A Spork in the Drawer

Whoops!

Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki thinks that Obama's 16-month timeline is the bestest.

St. John responds:

I don't think that this is what George was looking for when he came up with the "time horizon".

Or should that be "event horizon"?

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Will Anybody Notice?

St. John quite possibly endangers Obama's life.

I'm sure the "news" media will be all over that.

Meanwhile, McCain surrogate Bud Day - last seen bashing Wes Clark - claims that we're fighting "The Muslims." All of them.

So if you've pining for a good ol' fashioned religious war then St. John is the candidate for you.

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Perhaps A Good Thing

One hopes that this sticks:

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have abandoned efforts to conclude a comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S troops in Iraq before the end of the Bush presidency, according to senior U.S. officials, effectively leaving talks over an extended U.S. military presence there to the next administration.

If this removes the decision from the BushCheney Cabal that is a good thing. Then it all depends on who the next president is and whatever flipping and/or flopping may occur over the next months.

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Sovereign

Time asks:

Has Maliki Turned on the US?

Heavens! The presumptuousness of a sovereign nation demanding to be sovereign! Or should that be "sovereign"? Needless to say, Dick and George are unimpressed as is St. John.

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Meet Army Spc. Jeremy Hall

Hall is an Iraq vet, former Baptist, and current Atheist:

His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety.

In March, Hall filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others. In the suit, Hall claims his rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment were violated and suggests that the United States military has become a Christian organization.

[...]

Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, after refusing to pray at his table, Hall said he was told to go sit somewhere else. In another incident, when he was nearly killed during an attack on his Humvee, he said another soldier asked him, "Do you believe in Jesus now?"

Hall (who is not seeking compensation in his suit, just an affirmation of religious freedom in the military) also claims he was denied promotion because "I can't put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn't make a good leader."

Of course, there might be more to this story but it fits a pattern of proselytizing within the military. And perhaps we remember the "Christian Embassy" videos which feature high-ranking military officers in the Pentagon openly proclaiming that they put their faith above their duties to the country. And the Air Force has been cited as a particularly unpleasant place for non-conservative Evangelicals.

The last thing this country - hell, the world - needs is a military that sees itself as an avatar of any deity. That way leads to very bad things.

The CNN report of Spc. Hall can be viewed here.

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Shorter Tom Friedman

We may one day look back on this as Iraq’s real war of liberation. The one we led five years ago didn’t count.

Actually, that's verbatim Tom Friedman.

I'm suppose the at least 4109 dead US soldiers don't count either. But do the three killed today count?

Only Tom Friedman knows!

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Oil Shock

The oil:

Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.

The shock:

The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry[.]

But we were told timae and time again that the invasion and occupation of Iraq had nothing - nothing - to do with oil!

Could they have lied to us?

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Speaking Of St. John

Oy:

[Via Josh.]

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"Sensible"

SecDef Robert Gates:

No matter who winds up being the next president, he is likely to "take a sensible approach" to the Iraq war, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told CNN in an exclusive interview Tuesday.

"Based on what I read in the newspapers, I think either person who is elected president is going to come in and take a close look at it," Gates said of the situation in Iraq.

Hey Bob, remember St. John's "100 years in Iraq" remark? You might want to rethink this.

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Regrets

George assesses his own rhetoric:

"I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric," Bush told the Times as he flew across the Atlantic on Air Force One.

The phrases he used to win support for the war such as "bring 'em on" and "dead or alive" he said, "indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace."

Or how about, "Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out.” Gosh, and now he regrets using such bellicose language. I'm sure the 4,000+ dead Americans, 600,000+ dead and 3,000,000+ displaced Iraqis are shrugging and saying, "Hey, it happens. don't beat yourself up."

But then there's always lying:

"One of the untold stories of Iraq is that we explored the diplomacy a lot," he said. "We all wanted to solve this 'disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences' in a diplomatic fashion. After all, I went to the United Nations security council."

