Top Commander Says Insurgency Still Strong( Abizaid contradicts Cheney)

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - The top American military commander in the Persian Gulf disputed a contention by Vice President Dick Cheney that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes" and told Congress on Thursday its strength was basically undiminished from six months ago.


Furthermore, Gen. John Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago."

His testimony came as the nation's top defense leaders rejected calls by some lawmakers for the Bush administration to set a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. "That would be a mistake," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the committtee.

In a CNN interview last month, Cheney said: "The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

~snip~
more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050623/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rumsfeld_iraq;_

[Connie_Corleone]

1. Well, who are you going to believe...

Some general or the righteous vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney??

:sarcasm:

[democrat_patriot]

2. So Mclellan used Abizaid as an example of why

Cheney was right.

I'm sure he'll recant today and apologize.

[Judi Lynn]

3. General disputes claim that Iraq insurgency fading

General disputes claim that Iraq insurgency fading

10:28 AM CDT on Thursday, June 23, 2005

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The top American military commander in the Persian Gulf disputed a contention by Vice President Dick Cheney that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last thoes" and told Congress on Thursday its strength was basically undiminished from six months ago.

Furthermore, Gen. John Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago."

His testimony came as the nation's top defense leaders rejected calls by some lawmakers for the Bush administration to set a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. "That would be a mistake," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the committtee.

In a CNN interview last month, Cheney said: "The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee's senior Democrat, asked Abizaid if he realized he was contradicting Cheney.
(snip/...)

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa050623_am_insurgency.39c76815.html

[habitual]

4. So, Either Cheney Lied To US or He Is Totally Disconnected From Reality

Damn, maybe we need a new Vice President who has a clue what is going on in IRAQ, that place that we invaded that had NOTHING TO DO WITH September 11. (I've decided to mention that everytime i say IRAQ since the administration has embarked on a new campaign to say that we invaded iraq because of sept 11 and they insinuate it constantly now.)


Say no to the re-writing of history that is being attempted.

[wookie294]

5. Ted Kennedy rocks !!

"Isn't it time for you to resign?" Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., asked the defense secretary, citing what he called "gross errors and mistakes" in the U.S. military campaign in Iraq.

"I've offered my resignation to the president twice," Rumsfeld shot back, saying that President Bush had decided not to accept it. "That's his call," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20050623/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rumsfeld_iraq

[maddezmom]

6. Clinton quoting Rove right now

asking Rummy to comment. :wow:

[habitual]

7. Major Moving Of Goal Posts!

They have consistantly moved the goal posts on when they say the insurgency is going to end. Now it is this from rumsfeld to explain cheney's remarks:

"Between now and when an Iraqi constitution is drafted and voted on later this year, "They may very well be in their last throes by their own view cause they recognize how important it will be if the lose," he said."

I thought that was when we won the war. oh no that was supposed to be when they transfered sovereignty. Or was it the constitution that was gonna end the insurgency. They have moved the goalpost clear out of the stadium.

[aneerkoinos]

8. Fallujah parallels Ramadi

From the locked thread (too old)
http://csmonitor.com/2004/0723/p06s01-woiq.html

"RAMADI, IRAQ – Some of the heaviest fighting in months erupted on Wednesday in the troubled city of Ramadi. Throughout the day, the thud of mortars, bombs, and machine-gun fire echoed down desolate streets as insurgents battled hundreds of US Marines.

An estimated 25 insurgents were killed, and 25 people - including two Iraqi police - were detained in a day of clashes, which saw 13 US soldiers lightly wounded in firefights and multiple ambushes

At sunset, as American helicopters swooped over central Ramadi, a small funeral procession for Iraqis killed in the fighting moved slowly through town. But stores remained locked behind metal gratings and few residents ventured onto streets littered with debris and cratered by bombs.

The escalation of violence in this Sunni city about 70 miles west of Baghdad presents a difficult Catch-22 for US commanders here who are working to reduce the visibility of US troops, empower Iraq's new government, and get security forces to take charge."


According to Icasualties.org there has been so far this month at least 15 US fatalities in Ramadi, suggesting about 150 US casualties in Ramadi this month alone. Quite a meatgrinder, and the resistance with practically infinite sources of manpower is winning the war of attrition, slowly rendering marine battallions' combat capability closer and closer to zero and beyond repair - with lesser and lesser fools enlisting to fill the depleted ranks.

[rocktivity]

9. Someone around here compared the insurgents to water in a balloon

You step on one end, they flow to the other. And we can't step on the balloon because we don't have enoguh boots on the ground--which Bush was told in no uncertain terms from the git-go.

:headbang:
rocknation

[wookie294]

13. Pillsbury Doughboy approach to war

Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, called the military's efforts "the Pillsbury Doughboy idea" - pressing the insurgency in one area only causes it to rise elsewhere.

"We can't kill them all," Lt. Col. Frederick P. Wellman said. "When I kill one I create three."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krwashbureau/20050612/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_usiraq_military_wa_1

Cheney looks a bit like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

[Supersedeas]

10. don't forget McButterpants and Condi Cobra's defense of Cheney

[natrat]

11. isnt this what the supposed radical islamists wanted

long ass war in the middle east to bankrupt the great satan and defeat its army.....wtf....definitly seems like our beloved leadership wants to wreck this country...does this mean they are radical islamists

[gulliver]

12. Curious term "undiminished". Did the insurgency strengthen?

Did he actually say the situation is no worse?

[leftchick]

14. cheney to be on Leslie Blitzer's gab fest on CNN tonight.

I can't wait to see him grill cheney on this one!


:sarcasm:

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[catmandu57]

16. "they give me good advise, (if you will)"

Wasn't that what snarlin dick said about author anderson?, Seems to me they're still giving him advise, just as good advise as when he made that statement.
I think it's time for snarlin dick to be in a jailcell, if you will.

[damntexdem]

17. They say 'We have to keep the troops there until things get better.'

You bet. No, by keeping troops in Iraq, we have only managed to assure that things have gotten worse.

Yes, Dubya broke it. But we are NOT fixing it. The best thing we could do would be to leave the mess as it is, for someone else to fix. We only make it worse.

[Roland99]

18. Why does Gen. Abizaid hate America? Why is he appeasing the terrorists?

[Tracer]

19. I guess that the "singing of great songs" will have to wait.

If we let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely, and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy but just wage a total war, our children will sing great songs about us years from now.

Ñ Richard Perle

[tk2kewl]

20. Maybe its the second to last throe

:shrug:

[thereismore]

21. Abizaid? Isn't that some kind of an "old Arab"? nt

[jmcon007]

22. What motive could Abizaid have for defying Bush and Rummy?

And consider Republican Senator Hagel. He served in the U.S. Army infantry and is a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, receiving the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
He's seen action and knows what our men and women are going through in Iraq and, as a combat veteran myself, I can tell you the motive to get the hell out is tremendous when you consider that we were lied to by the most hawkish, war-like civilians in our country: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perl, etc.