A SOLDIER'S PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB'S LEADING MILITARY BLOG SINCE 2004
I’m pretty fed up with Reid’s stupidity. He’s an idiot. Any time he’s able to get his mug in front of cameras these days he takes pot shots at President Bush.
“He went in the opposite direction — and he went alone — by ordering his troop surge — a plan that ignored the advice of the Iraq Study Group, ignored the will of the people, and dismissed the advice of many of his own generals.”
Allow me to enlighten you and the American people since the press doesn’t know how to report facts:
Iraq Study Group Report: “We could, however, support a short-term redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize Baghdad, or to speed up the training and equipping mission, if the U.S. commander in Iraq determines that such steps would be effective.” (“The Iraq Study Group Report,” 2006)
Not only is Reid wrong about Bush ignoring the Iraq Study Group, he’s ignoring the fact that HE is ignoring the Iraq Study Group:
Iraq Study Group Co-Chair James A. Baker, III: “Setting a deadline for withdrawal regardless of conditions in Iraq makes even less sense today because there is evidence that the temporary surge is reducing the level of violence in Baghdad. As Baghdad goes, so goes Iraq. The Iraq Study Group said it could support a short-term surge to stabilize Baghdad or to speed up training and equipping of Iraqi soldiers if the U.S. commander in Iraq determines such steps would be effective. Gen. David Petraeus has so determined.” (James A. Baker, III, Op-Ed, “A Path to Common Ground,” The Washington Post, 4/5/07)
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I am posting this in case someone by the name of susan just goes to th
Kari
Excellent job, CJ! Unfortunately, the hipocrisy seems to be a never ending river that Sen Reid and others drink from. They probably have it bottled and distributed – no one like to travel alone!
CriticalFacts
Reid may well be an idiot, but he has enormous support behind his positions. The irony here is, of course, that President Bush is equally an idiot, but his support is dwindling, not growing like Reid’s.
Tracy
I’m no expert when it comes to military strategy but even I can see it’s a really bad idea to say to our enemies, “Hey, if you just hang in there for another 18 months, then we’ll be out of your way.”
and CF, just because someone has support behind them does not mean they are right.
CJ
Tracy, just think a little about what CF/Sharon/Richard said: “Reid may be an idiot, but he has enormous support behind his positions.” Then he says that Reid’s support is growing. So, who’s the bigger idiot? The idiot Reid or his followers?
CriticalFacts
Guess there are lots of idiots in this country.
CJ
That there are…that there are.
sue
I say Reid should go for it!! He has a really big shovel and he can dig a real deep hole with it. And I do agree with you CJ, THAT there CERTAINLY are.
Tracy
Good point CJ, Good point.
MissBirdlegs
Reid is ignoring anything that has to do with reality or the good of the country. He’s so focused on the politics that he seems to see nothing else. If the people in this country can’t see through him, we’re in deep trouble!
CJ
Reid is ignoring himself!! He doesn’t know what to think unless it makes the President look bad. Then he trips all over himself to beat Pelosi to the punch line, even if it means he contradicts himself.
Tracy
There is an interview with Reid (I think I saw it posted on Hot Air) where the interviewer asks him if he’ll believe Gen. Petraeus if he says good is coming out of Iraq. Reid actually says “no”!! That is just beyond comprehension. Talk about having blinders on.
Terri
Unfortuantely I’ve come to the conclusion that’s all the anti-war group in DC care about is the fact that it’s in opposition to the President. They’re hatred is so consuming of them, that they don’t think what the best strategy would be for the folks that this would affect the most, OUR TROOPS. Of course I’ve also come to the conclusion that they really don’t care about anyone but themselves.
Donna
I too am sick of seeing Harry Reid on tv spouting off about President Bush and that we are losing in Iraq! That just makes our country look weak and the terrorists are having a good time with this I’m sure. They are just waiting til they see that we are going to leave Iraq and then look out! I would rather have our troops fight them over there than on our soil which would be alot worse!
Be quiet Harry Reid, you are making our country look like weak nincompoops?!