Sorry, George, that legacy your so worried about is already set and statements like this won't change reality.

Finally, George denies that he's lame duck:

"There's plenty of energy on the democracy agenda, the freedom agenda, right now," he said.

This can't be considered as anything but a sick joke.

222 days.

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Moles

Uhhh...this is kind of a major story:

Defense Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday.

So what was the response?

A top aide to then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the Pentagon officials' activities after only a month, and the Defense Department's top brass never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a more thorough investigation, the Senate report said.

Shut down the investigation?

It gets better:

The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator.

[...]

The aborted counterintelligence investigation probed some Pentagon officials' contacts with Iranian exile Manucher Ghorbanifar, whom the CIA had labeled a "fabricator" in 1984. Those contacts were brokered by an American civilian, Michael Ledeen, a former Pentagon and National Security Council consultant and a leading advocate of invading Iraq and overthrowing Iran's Islamic regime.

Michael Ledeen would be one of the craziest neocons, Iran-Contra criminal (when we sold weapons to our mortal enemy Iran) and "Freedom Scholar" (whatever the hell that means) at the American Enterprise Institute.

Read the whole article - it actually gets worse.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the whole damned war was an Iranian operation. After all, they're the real winners of this clusterfuck.

.

Happy Suck. On. This. Day!

Good times, good times.

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Things We Knew

Still, I suppose it's nice to hear it admitted:

On Wednesday night, CNN's Jessica Yellin talked to Anderson Cooper about Scott McClellan's tell-all memoir and agreed with the former press secretary that White House reporters "dropped the ball" during the run-up to war.

[...]

"The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings," Yellin said.

"And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president's approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives--and I was not at this network at the time--but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, I think over time...."

But then a shocked Cooper jumped in, asking, "You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?"

"Not in that exact.... They wouldn't say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces," Yellin said. "They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive. Yes, that was my experience."

(Yellin was then at ABCNews)

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Noted Without Comment

Grim:

The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said.

[...]

The Pentagon didn't dispute Insel's remark.

[Via C&L]

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STUNNING REVELATION!!!!!

The US didn't invade Iraq!

The last six years were all a bad dream I suppose.

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They're Terrified

That's the only explanation for the massive freakout by the RNC and Barbecue McMaverick over this perfectly accurate ad by the DNC:

They know that the more people hear about McCain's "100 Years" the more people will turn away in horror. (Then again, Paul "Comblicker" Wolfowitz claimed yesterday yesterday that the US occupation of Iraq ended nearly four years ago so...)

Oh, and how can we miss the delicious richness of the Republican National Committee complaining about 'distortions." When they saw that ad they probably said "rats!".

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Catapulting The Propaganda

Yes, it's 11 pages long but this will be - at least should be - the major news story for the next week.

It's a bit more important the flag lapel pins.

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John And Cindy McCain - Plagiarists At Large

Via Election Central, this can't be called an accident:

This past Sunday, Lauren Handel, an eagle-eyed attorney from New York, was searching for a specific recipe from Giada DeLaurentis, a chef on the Food Network. Yet whenever she Googled the different ingredients in the recipe, the oddest thing happened: not only did the Food Network's site come up, as expected, but so did John McCain's campaign site.

On a section of McCain's site called "Cindy's Recipes," you can find seven recipes attributed to Cindy McCain, each with the heading "McCain Family Recipe." Ms. Handel quickly realized that some of the "McCain Family Recipes," were in fact, word-for-word copies of recipes on the Food Network site.

At least three of the "McCain Family Recipes" appear to be lifted directly from the Food Network, while at least one is a Rachael Ray recipe with minor changes.

Perhaps Cindy's excuse will be that she's popping pills again.

