Hey, unfortunately, it’s not This Week in Bullshit, but here’s your weekly compilation of news you may or may not have seen or read regarding America’s most disastrous ridiculous war.
Well, speaking of Bullshit, Gen. David “Ass-Kissing Little Chickenshit” Petraeus spread it thick over Congress last week, touting “success” in Iraq (as did the Ass-Kissee-in-Chief in a nationally televised address) and dominating American media headlines. That’s too bad, because far more important stories were unfolding in Iraq itself, and they tended to directly and badly undermine Gen. AKLC Petraeus’s assertions.
The same day that Pres. Bush made his speech to that remaining fraction of the nation that cares what he thinks about Iraq, the tribal leader Bush had embraced only ten days previous in Anbar Province as an example of heroic leadership, uniting various Sunni tribes to try to rid the province of the widely despised Al-Qaeda and its foreign fighters, was assassinated. Thing is, the Americans are just as despised as Al-Qaeda, and so when Bush embraced the thuggish Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha as his kinda guy — Time Magazine described Abu Risha last week as having “a rather unsavory reputation as one of the shadiest figures in the Sunni community,” with a personal militia, a history of drug running, and a tribe notorious for highway banditry — he essentially signed Abu Risha’s death warrant. He was assassinated the day of Bush’s speech, somewhat undermining the claim that all Anbar is now happy and pro-American. While the White House blamed the murder on Al Qaeda in Iraq (of course), more likely it was a local hit, confirming the first rule of Middle East politics: the enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend.
BBC/ABC/NHK polling last week showed just how unpopular the Americans are after the “success” of the escalation surge in Anbar. The results were grim enough in Iraq as a whole: 70 percent of Iraqis think security is worse in escalation surge areas now compared to before it began (and another 11 percent thought it unchanged, meaning over 80 percent of Iraqis believe the whole exercise has been a waste). A whopping 60 percent now think attacks on US troops are justified; 47 percent want the US to leave now, up from 35 percent before the escalation surge; and 35 percent believe American withdrawal would make further civil war more likely, compared to 46 percent who think it’d be less likely. Pretty damning stuff.
But in Anbar Province it was worse:
In a survey conducted Aug. 17-24 for ABC News, the BBC and NHK, the Japanese broadcaster, among a random national sample of 2,212 Iraqis, 72 percent in Anbar expressed no confidence whatsoever in United States forces. Seventy-six percent said the United States should withdraw now — up from 49 percent when we polled there in March, and far above the national average.
Withdrawal timetable aside, every Anbar respondent in our survey opposed the presence of American forces in Iraq — 69 percent “strongly” so. Every Anbar respondent called attacks on coalition forces “acceptable,” far more than anywhere else in the country. All called the United States-led invasion wrong, including 68 percent who called it “absolutely wrong.”
Every. Anbar. Respondent. So much for winning hearts and minds.
Another poll released last week was even starker. The British polling agency ORB, in surveying Iraqi families to find how many families had members who’ve died in the occupation and war, estimated that one in two families have lost at least one member, and that overall a staggering 1.2 million or more Iraqi civilians have killed so far. That number is roughly in line with the widely ridiculed 655,000 number published in an epidemiological study in Lancet last summer, and confirms not only that the civilian death toll has been far higher than official estimates, but that the violence has worsened sharply in the last year.
The escalation surge wasn’t popular in Baghdad, either: on Wednesday, residents of one of the few remaining areas where a Sunni and a Shiite neighborhood adjoin each other took to the streets to protest the U.S. military’s erection of a wall to segregate them from each other. The walls being built to “protect” residents from each other have been fiercely criticized by many residents themselves, who argue that they promote ethnic segregation, are as likely to keep attackers in as out, and separate family from family.
