Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com
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As the third anniversary of the Iraq War nears, President Bush and other administration officials will begin delivering speeches today designed to bolster public opinion of the Iraq war. President Bush’s first speech will focus on the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and the readiness of Iraq troops.
Former presidential advisor David Gergen says that a PR campaign is the wrong direction. He says that the White House should tell the truth about the situation on the ground in Iraq.
Will their speeches be in front of "loaded" audiences, as usual? Of course! I don’t even have to look it up! There will be applause after every statement he makes, even though 75% of the public thinks he STINKS ON ICE! (according to the polls)
If there’s applause, the audience is fake, like the news…like our congress…like most everything lately.
Can someone investigate who will make up the audiences? I know it’s not us! You saw what happens when a real audience is in attendance (Coretta Scott King’s funeral).
That’s probably a great job, being part of Bush’s fake audience he needs to watch his speeches. Looks good on a resume.
2000-present: Bush fake audience roadie.
Seriously, has anyone ever looked to see if it’s the same people in his audiences??? Who are these people who applaud him during his speeches?
I am watching this speech and it is the max ho-hum. Why is he just repeating regurgitated propaganda that did not work the first time?
I think martial law may be in his mind so he is so excited that this Iraq stuff is boring. Notice this:
"It would very much [look] like a sort of military operation if it came to that" (link here, bold added).
Martial law by the commander-of-lies would be touted by the republican dictatorship as them saving the nation just before the election.
Saving us from the birds. Yep, this regime has finally gone to the birds.
Big Dan, it sounds like your getting pretty fed up with this Bushit, can feel the tension, I am too, ever since…
When was inauguration day in ’01 ?
Jan. 20th. The day America died.
Does he really think that saying the same thing over and over again is going to get people behind him? Isn’t the AA definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result? Guess that’s proof that Bush is insane (and an alcoholic).
David Gergen said "the White House should tell the truth about the situation on the ground in Iraq."
They wouldn’t know wht the truth is if it bit them in the ass!
Regarding the audience, I saw a report on this some time ago where they had found the smae people in the audiences, but I don’t recall where.
Also another report where the used the same photos for various campaign posters for different people. Just photoshopped the signs.
I’ve said before and I will say it again a million times. The chimpster thinks all of America is as stupid as a post, like his base is. The man is losing his mind.
(paraphrased)"Of course people are unhappy with me, but it comes with the teritory (of being a narcissistic moron but being the boss)".
When the "elected officials" and "public servants" don’t care what "the people think", we have a serious disconnect. We have someone who believes it’s his "divine duty" to "save us", from ourselves, if need be.
Yet, the repukes keep not seeing the bigger picture, or bigger truth. And, they keep missing a bigger truth that is a consequence.. Our Founding Fathers knew better.. was it Jefferson who said "if you remove the ability to peacfully resolve a situtation, you only leave the ability to solve it through force" (or what ever.. it’s been quoted here several times).
You’ll note that our Founding Fathers were, and the country used to be, for the most part, smart people who took the time to think and care? Now we have reactionary people lashing out and grabbing all they can get their hands on. Now "it’s all about the bling, baby!".
Perhaps the christians are right and Darwin is totally wrong.. something has to be up for Humans to be DEvolving.. (though, to be fair, societies and governments aren’t "natural", in the sense of biology and nature and the like.. it fucks with the science of .. well.. science). Toss in Corporate America who’s only goal is to turn us into "buy-bots", and you have a nasty situtation on your hands.
This conflict was started on lies to support a grudge and make friends rich. The American people, as dull as they are, are starting to understand it. Nothing this assmonky says will change the fact that people are starting to smell the stink.
The argument that last year’s series of elections has produced millions of accusing purple-stained-fingers and their legitimate political representatives goes unanswered by ‘peace’ people and other’s will soon smell this ‘elephant in the room’.
There is nothing to be done other than continue to have faith in the Iraqi masses that defied the bombers, and allow the politicians that they elected the time required to grind out the all important compromises that will in essence spell the end of the Sunni insurgency with the formation of the Government of National Unity.
The Iraqi politicians are not accepting promises of good intentions, from each other, they are currently demanding and getting the action against all the foreign Jihadist and Al Qaeda types.
They are now building a government of National Unity from the ground up as a result of such actions. The Jihadists have done their worst and are now comprehensively stuffed.
This government will be unlike anything ever seen in the Middle East.
Incidentally al Jafaari who secured the nomination for PM by 1 vote on the strength of the Sadrists will not be the PM. The numbers are now clear, so keep your eye on the media as these profound issues are coming to a head in the very near future.