Meanwhile, by way of Think Progress, it would appear that Mr. Experience has no clue about what St. Petreus's job is:

Speaking Monday at the annual meeting of the Associated Press, McCain was asked whether he, if elected, would shift combat troops from Iraq to Afghanistan to intensify the search for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

“I would not do that unless Gen. [David] Petraeus said that he felt that the situation called for that,” McCain said, referring to the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Petraeus, however, made clear last week that he has nothing to do with the decision...Decisions about Afghanistan would be made by others, he said.

So now we can add the military to the long list of things about which McCain knows nothing.

3AM? More like 3 minutes to midnight.

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Send For The Hessians!

The Chickenhawks are becoming a parody of themselves.

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Classy As Always

The House GOPers:

Yesterday, Jackie Speier was sworn in as Congress’s newest Democratic member from California, succeeding the deceased Tom Lantos. During her opening speech, Speier was loudly booed by House conservatives when she began speaking about Iraq. “The process to bring the troops home must begin immediately,” she said. “The President wants to stay the course, and a man who wants to replace him suggests we could be in Iraq for 100 years.”

What a welcome!

The sooner these Republicans are consigned to the dustbin of history the better.

Video at link.

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Around The Bend

Holy Joe Lieberman says that Iraq is in better political shape than the US.

Relatedly, Connecticut doesn't much like the Bush kisser anymore.

All we need to do is pick up one Senate seat in November and we can chuck Loserman out of the Democratic caucus.

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Republicans At Work

He should resign in shame:

Yesterday, Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), who voted for the Iraq invasion, admitted in a town hall meeting that he never read the pre-war National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, the faulty intelligence that the Bush administration used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Shays added that he still hasn’t read the document:

No, I didn’t, thank you. I did not read it. .. I did not read it. But I could still read it, and I probably should. So, who’s on my staff?

No wonder Congress is about as popular as scurvy.

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Republican Patriotism

Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry:

We spent the night in the Green Zone, in the poolhouse of one of Saddam’s palaces. A little weird, I got to be honest with you. But I felt safe. And so in the morning, I got up early — not that I make this a great habit — but I went to the gym because I just couldn’t sleep and everything else. Well, sure enough, the guard wouldn’t let me in. Said I didn’t have the correct credentials.

It’s 5:00 in the morning. I haven’t had sleep. I was not very happy with this two-bit security guard. So you know, I said, “I want to see your supervisor.” Thirty minutes later, the supervisor wasn’t happy with me, they escort me back to my room. It happens. I guess I didn’t need to work out anyway.

More than 4,000 "two-bit security guards" have died for McHenry's favorite war.

Video at link. If you can stand it.

From Atrios:

Washington, D.C. Office

224 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Telephone: 202.225.2576

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa yesterday:

San Diego GOP Rep. Darrell Issa was under siege for suggesting the federal government had already done enough to help New York cope with "a fire" that "simply was an aircraft" hitting the World Trade Center.

More than 3,000 died when those aircraft hit the WTC, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.

WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. WRONG. WITH. REPUBLICANS?

But I'm sure they were wearing flag pins on their lapels so it's OK.

As Steve Benen says, "Let’s play, ‘Imagine If A Democrat Had Said This’"

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Hardly Surprising

The state of the Union...not so good:

In the poll, 81 percent of respondents said they believed “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” up from 69 percent a year ago and 35 percent in early 2002.

[...]

A majority of nearly every demographic and political group — Democrats and Republicans, men and women, residents of cities and rural areas, college graduates and those who finished only high school — say the United States is headed in the wrong direction. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said the country was worse off than five years ago; just 4 percent said it was better off.

On the good side (if there is one) it looks like people know who's at fault:

The poll found that Americans blame government officials for the crisis more than banks or home buyers and other borrowers. Forty percent of respondents said regulators were mostly to blame, while 28 percent named lenders and 14 percent named borrowers.

That's because Americans are smart enough to understand that regulatory agencies are supposed to, y'know, regulate rather than function as protectors of wealth and corporate power.

