What is this crap you keep spouting about progress in Iraq???
Which part of EVERYONE IN IRAQ WANTS US TO GET THE HELL OUT OF THEIR COUNTRY haven’t you figured out yet?
How much longer are you going to slap lipstick on this pig of an occupation? How much longer are you going to lie to your soldiers and lie to the American people and lie to yourself? How much longer are American soldiers supposed to endure 3rd and 4th and 5th deployments? How many more Sunni militias are you going to arm before you figure out they're not killing "terrorists", they're killing Shi'ites and Americans?
One bloodbath after another from Mosul to Najaf keeps confirming the necessity of withdrawal to you, but you keep claiming we’re "making progress." Yup. We're making so much progress that if the American people can just summon some patience for only twenty more Friedman Units, we can prevail by 2017 against these cold-blooded IED's that hate us for our freedoms.
Nice medals you've got there, General Petraeus:
Looks like a matching set, one medal from Bush for staying the course in Iraq and another from Bin Laden for staying the course in Iraq.
Al-Qaeda recruiting is soaring so Bin Laden is happy, and war profiteering is skyrocketing so Bush is happy. But matters are starting to get a little out of hand, don't you think? 190,000 weapons are missing, Maliki is high-fiving Ahmadinejad, Sunnis are leaving the government, your soldiers are all dead men walking in a Muslim civil war, a PTSD epidemic is decimating the survivors, and Dick Cheney is targeting Iran because they have oil and natural gas those scheming raghead bastard Iranians want to destabilize the Middle East.
Helping Dick Cheney foil those evil destabilizing Iranians by turning the Middle East into a wasteland of stabilized rubble is an adventure and a half, isn't it? Apparently, so is describing this glorious fight for freedom and democracy in Iraq. Being attacked from all sides by hostile enemies has just been euphemized by our trustworthy Pentagon into the impressive phrase, "fighting in multiple directions:
"We're fighting in multiple directions," said Col. Michael Garrett, commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the 25th Infantry Division.
Please excuse this question from an ignorant civilian, General Petraeus, but fighting in multiple directions in the Land of the Blood Feuds generally involves being surrounded, doesn't it? I'm not a big time general like you, but isn't being surrounded by the enemy way down on the list of recommended military strategies?
I remember reading somewhere that General Custer was fighting in multiple directions at the Little Big Horn, and if I recall correctly, things didn't turn out too well. The French gave it a try at Dien Bien Phu with the same less than satisfactory results. In South Vietnam, Americans fought in multiple directions from scenic locations like Khe Sanh, Con Thien, and Hue, not to mention from hundreds of hamlets, villages, and firebases scattered like KILL US HERE signs across the Viet Cong infested countryside. Call me a pessimist, but this fighting in multiple directions stuff never seems to work.
Do you remember Vietnam, General Petraeus? Here's a clue for you: "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it."
But hey, Saddam is gone, so that's good, isn't it?
"Before, we were afraid only of Saddam Hussein," Sabah al-Khafaji said, sitting in his spacious office, its walls adorned with aerial photos of his bus factory and pictures of luxury cars. "Now, there are many sides we're afraid of. If we push on this side, they will kill you. If you poke on that side, they will kill you, and if you poke over there, then they will kill you," he said, pointing south, east and west in turn.
Well, as Congressman Pence would point out, that empty desert north of you is as safe as an Indiana market, so quit being such a hand-wringing whiner, Sabah.
Police chief turnover also seems to be a problem across our sunny 51st state:
In Iskandariyah, where nearly two-thirds of the population are Shiites, sectarian killings are on the rise, according to U.S. military commanders. Since November, there have been seven police chiefs. The sixth one was murdered last month. "The police are afraid to do anything," Khafaji said.
I can't imagine why.
But I have to give credit where credit is due, General Petraeus, Iraqi unity is surging, especially when American soldiers show up in town:
On March 26, Balcavage's soldiers responded to fierce street battles between Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias in Iskandariyah's center. A series of tit-for-tat mosque attacks had put the town on edge. Then Shiite militiamen based in one mosque attacked a Sunni shrine down the street. As a unit from the 1st Battalion rolled into the battle zone, not far from Khafaji's factory, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades suddenly targeted them, according to a military report. "Both sides stopped shooting at each other, and both opened up on our men," Whiteside said. The Americans had to fight their way out."
WTF, General Petraeus? This is happening all the time. You KNOW it is. Our troops are exhausted, thousands of them have been killed and tens of thousands of them have been wounded, yet the carnage in Iraq keeps getting worse and the "government" in Baghdad keeps disintegrating.
That is NOT progress.
Democrats, Democrats, Democrats, do not let this latest carnival barker in George W. Bush's Greatest Hoax on Earth Traveling Circus roll you in September with a pack of lies about "progress" in Iraq.
Pull the plug on this catastrophic occupation, or we'll pull the plug on you.
Iraq Moratorium Day is coming, Democrats.
Stand with us on September 21. Stand up for our soldiers. Stand up for us in Congress.
Stand up for America at long last.