Shocking Iraq coverage from CNN's Michael Ware in Baghdad

[Rose Siding]

This is one motivated reporter. With urgency, he reports that "in Ramadi, in Western al-Anbar province, we see what can only be described as a black hole in pres bush's global war on terror....qaeda at its very heart has been found, identified, yet has not been struck at....There's an area there, north of the Euphrates...the size of New Hampshire, you have only a few hundred American troops there. They can do nothing to hamper al qaeda's leadership in that area."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ptxn3a8A1E

I don't know if this is just a campaign for more troops or not, but it sure does illustrate how much deeper the hole gets when you don't stop digging.

[WhiteTara]

1. we've turned yet another corner

and run into yet another brick wall.

[rodeodance]

2. as far as iiI know no Gen 'on the ground' is asking for more troops. Bill

Kristol had an editorial though and He is says they need more troops. He does not want to lose this lost war.

[babylonsister]

3. And how much peril are those few hundred troops in? nt

[tabasco]

4. Iraq can go to hell in a handbasket.

As long as US interests maintain control of the pipelines, Iraq can fester in civil war. The US invasion was not about them or WMD. It was about controlling the oil.

[stillcool]

5. you would think...

that if 'resources' were so vital, so worth all this...it could be discussed openly. I keep expecting someone(?)to quit with the bullshit and articulate a plausible scenario to explain this clusterfuck. Maybe a board game?

[razors edge]

8. dollar hegemeny

and protection of the american way, aka federal reserve petro dollars. not polite dinner talk for either party.

[stillcool]

11. sounds good to me...

along with trivial pursuit style factoid cards, and the globe as the board..."do not pass go...go directly to Gitmo".. Just in time for the holidays!

[razors edge]

14. see ya there, bring some bandaids.

[eccles12]

6. Maybe the US military is there to protect Al-qaeda. nt

[Dems Will Win]

7. The US military is there to ensure that al-Queda and Civil War

create such instability that oil production remains below at least 2 million barrels a day, hopefully even lower to 1.5 million pd. That has been the goal all along -- keep the oil IN THE GROUND, or let it get stolen to buy weapons for civil war to keep the instability going.

Bush wants 3 weak states in Iraq and is quickly setting that up. Then the neo-cons just have to make sure Khuzestan Iran's 100 billion barrels never get pumped--those oilfields would probably be bombed into rubble during any anti-nuke strike in 2007, and the neo-cons would have accomplished their goal, which was a long, multi-year occupation of the fields for as long as possible. This is what Bush meant when he said Mission Accomplished.

[Gabi Hayes]

9. I heard that last night on CNN/Sirius....absolutely stunning

ramifacations are beyond mortifying, and there was no discussion that I saw on the bits of Wolf/Dobbs/Tweety that I watched today

what about the rest of TV media, which is all that matters to the average news consumer.

do they have any idea what's happening?

this is MUCH worse, potentially, than the Talibanization of Afghanistan, following Soviet occupation/expulsion

much worse

[Tin Man]

17. It takes about 2 years for CM whoredom to catch-up to Michael Ware

See my post (#15) below. And I agree with your assessment that Iraq has the potential to become a new, and ultimately more dangerous, Afghanistan. Bin Laden couldn't have wished for more.

[madfloridian]

10. Have you heard anyone say get out? They want more troops.

Well, Murtha sort of says it, but he also adds redeploy. The Dem leaders of the house and senate are not sounding like the want to leave...just change the direction.

Sounds just like Vietman. I remember it well. Pumping the need for more troops because we just have to win.

They will get their draft with the help of the Democrats, who are saying we can't just leave.

Governor Dean said in San Antonio that we can't win this war. He is having to speak the party line now, though. He said he remembered this before in his life. They kept saying just a little longer and we'll win.

54,000 were lost in Vietnam. I remember too many funerals of friends. They are going to do it again. They have the media on board with them.

:cry:

[kittykitty]

12. Tonight on Blitzer, Murtha said they'll have to have a draft, they can't

keep sending the same troops back after they've been home a year.
:cry:, is right!

[madfloridian]

13. This is all they needed to get more troops...

Our Democrats won't speak up and say no more. They can't, so many of them voted for it. This is why I am so angry with the DLC...they pushed this damn war, they are still pushing it. They say we have to Defeat Jihadism. They really did not want it to get this bloody, though...did they?

I believe our Democrats are quietly getting counseling from the Third Way to speak so carefully. I think they sound shocked in public, and then in private are hearing from military folks that we need to stay and succeed.

It is just like Vietnam....give us more troops and we can win. He was very convincing.

It is so bad there that unless we bomb the whole area, we won't have enough troops in time.

We need to get out of there. We only have about 51,000 more deaths to go. Will anyone have the courage?

:cry:

[Tin Man]

15. From the start, Michael Ware's reporting has been extremely insightful

He is one of the few correspondents to travel extensively outside the Green Zone and has definitely "had his finger on the pulse" from the beginning. Two years ago, while all the CM whores continued to unblinkingly regurgitate NeoCabal assertions of progress in Iraq, Ware was the only major correspondent with the guts and integrity to report what was really happening (i.e. how stability was actually deteriorating). His reporting has been a harbinger of actual developments since the beginning - if Ware is now reporting that Ramadi has become an AlQueda stronghold, well, it's assuredly an AlQueda stronghold. Just lovely - the Iraq War is actually generating terrorists.

[Chimichurri]

16. Michael Ware is THE Iraq reporter. He's got excellent contacts

and is totally dedicated to bringing the truth. He was on Bill Maher last year while Bill was on the whole Iraq is a good idea thing and Mike pulled no punches. He tore Maher's argument to shreds.