And:

Yet many say they are merely managing to stay in place, rather than get ahead. This view is consistent with the income statistics of the past five years, which suggest that median household income has still not returned to the inflation-adjusted peak it hit in 1999. Since the Census Bureau began keeping records in the 1960s, there has never been an extended economic expansion that ended without setting a new record for household income.

Heckuva job, Bushie.

---

ADDED: U.S. economy sheds 80,000 jobs in March

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Stretching

David Gregory praises George:

If [Obama] talks about what you do in response to a crisis, either you have the right intelligence and you have the right response. Well, there’s not a lot of argument that Bush had the right response to 9/11. He didn’t jump to invade Iraq even though there was some argument that he should do that in the room.

Oh, good for George.

It would seem that MSNBC traded in the inane kneebiter Tucker Carlson with the inane kneebiter Stretch Gregory.

A fine state of affairs, indeed.

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Is He Having A Laugh? Pt. 2

Fantasy:

President Bush, saying that "normalcy is returning back to Iraq," argued Thursday that last year's U.S. troop "surge" has improved Iraq's security to the point where political and economic progress are blossoming as well.

[...]

"Some ... seem unwilling to acknowledge that progress is taking place," Bush said in a speech at the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. He accused war opponents of constantly shifting their critique, adding: "No matter what shortcomings these critics diagnose, their prescription is always the same — retreat."

Reality:

In Basra, there seemed to be no breakthrough in the fighting by either side. As much as half of the city remained under militia control, hospitals in some parts of the city were reported full, and the violence continued to spread. Clashes were reported all over the city and in locations 12 miles south of Basra.

[...]

As a possible sign of the rising instability in the region, saboteurs blew up one of Iraq’s two main oil export pipelines from Basra, Reuters reported. The oil pipelines were regular targets for insurgents earlier in the Iraqi conflict, but Thursday’s sabotage was the first time in several years that the southern oil supply route had been disrupted, and oil prices rose briefly after the attack.

Government by delusion.

ADDED: "Normalcy":

The State Department has instructed all personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad not to leave reinforced structures due to incoming insurgent rocket fire that has killed two American government workers this week.

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The Wit And Wisdom Of Dick Cheney

After more than five years (and counting) and the deaths of more than 4,000 (and counting) American troops and hundreds of thousands (and counting) Iraqis just who does Dick feel sorry for?

The president carries the biggest burden, obviously[.]

So?

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There He Goes Again

Vice-President Fourth Branch:

CHENEY: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.

CHENEY: So?

RADDATZ So? You don’t care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

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Five Years

Vietnam War--August, 1964 to January, 1973 = 101 months*

American Revolution--April, 1775 to September, 1783 = 100 months

Afghanistan-- October, 2001 to Present (as of March, 2008) = 77 months

Iraq War--March, 2003 to Present (as of March, 2008) = 60 months

U.S. Civil War--April, 1861 to April, 1865 = 48 months

World War II--December, 1941 to September, 1945 = 45 months

World War I--April, 1917 to November, 1918 = 19 months

Korean War-- June, 1950 to July, 1953 = 37 months

War of 1812--June, 1812 to February, 1815 = 32 months

U.S.-Mexican War-- May, 1846 to February, 1848 = 21 months

Spanish-American War--April, 1898 to August, 1898 = 5 months

Gulf War--January, 1991 to March, 1991 = 3 months

*Us involvement began in the late 1950's and lasted until 1975. I'm measuring from the introduction of ground troops to their withdrawal.

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Fine

Dick:

The United States intends to complete its mission in Iraq and will not allow the country to become a staging ground for terrorist attacks on Americans, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Tuesday.

Now tell me what the "mission" is.

.

(shhhhh...secret!)

(john mccain is in Iraq but it's a secret. shhhhh!)








