Bush calls Iraq War critics "defeatists" WaPo 8/31/06

[TayTay]

Bush Team Casts Foes as Defeatist
Blunt Rhetoric Signals a New Thrust

By Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 31, 2006; Page A01

President Bush and his surrogates are launching a new campaign intended to rebuild support for the war in Iraq by accusing the opposition of aiming to appease terrorists and cut off funding for troops on the battlefield, charges that many Democrats say distort their stated positions.

With an appearance before the American Legion in Salt Lake City today, Bush will begin a series of speeches over 20 days centered on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But he and his top lieutenants have foreshadowed in recent days the thrust of the effort to put Democrats on the defensive with rhetoric that has further inflamed an already emotional debate.

Bush suggested last week that Democrats are promising voters to block additional money for continuing the war. Vice President Cheney this week said critics "claim retreat from Iraq would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone." And Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, citing passivity toward Nazi Germany before World War II, said that "many have still not learned history's lessons" and "believe that somehow vicious extremists can be appeased."

Pressed to support these allegations, the White House yesterday could cite no major Democrat who has proposed cutting off funds or suggested that withdrawing from Iraq would persuade terrorists to leave Americans alone. But White House and Republican officials said those are logical interpretations of the most common Democratic position favoring a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

"A lot of the people who say we need to withdraw from Iraq say we'll be safer, and I don't think that's accurate," said Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, a key architect of the party's strategy heading into the fall congressional campaign. Mehlman noted that al-Qaeda leaders and other Islamic radicals have said they want to drive Americans out of Iraq and use it as a base. "We ought to not ignore when they say they're going to do that."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083003177.html?nav=hcmodule

This was, of course, anticipated in April by Sen. Kerry in his speech at Faneuil Hall.

The true defeatists today are not those who call for recognizing the facts on the ground in Iraq. The true defeatists are those who believe America is so weak that it must sacrifice its principles to the pursuit of illusory power.

The true pessimists today are not those who know that America can handle the truth about the Administration’s boastful claim of “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq. The true pessimists are those who cannot accept that America’s power and prestige depend on our credibility at home and around the world. The true pessimists are those who do not understand that fidelity to our principles is as critical to national security as our military power itself.

And the most dangerous defeatists, the most dispiriting pessimists, are those who invoke September 11th to argue that our traditional values are a luxury we can no longer afford.

http://kerry.senate.gov/v3/cfm/record.cfm?id=254631

[ProSense]

1. The Bush gang is trying to turn up the propaganda

Positive Press on Iraq Is Aim of U.S. Contract

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 31, 2006; Page A20

U.S. military leaders in Baghdad have put out for bid a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring of U.S. and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive coverage of news from Iraq.

The contract calls for assembling a database of selected news stories and assessing their tone as part of a program to provide "public relations products" that would improve coverage of the military command's perfor

Snip...

Monitors are to select stories that deal with specific issues, such as security, reconstruction activities, "high profile" coalition force activities and events in which Iraqi security forces are "in the lead." The monitors are to analyze stories to determine the "dissemination of key themes and messages" along with whether the "tone" is positive, neutral or negative.

The media outlets would be monitored for how they present coalition or anti-Iraqi force operations. That part of the proposal could reflect Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's often-stated concern that the media does not cover positive aspects of Iraq.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083003011.html?nav=rss_nation/special

They simply want to spin away reality!

Letters
No role for British forces in Iraq
Thursday August 31, 2006
The Guardian

The retreat last week of 1,200 British soldiers from Amara and the looting and destruction of their camp is a watershed for the occupation of Iraq (Comment, August 26). That camp had come under almost nightly attacks as the military and political influence of the occupying forces receded. Relocation of foreign armies outside urban areas is unlikely to protect them from longer range attacks. On the contrary, the reshuffling of British forces around the oil fields and the Iranian border areas in Maysan province will be seen for what it is: an attempt to maintain strategic control of Iraq's resources.

