Tuesday, June 17, 2008

"Tremendous Progress" in Iraq

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Says Corner Turned in Fight against Insurgency, Terrorism

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday his country still needs American troops to help secure progress achieved as a result of what he called a successful US surge strategy: Arab Times (Kuwait) UN Security Council Press Release.

Too bad that this is not leading news in the American media.

10 comments:

Downtowner said...

And how does that help the U.S. again? Just what will be accomplished 25 years from now? Or will the U.S. still be there?

Anonymous said...

I wonder how tremendous the families of the 4400+ dead American soldiers and the families of the over 30,000 maimed and wounded soldiers feel.

We need to bring them home NOW!

Anonymous said...

How about we made the world a better place or we freed the iraqi people from a brutal tyrant who also happened to be a psychotic who hated us or how about just saying we struck a blow for justice and liberty
Signed
Son of Liberty

Downtowner said...

The U.S. could be a better place with the human and financial resources being spent there.

Americans pay tax money, ideally, to benefit the U.S. But is it reasonable to go around picking random countries to be over-involved in, stretching every kind of asset?

The U.S. military is stretched very thin, the financial cost of this conflict is part of the economic mess this country is in, and the dollar is the weakest it has been since I can remember. Overseas borrowing, particularly where it involves China, is more than alarming. Borrowing, in general, is distressing.

The ordinary taxpayer, as I see it, doesn't have their interests represented here. The whole basis of this conflict is cloudy, at best. And what is going to be derived from this for ordinary residents has yet to be talked about in a meaningful way.

There is one candidate in the upcoming presidential election that has promised to end this situation, and one that has promised to perpetuate it.

No disrespect to anyone on this issue, because it is polarizing. But it is an issue and it's probably going to come up in the next few months.

Anonymous said...

Great comment Jim.

Our sinking dollar is part of the problem on the oil futures market too. You know we're in trouble when the Canadian dollar is worth more than the greenback. China is now our largest bank. Its amazing that its ok for Bush to go to war to get Hussein out because he's an evil man, yet we trade and borrow from China, which is a communist, totalitarian state. Where is the reasoning?

Downtowner said...

I don't see anything like reason.

I think Alexander Hamilton would have made the argument that our national security has a lot to do with our dollar.

China is opting out of the dollar, as is Italy, Norway, Japan and Eastern Europe. There's a reason. That's a sign of the times.

We're re-learning lessons here from another decade. People older than their 40s have been here before. But the economy wasn't this bad back then.

Anonymous said...

God forbid that we have to sacrifice for something like freedom around the world.
You are right we can not be everywher but does that mean we should not start
somewhere SOL

Anonymous said...

Yes SOL..it must be tremendously easy for you to sacrifice someone else's son or daughter. Have you ever had one in a war? I have had my son in the first gulf war, and I can tell you, I don't eant anyone to go through that anguish. We were lucky that time, since he came back, but what about the sons and daughters that don't? Especially for a war fought for a President that was intent on war from before he even took office. He lied to public, to congress and to the rest of the world. And now, we are paying through the nose in lives and money for his outright lies.

He should have been impeached a long time ago.

Anonymous said...

If the Democrats had put up a worthwhile candidate in 2000 or 2004 instead of two weak looking liberals, they would have won or taken the White House over this dim-witted war monger.

Al Gore was the Vice President at a time of peace and prosperity and yet he couldn't defeat Bush? Blame Nader and Florida all you want, but had Gore been a stronger candidate, he would have won.

Four years later you nominate John Kerry. He's Al Gore with a New England accent. He didn't seem to want to dirty his hands with all that campaigning stuff. He, like Gore, wasn't willing to do what was necessary to win.

I am no fan of President Bush. I am embarrassed that my party nominated him and in the job he's done as President. I could only be more embarrassed if I were a Democrat whose party was too weak in its opposition to stop this Administration for doing the damage it's done.

Thanks for nothing.

Lugar96

Anonymous said...

You're preaching to the choir on this one Lugar96. I agree with you that not only the candidates, but the loyal opposition all those years where weak and had no guts whatsoever. The moment they got in they should have started impeachment proceedings against this whole adminstration on any number of crimes. I am disappointed that they let them go and now its too late. The Dick Cheney should be thrown in jail without a key.

But, we can change all that in the upcoming election by voting for Obama and not Bush light. I know you and these bloggers don't agree, but something different has to happen and maybe a person of color will change the lousy, stinkin' behavior of the previous Presidents. All the way back to Harry Truman! Who knows? I think its better than just going along for the ride. Hopefully, most of America will agree, but we'll see. Old, deep down, unwanted prejudices are hard to break. No matter how much you don't want to believe that.

Maybe this time we'll get lucky.