COL Gene

Iraq Government is a Total Failure

Iraq Government is a Total Failure

No need to wait for September.

The Iraq Government has not met a single benchmark to resolve the many issues essential to ending the violence in Iraq. It is now time to bring our troops home and allow the Iraqi people to deal with the future of Iraq. We can not continue to sacrifice our military for a country that refuses to do its part. This together with an increase in the violence can not be ignored. The time is up and Congress MUST force an end to our involvement in this misguided war!

Official: Iraq Gov't Missed All Targets
By ANNE FLAHERTY and ANNE GEARAN (Associated Press Writers)
From Associated Press
July 09, 2007 8:45 PM EDT
WASHINGTON - A progress report on Iraq will conclude that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has not met any of its targets for political, economic and other reform, speeding up the Bush administration's reckoning on what to do next, a U.S. official said Monday.

One likely result of the report will be a vastly accelerated debate among President Bush's top aides on withdrawing troops and scaling back the U.S. presence in Iraq.

The "pivot point" for addressing the matter will no longer be Sept. 15, as initially envisioned, when a full report on Bush's so-called "surge" plan is due, but instead will come this week when the interim mid-July assessment is released, the official said.

"The facts are not in question," the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the draft is still under discussion. "The real question is how the White House proceeds with a post-surge strategy in light of the report."

So no one forgets here is what I posted May 3, 2007. I was one month off in my prediction:
August 2007 Will Show Bush was WRONG!<BR>
By COL Gene Posted Thursday, May 03, 2007 on Bush Truth Discussion: Politics

Bush again got his way and I think it is clear Congress will again give Bush his way in Iraq. The next funding bill may contain some non binding language about what the Iraqi Government should do but will have no impact on the outcome of the Iraq war. In August we will have the final input as to the impact of the Surge. I believe that evaluation will show that the Civil War and the operations of al Qaeda will be at a level that will clearly show the added U.S. Troops has not brought an acceptable level of stability to Iraq. We will see a political atmosphere in Iraq similar to today with no resolve to end the Civil war that has taken hold in Iraq. All the speculation will be behind us and it will be time to remove our forces from Iraq. If I am correct, Republicans who refuse to acknowledge the failure of the Bush Policy in Iraq will be in real trouble. I believe the funding for FY 2008 will be the time that Congress including enough GOP members will be in place to provide a veto proof bill. If the GOP continues to support Bush even with the clear failure of his policy, the day of change will be November 2008. I pray it will not take until January 2009 when the next President takes office to remove our brave military from a mission they should NEVER have been sent to by their Commander-in-Chief!
23,801 views 83 replies
Reply #26 Top
like i said in other posts, if we turned this thing up, 160,000 of our guys would be overkill.

you crybabies would pee your pants.

sorry sean, its brutal to say, but everything has a military answer, we are fighting people who will never feel the way we do about life. in the end, it really is all we can do. if we don't fight, you can try to explain to them that you were on their side. "i was rooting for you the whole time, i tried to tell these idiots."
they will laugh at you, and cut off your head. they hate you just as much as they hate me.

we will never agree on this stuff, but i have the nuts to stand up and fight, not coddle and pander. its not vein pride and ego, its called self esteem and self preservation. it used to be considered natural, but i guess you guys are smarter that that now.

Reply #27 Top

no charles, you are the joke here.

democrats? 6 republicans voted against the iraq war. i'm not a democrat. colin powell wasn't a democrat when he reported that iraq was effectively boxed in and no threat to anyone before 9/11. non interventionists like me were warning what would happen and non intervention happens to be a conservative philosophy. my reasonings and theirs have nothing to do with what the democrats wanted and their reasoning. but you don't know anything beyond the partisan rhetoric you parrot.


Oh wow, 6. What a big number. I mean gosh, what will we ever do. You keep telling yourself that you are right Sean. I wouldn't want to disrupt you genius and infinate wisdom.
Reply #28 Top
like i said in other posts, if we turned this thing up, 160,000 of our guys would be overkill.

you crybabies would pee your pants.

sorry sean, its brutal to say, but everything has a military answer, we are fighting people who will never feel the way we do about life. in the end, it really is all we can do. if we don't fight, you can try to explain to them that you were on their side. "i was rooting for you the whole time, i tried to tell these idiots."
they will laugh at you, and cut off your head. they hate you just as much as they hate me.

we will never agree on this stuff, but i have the nuts to stand up and fight, not coddle and pander. its not vein pride and ego, its called self esteem and self preservation. it used to be considered natural, but i guess you guys are smarter that that now.