Many of us have long been calling for an early and timed withdrawal of US and British forces, and we have called upon the Iraqi parliament to set a date for the evacuation, a stance that would give this institution the legitimacy and respect it presently lacks. We believe the occupation forces remain the prime cause of Iraq's present predicament and a major obstacle to any realistic solution that would help spare Iraqi and other lives.

Blair's refusal to withdraw British forces is dangerous bravado; a doomed project of a shadow empire that is highly damaging to its victims. There may still be time for an early and orderly British withdrawal that would hasten a US evacuation and bring about an internally and regionally negotiated arrangement, sparing Iraq the torment of further war-like schemes and regional power play. Britain has a responsibility towards Iraq to act sensibly with other European countries and with Iraq's neighbours. The British military can have no place in any such action, and occupation troops wherever they are will come under attack by Iraqis. Given Britain's unfortunate history with Iraq, it can make a positive contribution to peace and pay its debt to the people of Iraq only through non-military means, such as education, health and economic support.

Kamal Majid, Kamil Mahdi, Sami Ramadani, Haifa Zangana, Sabah Jawad, Hani Lazim, Kadhim al-Mousawi, Fenik Adham, Ali al-Asam, Mundher al-Adhami

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1861707,00.html

Iraqi hospitals are war’s new ‘killing fields’
Medical sites targeted by Shiite militiamen

By Amit R. Paley
The Washington Post

Updated: 8:50 a.m. ET Aug. 30, 2006

BAGHDAD - In a city with few real refuges from sectarian violence -- not government offices, not military bases, not even mosques -- one place always emerged as a safe haven: hospitals.

So Mounthir Abbas Saud, whose right arm and jaw were ripped off when a car bomb exploded six months ago, must have thought the worst was over when he arrived at Ibn al-Nafis Hospital, a major medical center here.

Instead, it had just begun. A few days into his recovery at the facility, armed Shiite Muslim militiamen dragged the 43-year-old Sunni mason down the hallway floor, snapping intravenous needles and a breathing tube out of his body, and later riddled his body with bullets, family members said.

Authorities say it was not an isolated incident. In Baghdad these days, not even the hospitals are safe. In growing numbers, sick and wounded Sunnis have been abducted from public hospitals operated by Iraq's Shiite-run Health Ministry and later killed, according to patients, families of victims, doctors and government officials.

As a result, more and more Iraqis are avoiding hospitals, making it even harder to preserve life in a city where death is seemingly everywhere. Gunshot victims are now being treated by nurses in makeshift emergency rooms set up in homes. Women giving birth are smuggled out of Baghdad and into clinics in safer provinces.

In most cases, family members and hospital workers said, the motive for the abductions appeared to be nothing more than religious affiliation. Because public hospitals here are controlled by Shiites, the killings have raised questions about whether hospital staff have allowed Shiite death squads into their facilities to slaughter Sunni Arabs.

more...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14574337

[ProSense]

3. Interesting!

Someone posted this in a GD thread; it's about the Rendon Group, the company given the propaganda contract:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rendon_Group#Influencing_Vieques_Vote

Nevermind the death and devastation, Rendon is on the job:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Pentagon%27s_Information_Warrior

[karynnj]

4. But, didn't Bush put Karen Hughes in charge of improving the US image

in the ME a very long time ago? I guess that failed - advertisement is less effective there. Maybe he should send Rove.

[ginnyinWI]

7. they've run out of new propaganda material

I don't think this will work again. Not with the track record they've got now. It takes a while for awareness to seep down into the populace, but after all this time, it has. Two years too late, though!

In that Brian Williams interview, all * could say for himself is that his presidency would be evaluated by future historians. Like, "sure I'm looking like a failure now, but just wait and see--you'll find out I was right!" But even if true (hahaha) it doesn't help this year's mid-terms for them.

