Bush: "The surge is one of the greatest successes in the history of the U.S. military,"

[ProSense]

Bush on farewell visit to Iraq dodges flying shoes

By Matt Spetalnick Matt Spetalnick – Sun Dec 14, 4:26 pm ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – An Iraqi reporter called President George W. Bush a "dog" and threw his shoes at him on Sunday, sullying a farewell visit to Baghdad meant to mark greater security in Iraq after years of bloodshed.

Just weeks before he bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President-elect Barack Obama, Bush sought to underline improved security by landing in daylight and venturing out beyond the city's heavily fortified international Green Zone.

He declared the war "not over" despite recent gains.

In a sign of lingering anger over the war that will define the Republican president's foreign policy legacy, an Iraqi journalist shouted in Arabic "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," and hurled his shoes at Bush during a news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Throwing shoes at somebody is a supreme insult in the Middle East. One of the shoes sailed over the president's head and slammed into the wall behind him and he had to duck to miss the other one. Maliki tried to block the second shoe with his arm.

<...>

"The surge is one of the greatest successes in the history of the U.S. military," Bush said, referring to the decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq last year.

link

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,209

By The Associated Press The Associated Press

As of Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, at least 4,209 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,397 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is two fewer than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.

The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.

Video: President Bush Attacked By Shoes

[w4rma]

1. The little man lives in his own bubble of reality seperate from everyone. (nt)

[MichiganVote]

2. Delusional as usual.

[Orsino]

22. Not delusional--just a goddamned liar.

One who knows his whoppers won't be challenged by Congress or tame media.

[peace frog]

28. Stop, you're both right

Two - two - two quirks in one! He's delusional and a goddamn liar, and a whole host of additional epithets we've catalogued over the years.

[Orsino]

33. Well, to consider him delusional...

...I'd have to believe that he ever meant anything he's said to us.

I don't think he's really delusional--he just needs us to be, for just long enough to pack the getaway limo. He is extremely well insulated, though, and it could be that he's begun to believe some of his own bullshit.

[peace frog]

35. Ditto that last

I think he does believe his own BS.

[MichiganVote]

39. He means everything he says to himself. Belief in anything is for the little people like you and me.

[MichiganVote]

38. He's an asshole too and that's worse than being just a liar.

[Deep13]

3. It's much better than D-Day or the preservation of the Union.

:eyes:

[Condem]

12. Blows Gettysburg away, Deep.

The Bulge. The Chosin Resevoir. Khe San. Name it.

[Botany]

13. Midway ... the Battle of the Argone .... Bunker Hill ..... Battle of the Bulge ....

.... Washington Crossing the Delaware ..... Coral Sea ..... Yipes ..... Battle of Lake Erie .....

bush is a screaming idiot

BTW if the Surge was a success why did he have to sneak into Iraq?

[Condem]

15. Chancellorsville.. Princeton..Saratoga.. The Somme...

Yes he is, Botany. Almost a month. That's all that remains of this utter horseshit. BTW- grew up in Washington's Crossing, PA.

[Botany]

16. As the proud son of retired professor who has two hearing aids

from being in combat in Korea .... 5" guns ... he was a naval officer ....
off the west coast of N. Korea ... Yellow Sea .. and me being a history buff the utter
lack of knowledge by bush is overwhelming.

That idiot has lost two wars ... both Iraq (we can win every battle but never win the
war .... occupations don't work) and Afghanistan (70% under Taliban control now)

[Window]

4. If he said the following, he's lucky there were only shoes thrown at him dumb ass.

"The surge is one of the greatest successes in the history of the U.S. military," Bush said, referring to the decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq last year.

[ProSense]

7. Yup.

I see the shoes being hurled at him as a important moment: he and the world are left with the indelible image of how much Bush is hated by many in Iraq. After the death and devastation that Bush has unleashed in Iraq, a pair of shoes is a mild indictment for his war crimes.

[ddeclue]

5. Talking about a total whitewash of history!!!

I'm offended...

Does he really think this is more than victories at Saratoga, Cowpens or Yorktown in the Revolutionary War?

Does he really think this is more than the victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans?

Does he really think this is more than July 4th 1863? Victories at Gettysberg AND Vicksberg on the same day that saved the Union?

:eyes:

D-Day Landings that actually succeeded in not being pushed back into the sea???

The Battle of the Bulge???

:eyes:

The Landing at Inchon that sent the North Koreans into a headlong retreat back north of the 38th parallel and all the way back to the Chinese border which ended the possibility of UN forces being pushed into the sea.

:eyes:

I'm offended at someone who is either SO ignorant of American military history or intentionally slanders it so.

[ddeclue]

6. NOW we know WHY they shoes got thrown....

:eyes:

[DavidDvorkin]

8. And he knows, because he's been to war

"I've been to war, and I've raised twins," or however he put it.

[WeDidIt]

9. The GREATEST Success of the US Miitary was Operation Overlord

There are literally thousands of more successful US military campaigns than the "surge". Hell, Pearl Harbor was probably more successful.

The surge was a failure. Had it succeeded, the IRaqis would be 100% in control of their own security. That was the purpose of the surge. That didn't happen. The surge failed.

[gravity]

10. After four years of complete failure

He finally got something right.

If only he had listened to the generals and experts before we got into this war.

[ProSense]

11. If only his criminal a** hadn't launched an illegal war.

The surge is a success is BS spin. I wish someone would throw the book at Bush via the Hague.

