Thursday, December 1, 2005

And So The Retreat Begins?

Washington Post: Bush Unveils New Iraq Strategy
New? Or an old familiar one..

CNN: Bush: U.S. to Stay in Iraq Until the War is Won
And what of the peace? Is that not to be won too?
Is this what NO END BUT VICTORY really means?
But here is the Plan. It isn't Cut and Run. Really.
And the Iraqis will manage somehow, I'm sure. We did.

It's deja vu all over again MLQ3.
Today may be another day just before "we won the war and lost the peace."
Where are all those people promising to stay in Iraq "maybe 30 years"?
I guess defeatism is beginning to look good to me too...

But here is some excellent English Commentary on this from the 16th Century --
onnet 129
Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and, till action, lust
Is perjured, murdr'rous, bloody, full of blame.
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,
Past reason hated as swallowed bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe,
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows, yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

(0600 GMT+8) Come, Rizalist, forget about this poetry for now, okay? You have some Fourier Transform Spectroscopy to do on the Garci voice from the DVD the other night. You were thinking about why it is a trap for Congress to so easily give up it's Warrant of Arrest, something about him being a Poisoned Pawn they must not allow to bathe in the Well with that towel on his head. It's to do with that Second Impeachment next year... Look, the month of December is the month of heroes, we've the Treaty of Paris to do, and Balangiga and Rizal Day. And yes, my dear friend, it is almost Christmas, even on the Continent. Don't worry about the airplane... There will be more perilous moments to come than this. For now let us enjoy the Archipelago, where a fiery orange sun is just now rising above the mists of the Antipolo hills, and far away, near Talim Island I espy, two men in the water, their wild flight from Maria Clara's convent upended, and the Guardia Civil desperately looking for them to see who shall live.

(0730) Gracias,
Señor Enrique, for joining this debate that began over a century ago and may go on for a while...Bien venida > Blogroll.

(0830) The Good News: Hammorabi (in Iraq) has this post: Iraq Defeats Kuwait in Soccer Match Now THAT'S progress.

But the Bad News
is, wasn't that THAKSIN SHINAWATRA the Thai Prime Minister on prime time TV last night questioning the huge gold medal haul of the Philippines in the ongoing Southeast Asian Games, especially after the FG(?) predicted we would take 100 gold medals this time? Just Sour Grapes, or Bitter Lanzones? But there is absolutely no truth to the TEXT MESSAGES going around that the real reason for the Return of Garci is so he could help in the uhmm, canvassing of the Judges tallies. That's even more untrue than that the Philippines placed SECOND in the region-wide corruption survey, because Garci worked to get Indonesia the Gold Medal in that competition. ABS-CBN News reports.

(0930) OUR STRATEGY FOR VICTORY IS CLEAR
So why is it again that our allies freeze the bank accounts of the Abu Sayyaf leaders, but we don't? And even catch the wrong one-armed Kumander Putol?

(1730) BLOOD-FOR-OIL: That the Anglosphere invaded Iraq to seize its considerable oil wealth. Agree or Disagree...Please join the Comment Thread and let us know your opinion.

(2330)
Pages 7 and 8 of the Plan for Victory contains the pith of the new Strategy:
Our Strategy is Clear: We will help the Iraqi people build a new Iraq with a constitutional, representative government that respects civil rights and has security forces sufficient to maintain domestic order and keep Iraq from becoming a safe haven for terrorists. To achieve this end, we are pursuing a comprehensive approach that involves the integrated efforts of the entire United States Government, the Iraqi government, and Coalition governments, and encourages the active involvement of the United Nations, other international organizations, and supportive regional states.
No commentary.

Well okay just one: I can't see how any Strategy can possibly be clear that involves the United Nations, where indeed sufficiency is often deemed to be enough, though necessity is often ignored in its favor. Maybe it's not Cut and Run. (Whew!) But may be it's Cut and UN. Wait a minute this sounds familiar. Isn't this the strategy of France and Germany for dealing with Iraq when it was before the UN Security Council?