Most people think that this last desperate tactic, by Al Qaeda and Co which actually demonstrates that the beginning of the end game is in full swing signifies that the Iraqi masses are about to go against their own self interests and descend into the trap of civil-war between the Arabs (Shia 60% and the Sunni 20%). I am prepared to bet that will not happen.
I would also bet that half of all coalition troops will be home at the end of the next twelve months, because by that time the new Iraqi army will be well on the way to being sufficient to do all that will be asked of it.
A further six to twelve months will see virtually all these heroic troops back with their families having fought in the most honorable war since WW2. Troops will still be required in Afghanistan however.
No puppet government will be in place so no oil will be stolen. But the most important Middle Eastern swamp draining will have been completed with profound consequences to follow in Egypt etc
Bush has dumped 60 years of rotten to the core US policies designed for the preservation of the Middle Eastern swamp that bred the mosquitoes of 9/11. Regardless of who is elected next there will be no going back to the old filth of backing every scum dictator in the interests of ‘stability’. US interests are served best by the ongoing instability of the revolution to spread bourgeois democracy.
I’m convinced that liberating the people of Iraq was not only the right thing for the bourgeois forces to do, but that it now almost self evidently requires the full support of all proletarian revolutionaries world wide.
(#10) is a study in wishful thinking. It has little to do with the reality of the situation.
Kool aid anyone?
Luv, #10
Last week I heard George Bush, in a radio news sound bite, say "I have to protect the American people. That’s my job. It’s the job of government."
Amazingly, no one challenged him on this. Amazingly, no aide has taken him aside and said, "Hey, W, actually, your job–the one that you swore to do–is to uphold and protect the United States Constitution. Not the people. If you uphold the Constitution, the people can and will take care of themselves."
Why isn’t the MSM screaming about the failure of our President to know his job description? Why isn’t George being denounced on the floor of Congress? Good God! How can it get any clearer that we need to remove him from office!
PatrickM, #14. You must be getting paid to post those mythologies here, because no rational person could believe them. Iraq is a fantastic strategic success? Look, buddy, don’t you have any self-respect? No matter how much they pay you, it’s not enough. Telemarketers and street whores have more integrity than you.
Gergen is correct.
The regime currently taking up space in the White House is a corrupt dream machine that seems to have a criminal effect on those who go there:
"Allen, who resigned last month as President Bush’s top domestic policy adviser, appeared Thursday in District Court in Rockville with his attorney … Allen was arrested and charged with theft scheme … each punishable by as much as 15 years in prison" (link here).
The people in that place are showing us that there is a vortex of crime there.
Big Brother is a republican and the Criminal-in-chief is not going to convince the public otherwise. Gergen is correct on this one.
Gergen is right about a lot of things. Asking #14. Do you really thing that a bunch of purple stained fingers creates a peace? The country is in shambles and they have no resources to rebuild themselves. Who’s going to do it? Our "government has paid these contractors to do the rebuilding and as long as we are there nothing is going to get done. The rebels will keep destroying what has been put up, killing innocent civilians, attacking anything and everything that moves. It’s not going to stop and it will take decades for this to end. This war is just one huge mistake from the start. You can’t force a peaceful democracy on people. They have to want it and these people and the entire region is based on conflict. And to think that a nit like Bush is going to bring some great epiphany to them is totally insane. Optimism is fine but if you live in a fantasy, reality is going to kick you in the ass. But of course, you’ll just blame the liberals when it fails.
PatrickM #10, #14
You should talk to General Odom.
He says that Iraq policy is a failure. He shows the three phases of Vietnam, and compares these phases to the three phases of Iraq (link here).
"Those who say Iraq is nothing like Vietnam have another guess coming, says retired Gen. William Odom. He lists striking similarities and asserts that only after it pulls out of Iraq can the U.S. hope for international support to deal with anti-Western forces."
So, PatrickM you have a general who says you are deceiving yourself. Or as I like to say, "fooling only the fools".
Iraqis Find 85 Bodies in 24-Hour Period
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press Writers
21 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Police in the past 24 hours have found the bodies of at least 85 people killed by execution-style shootings _ a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian reprisal slayings, officials said Tuesday.
The dead included at least 27 bodies stacked in a mass grave in an eastern Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.
The bloodshed _ the second wave of mass killings in Iraq since bombers destroyed an important Shiite shrine last month _ followed weekend attacks in a teeming Shiite slum in which 58 people died and more than 200 were wounded.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry announced a ban on driving in the capital to coincide with the first meeting of the new parliament Thursday. The ban takes effect at 8 p.m. Wednesday and lasts until 4 p.m. Thursday.