[wisteria]

2. Their latest attempt to have us rally around Iraq is another example

of how dishonest they are in not leveling with the American people. Instead of having a serious conversation with America about what we are facing in Iraq and around the world, they continue to distort the message of those who offer other strategies and malign those that question their judgment and call for change.
These people are just despicable. They never get past having to win and maintain power at any cost. They are so busy trying to sell us this War in Iraq and their made up War on Terror they forgot they actually have no real winning strategies to win either one. They are a threat to our freedoms, and they put us all in danger by not recognizing a new direction is necessary in order to secure our safety. Instead of really doing some "hard work" and some homework to secure Iraq and America, Bush and the crew are all out campaigning trying to attack those who are calling for a fresh approach to securing our country and a course that will result in a real win against terrorists.
I just pray the American people see through their lies and distortions and Bush and company are forced to look at alternatives.

[karynnj]

5. Kerry's words there are beautiful and honest

They really are a counter to Bush's rantings.

[TayTay]

6. That speech was prescient

I swear, it's as if someone in the Bush Admin read that speech and said, "let's do everything Kerry said was wrong."

Really, Kerry should give that speech again. It was a great rebuttal to the present Admin strategy to preserve the Rethug vote this fall. And it's cynical as hell.

[karynnj]

8. He DID repeat large parts of that speech in other speeches

It was a truely great speech - it was amazing that it seemed everybody there seemed to know that even as it was spoken. The reaction at the end was amazing - and no one seemed to want to leave, even after the Senator did.

[TayTay]

10. It really was a great, great speech

And possibly the best I have ever heard. Kerry is a very good speaker, but his whole heart was in the emotion of this speech. The crowd just loved that one and didn't want to leave. The Senator couldn't even leave the stage for a full 5 minutes or so. Then he was swarmed by people who wanted to talk to him briefly or shake his hand.

Wow!

[karynnj]

11. Agree with you on everthing here - I think noone who heard it

will ever forget it.

[MH1]

13. Heh heh. "possibly the best I have ever heard"

:rofl:

Then:

MH: "Damn, that was great. Is he always this good?"

Tay: "oh, yeah. sure. of course he is."


Now: Tay: "possibly the best I have ever heard"


Consider yourself CAUGHT.

;-)

[TayTay]

14. Ahm, I don't understand?

Sen. Kerry is, arguably, one of the best speakers around. Not every speech is an A+, but every speech could potentially be an A+. He really is very, very good. The speech at Take Back America was very, very good, with a few sections that were, ahm, friggin amazing. The environment and health care speeches in Boston this summer were very good and very polished. (They were A's)

But that Iraq speech at Faneuil in April took a while to digest. So yeah, he really is that good and we are lucky to have someone of that quality representing the good citizens of Massachusetts in the Senate. (You know, he once gave this speech before the SFRC back many years ago. He really was quite good, even memorable, I think. Really.)

MH: he really is quite good you know. I have seen Sen. Kerry speak many, many times over the years, mostly on my TV, and I expect a certain level of achievement from him. (Well, for God sakes, he's John Kerry. People like that don't just fall out of trees you know, not even in Massachusetts. Have you ever heard the Mayor of Boston speak? I can't understand half of what he says, and we have the same damn accent. Not everybody can just rear back and throw the high heat you know.) He does not occupy that Senate seat by accident. People around here expect intelligent, articulate, bright people who will fight for what they believe in. (Ahm, there is a part of that speech though that makes my heart skip when I hear it. It is so an appeal to who 'we' in the Bay State want to be. OMG, that part of the speech makes me all melty. Don't tell anyone from around here I ever said that btw. You can't tell people how good they are, they might get all spoiled by the praise.)

[ProSense]

9. It's perfect!

JK used the Repugs' own words to show how their demagoguery diminishes rather than strengthens our democracy.

[ProSense]

12. Off topic, but oh the hypocrisy!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2805573&mesg_id=2805573