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Originally posted by min_mouse152
But your right. I'm glad someone else is praying for a safe return of our soldiers.

And therein lies the heart and purpose of the original post. There is 'no' plan that will bring them home. There is opposition to every plan presented by the world (UN) to solve the problem. There is no US exit strategy. As the commander of the 101st noted, there is not even representation by the Bremmer committee outside of Baghdad - how many months later? No plan. No civilian government. Just a Baghdad bureacracy.

There is no plan for an Iraqi government. There is no trust in the people who knew how to make Saddam's Iraq work (even WWII allies trusted Nazis party members to get the phones and electricity working again). There was a vast mismanagement when the first months were so important.

The honeymoon is over folks. We did not get the electricty on and did not get the government going. Now it is the turn of terrorists - better known as religious liberators. We had our chance to earn their trust. Now we have a simmering pot. Now we have occupied a country with no exit strategy and still no long term plan to get the country running itself. Every terrorist bomb will now be blamed on the Americans - because the honeymoon is over. That is how nation building works (something that George Jr does not believe in).

Those aluminum tubes are 'posterboy' important because of the source who provided that information. Eliminate those same spin doctor news sources that also promoted the aluminum tubes, and we don't have a good situation. Instead, we have a very volatile situation that could go either way. Some here still post what those spin doctors say. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice....?"

If one thinks repeated references to those aluminum tubes are being bitchy, then they miss the point. Those aluminum tubes were promoted by the same spin doctors that say all is proceding well in Iraq. Eliminate the propaganda, and what is left is a program for Iraq that is stumbling; lacks direction; failed to recruit (or trust) Iraqis; should have maintained, retrained, and utilized Iraq's army; still has no plans for a civilian government, does not have a solution even to the massive, unprotected sources of ammunition spread all over the country; and cannot even find Saddam!

American popularity is not just falling all over the world. Popluarity is probably at the best it is ever going to be in Iraq - if things keep being this volatile. And we have yet to see Shites join the fray. Terroism south of Baghdad will mean things have gone real bad. Therein lies a benchmark. Where terrorist strike is another measure of how good or bad things have become.

"Joe number one". That was what the president's loyalist would have us believe during VietNam. After all, that is what the little kids were saying - just before they grew up and joined the VietCong. Its called propaganda. Better measure of American popularity is found in what reporters confront in the streets. And they are saying security is faltering through central Iraq.

A plan is needed. That means the micro-management George Jr administration must conceded power to the world. It is the exit strategy to get out of this quagmire since this administrtion has no long term plan, no exit strategy, and will not even admit the mess they got us into.

If one believes Iraq had aluminum tubes, then one should be questioning their sources - those spin doctors. Those same people are the only ones saying everything in Iraq is going just fine - according to plan. What plan? Others are reporting a situation that is not getting better and not getting worse. This is bad news for a nation builder.

What plan? What timetable? That is what reporters asked today in the Rose Garden. The best they could get from George Jr was that he would not answer that second question because it was a trick question. We have neither a plan, nor a timetable, nor an exit strategy. We have a quagmire that could go either way. And those bombings only make things worse - for George Jr's Americans.

What are reporters in the street being told? Under Saddam, the electricity was restored in one month; not six. Under Saddam, there were no terrorist bombings.