…for cliff-notes see post 13– and speed read.

Obama doesn’t know the difference between Iraq and Iran:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CViQbyX1-JI

BTW, al Qaeda does receive bennies from Iran.

http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/2006/12/this-is-house-democrat-in-charge-of.html

Doug: I’ve been known to be a bit long winded myself, but really… Did you have to use 930 words to get your point across? Sorry, but I’ve got the 1000 plus page book (”Turmoil and Triumph”) by former Secretary of State Shultz to work through, so I’m not able to devote the extra time to wade through your latest. How about a cliff notes version?

for your view pleasure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EetobKXQsr8

I always have had a soft-spot for Mr. Boot, sometimes he can really make me giggle:

To answer that question, [why neocons love McCain?] ask yourself which presidential candidate an Ahmadinejad, Assad or Kim would fear the most. I submit it is not Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or Mike Huckabee. In my (admittedly biased) opinion, the leading candidate to scare the snot out of our enemies is a certain former aviator who has been noted for his pugnacity and his unwavering support of the American war effort in Iraq.

While many ponder over the dilemma of being either feared or respected, Boot’s expertise forces us back to the school yard for answers.

Those that enjoy Boot as much as i do probably do so more for his “3 stooges-type” analogies. Here’s one that many fans like myself always go to:

Other statistics add to the context. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 114 U.S. police officers died in the line of duty this year, almost exactly the number of service people who have been killed by Iraqi insurgents since May 1. And more than 41,000 people are killed on U.S. highways every year, according to the Department of Transportation. So during the last six months, while more than 300 Americans were dying in Iraq, more than 20,000 were dying on the roads at home.

You can’t buy that kind of slipshod intentionality– “how i do enjoy aiming my 42 caliber truck into head-on traffic every Sunday morning!”

While Boot is one of those “experts” who has said some of the dumber things about the war, he has a certain crude honesty that many a beer and chips guy can relish. So I want to take a few minutes at what he says here. Doing so will better enable all of us, perhaps, to say less stupid s*** in the future.

To begin I want to thank Mr. Boot for not even considering waisting his valuable time mentioning almost a thousand civilians killed, homes destroyed, families ruined and access to central Baghdad cut off, due to Sadr City being walled off– they, as well as many other innocent Iraqis are expendable to further our five year plus goal for a democratic Iraq.

Secondly, April’s increase in U.S. troops killed represents a 122 percent jump from December. Therefore, it doesn’t matter that Mr. Boot details why there has been a casualty increase due to “coalition offensives” in Sadr City. Were we having offensives the whole time since December? I believe we were playing a sort of whack-a-mole. Hot-spots like Mosul, Tikrit, and Nineveh have had US campaigns that have been going on longer than Basra and Sadr City. What about them? Could not Basra or Sadr City become a Mosul or Nineveh?

Thirdly, I love the massed assumptive grouping here:

More important, casualties cannot be looked at in a vacuum. A spike in casualties could be a sign that the enemy is gaining strength. Or it could be a sign that tough combat is under way that will lead to the enemy’s defeat and the creation of a more peaceful environment in the future.

So, he assumingly believes contrarian arguments on casualties have assumed vacuum-like contexts, then quickly leaps to an assumptive prophetic of the “enemies defeat,” and decidedly ignoring the assumption that “the enemy is gaining strength,”. Another third option here, that Boot ignores is this could be a long hard run to some kind of bloody stale-mate. It certainly has been looking that way for over 5 years now, considering all the parties involved. I wish he wouldn’t have assumed this was not a realistic option. Sadr has a numerous youthful following.

Fourthly, after detailing why the casualties need to be contextualized with his insight, he leaves us with these vague yet wise words:

Unfortunate as the latest deaths are, they are in all likelihood a sign of things getting worse before they get better.

Yes, how true. But for how much longer?

This is ironic considering the glories awarded to the surge by so many so-called “experts”. In fact, the sheer magnitude of the wrongness they exhibited will likely be studied by scholars for decades to come.