Terri
All I can say is that his continually running his mouth does nothing but show the weakness of his character. I’m just darn glad that his character doesn’t define the men and women in the miltary.
CriticalFacts
Speaking of character, this is what Reid had to say about Cheney on 4/23:
“I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody [Cheney] who has a 9 percent approval rating.”
Remember Cheney, the one who said we would be greeted as liberators with roses thrown at the feet of our soldiers? The gig is up, folks, bring em home!
sealpatriot
Reed just really irritates me more than anybody in the planet right now. He needs to learn that any failure in Iraq is on his behalf and his responsibility to clean up not the president’s. Also, since when in the hell is it the president’s responsibility to clean up Congress’ FUBARs like Iraq? No wonder nobody in Congress has a growing apporval rating, or anybody in our government for a matter of fact. I understand that having a lot of people behind you doesn’t prove anything. If it did, then we can’t blame anybody in the government for the issues that Iraq faces given that we are only there because it was a “POPULAR” position to go and remove Saddam from power, and then we try to clean up the guilt by lying to ourselves into thinking that we were the ones who were lied to. Reid is the Senate Majority Leader and Pelosi is the House Speaker, they are the most powerful people in the most powerful branch in our government. They have a great and massive asrenal of powers, both enumerated in the constitution and not stated within the constitution. Only they can make wars, regulate the military both land and clandestine during peace and war, assign economic support to foreign nations, and do diplomacy (can anybody else make a peace treaty?, NO). Reid is among the people who should be doing the majority of these duties given his seniority and elevation in power. if he needs to complain about any of these failures involving Iraq’s present state, then he should looking at the colleagues that he micromanages with an Iron Fist, not trying to level upsmanship with those who don’t agree with him by making insulting remarks. I have seen mistakes on everbody’s part when it comes to our government and it’s history, and what’s so great about this country is that it allows for improvement on behalf of those mistakes. This mindset is built on an ideology that stems from our p values of life and freedom. However, those days are gone, and people are deplored for mistakes rather than helped to correct them. Bush has taken large quatities of advice from both his supporters and his critics, even the harshest of ones. He was told what Iraq needed to become strong, and he formulated the 8 pillars for victory in Iraq, more than 32 pages of ideas that would work to improve Iraq’s stability in the world, and it was open for improvement, but like I have said before, this plan may be the best recently involving Operation Iraqi Freedom but it wasn’t even given a chance. This alone is proof that Bush didn’t go into Iraq unilaterally, for he went in with permission of Congress, and the little or no opposition from the international community because whether or not our case to fight and remove Hussein and his regime was perfect, it was at least done with more credability than that of our opposition. It was also done with international help in collaboration with a non-partisan Congress. Will someone here please tell me how is it that 32 pages open for mending, and constructive criticism that possibly be our key to helping Iraq grow, go unsuprassed by a legislation that claims to be working on a way to get our troops home safely while making Iraq a success? Of course, nobody in Congress wants to give up the publicity that comes with OIF, right? They don’t want Iraq to be successful, because if it does, they lose power, money, and everything. Maybe their seat of power in Congress as well. Besides, roses being thrown at the troops feet is an understatement for how many Iraqis treat our men and women in uniform. Soldiers get meals cooked for them, intel to stop baddies despite the fact that terrorists pay civilians to stay quiet and threaten harm to them if they speak, and help us by fighting the enemy with us or by letting troops into their houses for safety until reinforcements arrive. When it comes to that last one, soldiers don’t always break into houses unless they have reasonable knowledge to hostile activity causing them to have to sustain the element of surprise which is what cops do here in the U.S. At the same time, the bombings that kill hundreds are pretty rare compared to gunfights nowadays, versus what was happening in circa 2004 where bombs were a slight majority of the attacks. In fact, there is no tangible proof that the bombings in Iraq are Bush our the troops’ fault, we aren’t the ones bombing them, unlike what some sources are saying. Bombs from our troops are rare, so are break ins to stops terror activity. These kinds of actions aren’t uncommon in the tactics of our enemies though. We specialize in beating people like this when it comes to morals and warfare, and our cause isn’t lost. I don’t like constantly disproving a fallacy, it gets tiring after a while. If there is anything that is FUBAR in this country right now, its how falsehoods like this are always brought up in political conversations with little regard to those who have disproved the premise of this statement.
sue
Great post Ryan! Well said. CF, talk about the real ones who name call in Washington. How about expanding the statement to include how Harry Reid did actually name call himself. The words did come out of old Harry’s mouth.
