Bush is just putting lipstick on a Pig...

[Polemicist]

Giving us nothing new on the Iraq War, other than some apparently inflated evaluations of the Iraqi military's progress and readiness. But lets look at what the Iraq war pig really looks like without the Bush makeup.

In just a few weeks time, we are expected to believe that the Iraqis have progressed from one battalion meeting proper readiness standards, to 93 battalions meeting readiness standards. It doesn't take a very smart person to realize that likely little new progress has actually been made. The standards have just been loosened for political expediency.

Haven't we been down this road before? Iraqization of the war effort? Does this sound like Vietnamization? If you closed your eyes when listening to Bush's "porcine base and blush applique", you would swear it was 1971 and you were listening to Richard Nixon.

Bush tells us that the Iraqi Army led the attack in Tel Afar against what Bush says was was Al Qaeda. We now know, from eyewitness reports from an embedded Time Magazine reporter, that American Green Berets led the attack and the Iraqis followed. While this effort is better than Iraqis cutting and running in Fallujah last year, without proper context, we really can't tell anything from this report.

Were these "Iraqi Troops" actually Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers in new clothes, attacking Sunni insurgents with US help? Very likely, unless we take the other choice, that they are former Shi'ite Badr Brigade soldiers attacking Sunni Muslims with US help. The likelihood of these being integrated battalions, with Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds serving together is highly unlikely and equally unknown to us the American public. And unless the Iraqi army can integrate as a national army, then media show attacks led by American special forces mean nothing. The Iraqi Army will fragment once the US is gone and the nation as well.

Congressman Jack Murtha sees the real pig. An Iraq with 60% unemployment and reconstruction money unspent due to lack of security. Oil production below pre-war levels. Electricity to less than 60% of the country at any one time, also below pre-war levels. And a nation that when polled, 80% wanted American troops withdrawn and 45% think it's ok to attack Americans. And when someone in a crowd throws a grenade at Americans, no Iraqi saw what happened.

Congressman Murtha correctly understands that our presence is what is causing the insurgency. Our presence prevents Iraq from becoming self-sufficient. We are a crutch that prevents Iraq from confronting it's own problems and we are blamed for all the ills of that nation. And the only solution is our withdrawal.

Putting lipstick on the Iraqi Pig just entices Americans to continue this useless dance of deception.

[Angry Girl]

1. And Rove looks just awful in that color!

URGENT! Timing is critical to save freezing earthquake victims!

[begin_within]

2. You're looking at the wrong end

[Angry Girl]

3. ROFLMAO!

[afdip]

4. still, the repukes are lining up to kiss the pig and to pledge

their undying affection.