Ah yes, another life preserver thrown to the warmongers..."Sept. is too soon for surge progress"

[Postman]

This shit is just utterly transparent.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N31220099.htm

Waiting for success in Iraq is like waiting for the second coming of Christ...

Only the nuts believe it.

[radfringe]

1. stopped for a donut and coffee this morning

standing in line, the guy next to me was expounding to his friend about how the dems refuse to see the progress being made in Iraq, focusing only on bad news

to his credit - the friend snorted and asked "what progress?" and another person in line piped up "with no bench marks how can you even measure progress except in the number of used body bags or by a pile of amputated limbs?"

regarding the September date - when bush announced the "surge" it was suppose to be short term, I believe 3 months was a timeline thrown around, then it was "give my chance a plan" and extended to september (that makes it 6 months) and now they are dragging it out even longer. Am I surprised? no. the purpose of the surge is not to "win", the purpose of the surge is to drag this out until bush has left and it's dumped on someone else.

[Postman]

2. Good thing the Democrats won last November...

NOT.

[NavyDavy]

5. hey....the dems have done mroe in the short time we had

congress than the repukes done in the last 6 yrs....so bad mouth if you will, but Iraq isn't the only thing that needs to be taken care of....many social issues here in the States are just as important and yes soldiers and marines are dying, but so are many children and elderly here because of the Bushit.....so criticize all you want but unlike some on this board I see many advances....

[Le Taz Hot]

13. Like what?

Really. Please lay out to me what exactly what "advances" the Democrats have made. We're still in Iraq. Apparently we're about to go into Iran and I've no doubt this debacle will also be funded by our Democratic Congress. Our jobs are still getting shipped overseas. 45 million Americans are still without health care. Gonzo is still there. Impeachment is off the table. Here's the rub: There's nothing even in the pipeline. Tell me, what have they done? I mean REALLY done.

[NavyDavy]

15. lets see.....

In the first 100 hours:

H.Res. 6, Title II, "Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Tenth Congress." passed 430-1, Jan. 4th, 2007

H.Res. 6, Title IV, "Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Tenth Congress." passed 280-152, Jan. 5th, 2007

H.R. 1, "Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007." passed 299-128, Jan. 9th, 2007

H.R. 2, "Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007." passed 315-116, Jan. 10th, 2007

H.R. 3, "Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act." passed 253-174, Jan. 11th, 2007

H.R. 4, "Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act." passed 255-170, Jan. 12th, 2007

H.R. 5, "College Student Relief Act of 2007." passed 356-71, Jan. 17th, 2007

H.R. 6, "Creating Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation Act." passed 264-163, Jan. 18th, 2007


These alone are more than the repukes have done.....but i will give more if you can't realize on your own that we have done more than the repukes.....oh i forgot about the investigations that never wld have happened under the evil above the law repukes....

[Le Taz Hot]

16. My dear, that is all on paper.

I'm talking what have they DONE? Really, what has changed? Nothing. Do you not recognize a dog-and-pony show when you see one?

[NavyDavy]

17. what just cause they don't do 100% of what you want....they haven't

accomplished nothing.......and by the way you know you are on a Democrat site right?

[Le Taz Hot]

19. Well, lemme see, I've been on DU

since 2001, so I'm pretty confident I'm familiar with the layout. Did you know that you don't have to be a Democrat to post here? Now, back to the topic at hand. It's not only what *I* want, it was the American people's mandate to Congress in the 2006 election. Please see my OP for a very brief laundry list of things the American people were expecting to see when the Democrats were elected.

Country before party.

[genie_weenie]

3. Standard plan.

Step 1) State progress is being made.
Step 2) Ask for 6 months to measure progress.
Step 3) See Step 1.

The Surge is going to buy them until 2008 and then the Repubs will all be clamouring for "withdrawl with honor", "we've done our best", "time to pull the troops out of the civil war".

And they will use this to win back the House in 2008. The result: 3 Trillion dollars funnelled to the MIC, and a generation galvanized by You're with Us or against Us rhetoric.

[radfringe]

8. revising your steps a bit

Step 1) State progress is being made.
Step 2) Ask for 6 months to measure progress.
Step 3) Blame it on somebody else.
Step 4) See Step 1.

by adding an additonal step we now have a "square" type pattern thus allowing the bushies to claim we have turned a corner

[genie_weenie]

18. Step 3 is a good addition but allow me to change it slightly

Your Step 3) Blame it on somebody else.

Step 3) Blame lack of progress on wimps and emboldeners.