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No Surprise

Because, so far as the "news" media is concerned, Iraq doesn't matter anymore nobody should be shocked by this:

Twenty-eight percent of the public is aware that nearly 4,000 U.S. personnel have died in Iraq over the past five years, while nearly half thinks the death tally is 3,000 or fewer and 23 percent think it is higher, according to an opinion survey released yesterday.

[...]

Related Pew surveys have found that the number of news stories devoted to the war has sharply declined this year, along with professed public interest. "Coverage of the war has been virtually absent," said Pew survey research director Scott Keeter, totaling about 1 percent of the news hole between Feb. 17 and 23.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Korea has long been called the "Forgotten War." It appears that that title belongs now to our current war.

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DeFib Dick Sickens Troops

Dick's old Halliburton subsidiary KBR has been giving bad water to our troops in Iraq:

A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.

[...]

It was impossible to link the dirty water definitively to all the illnesses, according to the report. But it said KBR's water quality "was not maintained in accordance with field water sanitary standards" and the military-run sites "were not performing all required quality control tests."

"Therefore, water suppliers exposed U.S. forces to unmonitored and potentially unsafe water," the report said.

It should go without saying that KBR is as pure as the driven snow:

KBR said its water treatment "has met or exceeded all applicable military and contract standards." The company took exception to many of the inspector general's assertions. "KBR's commitment to the safety of all of its employees remains unwavering," the company said in a statement to the AP.

KBR is a former subsidiary of Halliburton Co., the oil services conglomerate that Cheney once led.

If he can't get them shot or blown up Dick'll just give the troops skin infections.

But his bank balance remains healthy.

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Asinine Quote Of The Day

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Closet):

The truth is that political reconciliation in Iraq is going better there than it is here at home because of better security.

How does one even address that?

Video at link.

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Remember Iraq?

The "government" in Baghdad is unhappy with the Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan:

"The cabinet expressed its rejection and condemnation for the Turkish military interference, which is considered a violation of Iraq's sovereignty," the Iraqi government said in a statement released by spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.

"The cabinet stresses that unilateral military action is not acceptable and threatens good relations between the two neighbors."

Iraq "sovereign"? Yes, of course. Just ask the BushCheney administration:

In Washington, the Bush administration left no doubt of its overall support for the Turkish operation to deal with the Kurdistan Worker's Party, commonly known as the PKK, which both the Bush administration and Europe consider to be a terrorist organization.

So much for the propaganda about sovereignty.

And the award for Stupid Comment of the Day™ goes to Dana "Don't Know Much About History" Perino:

"It's obviously not an ideal situation," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Indeed, Dana, indeed.

Meanwhile, so much for troop reductions:

The United States expects to have 140,000 troops in Iraq in July after withdrawing five combat brigades, leaving a force larger than before it began pouring in troops last year, the Pentagon said on Monday.

One can't help but smile at this golden oldie from before the war and occupation:

We don't talk about deployments in the specific, but we have brought a good many Guard and Reserve on active duty. Fortunately, a great many of them were volunteers. We have been able to have relatively few stop losses. There are some currently, particularly in the Army, but relatively few in the Navy and the Air Force. And it is not knowable if force will be used, but if it is to be used, it is not knowable how long that conflict would last. It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

Now we're just hoping to outlast the next eleven months.

Heckuva job, Georgie.

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Wheeeee!

Meanwhile:

Turkish troops launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels, the military said Friday — a move that dramatically escalates Turkey's conflict with the militants.

It is the first confirmed ground operation by the Turkish military into Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. It also raised concerns that it could trigger a wider conflict with the U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurds, despite Turkey's assurances that its only target was the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

[...]

"The United States continues to support Turkey's right to defend itself from the terrorist activities of the PKK and has encouraged Turkey to use all available means, to include diplomacy and close coordination with the Government of Iraq to ultimately resolve this issue," he added.

I'm sure glad that the war over there is over!

