Turning The Tide?
By Mitch Berg
Another Democrat joins John Murtha in abandoning the…er, John Murtha anti-war slag. It’s North Dakota’s Earl Pomeroy, and he agrees:
Pomeroy says the incidence of roadside bombings and other violence is down because Iraqis are taking a more vigorous part in attacking factions that are causing violence in the nation.
The congressman says his visit proved to him that General David Patraeus, who is in charge of American forces in Iraq, has done an extraordinary job…
(Rep. Earl Pomeroy, -D- ND) “I think he i incorporating four years of lessons learned from mistakes made in a dramatically improved US performance. We have had outstanding performance by our soldiers all along, but the plan has not always been one that has been very well equipped to meet the unfolding circumstance in Iraq. I think now we’re on the right track in Iraq thanks to the leadership of General Patraeus.”
Which is something conservatives – myself included – can agaree on wholeheartedly.
Further proof that North Dakota natives are smarter.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
If Iraq moves from hi-boil to gentle simmer the D’s will likely argue that this is the result of putting in more troops. This seems counter-intuitive because they’ve being calling all along for a reduction in the number of US soldiers in Iraq and fought the surge every step of the way.
Nevertheless influential military and non-military types have written that the initial invasion and occupying force was too small for the job. By calling attention to these statements the D’s can push the ‘incompetent’ narrative and the media will repeat it until it becomes common wisdom.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Not sure this could have been more blandly worded.
Patraeus is and was smarter than the average General, he complained about the contempt of the Army Brass and the Pentagon, and of the cavellier conduct of troops in Baghdad, and you neo-cons called people who said things like him, “Kooks” and “people who wanted to offer terrorist therapy.”
You changed your tune ONLY when you lost an election – not becuase of lessons learned, or any other such nonsense, and then Bush installed Patraeus, and you started doing what you should have done all along, but didn’t due to your ignorance and contempt – and infinite ethno-centrism.
Now, you want to claim credit for Patraeus – well, you don’t get to. YOU said nothing was wrong, year in and year out. You didn’t say the plans were poorly executed, the CPA corrupt, Gen’s Odierno or Franks inept, you didn’t call for change, you didn’t demand improvements, you REFUSED to hold Bush to any level of accountability. But now, now? we’re supposed to think it was in your plans all along to ‘learn from experience’, what experience are you suggesting, that you shouldn’t have been inept, incompetent and criminal, well then YES I AGREE you shouldn’t have, and I’m real glad you have ‘learned’ that such incompetence born of contempt doesn’t work. Put whatever flowers on the pig you want about your disasterous handling for four years of the situation in Iraq, Patraeus’ success only serves to underscore how easily you SHOULD have been able to handle this – it didn’t take four years of ‘hard work’ to get to this point, it took ONE YEAR of competence to overcome your infinite list of colossal screw-ups – and you can dress up that pig however you like, but you messed up for four years, and Patraeus doesn’t make your pig smell any better, it’s still your pig.
War, leading it, isn’t an OJT position, you needed to be competent going in, and you weren’t, and it cost us dearly – all of us.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
See what I mean?
December 7th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
LOL!
December 7th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
“Now, you want to claim credit for Patraeus – well, you don’t get to. ”
You called him a liar and a traitor. Do you claim credit?
December 7th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
You called him a liar and a traitor. Do you claim credit?
Had the Dems not explicitly filled that (purported) vacuum by throwing Petraeus under the bus in his September hearings and MoveOn.org’s loathsome propaganda campaign, you might have had a point.
But they did. And in so doing they ceded the high ground to those who’d supported the General all along.
No rational person argues that mistakes weren’t made. But the Dems’ responses to those mistakes was uniformly wrong at best, depraved at worst.
December 7th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Doh. that last comment looked like I was contravening MoN. It was, in fact, addressed to Peev.
December 7th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Mitch reported: “throwing Petraeus under the bus”
Shudder. Can you believe they asked him…*questions*?
December 7th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
“Betray Us”.
December 7th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Oops.
“Betray Us”.
Dingy Harry declaring failure even before the General got on his plane in Baghdad.
The questions were the least of the problems, Clown; the General beat Reid like a baby seal.
December 7th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
You’re gonna make me cry!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiuRhy4CqzU
December 7th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Wow, Clown, you’re really off your game today. I hope you come back after the weekend refreshed and ready to offer up far better quality snark than I’ve seen out of you today. You’ve been chock full of FAIL since this morning.
December 7th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
“You changed your tune ONLY when you lost an election – not becuase of lessons learned, or any other such nonsense, and then Bush installed Patraeus, and you started doing what you should have done all along”
I’m not sure who peev is addressing with his references to ‘you’, but in any case he has made a decent point here — though probably by accident.
It’s more accurate to say that Bush took Rumsfield’s resignation and appointed Gates in his place. Rummy seemed to believe that the occupation and stabilization of Iraq was a military problem. Gates sees the problem as having a political solution. Hence the replacement of Casey with Petraeus.
BTW, Casey’s highest priority was training Iraqi forces so they could take over security and we could leave. Petraeus’ priority is political stabilization. Armchair generals, of course, have their own strategies.
December 7th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Oh dear, one of the indistinguishable Mitchketeers professes to be underwhelmed by Angryclown’s output today. And parroting the “FAIL” meme that Mitch gave such a strenuous workout a week or two ago.
True artists are never appreciated during their lifetimes. I will carry the bitter disappointment of your disapproval with me until…
Who are you again?
December 7th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
That you don’t know the actual origins of the FAIL meme, AC, tells me you also FAIL at being online in general.
December 7th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
AC never claimed that MB originated the meme, only that he beat it into the ground. That you didn’t pick up on that, Yossarian, tells me that you FAIL at basic reading comprehension.
December 7th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Hey, AC’s got a baby ac. That’s so cute.
December 7th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Cute like a baby rat . . .
December 8th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Tim, that you also don’t know where FAIL originated, and that you don’t know where it still lives alive and well on one of the most popular Internet forums in existence (not beat into the ground), tells me you’re as much of an online ignoramus as AC. My reading comprehension is fine, or nearly a decade of being an editor and writer for newspapers, magazines and technical manuals is somehow a fluke.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:26 am
I think it’s a fluke, Cathcart.
December 8th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Your rapier style wit and searing rejoinders continue to amaze for the second consecutive day, Clown. If you need me, I’ll be in the corner, licking my literary wounds.
December 9th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Subtlety is wasted on wingnuts, Cathcart. Angryclown comes to SITD armed with a tube sock full of cat poop.
December 9th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Pretty much.
December 10th, 2007 at 6:03 am
Cathcart said: “Pretty much.”
Damn you! Angryclown is brought low by Cathcart’s “nearly a decade of being an editor and writer for newspapers, magazines and technical manuals.”
How can Angryclown hope to compete?
December 10th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Keep trying, angryclown. 🙂