George the truth, that really pisses him off.
Scuttlebutt was that Major General Eaton was one of the very few left who dared speak the truth and that RumsFAILED punished him for his honesty. Didn’t he get the memo? Honesty is frowned upon in this administration.
You really are shredding what little credibility you may have had when you post an interview by Bill Maher(liar).Funny thing about last week. On the day his ex girlfriend likened Edwards to a “faggot”, Maher made his “we would be better off if Cheney had died” comment. She got cruciefied and Bill liar got a pass. What a Country.
Just how many times can a wingnut post a repeat of a lie?
Apparantly until their pudgy little fingers get tired.
No matter how many times Maher’s comments are REPOSTED here in the interest of accuracy…
… the wingnuts insist on lying about it.
Typical. Truthiness instead of truth.
BTW, wingnuts, how did all that lie and spin and corruption work for you in the last election? And does anyone believe it will be different in the next election?
What a buncha whiners and sore losers. As you all love to say GET OVER IT.
You lost. We won. End of story. All the lies and spin will not change the facts.
The wingnut repukes are the party of hate, of corruption, and of failure. No wonder they love to create the “controlled controversy” you see here.
They have no integrity, so they just have to lie and deny harder and faster.
Keep it up wingnuts. Nov 08 is not too far away…
“The wingnut repukes are the party of hate, of corruption, and of failure. No wonder they love to create the ‘controlled controversy’ you see here.
“They have no integrity, so they just have to lie and deny harder and faster.
“Keep it up wingnuts. Nov 08 is not too far away…”
Amen, assholes, and good night…