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Son Of Wednesday Boot

Our old pal Max Boot is back on the pages of the LATimes, if only for a one-shot. Today, (yesterday, actually) Max comes to praise St. John not bury him. But first, Max gives us a setup:

Some conservatives are having conniptions over the rise of John McCain as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Personally, I am less interested in what Rush Limbaugh, Tom DeLay or Ann Coulter think than I am in the views of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar Assad and Kim Jong Il.

Max goes on to suggest we should call this terrible trio the new "axis of evil" but with Syria replacing that blooming democracy known as Iraq. And indeed, after explaining all the naughty things those naughty axis-of-evilers are doing, Max turns to the naughty things they are doing in Iraq - after mentioning, of course, just what a swell place that benighted country has become. But Max allows his sunny outlook to be polluted by some dissonance:

Clearly, these rogue regimes do not fear the consequences of waging a proxy war on America and our allies. They think they can get away with killing and maiming American soldiers -- and so far they have been right.

President Bush has not done enough to back up his threats against Iran and Syria, beyond pushing for economic sanctions of limited value at a time when oil is hitting $100 a barrel. The president has refused to authorize even limited special operations strikes on jihadist networks inside Syria or Iran.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Max calling for acts of war in that last sentence? Why yes, yes he is. But first:

This is part of a larger trend of Bush combining strong words with weak actions.

Noconservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. And the failure, friends, is George W. Bush. This make Max sad and he's now forced to find someone new, someone who will fulfill his war fantasies:

It is hard to see how Bush could reverse this decline in America's "fear factor" during the remaining year of his presidency. That will be the job of the next president. And who would be the most up to the task?

Whoever could be up to the task? Who? Who? Ahhhh...

To answer that question, ask yourself which presidential candidate an Ahmadinejad, Assad or Kim would fear the most. I submit it is not Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or Mike Huckabee. In my (admittedly biased) opinion, the leading candidate to scare the snot out of our enemies is a certain former aviator who has been noted for his pugnacity and his unwavering support of the American war effort in Iraq. Ironically, John McCain's bellicose aura could allow us to achieve more of our objectives peacefully because other countries would be more afraid to mess with him than with most other potential occupants of the Oval Office -- or the current one.

That's it! Elect St. John and the regimes in Iran, Syria, and North Korea will vacate power and turn themselves in to be tried and found guilty of being very naughty indeed.

And if they don't, well, St. John jsut might sing his favorite song.

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Multiplication

St. John's agenda:

As in the primary, McCain plans to draw on his Vietnam veteran biography and decades of experience on military matters to argue that he alone is the most qualified to be a wartime commander in chief. He long ago started contrasting his embrace of a continued troop presence in Iraq, for an indefinite period of time, with Democratic calls for withdrawal.

Yesterday:

Four of the five U.S. soldiers who died Friday were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb during a combat patrol northwest of Baghdad, according to a U.S. military statement.

The fifth was killed by an explosion near the soldier's vehicle in Tameem province, north of Salaheddin province. Three other soldiers were wounded.

Multiply that by 100 years and you can see where a President McCain will lead us.

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On Learning From Experience

Or not:

"The President has made the right decisions for the right reasons and he always reflected the values of the American people," Cheney declared, "Would I support those same decisions today? You're damn right I would."

The crowd was adoring. There was a standing ovation as Cheney entered, and a woman shouting: "We Love You!" Attendees clamored for a good "Cheney shot," with one young conservative pumping his fist after catching an unobstructed wide lens take of the Vice President on his camera.

Here's an exclusive picture of Cheney addressing the CPAC rally:

Another nugget of wisdom from Dick:

"The freedoms we enjoy, the rights we exercise, all the privileges we have in this country - none of them can be taken for granted."

Do you detect a not-so-subtle threat in there?

[Via Think Progress.]

