On Iraq... It's Broken, You Own It

[Hissyspit]

Good thread started by Joe in DC over at Americablog. I think both articles have been posted here already, but I like the way he puts things:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/04/on-iraqits-broken-you-own-it.html


On Iraq....It's broken, you own it
by Joe in DC - 4/25/2005 09:51:00 AM

Easy to forget that about Iraq these days, and the Bush Administration would like us to forget about it...or at least think things are peachy. But two important stories on the front page of the New York Times highlight the problems:

First article is about how the White House is freaking out because there is no new government and the insurgency is becoming even more deadly:

Worried about a political deadlock in Iraq and a spike in mayhem from an emboldened insurgency, the Bush administration has pressed Iraqi leaders in recent days to end their stalemate over forming a new government, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney personally exhorting top Kurdish and Shiite politicians to come together.

The White House pressure, reported by Iraqi officials in Baghdad and an American official in Washington on Sunday, was a change in the administration's hands-off approach to Iraqi politics. The change was disclosed as insurgents unleashed a devastating technique, with twin double bombings at a police academy in Tikrit and an ice cream parlor in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad that killed 21 and wounded scores more.

In both attacks, a second bomb detonated within minutes after the first, killing and wounding policemen and bystanders who had rushed to care for victims of the initial blasts.

Second article "Marines From Iraq Sound Off About Want of Armor and Men" is a classic. U.S. Marines feel compelled to complain about the lack of armor and the deadly effect it had on them.

On May 29, 2004, a station wagon that Iraqi insurgents had packed with C-4 explosives blew up on a highway in Ramadi, killing four American marines who died for lack of a few inches of steel.

The four were returning to camp in an unarmored Humvee that their unit had rigged with scrap metal, but the makeshift shields rose only as high as their shoulders, photographs of the Humvee show, and the shrapnel from the bomb shot over the top.

"The steel was not high enough," said Staff Sgt. Jose S. Valerio, their motor transport chief, who along with the unit's commanding officers said the men would have lived had their vehicle been properly armored. "Most of the shrapnel wounds were to their heads."

- snip -

In returning home, the leaders and Marine infantrymen have chosen to break an institutional code of silence and tell their story, one they say was punctuated not only by a lack of armor, but also by a shortage of men and planning that further hampered their efforts in battle, destroyed morale and ruined the careers of some of their fiercest warriors.
Marines complaining. Practically unheard of before the presidency of George W. Bush.

Okay, I'll say it. Imagine if Clinton or any Democrat was President and this happened. Heads would roll. But for the GOP, talk about supporting the troops is cheap. When it comes to actually supporting them, the GOP doesn't go there.

Iraq is still a huge mess. Huge.

[rodeodance]

1. well, my question is-why are we throwing another 80plus BILLION at Irag?

Bush himself said that he will eliminate all programs from his budget that do not work!!
oops--forgot--gimmickery lives on--this is a supplementary bill