Bodies marked ‘traitor’ found in Baghdad
Bombings in Baghdad, Kirkuk kill at least 5
Monday, March 13, 2006; Posted: 10:56 p.m. EST (03:56 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Attacks around Iraq on Monday claimed five lives and wounded at least 31 people, officials said.
Authorities said there were several bombings in Baghdad — including one that killed a U.S. soldier — and in Kirkuk.
Also Monday, police said they found four people shot to death in Sadr City, the large Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad where six car bombs Sunday killed at least 46 people and wounded 204 others.
The bodies of the four people found shot dead Monday had signs calling them traitors.
In northern Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one person and wounded six others Monday morning in the Taji area, Baghdad Emergency Police said.
Nine people were wounded, including four Iraqi police officers, by a roadside bomb near an Iraqi police patrol in southern Baghdad, police said.
And in the Harthiye neighborhood, a car bomb wounded four civilians. The blast apparently targeted a U.S. military convoy and missed.
In Kirkuk, two car bombs targeting police killed one civilian and wounded 12 others, a police official said. Kirkuk is about 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
The violence continued in central Baghdad on Monday afternoon, when members of a security company fired on a vehicle, killing two guards for Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi.
Sunday’s attacks in Sadr City, the capital’s largest Shiite neighborhood, fueled further fears of sectarian reprisals in the wake of Sunni vs. Shiite violence sparked by the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra.
Sadr City is home to many poor Shiites and is often patrolled by militia members of the Mehdi Army.
Those men — perhaps as many as 10,000 — are loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the son of the late religious figure for whom the neighborhood is named.
In his home city of Najaf, al-Sadr reportedly called for Iraqis to work together.
"Sunnis and Shiites are not responsible for such acts," al-Sadr said Monday, according to the Associated Press. "National unity is required.
"We are not weak, but we don’t want to be dragged to a civil war. So, I will keep calling for calm," he added.
U.S. toll rises
The U.S. military announced the death of two troops Monday.
A U.S. soldier died Monday from wounds sustained in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Baghdad, according to a military statement.
On Sunday, a U.S. Marine was killed during combat in Anbar province in western Iraq, the military said.
Since March 2003, 2,309 U.S. service members have died in the war in Iraq.
#10 This is what the "Bourgeois Forces" think
Iraq is already a fantastic strategic success, as is demonstrated by anti- war supporters deliberately ignoring the elections that had millions of brave Iraqi people holding their purple-stained-finger up to accuse those who will not stand beside them and help arm and train them.
The way to quickly secure their ongoing revolution is through this absolutely just armed struggle against their vicious ‘racist’ opponents, they are asking for help and we ought to ensure that they get it.
The elections were a resounding success and it is nothing short of a disgrace that people who think of themselves as leftists are hiding from the debate that flows from this series of three great events that happened last year.
The Iraqi people are now fighting a war that they will win against outright fascists, and medievalist Islamist oppressors, and this war is a revolutionary war that will lead to the spread of bourgeois democracy throughout the entire region and beyond. This is to say that it will impact on something of the order of 500 million people from Indonesia to Morocco.
Comments from anti-war activists claiming to hold a viable anti-racism stance in the face of the vicious racist attacks directed against the Iraqi people by Baathist remnants and Al-Qaeda and others is now painfully laughable.
Liberating the Iraqi people is undoubtedly the correct thing for the Coalition to have done, but the ‘old’ war to remove the Baathist tyranny has now ended with these elections, so anti-racist activists have to address the ‘new’ war to the extent that it has a racial or sectarian underpinning, and it overwhelmingly is so underpinned. Would anyone like to deny this?
Who the political representatives of the Iraqi masses are has now been conclusively established. It is now clear that the political leadership is not considered by the vast majority to be ‘collaborators’ or any other such term of abuse. Anyone like to deny this?
What stance ought anti-racist activists take on the ‘new’ war in Iraq, run by the Iraqi people themselves is the cutting edge question, because millions of the Iraqi people have voted in an election process now undisputed to be free and fair and ending in all important proportional representation for the Iraqi masses. These political representatives do speak for their constituents, be they Kurds, Arabs (either Shia or Sunni), Turkomen, Assyrians or various Christians and atheists.
The various people of Iraq have voted under a constitution that they themselves approved and that has established the formal equality of all people and both sexes.
A legitimate Iraqi government will now be established after protracted negotiations between these legitimate political representatives, and it is a foregone conclusion (for those of us who know what stance the major parties are taking) that this government will call for continued military and economic assistance.
They ought to get that support!
Look at W’s body language. Slumped down in the chair, listing left. I heard part of that talk before changing channel. He could hardly speak. He was stuttering and spitting and partially incoherent. Looks all puffy, too. But that won’t keep his ship from sinking.
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