You gotta understand Sean. He doesn't believe that defending ourselves and fighting the enemy is a solution to anything. What does that leave us with? They don't have any solution, they don't give any solutions. But we are lest with one alternative other than fighting. Surrender. Give in. If they want us dead, we should let them kill us. If they think Britney Spears is insulting to their religion, we should hand her over so they can stone her to death. One this is for sure, they do love American dollars when it comes to buying their oil. It's probably the only acceptable American thing in their minds. Man, talk about similarities, they like American money almost as much as our politicians do.
Reply #29 Top

like i said in other posts, if we turned this thing up, 160,000 of our guys would be overkill.

you crybabies would pee your pants.


nonsense...it's about time someone informed ya that bloviating bravado doesn't equal toughness.

in the end, it really is all we can do. if we don't fight, you can try to explain to them that you were on their side. "i was rooting for you the whole time, i tried to tell these idiots."


again more nonsense. not wanting to invade arabia and favoring a non interventionist policy where we effectively isolate the bad guys until they learn to play nice is not pacifism. seeing our foreign policy in the region for what it is realistically is not "rooting for them." you think just denying that we have fucked up in that region for a very long time by continuously trying to impose our will on them while we exploit their resources for our benefit will make it all go away? it won't. and trashing people like me, who are hardly liberals, aren't democrats and have a grasp on reality got old about 2 years ago.

as i've told people here before, most recently rightwinger...let em try and invade here and i'll fully utilize my 2nd amendment rights. but that won't happen as long as the NRA has ensured that this nation is armed to the teeth. you think the neighborhood's in baghdad are rough? that would look like disneyland if they tried to invade us. think about it...every neighborhood in this nation is chock full of hunters, ex military, gun enthusiasts and a whole lot of others who have em "for home defense." not only are we fully armed, we have homegrown strategists with experience in organizing military operations.

notice i don't depend on my military to defend or protect me. although i expect they would do what they do as well. but my peace of mind (or piece of mind to some) comes from the American people, not my government.

in iraq, we can't impose our will on them no matter how hard we try. why? not because we don't have a superior military...but because they don't want us to. we will be their enemy, if not for a very long time, forever. and we won't become their friend in this operation. and sooner or later, we will have to leave. and they will have to settle their own old scores,,,and it will be a mess, whether it happens today, or 5 years from now. and the best we can hope for at this point is to contain it...redeployment is the only option. and we must get the regional powers to sign on to containing it. not that they won't at least covertly get involved..just like we would if our allies were in such a conflict. and maybe, just maybe...if we pull out of the cities and redeploy to a containment position and finally, after all these years of outsiders and saddam keeping them from anhilating each other will cause them to wake up finally and see the nowhere path it leads to.

maybe not,,,but the results will probably play out the same whether our inevitable departure happens now or later.

so, if we can agree that no fool would be dumb enough to actually try to invade us, all they are left with is terroristic acts of punkiness. and sorry, that garbage doesn't scare me 1 bit. was 9/11 a tradgedy? of course it was. did al qaeda and the taliban who harbored them and the nation they ruled deserve to be hit? of course they did. and that's why even the arab countries supported the effort, including iran. it was consistant with their philosophy that we should be able to settle the score of an unjust attack. and i, and many others who warned about iraq supported the afghanastan invasion as well as a genuine step up on our vigilance against such punks.

but scared of them to the point i'd sacrifice any part of my own way of life or stand pat as the government used those punks to infringe upon my rights? never.

fear and anger can make people do very dumb things in this life unfortunately. and fear and anger caused us to make a horrific blunder in invading iraq. but people are slowly but surely waking up to that, and perhaps someday, you shall too.

to really win this war, we will need to outsmart them, not try to out-tough them on their own turf...again. because we will fail...again.

Reply #30 Top
this is how i see it we should no longer be backing the Iraq government.


but we should be backing the Iraqi people who are starting to stand up against AL quid and other insurgents.


the government is whacked, the people are not.


Reply #31 Top
Reply By: danielost Posted: Wednesday, July 11, 2007
this is how i see it we should no longer be backing the Iraq government.


but we should be backing the Iraqi people who are starting to stand up against AL quid and other insurgents.


the government is whacked, the people are not.

And just how would you suggest we do that? Without a government there can be no end to the violence and no way to run a country of 26 million people!
Reply #32 Top
according to you we are the puppet masters.

