Hey General, what year is this? 04 or 07?

My Man Glenn Grenwald, one of the best writers and minds on these sets of tubes is on fire lately. His Blog on Salon is a must a bookmark or rss feed. He exposes both parties, the Washington political class and the beltway media on a daily basis. Check out the above video for some truth about General Petraeus' report and more background on earlier rosy predictions from this same General.

As MGsW has expressed in my recent rant, Mr. Greenwald is equally distrustful of General Petraeus' report and the total PR spin of the hollow surge. He touches on how out of touch the Washington Establishment is on what the public truly wants.

Ever since the Surge was announced (and allowed) back in January, Conventional Beltway Media Wisdom continuously insisted that September was going to be the Dramatic Month of Reckoning, when droves of fair-minded and election-fearing Republicans finally abandoned the President and compelled an end to the war. But the opposite has occurred.

Democratic Congressional leaders -- due either to illusory fears of political repercussions and/or a desire that the war continue -- seem more supportive than ever of the ongoing occupation (or at least more unwilling than ever to stop it).

They are going to do nothing to mandate meaningful troop withdrawal. Most Republicans are hiding behind the shiny badges of Gen. Petraeus and his typically sunny claims about Progress in Iraq, and they, too, are as unified as ever that we cannot end our occupation.

The public wants the war to end and is not buying this "Pro-Surge" PR campaign.

Perhaps most remarkably, in light of the bipartisan canonization rituals to which we have been subjected, a strong majority (53-39%) believes that Gen. Petreaus' report "will try to make things look better than they really are" (rather than "honestly reflect the situation in Iraq").

Moreover, huge majorities continue to believe that the war was not worth fighting (62-36%) and that the U.S. "is not making significant progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq" (60-36%).

Only a small minority (28%) believe the Surge has made the situation in Iraq better, while vast majorities believe it has made no difference (58%) or has made the situation worse (12%). And a sizable plurality continues to believe the U.S. is losing the war (48-34%).

More significantly still, overwhelming numbers of Americans understand what the D.C. Establishment refuses to accept: namely, that even if there are marginal and isolated security improvements, there is still no point in continuing to stay in Iraq.

Large majorities want the number of U.S. troops in Iraq decreased (58-39%); believe overwhelmingly that a decrease should begin "right away," rather than by the end of the year or next year (62-33%); and favor legislation now to compel troop withdrawal by the spring (55-41%).

He explains with great clarity why the war will not end anytime soon.

The Establishment is so invested in ensuring that the war they created can be painted as a Success, and even more so in the notion that forced withdrawal is something only the Unserious People advocate, that they will never follow their premise (we are doing nothing good in Iraq) to its logical conclusion (therefore we should force Bush to withdraw whether he wants to or not).

And the entire leadership strata of our political class, including Congressional Democrats, either shares those premises and/or are far too weak and afraid to defy them. The war thus continues, and the gap between our political class and American public opinion continues to grow.

His other post focuses on the Pro War crowd and their never ending obsession with being right, even though they ALWAYS have been wrong. Only a 1/4 of Iraqis actually see any improvements but that does not stop the war mongers and policy experts from blurting out their own statistics.

When determining whether "progress" is being made, fewer things could be less relevant to our genius war scholars and our DC Establishment pundits than whether the Iraqis whom we have Liberated actually say they are more secure.

Far more trustworthy are American War Supporters and Members of Congress who take week-long, highly planned jaunts to Iraq, spend every night protected in the Green Zone, spend their days talking to American military officials, and then return and declare Iraq to be Much Safer. That is much more reliable.

But whatever else is true, the viewpoint of actual Iraqi is fairly compelling "primary source data" suggesting that Gen. Petraeus' sunny claims about Iraq are anything but "undeniable."

American Public Wants War To End Very Soon, Political Class Does Not Care
One Day Guide to War Supporters
Glenn Greenwald's Blog
Fire Dog Lake

Mac Gs World

A New Way Nowhere (Long Political Rant)

(This is a long political rant on Iraq and does not contain Poon, hot chicks, or sports.)

Down below is a Daily Show segment to get everyone in the mood for today's General Petraeus' expected and most likely "Pro Surge" Iraq testimony in front of Congress this afternoon. I can not even follow this topic anymore and my head is about to explode. Of Course, I still will and it sucks because this is the most important discussion American's will face in our lifetime: What to do about the Iraqi Clusterfuk. All of our options are bad, very bad, and awful.

Congressional Republicans have locked in to letting Bush control their parties destiny by continuing their recent foreign policy platform of nation building/kicking the can down the road and "hoping" things just work themselves out eventually. They steadfastly support this policy no matter the continual cost of our precious blood and treasure. HUGE Mistake for our country and the GOP's electoral future. More on the Republican Party on a another post. I can not let this rant spiral out of control like the national debt or my late night drunken messages on buddy's voice mails.

It is laughable that the Bush administration, who prided themselves in running the government like a business and placed boatloads of CEO's in charge of Cabinet offices and Federal Agencies, would continue to throw unlimited amount of money at a major problem(Iraq) with no concrete results. Typical successful CEOs would look at their flailing stock price, listen to their shareholders, and figure out ways to cut their losses and move on. The inability of the Administration to truly recognize or admit their failures just baffles the mind. It could be one of the main contributors to consistent near record low approval ratings for Bush.

