Fineman: Iraq frustration revisited

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8220119/

Iraq frustration revisited
On the Hill, doubts start to cross the aisle
By Howard Fineman
MSNBC contributor

Updated: 11:44 a.m. ET June 15, 2005

WASHINGTON - I was talking to Lebanese and Palestinian families here. We had never discussed politics before, let alone the war in Iraq. When the conversation turned that way, I expected a blast at George Bush and American hubris. I was wrong.

As they spoke, the men fingering amber worry beads, they said that they, too, yearned for the advent of democracy in Iraq and the Middle East. Democracy was possible, as the heady days of Lebanon's “Cedar Revolution” had shown. Ridding the region of Saddam Hussein was a good thing.

But here was the problem: not America's intentions, but America's competence.

“The Americans have managed things so badly, with such a lack of knowledge and preparation,” said one man, “that people in the region are starting to wonder what your intentions really were to begin with.”

So it goes. As summer heat intensifies here, so do doubts about the war. New questions are being raised about the president’s original justification – the “gathering danger” of Saddam’s WMD program – fueled by the British documents collectively known as “the Downing Street memos.” The same secret memos, written in the spring and summer of 2002, underscore what the British, our closest allies, regarded as inadequate planning for the aftermath of the war. As portrayed in the memos, Bush was bent on war and war alone.

Three years later, suicide bombers are striking at will in Iraq. The brave new government has a tenuous hold on public life. The new Iraqi Army is years from becoming a credible force. Meanwhile, in Washington, concerns mount about the cost of the conflict in blood and treasure. Officials are being forced to defend troublesome interrogation and battlefield practices, from Guantanamo to Kirkuk. And even Republicans utter the “T Word:” timetable for withdrawal. The polls are what they are: there’s no support there for a true long haul.

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[cybildisobedience]

1. Fineman looking to rewrite his earlier support of Bush

As their "poplar wartime Preznit" begins to show chinks in his make-believe armor, Fineman and other other pundits who worshipped him are now trying to show that they're really in touch with the mood of the country.
They disgust me.

[Skittles]

3. FINEMAN IS SUCH A F****ING WHORE

OMG too little too late you f***ing little war-mongering bush-bootlicking ASHHOLE FINEMAN; our troops and the Iraqi people are paying the price for his goose-stepping mentality. :puke:

[bemildred]

2. Bullshit, it's both bad intentions and incompetence.

Why choose when with Dumbsfeldt you can get both?
:puke: