Clipmarks | n2sooners's 'iraq' clips

Media reports Bush didn't lie

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:16:45 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners
clipper's remarks: In other news, Satan builds a ski resort and the car wash business is up sharply due to cars being soiled by flying pigs.

Sorry for skimping on the AP quote, I hear they start charging at five words so I cut it down to four.

Clip Source: www.floppingaces.net

New York Times 6/5/08

public statements from Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and other senior officials were generally “substantiated” by the best estimates at the time from American intelligence agencies

Washington Post

the phony “Bush lied” story line distracts from the biggest prewar failure: the fact that so much of the intelligence upon which Bush and Rockefeller and everyone else relied turned out to be tragically, catastrophically wrong.

Los Angeles Times

Rockefeller’s highly partisan report does not substantiate its most explosive claims.

what did his report actually find? That Iraq-Al Qaeda links were “substantiated by intelligence information.” The same goes for claims about Hussein’s possession of biological and chemical weapons, as well as his alleged operation of a nuclear weapons program

New York Sun

Quoth Senator Rockefeller: “Sadly, the Bush administration led the nation into war under false pretenses.” Well not exactly

Associated Press

intelligence supported

administration’s statements

Tags: bush, bush administration, iraq, al qaeda, war on terror, lies, politics, truth

Dem says surge opposition was reverse psychology

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:13:02 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: minx.cc

Democratic Rep: By Opposing the Surge, We Actually Encouraged the President to Enact the Surge, Which in Turn Resulted in Victory... and You're Welcome

Great post from Jeff Emmanuel. This is the same Democrat Rep who recently admitted Democrats had "stretched the facts" about the feasibility and prudence of a quick withdrawal from Iraq, just to win the election.

Now he makes this curious claim:

In February 2007, Kanjorski went to the floor of the House to say:

Ms. Speaker, I rise today to join the overwhelming majority of the American people, the Congress, and many top U.S. military commanders to voice my opposition to President Bush's ill-conceived plan to send more American troops into the middle of an ongoing Civil War in Iraq.
Then, in an interview from just days ago, Kanjorski said:

We've taken public positions which have now forced the president to go into the surge mentality, which is somewhat working.

[Video]

Tags: democrat, surge, iraq, war on terror, politics, wtf

Inside Iraqi Politics

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:39:48 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners
clipper's remarks: A good rundown on how Iraqi politics work.

Clip Source: www.longwarjournal.org

"Inside Iraqi Politics" is a special series dedicated to examining political progress in Iraq, with a focus on issues that affect the country's stability and the reconciliation between ethnic and religious sects. The product of more than a dozen interviews with American and Iraqi officials and months of research, the series presents a more comprehensive view of factors that slow progress beyond sectarian interest, including the rapid growth of the government, administrative inexperience, corruption, and the structure of the executive and legislative branches outlined in the Iraqi Constitution.

Clip Source: www.longwarjournal.org

The Iraqi executive branch differs from its US counterpart. Click to view.

Clip Source: www.longwarjournal.org

The 275 member Iraqi parliament is divided among a wide variety of political blocs, most of which are in turn composed of various parties. Click image to view.

Tags: iraq, politics

What is success?

Sat, 31 May 2008 19:37:14 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners
clipper's remarks: This doesn't mean it is over. It doesn't mean things can't change. What it does mean is we are on the right path and it would be pure ignorance to depart from that path now.

Clip Source: www.aswataliraq.info

Baghdad, May 31, (VOI) – The CIA has declared that al-Qaeda is virtually defeated in Iraq and that the country is seeing its lowest level of violence for four years, according to the British newspaper The Times.

Nineteen US military personnel have died in Iraq this month, according to the Pentagon, making May the least deadly month for US troops since the beginning of the war, writes journalist Tim Reid in an article.

The deadliest month for US troops was May 2007, when 126 died as the insurgency in Baghdad raged.

Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll, a US spokesman, said violent incidents in Iraq were down 70 per cent since President Bush ordered a “surge” of 35,000 extra troops into the country last year.

In April, 75 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police were killed, the lowest level since November 2004.

Tags: iraq, war on terror, military, success

General McClellan's War

Sat, 31 May 2008 18:47:46 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

The problem is that Mr. McClellan presents no major new detail to support his conclusions about Iraq, or even about the Administration's deliberations about how to sell the war. This may be because he was the deputy press secretary for domestic issues during the run-up to war and thus rarely attended war strategy sessions. His talking points are merely the well-trod claims that the Administration oversold the evidence about WMD and al Qaeda.

Three independent investigations have looked into these claims, and all of them concluded that political actors did not skew intelligence to sell the war.

As we read it, the real critical lesson in Mr. McClellan's book concerns personnel and management. Despite his MBA pedigree, Mr. Bush often failed to mediate his Administration's many internal disputes

Mr. Bush also tolerated too many mediocrities for too long, either out of loyalty or Texas ties. On that point at least, Mr. McClellan is persuasive.

Tags: mcclellan, iraq, war on terror, politics, book

Depends on the meaning of "all"

Fri, 30 May 2008 07:50:07 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners
clipper's remarks:

For Kurtz and the rest of the MSM, then, the concept of “tell-all” has little to do with the amount of actual information revealed, or its quality. The key, instead, is the amount of vitriol directed at (in this case) a president the MSM dislikes.

Clip Source: www.powerlineblog.com

Kurtz refers to McClellan’s book as an example of the “tell-all” genre.

whether this amounts to a “tell-all” depends on how much McClellan actually knows, and this is the subject of considerable doubt. Though I haven’t read his book, I do know that it is devoid of footnotes, endnotes, and supporting documentation.

Feith’s book stands in sharp contrast. First, unlike McClellan, Feith was at the center of the policy-making at issue. Second, his book provides detailed accounts of key meetings based on contemporaneous notes. And it includes more than 30 pages of original source material plus almost 90 pages of endnotes. Readers can thus determine for themselves whether the author is providing a reliable account or merely settling scores and/or trying to make a buck (Feith, by the way, is donating all proceeds from his book to help Iraq war veterans). Yet the MSM is breathless over McClellan’s book, while it continues studiously to ignore Feith's.

Tags: media, msm, bias, mcclellan, feith, iraq, war on terror, politics

Surge still succeeding

Fri, 30 May 2008 04:37:00 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

BAGHDAD — This May has been one of the least violent months of the Iraq war. The relative calm follows a cease-fire agreement by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia in the face of steady pressure from U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Eighteen U.S. servicemembers have been identified as having died in Iraq so far in May, according to the Pentagon. To date, the least deadly month of the five-year war was February 2004, when 21 U.S. troops were killed in a 29-day period. The number of wounded also has fallen.

Overall, militant attacks in Iraq have dropped to levels not seen since spring 2004, U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll said this week. Attacks are down 70% since President Bush ordered a U.S. troop increase, or "surge," early last year.

"We're seeing progress because we're getting more capability out of the Iraqi security forces," said Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, the number two U.S. commander in Iraq.

Tags: surge, iraq, war on terror, military, politics

Iraq media coverage drops 92% in one year

Thu, 29 May 2008 20:35:35 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

Democracy Project analyzes a recent report published at the American Journalism Review titled: "Whatever Happened to Iraq?"

In a media shocker...

This past year Iraq has disappeared from the front pages of the nation's newspapers and from the nightly network newscasts.

Network news devoted to Iraq dropped from 23% to 3% (92% decline) compared to last year:

Cable news dedicated to Iraq dropped even further from 24% to 1% over last year:

Print news dedicated to Iraq dropped 70% over last year.

Related... Don't expect to see this on the American networks:
The following is a translation by Iraqi-American Haider Ajina from the Iraqi Buratha News:

Baghdad Parks & Recreation department Invites families to visit Abu-Nawass Gardens

Tags: media, msm, bias, iraq, war on terror, surge, politics

McCain broadsides Obama

Thu, 29 May 2008 07:55:58 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: www.floppingaces.net

He could see the fact that Sadr City is quiet. He could see that the Maliki government is taking control of Basra. He could see that the Iraqi military is leading the fight in these places with the support of American troops. And to say that we failed in Iraq and that we’re not succeeding, does not comport with the facts on the ground.

if we set a date for withdrawal, which Senator Obama wants to do, there will be chaos. There will be genocide. There will be increased Iranian influence there, and we will have to go back with further sacrifice of American blood and treasure.

Senator Obama has said, as you know, that he wants to sit down without any preconditions with the President of Iran, Ahmadinejad. He has said that he wants to sit down with a leader of a country that a few days ago called Israel a quote, ’stinking corpse’.

Now, why is it that Senator Obama wants to sit down with the President of Iran, but hasn’t yet sat down with General Petraeus, the leader of our troops in Iraq?

[Video]

Tags: mccain, obama, iraq, war on terror, military, politics

Obama rejects McCain's challenge

Wed, 28 May 2008 04:17:34 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: minx.cc

Maverick And Barry’s Excellent Adventure: Not Going To Happen

Yesterday McCain suggested that he and Obama travel to Iraq to get a first hand look at what’s going on there.

Obama, who hasn’t been to Iraq since 2006 (when the situation was a weeee bit different) said no thanks.

Apparently Obama learned all he need to know about Iraq from watching Olbermann.

I guess the idea of sitting down with American troops, their leaders and the elected government of Iraq isn’t as interesting as a world tour of thugs and killers. Perhaps if McCain had suggested skipping Baghdad and going right on to Tehran to chat with Ahmadinejad Obama would have been more interested.

Obama '08: Hope, Change and Bitterly Clinging to an Old Narrative.

Tags: obama, mccain, election, politics, iraq, military

Pelosi snubbed in Iraq

Sun, 18 May 2008 05:01:15 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: www.time.com

Pelosi is something of a nonentity to average Iraqis. If they know who she is at all, she is generally seen as an antiwar caricature figure, someone whose views on U.S. troop withdrawals are widely considered unrealistic.

