Rummy and Pace are running scared!!

[lebkuchen]

I don't have a problem with my hearing aide, either, Rummy, you fucking asshole, and my memory is quite good as well. I remember when you had addressed the troops shortly before Shock and Awe. You were asked by the soldiers how long they would be in Iraq, how long this operation would last. You said, "Oh goodness, I can't imagine longer than six months."

Now you've got the 1AD extended another four months, and Gen. Pace, you know goddamn well that Shinseki had asked for more troops. You're a failure as a military leader.

Rummy, you've got some fucking gall to say that the Iraqi citizens are unwilling to "give and take" and "compromise," that under Saddam, they weren't able to practice those skills, were told what to do or be killed or arrested. YOU are arresting and killing the Iraqi citizens, you evil prick.

[el_gato]

1. I sure would like to find the link to that quote

I remember it but I'd like to send that to some pubbies now.

[lebkuchen]

3. It's somewhere in Stars and Stripes archives

shortly before the attack. I'm going to check the base library or the archive service at Stars and Stripes. I want the exact quote and date for a letter.

I have never expected Rumsfeld to be rational, but during tonight's press conference, he has succeeded in attaining the level of "radioactive waste-product disposal."

Pace glossed over with a brief "no" the possibility of redeploying 1AD who have just returned from Iraq. That's not what we're hearing over here.

[bahrbearian]

2. If they had more troops in the begining

we would have less troops in Iraq now. We never established Order in the start we where gaurding Oil Feilds, while Iraq was looted.

[lebkuchen]

8. A reporter asked, if they were anticipating an increase in "insurgence,"

why were they planning to redeploy home 20,000 troops who had been there a year to begin with?

The questions were quality, the answers were not.

I don't appreciate the bullying of our media that that prick Rumsfeld engages in. He constantly touts a free press, yet he shuts down Iraqi newspapers and all but castrates our own press corp with his bullying attitude. The man is vermin. Military families were watching. Their futures hang in the balance. They will not be impressed with Rummy's theatrics.

[LyleNews]

13. That's like asking Butch what "is" is....

Butch, Leezy, Rummy and Colon Pow! are scratching their heads today trying to figure out why indigenous citizenry would be fighting foreign invaders.

[Trajan]

4. This commentary means alot ....

Coming from Lebkuchen ...

Keep it coming Leb: and let it fly when it must ...

[lebkuchen]

6. CNNI just broadcast the press conference live

Haven't you seen it? For all their feigned fucking bravado in the face complete neglect for the welfare of our country's military, they were completely humiliated by a press corp that seems to have awakened from a deep sleep, only to find themselves in a real life nightmare.

[Trajan]

22. Hell YES I seen it ...

PITIFUL ! ....

The nightmare is real: we in the US have been overthrown by a dangerous cadre that is blinded by it's own dogmatic philosophies ... to the detriment of the entire world ...

DAMN the Vulcans: Damn them all to hell ...

[NewJeffCT]

5. Didn't Cheney say it would be a matter of weeks?

I could swear I saw a quote from him that said, "we won't measure time in Iraq in a matter of months, it will be weeks." Or, something like that.

[lebkuchen]

7. Tonight the press had him in a corner w/his buffoonery & double speak

Rummy was asked several times, on the coattails of Bush's flummoxed response to mistakes made, what mistakes Rummy thinks he himself might have made, especially now that we have more soldiers killed this month than at anytime during the war. He became very defensive, combative, and bullying, finally admitting that he hadn't anticipated this level of troop loss.

Rummy and Pace tried to end the conference when the going got rough, and as they walked off the stage, a reporter asked loud enough for the mikes to pick up about the underestimation of troop numbers during the original campaign. Rummy and Pace returned to the mikes, and Rummy left it to Pace to respond that the military had received everything from the civilian leaders that they had requested.

Okay, the reporter said. Then, General Pace had underestimated the numbers needed. Pace danced around the question. These two were on the hotseat, and their performance will not impress military families.

[Az_lefty]

9. C-SPAN has the video

http://www.c-span.org/#
second one down under "Latest Video"

[lebkuchen]

10. Was it not broadcast in the U.S.??

Believe me, our military families were staying up for it, despite having to endure Rumsfeld's halitosis.