Also, this "Whack a Mole" surge strategy is the biggest joke ever and this cartoon depicts it quite well.

20K more troops in a country the size of California is a "Surge?" I would say 500K troops would be my definition of a "surge" or its correct definition of increasing US forces in an area: "An Escalation."

Are you ready for some popular talking points in the next few days? Drumroll Please:

"6 more months, We need more time, Signs things are working, We can not lose, Al Qaeda is evil" and my personal favorite: "Progress."

I could be on an island beach sipping drinks with umbrellas if I had a dollar for every time progress has been mentioned by the media, White House or GOP officials over the past 4 and 1/2 years. They can barely answer a question on Iraq without talking about a Friedman Unit.

Repeating the word, "Progress" is some gag reflex for pro war politicians. It should be illegal to play any political drinking game where "progress" is a key word. Everyone would black out quickly.

I actually feel like blacking out when I read about US Soldier's Arlington Cemetery funerals in the Wpost. This is the reality of WAR, broken families and shattered lives. Here are some faces and names of our fallen US Soldiers.

Please REPEAT after me:

There is NO military solution in Iraq and we will NEVER EVER "WIN" an occupation. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, Al Qaeda was never in Iraq before we invaded and destroyed the Iraqi government infrastructure and we are in the middle of a century old Sunni/Shiite civil war. REPEAT.

There is no military solution in Iraq and we will NEVER EVER "WIN" an occupation.

The War will continue because the Democrats have no spine or GOP votes to over ride any presidential veto on continuing the Iraqi war funding albatross. It burns my progressive bones to say this but Democrats would rather have the Iraqi War as an issue for the 08 election cycle. They do not want to take a true stance on this issue like Shut the FN government down until Bush caves! Even though it is also the right thing to do for our country, the Democrats do not want to risk their political capital/advantage and open themselves up to the likely "Dems hate the troops" attacks by the GOP. Pathetic.

Welcome to Washington bubble of partisan politics and the two parties never ending tug of war for power. I sometimes believe that I am watching a debate class gone wrong, where no one really cares about the position they are defending but just are arguing to argue. Once again, another blog post for another time.

Back to the Clusterfuk. Even though the an overwhelming majority of the public wants the war to end, the only way Congress makes it happen is if the Republican Caucus splits and starts to vote with the Democratic majority on gradual troop redeployments. I highly, highly doubt this will occur and this is my chilly, pound my head into the wall conclusion:

There are no true plans or momentum to end our occupation in Iraq by either party, PERIOD.

Oh, We are probably going to bomb Iran at some point soon too. Maybe the public will get really pissed when we bomb another country and they will get their fat asses off of their lazy boys. Actually, most Americans are too busy watching a chubby, washed up pop star dance like a mannequin and forget she was lip syncing on national TV to care about our broken foreign policy. Sometimes I do not blame them.

The Media continues to let the president set the terms of the debate too.
Most pundits would have never predicted that the bumbling Governor from Texas dwindling power relevance as president would be his lone access to the Bully Pulpit.

"Dang Gum, The Good Ole Decider is still deciding."

Huffington points the lackluster job of the media and its lazy reporting about Iraq,"The time has come for the media to stop acting as if there are two sides to the story of what's happening in Iraq when there is only one."

Eric Boehlert has an excellent column about the press taking the summer off on reporting about Iraq.

From the cost and length of the war(50 billion&3 months) to the reasons for it (UN/WMDs/Iraqi Democracy/War on Terror/Al Queda), the American people have continually been misled and straight up lied to about Iraq. Every single one of theses "experts" predictions on Iraq has turned out wrong. Why should any American keep believing in the administration or their pro war cheerleaders on this topic?

They long ago lost the benefit of the doubt and it is why I believe this country's next executive leader in 2009 needs to be someone Americans can believe in. This country needs a JFK, a Reagan or a Clinton. Someone to renew their faith in our country/government and reclaim the respect of the world. Americans are good, honest, caring people and I am fed up that a few shitty leaders has made us all look like selfish, greedy, imperialistic pigs. I am too busy worrying about the lives of our US Soldiers to start commenting on the 08 presidential Horse race.

The worst part is that I can not even believe a word these government officials say about Iraq, Iran, or North Korea. They can be telling some truths about these countries but their track record gives them ZERO credibility.

Matthew Dowd, Bush's main campaign strategist in his 00, 04 election victories, no longer believes in anything Bush says about Iraq.

My biggest problem with the policy discussion in Washington right now is that both parties and the media should be talking about answers to the obvious problem in the Mid East. We should be discussing the pros and cons of our bad options out of this hornets nest, analyzing what are the best ways to protect our interests and prevent more US deaths.

Instead, the administration keeps spewing talk of us "winning," and keeping faith in their repetitive hollow promises. I do not have all of the answers nor does anyone for that matter but until the public and media demand a true debate from our political leaders, we will continue to deny the reality of our problem in Iraq. Things only have the chance to get worse and not better.

Now Enjoy this video and I am sorry if you made it to the bottom of my rant. Happy Munday.




The Real Heros in Life, Our Fallen Soliders
Cartoon by Stuart Carlson
Whack A Mole
Dowd NOW disagrees with Bush, thanks Pal
Bush Sets Debate
Dems Folding on Iraq
Our Pointless Pilate Press
Press Blackout Summer
9 US Soliders Died in Iraq

Mac Gs World