Not even Mahdi Army militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, the fiercest advocate of a U.S. withdrawal on the scene, has called for such a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces.

The lack of popularity of Pelosi's views was evident in the fact that her first day on the ground Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not make an effort to see her. Maliki is currently in the northern city of Mosul overseeing a crackdown on insurgent networks there. But the city has been largely quiet in recent days, and there was no obvious pressing reason for the prime minister to skip Pelosi's arrival.

Pelosi may not get much more warmth from the American military leaders she plans to meet either.

Tags: pelosi, iraq, war on terror, baghdad, politics, millitary

More success in Iraq

Tue, 13 May 2008 20:05:48 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: www.floppingaces.net

Well, wouldn’t you know it. The New York Times has been forced to admit that their doom and gloom reporting on Sadr and his thugs have been wrong. And on the front page of all pages.

Three hundred miles south of Baghdad, the oil-saturated city of Basra has been transformed by its own surge, now seven weeks old.

In a rare success [ed. puhlease, nothing rare about it. plenty of successful stories going on starting with The Surge], forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki have largely quieted the city, to the initial surprise and growing delight of many inhabitants who only a month ago shuddered under deadly clashes between Iraqi troops and Shiite militias.

This report comes the same day that Sadr signed over control of the Sadr city to the Iraqi government and they acknowledge that the elected government of Iraq is the sole legitimate authority in Sadr City and everywhere else in Iraq:

Tags: iraq, war on terror, basra, politics, military

More unreported success in Iraq

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:25:36 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: www.strategypage.com

Between mid-March and mid-April, al Qaeda suffered major losses in Iraq. American and Iraqi troops killed or captured 53 al Qaeda leaders. These include men in charge of entire cities (or portions of large cities like Mosul or Baghdad), as well as men in charge of various aspects of terror operations (making bombs, placing them or minding the bombers). Most important, nine of the ten most senior men involved, were captured, and interrogated. This led to locating more al Qaeda staff, and assets. Hundreds of weapons and explosives caches have been discovered this year, as a result of interrogating captured terrorists. The result has been a sharp fall in suicide bomber attacks, and the ones still carried out are against soft targets

All this is good news, meaning it's not reported.

Bad news brings in the eyeballs and advertising revenue. Stories of desertion and desperation in Basra grab the headlines, while al Qaeda's travails are relegated to the back pages, if at all.

Tags: iraq, war on terror, military, politics, al qaeda

Murtha: No time for vets, calls cops on vet's mom

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:46:04 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners
clipper's remarks:

I am angry that this man, who accuses our military of using excessive force, sent 3 Police Cars and 7 Officers to intimidate me. Had me chased down like a fugitive! I know one thing for certain: John Murtha does not respect our Soldiers and he sure doesn’t respect their mothers. You are shameful John Murtha.

...asked why they called the cops and they said she was “disruptive to the office”...

...asked when they called the police, they stated that they had called after she had left.

Bev is the mother of Sgt. John P. White, 82nd Airborne, Bronze Star Recipient, on his 4th deployment.

Clip Source: www.democracy-project.com

On April 8, the Vets For Freedom, over 450 Iraq and Afghan war veterans, blanketed Capital Hill to meet with Congressmen and Senators.

John Murtha refused to meet with them.

When Bev Perlson heard about the affront, she decided to act

Bev Perlson writes

I had seen an absolute enough disappointed Marines walk by and tell me that John Murtha did not see them and could not see them. When I asked how did it go, they all reported pretty much the same answer “Didn’t have time for us.”

We entered the office and I asked to see Murtha

This young man stood up and told me that “people” cannot just come in there and expect to see the Congressman without an appointment

The last thing I said was “He is a Coward” because I believe that he is. A white haired lady asked us to leave and we did, and as we walked down the hall, the white haired lady called us “Cowards.”

As I just reached the Cannon Bldg., 3 or 4 Police cars with flashing lights pulled right up near me. I think I saw 6 or 7 Policeman

Tags: murtha, veterans, military, politics, iraq, war on terror

Vets for freedom

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:17:45 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

Pete Hegseth, Executive Director of Vets for Freedom, took on Medea Benjamin from Code Pink tonight on The O'Reilly Factor.

Pete announced that 450 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan rallied this week on Capital Hill in support of the mission... 450! Outstanding!

Several Republican senators including John McCain and Democrat Joe Lieberman joined the veterans at the rally.

here is the Vets for Freedom ad released this week

"The doubters and critics of General Petraeus and his plan six months ago have nothing to say now," said Pete Hegseth, Executive Director of Vets for Freedom. “Their silence is testament to the fact that progress has indeed been made, and it is imperative that we continue to give both the military and State Department time to carry out their plans,” Hegseth continued. “We need to trust the assessment of those that are on ground, and deal with the situation on a day-to-day, first-hand basis.”

remember to support the 17 Iraq War Veterans For Congress

as Republicans

Tags: iraq, war on terror, veterans, petraeus, politics, military