Contradictions abound in views on Iraq

[Judi Lynn]

Article Last Updated: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - 3:15:24 AM PST

Contradictions abound in views on Iraq
By Timothy M. Phelps

NEWSDAY

WASHINGTON -- Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense and chief architect of the war in Iraq, was as upbeat as ever last week as he testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Iraq has seen the beginning of a tremendous transformation for the better in the 12 months since its liberation," the former professor said. On that same day, 22 Iraqis in U.S. custody were killed in an attack on a Baghdad prison and the United States reached a grisly milestone of 100 dead soldiers in a single month, the highest death toll since the U.S. invasion began more than a year earlier.

It was a contradiction noted frequently last week as key policy-makers from Defense and State, as the bastions of war and diplomacy are known here, were summoned to hearing rooms in both the House and Senate. But nowhere were the contradictions more apparent than before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"Sometimes I wonder if we're living on the same planet," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., to State's Undersecretary Marc Grossman after he gave similarly rosy testimony. "Come off it," said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., to Grossman, and the administration as a whole, at another point.
(snip/...)

http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2110879,00.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Even some Republicans get it

Republicans on the committee, while often more polite about it, were also at a loss. "There's a culture of denial in the administration," said Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I. Their skepticism was based not only on the news out of Iraq, but on the testimony of expert witnesses who unlike the administration officials said that U.S. policy in Iraq is on the cusp of disaster, though not yet over it.

Committee sources said the administration, in its zeal to present a positive picture, tried to prevent the testimony of one witness, Ahmed Hashim, a professor at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

Hashim, one of the country's foremost experts on the Iraqi military, was ordered by the Pentagon late last week not to testify today, committee sources said. He was rescheduled for Wednesday after Republican senators protested.

Because he had to say ...
Hashim said that the lessons of Najaf and Fallujah mean that it may be three to five years before Iraqi forces can fully take over security in Iraq from U.S. and coalition forces.

Yes, the 2008 election may also be dominated by questions about US troops in Iraq ...

[Mari333]

2. When the truth hits the fan to those numbnuts in the WH

the US public will get to hear all about how much we need the draft

IF Bush gets in again
wonder how hes going to snowjob the public into the draft?

www.bushdraft.com

[seemslikeadream]

3. AND REMEMBER........

HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED

EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORISTS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATH
http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html

[PATRICK]

4. His "candide" moment

Voltaire had a romp with the Leibniz optimism that we live in the best of all possible worlds. Apparently Wolfowitz is a divinely proactive Leibniz who has created the best of all possible Iraqs by simple fiat.

Voltaire himself would have been too dumbfounded to lampoon such craziness. His bestseller did little to prevent the evils to come and he had the privilege of surviving it being an aristocrat himself.
A lesson to be learned there, all you whistleblower authors.

"Il faut cultiver notre propre jardin."
Still applies.

[seemslikeadream]

5. There is tranquility in ignorance, but servitude is its partner