Perhaps you would also like to explain to us all why the Democrats who have all the answers according to them and support our troops, are not even attending the meetings with General Petraeus? How can they possibly be supporting the troops if they won’t even listen to anything the man in charge of it all has to say?? HMMMM???
But you do have all the answers now don’t you. Don’t tell me, let me guess, your answer to this one is to leave. Cut and run seems to be your pat answer.
CriticalFacts
Sue, Sue, Sue… Get your facts straight, please!
General Petraeus met on April 25, 2007 with both Democrats and Republicans.
HMMMMM???
sue
Why don’t you just grow up Richard. You aren’t fooling any one and you certainly aren’t impressing any one. You are the one who doesn’t have their facts straight. When you decide to join the real world and not wallow in the fantasy land over there, maybe you will get it. But for now, we all know you are quite comfortable with your head in its current position.
sealpatriot
CF, honestly I think the only democrats that listened to General Petraeus were the moderate ones, not the liberal ones. Seriously, Idon’t think they are willing to listen.
VOK
I would like to know what the definition of “win” or “lose” in this particular situatation is supposed to be. This operation started with two clear goals. First, to eliminate the threat Saddam Hussein and his WMD posed to the United States. Second, to turn Iraq into a stable and peaceable democratic ally of the United States.
The first has been accomplished, so that is a win, although perhaps it maybe wasn’t too great a threat in the first place we found, and has unleashed new threats that may be worse.
The second? Well, that clearly isn’t done yet. I think you can pretty strongly argue that we are no closer to such an outcome today than we were four years ago, perhaps even farther away. At this point, nearly all of the educated and skilled class has left or is leaving what is bordering on a failed state. Iraqi support for attacks on coalition forces is at an all time high over 50%. Word comes today that the Iraqi parlaiment, such as it is, will be “taking the summer off.” We are left with our fingers in the dike, trying to mitigate disaster. We accomplish great things everyday, but our accomplishments are in this vein– mitigation of a disaster and successes with no final vision. While Reid’s words are essentially meaningless politicizing to me, I don’t even understand the vision of those still calling for a “win,” or wanting to call pullback a “surrender.” Win and lose have no meaning here in the context of the original mission. The questions we now face are entirely different and even more pressing than the questions of 2003.
Whether it ever could have been “won” is an open question. Perhaps if civilians hadn’t overruled military men at the beginning of the war and sent sufficient numbers to control the country, things could have been different. At every step the administration has not listened to the existing military, but installed people who will say what they already believe. To even pretend now the original mission can still be accomplished just seems like denial and delay to me. We need to recognize this and then honestly ask what the next best step is. “We lost, run away!” is a very bad approach. But “We still might win somehow, let’s keep going!” isn’t any better.
Constantly redefining the mission to avoid recognizing reality and taking responsibility is the worst possible approach, and I fear it is where the administration is headed– with help from opposition democrats who themselves take no responsibility. Anyone who casts this in 2003 win-lose terms is IMO only playing political games, while the damage mounts.
CJ
We’re not constantly redefining the mission. Al Qaeda is. And we’ll continue to adapt our efforts to theirs.
Miriam
VOK, if all the news you’ve heard is that the Iraqi government has failed and that all the military is doing is mitigating disaster, then you are listening to the wrong news. The reason the war in Iraq looks like it does is that we are dealing with Islam (and all it’s irrationalities) here and because the war in Iraq is not isolated. Only the boots on the ground (or perhaps God) could tell you how many of the insurgents we are fighting are actually Iraqi.