Reply #33 Top




Reply By: danielost Posted: Wednesday, July 11, 2007
according to you we are the puppet masters.

No we have a President that thinks he should control the World!


Reply #34 Top
notice i don't depend on my military to defend or protect me. although i expect they would do what they do as well. but my peace of mind (or piece of mind to some) comes from the American people, not my government.


this is probable the biggest difference between americans and everyone else

everyone else depends on their government.


which is why i have said since 9/11 that there would never be a successful high jacking of an airliner again with americans on board.
Reply #35 Top
Americans will do everything possible to prevent another attack. However the concerted effort of the terrorists will require BOTH individual Americans as well as the Government in cooperation with governments all over the world. CNN just reported that al Qaeda is as strong as it was before 9/11 and the Sec. of Homeland Security fears another attack in America this summer. What is not making us safer is the Iraq war!
Reply #38 Top
like i said in other posts, if we turned this thing up, 160,000 of our guys would be overkill.

you crybabies would pee your pants.


nonsense...it's about time someone informed ya that bloviating bravado doesn't equal toughness.


No, it's about time someone informed YOU it's not bravado, it's fact! If we turned our soldiers loose and let them DO the job they were TRAINED for....it would be all over except for the crying!
Reply #39 Top
What is not making us safer is the Iraq war!


Leaving and showing weakness will not make use "safer" either.  The worst attacks on the U.S. have happened when we weren't in Iraq, and their propaganda is something that you fall for over and over again.

Knighthood has put the UK "less safe", should we tell them to stop knighting people as well?


Reply #40 Top
As I've stated before, this is a pointless argument. Al-qaeda will not stop coming after us no matter what we do so long as we keep sending soldiers to fight with 1 hand tied behind their backs and blanks in their guns. There was a time when battles were fought honorably, where the enemies fought by the rules (somewhat anyways) and face to face. In these days battles are not fought by the strength of the army but by the intelligence and willingness to do what it takes. We may have intelligence, but our enemy is smarter because we lack the willingness to do what must be done and they are taking advantage of that because they have will to spare.
Reply #41 Top
As I've stated before, this is a pointless argument. Al-qaeda will not stop coming after us no matter what we do so long as we keep sending soldiers to fight with 1 hand tied behind their backs and blanks in their guns. There was a time when battles were fought honorably, where the enemies fought by the rules (somewhat anyways) and face to face. In these days battles are not fought by the strength of the army but by the intelligence and willingness to do what it takes. We may have intelligence, but our enemy is smarter because we lack the willingness to do what must be done and they are taking advantage of that because they have will to spare.


i agree
Reply #42 Top
we keep sending soldiers to fight with 1 hand tied behind their backs and blanks in their guns


ok,,,show me 1 instance where we had "blanks" in our guns in iraq. that is a LIE. and congress has been prevented from making any restrictions on the fighting in Iraq, so where does the "one hand tied behind their back" come from? fact is that we are in the lead in just about every combat operation and in total operational control.

We may have intelligence, but our enemy is smarter because we lack the willingness to do what must be done and they are taking advantage of that because they have will to spare.



they are winning because it's their turf. they don't want us there and unless we plan on becoming an authoritarian and facist regime, which totally defeats the purpose of the mission, we will never be allowed to control that area. it is their land, their choices to make. if they choose to blow each other up, then so be it. but i believe that quite possibly if we and everyone else backs off and finally take away the 1 thing that keeps them from totally going after each other...they will think twice about it. but as long as we stay, we give them the perfect excuses to continue the civil war.


Reply #43 Top
ok,,,show me 1 instance where we had "blanks" in our guns in iraq. that is a LIE. and congress has been prevented from making any restrictions on the fighting in Iraq, so where does the "one hand tied behind their back" come from? fact is that we are in the lead in just about every combat operation and in total operational control.


who said anything about congress making any restrictions


we are not being allowed to attack the mosques where the weapons are being stored.

because we don't want to upset the non upset Muslims.

i say they should be upset with the ones turning the mosques into a combat zone.

and we should take out those mosques. after giving the locals a chance to remove anything holy to them. but if anyone tries to sneak weapons out all bets are off.
Reply #44 Top


ok,,,show me 1 instance where we had "blanks" in our guns in iraq. that is a LIE. and congress has been prevented from making any restrictions on the fighting in Iraq, so where does the "one hand tied behind their back" come from? fact is that we are in the lead in just about every combat operation and in total operational control.