Mr. Boot has learned his lesson well this time: “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” For if we can jump into the way-back-machine we can remember Max Boot proclaiming “Now, victory is within our grasp ” in the weeks after December’s lull.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-boot28jan28,0,6909999.story

In conclusion, yes, US troop casualties are very saddening. Yet Boot has put their deaths and the nameless others into an “expertise” perspective for us. Yet oddly, he’s not finished; this time Boot is more circumspect, to the order just shy of missing saying too much he says, “things get worse before they get better” …wiser words– words more “experts” and novices should consider. …Shame it took so many errors to find this realization.

Now Boot needs to openly consider the option of a stale-mate in the course of our military operations– a fake worse than death to his kind of military-solutions-are-the only-solutions “expertise”.

For all those out there with a bad case of BDS, the Mission Accomplished banner that was on the AIrcraft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. If you have been in the Navy or any of the military branches, you would know…

And I will say it again, I am not voting for Bush in November.

Ironically on the 5th anniversary of ‘Mission Accomplished’ the ‘LA Times’ reports today that the death toll among American soldiers in Iraq reached a 7 month high in April while civilian deaths also climbed dramatically.

Max Boot at WSJ:

The Truth About Iraq’s Casualty Count
By MAX BOOT
May 3, 2008; Page A11

The newspapers are predictably filled with articles about how 52 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq last month – the highest toll since September. Iraqi civilian casualties are also said to be at the highest level since August. These losses are being used to cast aspersions on claims of progress in Iraq.

Even one death is too many and 52 deaths is tragedy multiplied 52-fold. But let’s keep some perspective. As the icasualties.org website makes clear, for better or worse, April was still one of the lighter-casualty months during the long war in Iraq.

More important, casualties cannot be looked at in a vacuum. A spike in casualties could be a sign that the enemy is gaining strength. Or it could be a sign that tough combat is under way that will lead to the enemy’s defeat and the creation of a more peaceful environment in the future.

The latter was certainly the case with the casualty spike during the summer of 2007. (More than a hundred soldiers died each month in April, May and June.) Those losses were widely denounced as evidence that the surge wasn’t working, but in fact they were proof of the opposite.

At the time, troops were engaged in hard fighting as part of Operation Phantom Thunder that eventually cleared most terrorists out of Anbar, Baghdad, Diyala, Babil and other provinces, leading to dramatic reductions in violence over the last year (more than 80% before the recent fighting).

The latest increase in casualties is the result of another coalition offensive: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s decision to break the grip of militias in Basra. At first the results did not look promising: Iraqi troops were rushed in without adequate preparation, and shortly after the March 25 offensive began appeared stymied in their battles against the Mahdist Army. Mr. Maliki seemed to agree to an Iranian-brokered cease-fire with Moqtada al Sadr that left the Mahdists in control of much of the city. But as April progressed it became clear that the results of the initial clashes were more beneficial than most (including me) had initially suspected.

Iraqi security forces have not suspended their operations in Basra. In fact, since the “cease-fire,” they have continued to increase their area of control. An April 25 article by a London Times correspondent who visited Basra finds: “Raids are continuing in a few remaining strongholds but the Iraqi commander in charge of the unprecedented operation is confident that his forces will soon achieve something that the British military could not – a city free from rogue gunmen.”

The political repercussions in Baghdad have been just as positive and just as unexpected. First, by taking on Shiite militias, Mr. Maliki has gained new-found respect from Kurds and Sunnis who had viewed him as a hopeless Shiite sectarian. Not coincidentally, the main Sunni party has now announced plans to rejoin the cabinet.

Second, Mr. Maliki has managed to mobilize the other Shiite parties into an anti-Mahdist bloc, demanding that Moqtada al Sadr disarm his militia if his party expects to wield political power. Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the senior Shiite cleric in Iraq, has backed that demand.

Mr. Sadr has so far refused to comply, but nor has he staged a major uprising across the country, probably because he knows it would not succeed. His plan to hold a “million man” anti-American protest in Baghdad on April 5 fizzled out at the last moment. Mr. Sadr appears increasingly isolated – as symbolized by the fact that he chooses to remain in Iran.

Finally, by exposing Iranian machinations in Basra, the recent offensive has sparked an anti-Iranian backlash even among Shiite politicians with longstanding links to Tehran. Thus a high-level Shiite delegation has gone to Iran to present the Iranian leadership with evidence of the nefarious activities of their Quds Force (as if they don’t already know!) and to demand that they knock it off.