[Az_lefty]

11. I assume it was, I don't have a TV here. Just looked up the C-SPAN site.

[lebkuchen]

14. Rumsfeld and Pace's performance was so abysmal that it's difficult

to understand why it isn't the topic of several threads already. Perhaps it's a matter of whether one is immersed in a military community or not that dictates the degree of importance this press conference has.

Yesterday's Stripes headline was "Some in 1st AD told to return to Iraq." Pace has said that wouldn't be happening. We shall see.

Rummy also denied the killing of Iraqi civilians. When asked what the civilian body count was, he said that of course he didn't have it. He wasn't in the city. What kind of fucking answer is that?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. David Hackworth called Rumsfeld an "Arrogant A-Hole" at his website

And David Hackworth, probably the nation's most decorated living soldier, last night told Pat Buchannon on Scarborough Country that Iraq was the greatest military miscalculation in U.S. history.

"...We have made probably, in my calculation, the greatest military miscalculation in my country‘s history by invading Iraq and getting in this mess..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4749323/

[mainer]

16. Coulter actually calls for a puppet government!

COULTER: We need an Arab Israel over there. We can‘t keep pimping for Israel. We need a puppet government. We need to be on the ground. We need a friendly government. We need democracy.

[Az_lefty]

18. Sorry Ann

puppet governments aren't real democracy.

[lebkuchen]

17. I look forward to reading Hackworth's take on this press conference

Rumsfeld's treatment of everyone, to include viewers, as hapless children has reached a tolerance threshold, certainly with military families.

Another reporter's question: Why do we need extra troops in Iraq if the situation is "contained" and "stabalized" as per Rummy's own comments? Rummy's response, "The reason it's contained is because we have the extra troops there. That's self evident. Oh come on, people are fungible. You can have them here or there. The fact of the matter is, we've made a judgement, we've announced the judgement. It's very clear. You understand it. Everyone in the room understands it."

The military families don't understand it, Rumsfeld. Bush has effectively lost the military vote tonight.

[trof]

15. Rummy moves to #1.

Until today, I thought * was the most arrogant sonofabitch on the planet.
Rummy surpassed him today.

[lebkuchen]

20. Is it real or feigned at this point? He's in a panic, & rightfully so

Today's Stripes headlines:

Bush: U.S. preparing for 'decisive force' in Iraq

Now we know what "staying the course" means: more death and destruction, w/Iraqi deaths outnumbering US deaths 10 to 1. Nevertheless, you have to wonder if the Bushies are truly willing to sacrifice many more US deaths this close to an election. Rummy is buffering his forces now, but what does he think the Iraqis are doing in the meantime? It's only April 15, and we're at 90 coalition forces dead for the first two weeks alone. By the end of the month, it will be 180, if we maintain our 6 per day average.

Your basic slack-jawed beer-bellied backwoods Michigan militia yokel might think escalating this disaster is grand, but the military family feels otherwise, and that includes the "weekend" warrior families. Many of the guard/reserve will have been deployed for 16 months, maybe longer.

Landstuhl hospital is full. Casualties are now being sent to other US military hospitals in Germany which are already understaffed with reservist units, the "home team" having long been deployed to Iraq. We are in a desperate situation on many fronts, and yet Bush wants to continue to use "decisive force?" That's insane.

[oneighty]

19. Nit picking.

What wars was Pace in to get all those ribbons and medals? He looked too young for Vietnam.

180

[lebkuchen]

21. I don't know

But his response to one of the last questions, about there not being enough troops from the get-go demonstrated his blind obedience to his boss in the face of a complete military catastrophe. Pace insisted that generals had received the troop numbers that they'd requested from Rumsfeld, yet Rumsfeld has been quoted several times in Stars and Stripes after the mission was clearly NOT accomplished, saying, in effect, "We have enough troops. What we need is to outsource non-combative military jobs in order to free up those soldiers for combative positions."

I believe Rumsfeld purposely kept the troop numbers low, sacrificing soldiers' lives, in order to force the privatization of the base support battalions in preparation for US bases in Germany closing and being reestablished (to Halliburton and Bechtel's delight) as unaccompanied tours in former eastern block countries.

As it currently stands with US base closure in Germany, things are so fucked up in Iraq, that THAT grand scheme has been put on hold for a year, or longer. We were supposed to have received a list of bases closing by the end of March.

At any rate, the fact that Pace is still calling the Iraqi people "terrorists" tells you something.