I’ve been doing some serious retroflecting now that we’re nearing the end of the George W. Bush era, and I’m thinking that maybe we who consider ourselves to be environmentalists should actually be grateful to the man for the way that he’s dealt with climate change.

Now stay with me on this.

A title which sums up John McCain's quest for the Presidency.

Clark: Well, they didn't bring more troops out to Anbar. What they did is the Saudis, basically in 2005, gave up on the U.S. policy, and they started working directly with the tribes. I went through the region in 2004 and 2005. I went through each of the Gulf States. I talked to the leaders and they said, 'You Americans are crazy. You're ignoring the tribes.' The Saudis put money behind it. They worked the tribes, and that helped bring the condition which made the Sunni Awakening possible.

Scarborough: So, so General, you are crediting the Saudis with success in Western Iraq. You're crediting Iran with success in Eastern Iraq. I think that's giving short shrift for what the troops did.

Clark: No, I don't think so. I think the troops are a very, very important part of this, but I think you have to look at whole situation in there, Joe.

Source: http://securingamerica.com/...
----------

Yesterday, John McCain made millions of people crosseyed while listening to him trying to clarify his statement regarding the surge and the sunni awakening. This is what he said:

...at least implicitly.

While Sen. McCain has been going off on a tangent accusing Sen. Obama of selling America down the river for political gain, there is a question that isn't being asked of the senior Senator from Arizona.

"If Sen. Obama is putting politics over the national interest, do you think your friend and Republican colleague, Chuck Hagel, whose policy proposals and words on Iraq have been almost indistinguishable, is doing the same?"

Any kind of study on the functionality of individuals, society, and governments has to deal with the area of compassion. As we have learned over the past 70+ years of the New Deal, compassion is essential for governments, society, and individuals to function. Without it, people will have no stake even if Dennis Kucinich were running for office. Without it, people would be killing and being killed, and society would not function as people would be quarreling over little things. Without it, people cannot be happy in this life. Nietzsche himself said that people have to operate based on consequences, and the consequences in this case are clear enough.

We all know by now that the news anchors of the big three networks, Brian Williams, Charles Gibson and Katie Couric have joined Senator Obama's tour of the Middle East and Europe and the bitching and moaning this has caused in the McCain camp about media bias.  Forget that McCain is cancelling press events right, left and center and has benefitted from the lack of press he's getting after making atrocious blunders about middle east geography, the timing of the Anbar Awakening and the troop surge in 2007 and calling Senator Obama a traitor who wants to lose the war if it helps his political campaign.  Forget that news people like to go where the news is and that Senator Obama's trip is real news while Senator McCain is giving speeches to half empty gymnasiums in Podunk, Pennsylvania and backwoods New Hampshire.  Forget that while McCain is making joke luggage tags that Senator Obama is talking with Head's of State and inspiring our troops (that was a badass jump shot btw)
and improving America's brand across the globe.  What McCain is completely and conveniently not talking about is his very own Jeff Gannon on the trip, Katie Couric.

More Below the Fold

As you're all well aware, John McCain enjoys repeating over and over and over that:
-he will never surrender in Iraq
-we must achieve victory in Iraq
-Barack Obama advocates defeat in Iraq (Joe LIEberman frequently repeats this statement as well)
-Barack Obama cares more about winning an election than the wellbeing of the American people.

Of course John McCain has never sufficiently defined what victory in Iraq would look like, and even if he has done that to some extent, he certainly has not offered any course we can chart to achieve that victory. It is fairly obvious that McCain wants to stay the course of the last 5-6 years, hoping things will fix themselves.

Yesterday I said to myself, "If they say one more time that the surge is working, I’m gonna’ gag up a lung."  Then they went and said it again and again and again. I'm now on a respirator.

Then I thought, "What if ----"

VoteVets has a new ad featuring Brandon Woods, an Iraq War veteran from New York.

In the ad, Brandon says, "What did we fight for in Iraq? I have some idea. I fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And "freedom" means when the Iraqi people and their Prime Minister ask us to make a plan to leave, we do. But, Senator McCain would occupy Iraq indefinitely, against their wishes. That's not what freedom means. That's not what we fought for. Senator, I thought you would know better."

Here's VoteVets' statement releasing the ad:

Senator McCain once said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to leave. Those of us who served agree with that. Senator McCain now either has to back off his refusal to set a plan to leave Iraq, as Prime Minister Maliki requested a number of times in the past week, or tell the American and Iraqi people why he would overrule Iraq's government and turn our troops into an indefinite occupying force. Those are his only two options. Our new ad makes that clear.

The American people, the Iraqi people, the Iraqi government all think it's time for us to leave. So what does "winning" mean now, Mr. McCain? Stubbornly staying put when you're the only one who wants us to stay?

In the end, it's a question of leadership. Will you lead or be led. Do you have real accountability, or do you shift it to others.

The test of leadership, viewed through these questions, leaves doubt about Pres. Bush and Sen. McCain's fitness to lead. Specifically, their insistance that Gen. Petraeus' judgment be followed without question or debate, does not strike me as leadership. A true leader asks the right questions of his subordinates, and as the leader, makes a decision for which he or she is held accountable. Just the opposite is happening in Iraq.

Published in the Philadelphia Daily News on July 21, 2008 :

http://www.philly.com/...

Cross posted from Huffington Post :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Content removed for copyright violation. People might want to unrecommend - MissLaura

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

The surge in Iraq-Nam didn't work.  In fact, it failed pretty spectacularly.  This isn't to deny that the violence is down in Baghdad (at least, violence against US forces).  But if you remember, the purpose of the surge was to create sufficient security for the Iraq-Namese politicians to work out details on power-sharing, disbursement of revenues and a general overall settlement.  Just today, the world has been given more proof that the politicians in the Green Zone regime are unwilling or unable to make use of the breathing space the surge brought them.  Just like before the surge, they remain prepared to fight to the last American.  President Talabani has rejected the legislation needed to hold provincial elections on October 1.  The Speaker held a secret vote to ram through part of the legislation (which has never happened since the parliament was seated) and the Kurds walked out in protest.

A major part of the surge strategy is that the Iraqi government pass certain legislation that is supposed to produce national reconciliation amidst the newfound security.  Some of those laws got passed, others stalled, as a result of a contining standoff between the US backed parties, and this is the big news in Iraq right now, not Obama's visit or the empty promises of the colonial masters.

Follow me after the flip for Byzantine, or rather Babylonian, intrigue and machination.

It appears that John McCain would rather lose his reputation for foreign policy expertise than lose the election.  Unfortunately, on Iraq, John McCain is losing on both counts, demonstrating on numerous occasions that he doesn't know anything about Iraq.  

John McCain is now a joke, even to usually reliable Republican media proxies like David Gergen.  

Perhaps, in stressing Iraq, McCain's campaign was trying to follow the alleged Rovian maxim:  first, take away your opponent's strength.  Being right on Iraq from the beginning was Obama's strength during the primaries.  And, for a time, when you'd asking McCain about anything, say the economy, McCain would change the subject back to Islamic extremists.  McCain would balance the budget by means of a victory he somehow still can't define.  

The McCain campaign has been attacking Senator Obama's patriotism in various ways.  Here's a new ad from the Republican National Committee attacking Barack Obama for voting against funding the troops in May 2007.  

"There are few votes as important as funding our men and women in uniform. But when our military needed necessary resources, Barack Obama failed to stand up."

The Obama campaign response, after the fold.