The Iranian answer, notwithstanding some soothing words about wanting stability in Iraq, is coming in the shelling and rocketing of the Green Zone and other Iraqi and American bases. The Iranians have been providing longer-range rockets to their allies in the Special Groups and the Mahdist Army.

U.S. and Iraqi troops have been forced to push deeper into Sadr City than they have previously gone in order to take away launching sites. The Mahdists have had years to prepare defenses, and the subsequent battles account for much of the increase in casualties among Americans (and Iraqis) that have so disturbed the press.

The ongoing operations could still fail. But if they succeed, the result would be greater fracturing of the Mahdist forces and more government control of Sadr City, an area of some two million people that has been effectively run by the Sadrists since 2003.

This would represent a major achievement, because, as al Qaeda in Iraq has lost strength in the past year (thanks in large part to the surge), the Shiite extremists have become the major remaining threat. Unfortunate as the latest deaths are, they are in all likelihood a sign of things getting worse before they get better.

Something fun from one of my earlier posts:

General Franks and others have explained the MA banner, but it’s the non-sourced chopped up cut and paste from, I’m assuming a fly by nite blogsite w/o a site addy provided that we must accept as fact along with koolaid. Personally, after four kids, six grandchildren and one great grandchild, I no longer have to do koolaid, that stuff gets served at their houses, rarely.

In addition to the homeward bound traditional banner, the crew was treated to the “Mission Accomplished” banner, the President’s landing on their ship, his speech and time spent with them, they enjoyed every bit of it. They were at sea 286 days in major combat without any significant injuries, their performance was outstanding, we should all continue to be proud of what they did especially when the anniversary pops up, let’s use it to remember that crew. I’m a proud daughter, wife and mother of some outstanding sailors, the Navy will always have a soft spot in my heart and it discusts me to see out of the loop loons spitting on their homecoming.

I don’t know if anyone has seen this site, it’s a photo journey of the Lincoln, thought I’d share:

http:://www.navsource.org/archives/02/72a.htm

They also mentioned the Mission Accomplished banner in the paragraph above this explanantion of the pennant tradition:

“The homeward bound pennant is a Navy tradition, dating back to the days of sail. It is flown on the last leg of her homebound voyage by a ship that has been overseas for nine months or more, prior to arrival at the first U.S. port. The length is one foot for each person, officer or crew, who has been aboard for 9 months or more, providing the length does not exceed the ship’s length. On arrival in homeport, the pennant is cut up. The blue is presented to the captain, and the remainder is divided among the men. U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Photographer’s Mate Mahlon K. Miller. [030502-N-0226M-003].”

it also looks like the righties on this thread want to re-write history Along with president BUSH…

BDS sufferers hear what they want to hear. No matter how much you wish it to be otherwise, the fact is, the banner was suggested by the crew of the Abraham Lincoln to send a message to their families and fellow servicemen, as their carrier returned from combat operations.

As for Doug’s comment which you waved your pom-poms over, it’s just more of the glass half-empty mentality that does nothing but demoralize and act as a ball-and-chain on those who are trying to succeed in Iraq.

Here’s some other recent news to mull over:

Iraq Government Takes Control of Basra

Sadr Tells Followers to Observe Truce

Sunni Bloc Returns to Iraqi Cabinet

Enemies Become Allies at Iraq’s Camp Bucca

There’s a lot going on in Iraq, both positive and negative. The sky is not always falling; there will always be setbacks and challenges in paving the way to victories and successes.

it also looks like the righties on this thread want to re-write history Along with president BUSH…

Here is the truth:

The White House said on October 29, 2003 that it had helped with the production of a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner as a backdrop for President George W. Bush’s speech onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare combat operations over in Iraq. This file photo shows Bush delivering a speech to crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, as the carrier steamed toward San Diego, California on May 1, 2003.

A banner proclaiming “mission accomplished” on the aircraft carrier where President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq. That banner was put there by

There has been over 3,926 since Bush pulled this photo op stunt.

Then Bush stated “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended”

yeah right… we’ve all been Bushed

Yeah… that’ll work!

U.S. commanders will be relying increasingly on their Iraqi counterparts to provide security as the American presence diminishes from a peak last year of nearly 170,000 to about 140,000 by July.

… yeah –that’ll work.