As Casualties in Iraq Mount, Will Resolve Falter? (NYT)

[stevedeshazer]

The political challenge posed to President Bush by the deadly helicopter attack in Iraq on Sunday is this: how to keep public opinion from swinging against him over Iraq while not abandoning his quest to bring a stable democracy to that country.

Americans have been dying for months in Iraq, attacked by an enemy whose nature remains murky. But the downing of the Chinook helicopter, which killed 16 soldiers, brought the insurgency to a new level and suggested its growing effectiveness.

Up to now the American people, in the majority, have backed the Iraq campaign, and the Bush administration has vowed repeatedly to stay the course, even through an election year.

But administration officials and military commanders have also been dismissive of the insurgency in a way that may now be questioned. On Saturday, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top American commander in Iraq, said the attacks were "strategically and operationally insignificant."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/03/international/middleeast/03ASSE.html?ex=1068440400&en=1279c200acce7ba8&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[acmavm]

1. Nonsense, strategically and operationally these attacks prove that

the opposition is getting stronger, smarter, and becoming more coordinated in their attacks. This shows the deficiencies in the intelligence they have about the "enemy", they don't even know who they're fighting. Whereas the people shooting at our troops have no difficulty recognizing their targets.

This seems to me to be "false bravado" coming from someone who is half-way across the world in a place that he doesn't understand and isn't making the effort to understand. A man that is convinced that he is fighting on the right side of this conflict and takes affront at these people trying to drive our troops out of THEIR country.

Our troops are victims of a war that was justified by lies and carried out with a total lack of foresight and planning. In civil terms it would be called reckless endangerment.

[stevedeshazer]

2. The victims of these attacks

are "strategically and operationally" DEAD. Or wounded.

[TomNickell]

4. Patton and MacArthur

They are coming a traditional military viewpoint. Casualties haven't reached 30%; the Unit still functions.

Politically, it's a very different matter. The American public was conned into expecting a 'cakewalk'. Happy Iraqis. Not a long guerilla war with no end in sight. There's not going to be much reservoir of patience.

There is not really a -good- option here--for * or for the country. Except, of course, Regime Change here at home.

[stevedeshazer]

5. So much for the Iraqi welcome

Flowers and hugs and kisses all around.

[dbt]

3. NY Times remains ill-informed on one part:

bu$h has NO INTENTION of bringing a stable democracy to Iraq. He sees it as a Halliburton Colony from which to extract oil. Any government established by the US in Iraq will have more strings on it than a symPHONY orchestra!

:freak:
dbt

[lovedems]

6. I was a glutton for punishment yesterday morning and wathced

faux news with Tony Snow :puke: and Bill Kristol was on telling the panel that "Bu$h has as long as it takes". My resolve was over before the war even started. All of these patriots with their american flags on their lapels need to get out of lala land and wake up! Our troops are dying so Halliburton can make a huge profit!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. I wouldn't count on it.

a great many people are behind Bush to the end.

[peterh]

8. Maureen Dowd recaps the zaniness of shrubs resolve…

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/106784271987650.xml

President morphs into Baghdad Bob

Now Crawford George has morphed into Baghdad Bob. Last week, Bush made the bizarre argument that the worse things get, the better news it is. "The more successful we are on the ground, the more these killers will react," he said. In the Panglossian Potomac, calamities happen for the best.


I’m sure there a vast number of people out there, when hearing the twit say those words, mumble something along the lines of a “hooraaah”….without giving the slightest thought to the utter stupidity of the logic of said words. Go figure….