[ladjf]

14. Bush continues to stun me by has brazen dishonesty. nt

[2Design]

17. would not need a surge if you weren't there to start with - Bush stirred up a hornets nest and then

wants credit for controlling hornets - bs

[chrisa]

18. Head in the clouds.

Air is getting scarce up here.

[LynnTheDem]

19. Wowzah...

:wow:

That's one of his biggest lies yet.

I mean, just :wow:

[MrSlayer]

20. Yes, it's right up there with Washington's Crossing and Sherman's March.

And well, D-Day pales in comparison. Bush will never get it.

[Political Tiger]

21. If Iraq/the surge is such a great sucess...

why did Dumbya have to sneak into Iraq??

[Doremus]

23. That and the bribes. n/t

[zulchzulu]

24. We will be greeted with Iraqis throwing their shoes at us

I wonder if Custer was have bragged about his last battle.

[Mike Daniels]

25. Never mind that little skirmish where we took on the greatest military of the 18th century

But then since the Revolutionary War wasn't about Bush's legacy I guess it's just a blip on the timeline of history.

Granted, we had some help but still...

[ProSense]

26. If you haven't seen this thread

Shoes, by Hissyspit, check it out.

[kentuck]

27. Then why do we have 140,000 troops still there ??

And why does the next guy have to clean up the mess? If the situation is so good, why did the General on the ground say that troops would be needed in the cities after the proposed deadline. I think we have a lot of wishful thinking by the soon-to-be ex-president.

[old mark]

29. Greatest success? Right,George and drug use is down, too...

who tells him shit like this?

Just pack your stuff and go home, George.
You have a nice new house to go to - go now.

mark

[11 Bravo]

30. Sounds like Chucklenuts is gearing up for another "Mission Accomplished" photo op.

[Jennicut]

31. That the surge in troops led to less Iraqi violence is a lie

Per an article on the so called "surge":

What actually seems to have happened, he (Juan Cole, the respected Middle East expert) wrote in the summer of 2008, was that, first, the Sunni Arabs in Baghdad were disarmed by the escalation troops. Then, "once these Sunnis were left helpless, the Shiite militias came in at night and ethnically cleansed them."

Mixed neighborhoods in Baghdad ended up with almost no Sunnis. In 2007 Baghdad went from being predominantly Sunni to being overwhelmingly Shiite. According to Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress, Baghdad, once having a 65 percent Sunni majority, "is now 75 percent Shia."

"My thesis," wrote Cole, "would be that the U.S. inadvertently allowed the chasing of hundreds of thousands of Sunni Arabs out of Baghdad (and many of them had to go all the way to Syria for refuge). Rates of violence declined once the ethnic cleansing was far advanced, just because there were fewer mixed neighborhoods."

Cole's thesis has received important confirmation. According to Bob Woodward, in his new book The War Within (Simon & Schuster, 2008), the biggest factor behind the reduced violence in Iraq was "very possibly" not the Surge, but a resort to Death Squads. A "Top Secret" memo viewed by Woodward indicates that the Sunnis were systematically targeted and assassinated. What took place was reminiscent of the infamous Phoenix Program instituted by the U.S. in Vietnam. It was a strategy of summary executions.

Yet another confirmation appeared in a recent study conducted by scientists at the University of California. Based on an examination of satellite photos across Baghdad, the study observed that Sunni neighborhoods, which showed a dramatic decrease of nighttime light in Sunni neighborhoods, had been abandoned by their inhabitants. The surge, the study concluded, "has had no observable effect." The study attributed the tremendous decline in Baghdad's Sunni population to relocations and ethnic cleansing.

Tom Hayden raises some disturbing questions. "Why were the targets killed instead of being detained? How many targeted individuals were killed or made to disappear? . . . How are the operations consistent with US constitutional law and international human rights standards?" Why has thee been no congressional investigation?

According to UN reports, the number of Iraqi refugees has spiked during the Surge. Between 2.5 and 4 million are now estimated to exist outside their country, while another 2.5 are internal refugees. At least 2 million Sunni refugees cannot return to their homes without fear of being slaughtered.

People's lives remain shattered. One in four has had a family member who was murdered. "The humanitarian situation in most of the country remains among the most critical in the world," according to the Iraqi Red Cross/Red Crescent. Iraq's health care system is "now in worse shape than ever."

Unemployment remains high, sanitation and electrical facilities remain degraded, families use up to a third of their monthly income to buy drinking water. Tens of thousands are being held in detention camps. According to the UN, "the detention of children in adult detention centers violates U.S. obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as accepted international human rights norms." (AP, May 19, 2008)

Resorting to Death Squads, while ignoring the humanitarian crisis and touting the Surge, seems to offer yet another instance of Solzenitsyn's bleak prognosis that violence seeks refuge in falsehood.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/23-3 Did the Iraq Surge Work?



Disgusting lies. It was essentially death squads against Sunnis that drove them back away from the Shiites. Lies.

[Liberal_Dog]

32. Then Why Does Bu$h Keep Pulling These "Surprise" Visits To Iraq?

If things are so good over there, then Bu$h should announce his visit and stay there for more than just a few hours.

[harun]

34. Greatest disinformation success, yes. Miltarily..... give me a break.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

36. And I'm sure he knows this because of all that extensive reading he's done throughout the years.

:eyes:

[and-justice-for-all]

37. Calling shurb a dog is an insult to dogs everywhere...

dogs are loyal companions whereas shrub is not.