See Jim DeMint http://www.thestate.com/154/story/76661.html
See Sean Hannity
See Bill Kristol
See Melaine Morgan
See Michelle Malkin
http://www.crooksandliars.com/category/right-wing-pundits/

Also be sure to cry on the House floor.

[LeftHander]

4. You can't spend 120 billion four months in Iraq...

You need at least 8-12...

[Nickster]

6. They never planned to say anything in September other than wait another 6

months, lather, rinse, repeat. They are just kicking the can down the road, running the clock out, until they can dump it on the next President because they have no clue about how to end it and they don't want to hang a "loss" around the neck of the GOP.

[Ezlivin]

7. Yeah, and all we'll do is talk it to death

Face it: Five years from now our military will still be patrolling the streets. Ten years from now? Same thing.

They are already talking about South Korea as a "model" of what Iraq will look like. Do we have any military personnel stationed there? How about Japan?

The American Empire is alive and well. If you are not aware of this read Chalmers Johnson's book "The Sorrows of Empire."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Of course, they will need more troops and money to "support our troops" in September.

To go with the "patience". And, of course, congress will quail before the threat of being seen as unconcerned about the troops they condemn to more killing and death.

Then they'll sing a chorus of "Pie in the sky when you die" and inform us that they're really, really, against the war but they just had to continue to fund it.

[Toots]

10. It's quite alright though we have "Dry Powder"

:shrug:

[Individualist]

21. ...and it's talcum powder.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. We always need to wait another Friedman Unit before measuring progress. By definition.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_%28unit%29

Tom Friedman's Flexible Deadlines
Iraq's 'decisive' six months have lasted two and a half years

...

"The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time."
(New York Times, 11/30/03)

...

"What I absolutely don't understand is just at the moment when we finally have a UN-approved Iraqi-caretaker government made up of—I know a lot of these guys—reasonably decent people and more than reasonably decent people, everyone wants to declare it's over. I don't get it. It might be over in a week, it might be over in a month, it might be over in six months, but what's the rush? Can we let this play out, please?"
(NPR's Fresh Air, 6/3/04)


...

"What we're gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war."
(CBS's Face the Nation, 10/3/04)

...

"We're at the beginning of I think the decisive I would say six months in Iraq, OK, because I feel like this election—you know, I felt from the beginning Iraq was going to be ultimately, Charlie, what Iraqis make of it."
(PBS's Charlie Rose Show, 12/20/05)

...

"Well, I think that we're going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we're going to have to just let this play out."
(MSNBC's Hardball, 5/11/06)

So now we're in June, we need to wait for December or so. By September, it will be March 2008; and so on.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2884

[zbdent]

12. But in a news conference ... Bush said that (despite the Surge) violence

would be increasing in the months to come ... gee, is that "giving the Surge a chance"?

[BlooInBloo]

14. Atrios has been right every time. The war will never end with a republican as President.

[wiggs]

23. Not only that, he's said he's setting the stage so the next president (dem or pug)

can't get out either. One can imagine what that means... we can't back out because:

...we've spent too much money there to quit now

...we've got an embassy to protect

...we've got billions in private investment (oil) to protect

...too many have died to give up now

...we've made such a mess that it is our responsibility to clean it up

...they will hate us for generations so we have to enslave whomever remains

...we have intelligence that tells us that OBL is in Iraq and we have to stay until we get him

...we have to protect the children (Gonzales will come up with that one)

...the terrorists will get the oil and oil revenue...then rich terrorists will follow us home

...Iran is really, really bad and we can't let them take over Iraq. In fact we need Iraq as staging to attack Iran


This was all foreseeable and predictable. There were those who said, before the invasion, that we'd never leave.

[Javaman]

20. And we are surprised by this????

the dem reps give the repukes an inch they take a yard.

I knew as right as rain this shit was going to happen.

"oh we will give them until september and if there is no progress, well we will then talk in more imposing heated terms"

and lo and behold, the ground is being prepped for the next right wing talking point. "September isn't enough time to see the true brilliant returns of the surge" (expect this to be on all the sunday morning shows and parroted ad nausium on faux news) Then they will then ask for x-mas, then they will ask for the spring then before you know it, the junior retard* is out of office and on to screw then next bunch of people, that is of course he* doesn't deem some sort of stubbed toe as a national emergency and dissolves congress and makes himself* baby doc for life.

We are fucked folks. as long as the dems continue to play the game by the repukes rules we are done for.

[scorpiogirl]

22. Well said! n/t