THE NEW YORK TIMES thinks the speech given by President Bush introducing the new strategy for victory is indistinguishable, but for the names and places, from Richard Nixon's 1969 Vietnamization speech:
Mr. Bush hates comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq. But after watching the president, we couldn't resist reading Richard Nixon's 1969 Vietnamization speech. Substitute the Iraqi constitutional process for the Paris peace talks, and Mr. Bush's ideas about the Iraqi Army are not much different from Nixon's plans - except Nixon admitted the war was going very badly (which was easier for him to do because he didn't start it), and he was very clear about the risks and huge sacrifices ahead.
LOS ANGELES TIMES QUOTATIONS
President Bush:
at the US Naval Academy:
"Our goal is to train enough Iraqi forces so they can carry the fight."
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: [to Congress] "If the insurgency does go on for four, eight, 10, 12, 15 years, whatever … it is going to be a problem for the people of Iraq," Rumsfeld said. "They're going to have to cope with that insurgency over time."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Iraq,
The cradle of civilization.....

where the garden of Eden was said to be
where Noah had his ark
where the first wars of this earth were recorded by history

(maybe the chinese historians had the writers block then)

Seccessionism,ethnic cleansing...
Palestine,Chechnya,Bosnia,Rwanda,Somalia,and the rest of africa...

Seccesionism= Ethnic cleansing

Ussr,Yugoslavia
had a tate of communism then integration after that back to seccessionism (Chechnya,Bosnia )

I am not even mentioning Philippines..one of its kind in Asia..the only Asian country who does not love Football(soccer)

Deany Bocobo said...

SPEAKING of FOOTBALL, Hammorabi has this post about the Iraqi Team defeating the Kuwaiti team in a soccer match. Now THAT'S progress, don't you think, for both of them!

Meanwhile, here in the First Iraq, the Thai Prime Minister may justly be suspicious that Garci has rigged the Southeast Asian Games! Some even say Garci is the reason we came in SECOND most corrupt in SEA. Not first.

Deany Bocobo said...

Welcome MB! We may have a chance to test your hypothesis if the Americans eventually cut and run. We may want to get drunk and coked up to when the carbombs come to the sleepy archipelago. Just think, someone allegedly slipped Garci in and out of Singapore as a flight crew member. Singapore, a place that thinks ITS borders are secure. Yet all of Singapore would fit nicely into SBMA if you just include Olongapo City.

Deany Bocobo said...

MB -- When Ferdinand Marcos declared himself Dictator of the Philippines, would you have called us an "innocent country" then? I know you are thinking of the people of Iraq, who suffer much as we did, but I do think they are better off without Saddam Hussein. I would gladly have had the Americans interfere in the sovereign affairs of the Marcos dictatorship. But they didn't. More's the pity.

Deany Bocobo said...

You are a very thoughtful man MB and we learn the most from those who disagree. So I must let your comments stand for now, as I ponder them deeply out of respect for what I know we hold in common --the love of humanity and a hatred for error.

Anonymous said...

Read The link DJB
good for them bad for us in terms of football

Again i am sorry to use the tired crusades analogy

Allied forces=crusades

crusades wanted to defend christianity but resulted to looting in 3 series(holy grail,the house of the holy family now seen in Rome said to be bought by angels,etc...)

allied wanted to defend Kuwait and the world but ended up with the oil (not yet actually but soon enough)


Peace to humanity!

Deany Bocobo said...

MB -- We too, could not get together enough strength to overthrow Marcos ourselves. So I suppose you are right, that was OUR fault. As for the Anglosphere invading Iraq, I really want to believe that that was an act of self-defense for the whole world, after 17 attempts at enforcing compliance peacefully, as a defense of its fuel tanks. Now on the thread is the BLOOD-FOR-OIL ARGUMENT brought up by karl. Let's talk about that for a bit, if you like. That the war was motivated by a desire to seize the oil wealth of Iraq. Agree or disagree...state your reasons well. thanks.