Question about Iraq/2002 midterms

[FreedomAngel82]

Early last week on Bernie Ward's show he had a guest who wrote the book called "Losing Iraq." He was apart of all the beginning process and he told how everything that's happening now was planned and how they planned entering Iraq and the whole Saddam ordeal in PERFECT timing with the 2002 midterms and they became the majority. For the longest time a lot of people were in support of Iraq. Now it seems as majority of the public wants to get out and all types of republicans have come out against Iraq from Mr. Jones to Mr. Graham. I was wondering: how many months before the 2002 midterms did they enter Iraq? I wasn't politically intune back then so I didn't follow anything like I do now. I'm thinking if they are going to do some kind of pullout it'll definitley be for political capital just like 2002. The republicans can't afford to lose seats in either Congress or the Senate because of the DSM and Bush and his administration could risk getting impeached and that wouldn't look good on them for 2008. I think there is some purpose for the republicans coming out against Iraq and for a time table and the media (see Tim Russert with Rummy yesterday) pushing as well. We all know who controls the media. So I was just wondering about that because I think if they do get a timetable for Iraq it'll be some staged event in the Senate or Congress with the republicans questioning generals and Rumsfeld and Rice and them going along with it. The guy who was on Mr. Ward's show also talked about getting mersceneries to fight so Bush doesn't have to have a draft. I was thinking how they could probably make deals with Iraq's PM and maybe even surrounding countries (not Iran of course) to get merscenries to help build the military bases. If Bush does pull out he'll of course keep some of the best of our military there to keep an eye on things and secure the oil and Halliburton will have their people there as well. So I was just wondering about that to try to figure out what Bush will say on Tuesday.

[The Magistrate]

1. The Invasion, Ma'am, Was Not Till The Spring Of '03

The political preparations began in the summer of '02, and pressed hardest in the autumn of that year. It has always been my belief the guiding principle behind the invasion was domestic political expediency. By talking up the dangers of Hussein, and the presence of non-conventional weaponry, and blurring responsibilities for the September attacks, it was easy to create a political climate in which opposition to the Republicans could easily be smeared as anti-patriot, and that rendered effective criticism of the regime difficult fot main-stream figures. This, combined with ruthless attacks on moderate Democrats running for re-election, certainly succeeded in altering the balance of the Senate, at a minimum.

It does not seem to me, though, that a withdrawl could gain the regime much political benefit. While they doubtless knew they were lying about the arsenal of Iraq in '02, it seems to me they really did believe the clap-trap they talked about being welcomed as liberators, and the engagement being brief and clean. They must now pay a great price for their self-delusion. The people of our country do not like the authors of a defeat, even when they are ready and willing to accept a defeat, and the retirement of U.S. forces from Iraq will be read by the people as nothing but a defeat. The most enraged among them will be the very elements that are now the core support of the regime, and without the anodyne of military glory, many of them will turn their eyes to the economic travails they face. We who have opposed these reptiles all along will not be the least bit appeased by the belated confession the enterprise was a disaster, foredoomed and futile.