Bush's Shrinking Safety Zone

[Hippikos]

Instead he's taken advice from great chickenhawk patriots like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith.

The majority of the US population is against the Iraq war, are these all communists?

[tw]

From the NY Times of 20 Mar 2007:

Army Brigade Finds Itself Stretched Thin
For decades, the Army has kept a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division on round-the-clock alert, poised to respond to a crisis anywhere in 18 to 72 hours.

Today, the so-called ready brigade is no longer so ready. Its soldiers are not fully trained, much of its equipment is elsewhere, and for the past two weeks the unit has been far from the cargo aircraft it would need in an emergency.

Instead of waiting on standby, the First Brigade of the 82nd Airborne is deep in the swampy backwoods of this vast Army training installation, preparing to go to Iraq. Army officials concede that the unit is not capable of getting at least an initial force of several hundred to a war zone within 18 hours, a standard once considered inviolate.

The declining readiness of the brigade is just one measure of the toll that four years in Iraq — and more than five years in Afghanistan — have taken on the United States military. Since President Bush ordered reinforcements to Iraq and Afghanistan in January, roughly half of the Army’s 43 active-duty combat brigades are now deployed overseas, Army officials said. A brigade has about 3,500 soldiers.

George Jr’s legacy is safe. US can no longer respond to an emergency let alone fight a second war. Both were once considered essential to protect America. But George Jr is making America safer – for his legacy.

He is a classic 'big dic'. If the Army had the resources, then our 'big dic' administration would be starting another war. That is their political agenda as defined by Project for a New American Century.

A few years ago was a debate: whether US military doctrine (two simultaneous wars) still existed. George Jr so destroyed US military readiness as to quash that "2nd war" ability years ago. Of course mental midget's Rumsfeld and Cheney denied this. Well that debate is now moot. (Even US Eighth Army in Korea would have serious shortages of equipment and material ... and no backup; should you wonder why America suddenly wants to negotiate with N Korea). US military is now so massively diminished that even a Division Ready Brigade no longer exists.

A Division Ready Brigade is active for 18 weeks in Fort Bragg to deploy with only 18 hours notice out of Pope Air Force Base. Within hours of landing, they are expected to enter combat. This was once considered essential to American security. Even that ability is now gone.

What is necessary as "Mission Accomplished" continues well beyond 2010? Yes, George Jr's administration has already declared that "Mission Accomplished" will continue well beyond 2010. As George Jr said yesterday, "this war is still in the beginning phase". "Mission Accomplished". He was referring to the surge – is what we are expected to think.

How long has so much contempt existed for the American soldier? Well, remember Jessica Lynch and her 507th Maintenance Company? Did you read the entire story? George Jr's people made sure you did not. Col Teddy Spain needed all 20 MP Companies to provide escort for units such as Jessica's. Jessica’s unit was equipped and trained assuming MP assets would be provided. Administration mental midgets took away 17 of Col Spain’s 20 companies as being unnecessary. 507th had no heavy weapons training, no GPS, no radios, no night vision, and no escort. 27 of 33 soldiers were lost.

George Jr hopes you never learn why the 507th drove directly into an ambush in Nasiriyah. They were denied protection and escort that military planning deemed necessary. Protection denied on orders from George Jr's people. Orders came from that high.

Tom and Ray from NPR’s ‘Car Talk’ took a call from Baghdad. The caller was asking for a solution to Humvee bearing problems. Attached armor is destroying wheel bearings every three weeks. Humvees sent to Iraq were never capable of supporting that amour. Is this an isolated event? Of course not. "Making of a Quagmire". Change the details and Vietnam is now "Mission Accomplished". But you don’t need to know these 2005 realities.

Like a spread sheet, each lurker is just learning of “ 2005 Mission Accomplished”. How bad will "Mission Accomplished" be in late 2007? We will finally learn in 2010. Even US Eight Army in Korea is now at risk. The US military is so depleted by George Jr and his 'big dics' that America has even lost our firemen – “Division Ready Brigade”.

Same opinions today existed in 1968 after Tet. If history repeats, then 1968 to 1975 ... we will be massacring American soldiers uselessly until 2014. People were angry but did nothing more in 1968 as Nixon massacred another 30,000 Americans to protect his legacy.

3,000 dead Americans. 23,000 seriously wounded. So little money left that a soldier lying in his own urine could not have sheets for his bed. History says these are the good times; it will get worse.

History also says younger Cellar dwellers will be in my position in 30 years. Don’t forget how so few were posting realities and facts in 2002. You will need that experience in 2040 when a new generation of ‘big dics’ take power to massacre the American soldier for a political agenda – the ‘big dic’ mentality.

New wheel bearings every three weeks. About 10 hours of helicoprter maintenance for every 1 hour of flying. Don’t worry. We’re rich. And they are only soldiers – sacrificial soldiers. After all, they signed up for this. More important – protect George Jr’s legacy. Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Urbane Guerrilla will thank you.

[tw]

From the Kalleej Times in Dubai of 2 Apr 2007:

Double or quits
On March 28, the venerable Saudi monarch King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz told the Arab summit in Riyadh that the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq was illegal. The damage that this has done to America's presence in Iraq, and its credibility in the region, is immense. ...

This public snub was probably the good news. The private snub was if anything worse. King Abdullah sent his national security adviser, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, to tell President George Bush that he was a bit tied up at the moment, and therefore could not fly over for a state dinner on April 17: maybe they could do dinner another time? When your best friend is not free for dinner, it is time to look in the mirror.