You have an amazing ability to be smart one day and a dud the next. Is it really that hard for people to get the point that what I meant was we have to follow the rules of engagement, that we can not just shoot a building for fear of there being innocent civilians inside, that we can not shoot someone suspicious because it will bring an outcry of all Muslims or Arabs? Our guys and gals have to be shot at first and possibly killed before we can even take action. Did we level any of the cities in Iraq when we first started this war, the infamous "shock and aww" of Bush? No, we only attacked a few buildings and even then we were freaking out over the innocent who died. Stop acting ignorant as if you didn't know what I mean. Our soldiers at check points run chances every day of being blown up because we give every person the benefit of the doubt that it's not a bomb.

As far as I'm concerned we should just level the place and sort out the mess later. This war would have been over in a week or 2 if the US military would have been able to do what they were trained to do. For crying out load we create weapons that have the ability to destroy a single room with barely disturbing the rest of the building, bombs that can destroy the inside of a building while not bringing it down, bombs that even explode after the penetrate a wall, all this so that we hurt less innocent bystanders. And while all of this is a great idea it still ties one hand behind their backs since once there is an innocent person with the terrorist or they are in schools, hospital or churches all these weapons are worthless and useless.



they are winning because it's their turf. they don't want us there and unless we plan on becoming an authoritarian and facist regime, which totally defeats the purpose of the mission, we will never be allowed to control that area. it is their land, their choices to make. if they choose to blow each other up, then so be it. but i believe that quite possibly if we and everyone else backs off and finally take away the 1 thing that keeps them from totally going after each other...they will think twice about it. but as long as we stay, we give them the perfect excuses to continue the civil war.


They are beating us because we won't play by their rules, we won't use the full potential of our soldiers and the full power of the arsenal of weapons and vehicles we have. Every time they plan an assault they always take into consideration not killing everyone, only if necessary. We are being beat by our own rules of engagement. Believe what you want but this would have been over had we just leveled the country from the beginning. Heartless but effective and would have yielded the same hatred towards us anyways but with results.
Reply #45 Top
Patten said when you fight the war. fight it to get over with. when it was over then you apologize
Reply #46 Top
Last night, Michael Ware of CNN made it clear that violence in SOME areas of Iraq is down but that violence in areas that have been calm is way up. He said overall the violence in Iraq has NOT been reduced during this most recent surge. The Bush Surge is like the game “Whack a Mole”. Michael Ware has been in Iraq for more then 4 ½ years and has a very comprehensive perspective of what is going on thought the country. The other assertion that the last elements of the surge just arrived three weeks ago is also a distortion. Although that is true, a substantial portion of the increased American Troop level has been operating for several months. Bush and Toney Snow would have you believe we can not expect to see the impact of the Surge until the very last Troop is on the ground!

The last quarter during the surge has resulted in the MOST American deaths. I guess Bush meant Serge in American casualties not a surge to reduce the overall violence in Iraq. Now the Iraqi Parliament is going on summer recess so the political changes that have NOT been made can not take place before the Cinderella deadline for the September status report. Bush is playing his games while our troops continue to die and be injured in a Civil War that we enabled and that we can not win!
Reply #47 Top
OK gene i have had enough of you shut up


you keep playing the same record and it is skipping


time to change the record and the needle.


bush is not the cause of everything that is wrong with the USA.

most of it belongs on the shoulders of the democrats. who vote for a war and then decry it taking place. I don't care if they were too stupid to read the report, or too stupid to have their staff read the report andhttp://www.geocities.com/bible101a/flood then tell them what it said.


and you want to put one of those idiots in charge of the white house.


Reply #48 Top
Reply | Edit | Delete




Reply By: danielost Posted: Friday, July 13, 2007
OK gene i have had enough of you shut up

YOU DO NOT TELL ME ANYTHING!
Reply #49 Top
"bush is not the cause of everything that is wrong with the USA." I agree. However Iraq IS totally on the head of Bush!
Reply #50 Top
Now we are fighting the police we trained.

U.S. Troops Battle Iraqi Police, Gunmen
By LEE KEATH (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
July 13, 2007 9:21 AM EDT
BAGHDAD - U.S. forces battled Iraqi police and gunmen Friday, killing six policemen, after an American raid captured a police lieutenant accused of leading an Iranian-backed militia cell, the military said.

Seven gunmen also died in the fight, a rare open street battle between American troops and policemen. Washington has demanded the government purge its police force of militants, and U.S. and Iraqi authorities have arrested officers in the past for militia links. But the Bush administration said in an assessment Thursday that progress on that front was "unsatisfactory."