NYT: No amount of smoke can obscure the truth: Bush's war is and alway has been a failure

[BurtWorm]

The editorial board at the NYT seems to know that even their own news counterparts will participate in supporting the illusion that Bush's speech was not just more gas.



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/opinion/14fri1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

No Exit, No Strategy


Published: September 14, 2007

This was the week in which Americans hoped they would get straight talk and clear thinking on Iraq. What they got was two exhausting days of Congressional testimony by the American military commander, hours of news conferences and interviews, clouds of cut-to-order statistics and a speech from the Oval Office — and none of it either straight or clear.

The White House insisted that President Bush had consulted intensively with his generals and adapted to changing circumstances. But no amount of smoke could obscure the truth: Mr. Bush has no strategy to end his disastrous war and no strategy for containing the chaos he unleashed.

...

Once again, it is clear that Mr. Bush refuses to recognize the truth of his failure in Iraq and envisions a military commitment that has no end. Congress must use its powers to expose the truth and demand a real change in strategy. Democratic leaders, forever parsing polls, are backing away from proposals to impose a deadline for withdrawal and tinkering with small ideas that mostly sound like ways to enable the president’s strategy of delay.

The presidential candidates, as well, have a duty to take Iraq head-on. Some Democrats have started to talk in some detail about how they would end the war, but the burden is not just on the war critics. Republicans like Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain, who love to proclaim their support for the president and hide behind the troops, need to explain their vision as well. What do they think would constitute victory in Iraq, and how, precisely, do they intend to achieve it?

After all, it seems the burden of ending the war will fall to the next president. Mr. Bush was clear last night — as he was when he addressed the nation in January, September of last year, the December before that and in April 2004 — that his only real plan is to confuse enough Americans and cow enough members of Congress to let him muddle along and saddle his successor with this war that should never have been started.

[babylonsister]

1. Recommend for some sanity. nt

[acmavm]

2. A little too late for me to give kudos to the NYT. They covered

for Chimpy and his administration until things got to the point of no return.

<snip>

"...and saddle his successor with this war that should never have been started."

<snip>

If they hadn't been such whores for the administration during the 2000 and 2004 election they wouldn't be writing this shit.

[BurtWorm]

6. You have to separate the newsroom from the editorial board ,

Under Gail Collins, the editorial board has been consistently against the Iraq war, and now Andrew Rosenthal is continuing the tradition. The newsroom, on the other hand, has provided more of the same old shit. (Though they're not being particularly nice to Bush today, either.)

[Justitia]

11. Thank you for the clarification on this. -eom

[creeksneakers2]

17. The Times exposes Bush almost daily

Today is no exception. A recent Times article went into great depth about the real situation in Iraq.

[Cha]

20. Jeckle and

fucking hyde.

[BurtWorm]

Good cop, bad cop?

:hi:

[BurtWorm]

21. Good cop, bad cop?

:hi:

[rodeodance]

7. I like to Encourage good behavior-----I will write and tell them good job!

[cali]

8. Since he took office the vast majority of their ediitorials

in the NYT have been strongly anti-bush. Their news pages? That's a pretty shameful story.

[creeksneakers2]

19. Here are some samples from today's Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/washington/14military.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1189790120-k1QK7wRnnfvivnL9o55kRQ

“This approach can work for brief periods in many places, but it’s not a good long-term solution,” said Douglas A. Macgregor, a retired Army colonel and a critic of the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq. He called General Petraeus’s testimony “another deceitful attempt on the part of the generals and their political masters to extend our stay in the country long enough until Bush leaves office.”

http://nytimes.com/2007/09/14/washington/14assess.html

To an American public overwhelmingly searching for an exit from Iraq, Mr. Bush said that he was now ready to take his first, halting steps toward drawdown — even if what he described as a “return on success” was more akin, in the eyes of his critics, to a recognition that he has run out of additional forces to sustain the troop buildup he began this year, and now has no other choice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/washington/14cnd-policy.html?hp

A separate State Department report has found that religious freedom in Iraq has deteriorated sharply over the past year, despite the greater American troop strength. “The ongoing insurgency significantly harmed the ability of all religious believers to practice their faith,” said an executive summary of the report, obtained in advance of its release later today by The Associated Press.

http://nytimes.com/2007/09/14/washington/14truthsquad.html

“It’s not simply five brigades times 3,500, plus 2,000 here and 4,000 there,” the official said. “So if you ask for White House math, whatever number we give you, we can guarantee you one thing: that won’t be the right number.”

[BurtWorm]

22. kick

[SpiralHawk]

3. "In fact, Bush & republicon cronies continue to lie to America" - SHT

"The republicons have lied so deeply and for so long, that it is a part of their nature

"They show only disrespect to America" - SHT

[indepat]

4. What should seem obvious is that no amount of smoke can obscure the truth that most of the world

view the invasion and occupation as illegal under the UN Charter and most view the interrogation tactics as war crimes as enunciated by Justice Jackson at Nuremberg, not that those matter or tens of millions of Amurikans give a diddledy-shit.

Edited: Spelling

[ClayZ]

5. It is a CRIME!

K and R

[Imagevision]

9. Bush's war a failure? - the only failure I see is the ability for anyone to stop him

Bush first and foremost is an oilman and Cheney is former CEO of Halliburton, does anymore really need to be said?

[glitch]

18. Thus perpetuating the illusion that Bush was in it for"Democracy" when it was all about the LOOT

which they are still raking in hand over fist.

[springhill]

10. A more appropriate and correct statement would be..............

that Bush's war is and always has been ILLEGAL and a WAR CRIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[OwnedByFerrets]

12. Unfortunately, it doesnt take much smoke

to fool almost 100 million amerikans. (30% who still think hes doing a jam up job)

[rodeodance]

13. send a THANK YOU here:

To write to the editorial page editor, send to [e-mail].

[rodeodance]

14. k

[rodeodance]

15. k

[BurtWorm]

16. Thanks, rodeodance!

:hi: