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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, December 28, 2006

It's not a goddamned term paper

This, I think, says it all.
President Bush worked nearly three hours at his Texas ranch on Thursday to design a new U.S. policy in Iraq, then emerged to say that he and his advisers need more time to craft the plan he'll announce in the new year.

Wow. "Nearly three hours."

It's alright Mr. Bush, no hurry. It's not like this is a matter of life and death. Oh, wait! It is.
The U.S. military announced five more American troop deaths: four soldiers hit by roadside bombs on patrol and a Marine killed in combat in volatile western Iraq. That raises U.S. troop deaths this month to 100, second only to the 105 service members who died in October.


(AP) Bush plans to return to Washington on Jan. 1.

posted by mikevotes at 9:00 PM

5 Comments:

  • A) Why weren't you constantly trying to improve your Iraq war strategy? Why is there suddenly an urgency to become educated about the situation?

    B) Given that more and more Americans die each day in Iraq under your current strategy, that you admit is not the best strategy, and given you have on your desk a plan developed my a group of people who spent many months dedicated to understanding the issues in Iraq and how best to proceed, why are you still undecided on a what to do?

    C) Is your sudden interest in finding a new strategy for Iraq just another exercise in "fixing the fact" to fit a decision you've already made, as was the case in the run up to the war in the first place, as documented by the British?

    By Blogger -epm, at 9:28 PM  

  • Right, let me add,

    Around the Rumsfeld resignation, you said that you hadn't wanted to make any changes to personnel or policy because you were afraid those changes would become part of the political campaign.

    But why did you wait until after the election to have your staff begin drawing up internal options? And why did it take a month for you to get together your "listening" tour?

    This current delay rests upon what appears to be an election day start to this process, of you are so aware of the "challenges" of Iraq, why were the pieces of the process not ready to go on election day?

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:34 PM  

  • At this rate, we pass the 3,000 casualty mark tomorrow or Saturday and December will be the month with the highest casualties in all of 2006. That's a bad way to end the year and it sure doesn't bode well for when Bush sends in the 17,000-20,000 additional troops to police the civil war.

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 10:37 PM  

  • 3 hours! Wow!

    I've spent longer on a blog post.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 2:05 AM  

  • Reality, Let me add that if the plan is simply to put more personnel into the same "Forward Together" tactics, it will only lead to more casualties.

    Praguetwin, I'm just struck how the "it'll be ready soon" mantra is not being derided as Bush spends his holiday atthe ranch while more soldiers die.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 8:48 AM  

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