---

ADDED: They're flippin' delusional:

Bush spoke to a boisterous crowd shortly after 7 a.m. EST. The ballroom erupted in cheers when someone shouted "Are there conservatives in the house?" When the president walked on stage, they clapped and chanted "Four more years! Four more years!" They cheered his comments on tax relief, the military buildup in Iraq, the Reagan years and his opposition to abortion. They booed when Bush said his critics want to expand the size and scope of the federal government.

Talk about a cult of personality.

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Getting It Right

William Arkin:

Then there's the question of surrender: Every time the president mentions al Qaeda in Iraq, he is advertising a brand. Al Qaeda's success from the very beginning has not just been the appeal of Osama bin Laden's description of Islam under attack, nor even the abundance of angry, dissatisfied, and driven men; nor has it necessarily even been anti-Americanism. The success has been a macabre form of his success and the hope it suggests. When U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were attacked in 1998, bin Laden's first spectacular and a follow-on to his fatwa that declared war on the enemies of Islam, volunteers flooded in. Young men who had never even heard of bin Laden were captivated: someone was striking back in their name.

[...]

By conferring such power on al Qaeda, by framing a bigger battle between healthy nations and a marginal terrorist organization, the president is mightily adding to the al Qaeda mystique. We are successful enough to pin down hundreds of thousands of American forces, many terrorists and would-be terrorists think. We are responsible for all of those deaths and injuries against the world's greatest army. We are the centerpiece of the president's State of the Union address, they must happily observe.

It's no wonder that conspiracy-minded types believe that BushCo™ are in league with bin Laden.

Meanwhile:

Five U.S. Soldiers Are Killed When Convoy Is Hit in Mosul

It should go without saying that there was no mention of this last night.

356 days.

.

Heh

This has to make George and Dick very unhappy:

Iraq has formally ratified the UN's Kyoto Protocol on climate change, according to a government statement seen by AFP on Saturday.

"The presidential council ratified in its session on January 23 a law according to which the Republic of Iraq will join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol," the statement said.

[Via The Lede.]

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Sovereign

Or maybe not:

With its international mandate in Iraq set to expire, the Bush administration will insist that the government in Baghdad give the United States broad authority to conduct combat operations and guarantee civilian contractors immunity from Iraqi law, according to administration and military officials. [Emphases added.]

Why don't they just come out and say that Iraq is a US colony? Of course, that would mean being honest and this crowd doesn't do honesty.

Meanwhile, if two wars aren't enough for you and you're still waiting for war #3 (Iran) how about sating your bloodlust and skipping right to war #4?

The Bush administration is willing to send a small number of U.S. combat troops to Pakistan to help fight the insurgency there if Pakistani authorities ask for such help, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

Between war,war, and more war (not to mention our dandy economic situation) we'll be lucky to make it to the next presidential inauguration.

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Shocking!

Study: False Statements Preceded War

Who could have guessed?

Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.

I have trouble believing this.

BushCo™ isn't filled with liars! The very idea is preposterous!

Harrrumph!

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How To Win Friends And Influence People

The US dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs on southern Baghdad today.

That's about 40 kilotons or just under 3 Hiroshimas (without the pesky radiation, natch).

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1,000,000 Years

That's long time:

After the event ended, I asked McCain about his "hundred years" comment, and he reaffirmed the remark, excitedly declaring that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for "a thousand years" or "a million years," as far as he was concerned. [via Think Progress.]

The DNC provides us with a helpful bar-chart:

Of course, the Huckster's version of that graph would show humans as only having been around for 6,000 years so....

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$1,500,000,000,000

The mind reels:

The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion, according to a new study by congressional Democrats that estimates the conflicts' "hidden costs"-- including higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.

[...]

The report argues that war funding is diverting billions of dollars away from "productive investment" by American businesses in the United States. It also says that the conflicts are pulling reservists and National Guardsmen away from their jobs, resulting in economic disruptions for U.S. employers that the report estimates at $1 billion to $2 billion.

Heckuva job, Bushie.

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The Pictures Say It All

He Who Must Not Be Questioned with a convicted criminal and alleged Iranian spy:

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Curiouser And Curiouser

The Greenwald/Boylan imbroglio takes another turn. Greg Mitchell:

E&P contacted Boylan for a clarification about the email. Late Monday night he (or someone claiming to be him) replied: "I am denying writing and sending it. I know from past experience with Mr. Greenwald that any email exchange with him would be posted to his site as well as there is no need to discuss anything with him. I would only contact him in response to anything he would directly send to me as he did in this case. I have not contacted Mr. Greenwald since this summer" -- until Greenwald asked him to confirm the Sunday email, when "I told him it was not mine and I did not send it."

[...]

Knowing that I had a brief exchange of emails with Boylan last spring, I went back and found them -- with the Boylan in them sounding an awful lot like the Boylan in the disputed email to Greenwald.

Personally, I think Boylan is lying. The irony is that Boylan (if it was him) was disputing Glenn's writings on the politicization of the military and Boylan's e-mail (if it was him) was an entirely political complaint.

Perhaps more seriously, if the e-mail wasn't sent by Boylan that would mean the military has a very serious security problem.

Somebody might want to look into this.

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Mysterious Friends In High Places

Here's a surprise:

Potential prosecution of Blackwater guards allegedly involved in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians last month may have been compromised because the guards received immunity for statements they made to State Department officials investigating the incident, federal law enforcement officials said yesterday.

FBI agents called in to take over the State Department's investigation two weeks after the Sept. 16 shootings cannot use any information gleaned during questioning of the guards by the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is charged with supervising security contractors.

Golly, imagine that. BushCheney's favorite mercenary outfit/cult (Amway) gets to skate.

So who made the decision to grant immunity to the mercs? Who knows!

It is unclear when or by whom the grant of immunity was explained to the guards. Under federal case law applying to government workers, only voluntary answers to questions posed by the employing agency can be used against them in a criminal prosecution. If an employee is ordered to answer under threat of disciplinary action, the resulting statements cannot be used.

[...]

Diplomatic Security spokesman Brian Leventhal declined to comment on the situation, first reported yesterday by the Associated Press. Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for North Carolina-based Blackwater Worldwide, also declined to comment.

It almost makes me think the executive branch has become a lawless criminal organization but that couldn't happen, could it? We live under the rule of law, not men, don't we?

Or perhaps it's once again time for the chairs of various Congressional committees to send more Sternly Worded Letters™ to the White House.

That'll get to the bottom of this.

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You Can't Keep A Corrupt Iraqi Down

Judy Miller's favorite:

Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial, ubiquitous Iraqi politician and one-time Bush administration favorite, has re-emerged as a central figure in the latest U.S. strategy for Iraq.

His latest job: To press Iraq's central government to use early security gains from the surge to deliver better electricity, health, education and local security services to Baghdad neighborhoods. That's the next phase of the surge plan. Until now, the U.S. military, various militias, insurgents and some U.S. backed groups have provided those services without great success.

[...]

Chalabi "is an important part of the process," said Col. Steven Boylan, Petraeus' spokesman. "He has a lot of energy."

Never mind that Chalabi, among other things, is suspected of spying for Iran. He's the neocon's boy until the end.

As a side note, the Col. Steven Boylan mentioned above had a bizarre e-mail exchange with Glenn Greenwald yesterday. Col. Boylan might not be all that right in the head.

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Conscription (Of A Sort)

Who wants to go to Iraq? Nobody:

The State Department said Friday it will begin ordering diplomats to serve in Iraq because of a lack of volunteers to work at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the first such large-scale call-up since the Vietnam War.

[...]

Those notified that they have been selected for a one-year posting will have 10 days to accept or reject the position. If not enough say yes, some will be ordered to go to Iraq and face dismissal if they refuse, Thomas said.

[...]

"If someone decides ... they do not want to go, we will then consider appropriate action," [Harry Thomas, d