The White House chose to grin and deny that any invitation had been sent, but it was impossible to deny the contents of the Abdullah speech. The State Department asked Nicholas Burns, still looking depressed after his non-talks on the nuclear deal in Delhi, to explain on television that the American presence in Iraq had UN sanction as well as the invitation of the Iraqi government. Mr Burns did not dwell on the finer points of both: that the Security Council held another view before the war began, and that the Iraqi government whose invitation he so admires did not exist then. And now comes news that young King Abdullah of Jordan has no time for dinner either. Although the Jordan monarch is so often in America that he could qualify for a frequent flyer programme were he plebeian enough to fly on a commercial liner, he too has sent word that it might be wiser to postpone a planned state visit in September. Would 2008 do?

His exact words (boldface mine) were:

In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war.

That's right. It is an occupation - not liberation. This from a closest George Jr friend?

From the Jerusalem Post of 2 Apr 2007:

Analysis: Are the Saudis seeking peace?
... if Israel thought Rice's optimistic diplomacy earlier in the week was based on some well-established US-Saudi coordination, it came as a total surprise when Jim Hoagland disclosed in The Washington Post yesterday that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah canceled a mid-April gala dinner with President George W. Bush in the White House.

Hoagland heard from administration sources that Riyadh had decided for now to seek common ground with Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah. It now becomes understandable why the Saudis chose to strengthen Hamas, with the Mecca Agreement, at the expense of Mahmoud Abbas, who just became politically even more sidelined.

If Saudi Arabia has decided to distance itself from the US at this time, then how could Washington expect that now the time was ripe for a Saudi-Israeli rapprochement under an American umbrella?

... What is shaping Saudi Arabia's new diplomatic activism is the rapidly expanding Iranian threat and the weakness of the Western response.

Clear is an entire region rejecting (apparently as irrelevant) George Jr and his wacko extremists. Jordan and Saudi Arabia, considered America's closest Arab allies, have literally backhandedly slapped George Jr's face - and done so publicly so that you know it. Kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan both cancel dinners? No way around it. That is a direct snub of the scumbag president who has zero credibility in the world.

But it gets worse. Up in Poland, a very pro-American defense minister Radek Sikorski has lost his job. From the Economist of 31 Mar 2007:

Iraq explains why 51% of Poles opposed the missile-defence plan in one recent survey, says Radek Silorksi, an Atlanticist Pole who recently lost his job as defense minister amid a row over hot exactly to negotiate with the United States over missile defences.

... says Mr Sikorski: "This is blowback from Iraq. We used to take things on trust from the United States in the security field" - but that is no longer the case.

George Jr policy was to 'not do as Clinton'. Clinton's Arab/Israeli shuttle diplomacy, et al were condemned, as George Jr people repeatedly said, because Clinton did it. Suddenly Rice is trying to rescue concepts once called the Oslo Accords by doing what? Shuttle diplomacy. Suddenly talks with N Korea are being conducted just as Clinton did ten years earlier - a new treaty almost exactly like one originally negotiated by Carter and vocally rejected by neocons from Project for a New American Century. Suddenly what Clinton was doing is now acceptable?

Too little too late. From the Associated Press of 1 Apr 2007:

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, will convey a message to Syria from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, that Israel is interested in peace if Damascus stops supporting terrorism, an Israeli official said Sunday.

Pelosi met Olmert Sunday during the Israel part of her Mideast tour, which has drawn
criticism from the White House because of her planned stop in Syria.

"Pelosi is conveying that Israel is willing to talk if they (Syria) would openly take steps to stop supporting terrorism," Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

Why is Pelosi doing Shuttle diplomacy? Israel also has little faith in what Rice had to say. The region was ripe for peace when 'big dics' decided to fix things with preemption. Never forget what a Norwegian foreign minister predicted in the first months of the George Jr administration: George Jr would undermine the Oslo Accords. And, of course, that is exactly what the mental midget did.

Why use Pelosi as the negotiator? She is the closest thing Israel can find to an American honest broker; someone who wants peace? Why couldn't Olmert have done same with Condi Rice who was just there last week? George Jr would not know peace if it bit him in the nose he once used for cocaine.

What is the White House response? White House mental midgets tell Pelosi to not convey any message from Israel to Syria. Why is the White House so fearful of peace?

Do not expect anything good to come of events here. A message about 'stopping terrorism' is only a message of 'maybe we can talk'. Nothing more. But the backhanded face slaps of George Jr by Arab leaders is long overdue. Both King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah II of Jordan canceled visits with one of America's greatest 'worst president'.

Meanwhile, 15 British hostages are now caught up in America's 'big dic' threats - war games conducted in the Persian Gulf off Iran's coast. As Martha Raddatz of ABC News noted:

U.S. naval officials in Bahrain told ABC News that the operation was hastily planned after the 15 Britons were seized Friday, yet the Bush administration would not say publicly that this is the case.

Military operations intentionally created upon White House orders - as if a classic 'big dic' response would solve anything. Military threats made it more difficult for moderate Iranians to gain the upper hand and end an undesirable hostage standoff.

What has now arrived in the Gulf? More US Navy ships including aircraft carriers USS Bataan (of New Orleans / Katrina fame) and her sister ship USS Boxer. Why Marine assault ships and so many mine sweepers? 'Big dic' neocons believe in preemption rather than intelligent negotiation. Even Poland - once most trusting and supportive of any thing American now say Americans cannot be trusted. But you cannot tell that even to 'big dic' advocates in the Cellar. Their response is akin to something about jealousy of Americans or some hidden agenda. The only thing hidden is intelligence among George Jr supporters. When only Pelosi is trusted enough to deliver a message? When even Kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia are *publicly* too busy for a state dinner?