But perhaps the biggest Iraq story of the week got almost no media play here: the oil deal cut by the Kurdish provincial government with Hunt Oil Co. of Dallas. Why is this a big deal? First, it means local governments are starting to ignore the Green Zone government entirely and cut their own deals, which is a death knell for the oil “revenue-sharing” law that is perhaps the U.S. government’s biggest benchmark for political “success” in Iraq. It also suggests that Big Oil is now betting on the failure of the U.S. mission in Iraq and the subsequent partitioning of the country. And the deal itself (along with one the Kurds recently cut for natural gas) makes that partitioning more likely, as the Kurds and Shiites have plenty of their own oil resources and need neither the Sunnis nor each other, let alone the phantom al-Maliki “government.”
The last element undercutting Gen. AKLC’s testimony last week was the Pentagon report it was supposed to accompany. That was quietly released just before the weekend, and showed that even with the administration’s extremely generous definition of “progress,” only half of Congress’s 18 benchmarks showed progress, exactly one more than in an interim report in July. That area was in allowing former Ba’athists into the government, and the “progress” there was only in a tenuous deal between a handful of politicians that has yet to be implemented — and that is similar to numerous such deals that have collapsed in the past. Meanwhile, a separate State Department report, also quietly released in a Friday Afternoon News Dump, revealed that — surprise! — religious freedom in Iraq is down sharply in the last year.
Somehow, this all is being spun as “success,” and Bush is now promising a “withdrawal” to celebrate it — next Spring, six months past schedule, back to pre-escalationsurge troop levels because the US military can’t sustain its current deployment without either extending tours (again) or starting a draft. Which is to say Bush is keeping in as many troops as he can as long as he possibly can, and then seeking credit for giving our poor men and women in uniform (the ones that survive his vanity project for a few more months, anyway) a long-overdue rest.
Or maybe he’ll just send them to Iran. That propaganda campaign also continued apace last week, with the US claiming that a fatal mortar attack on U.S. military headquarters was carried out with an Iranian rocket. Even if you accept the curious logic that the Iranian government is responsible for every Iranian-made weapon Iraq — after all, the U.S. has utterly flooded Iraq for the last four years with weapons now on the black market, and you don’t see Washington bombing itself — the evidence to support the claim that the rocket was Iranian-made turned out to be less than compelling. Here’s Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner: “Can I hold up a piece of fragment today that has a specific marking on it that traces this back to Iranian making? At this moment I can’t do that.” THEN SHUT THE HELL UP.
Well, a quick search seems t indicate that a 240-mm rocket would most likely originate in Iran, Russia, or North Korea. That would make Iran prety likely becase of its close proximity.
The big problem, and beleive me, I think that Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner is just another lying Bush flack, is that the administration purposely phrases their statements to imply that the GOVERNMENT of Iran is respnsible for supplying these weapons. I have heard and seen no convincing evidence thatg the government if Iran is behind weapons sales to Iraqi Shiite forces. It would be kind of surprising to see them do this openly, both because it would be diplomatically awkward and because Iraq’s Shiite Arabs have no real love or trust for Iran’s Shiite Persians, which suspicion and mistrust is reciprocated. Heck, their bloody and tragic war was less than twenty years ago.
I think it much more likely that independent arms dealers are acquiring weaponry in Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Egypt, and Europe and are selling them to whoever will buy in Iraq. We already know that the Iraqi Sunni Arabs who are being funded by Saudi Arabia have acquired arms through Romania (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....0138.shtml). Arms are floating around everywhere in and around Iraq, and a few million dollars can get you anything you want.
The rest is just Bush bullshit propaganda.
Why would Iran do anything to provoke us when we continue down their primrose path?
The endgame for Iran and Al-quaida is to establish cells in the American homeland.
At the end of the Iraq war, The US government will issue hundreds of thousands of greencards to refugees of the war.
That will be the perfect time to slip in the seeds of our destruction. The irony will be that Republicans will be responsible for importing terrorist cells to the US.
But, of course, they will blame the democrats, and the democrats will not respond, so it will stick.
Just like the Republican spin that the liberals(hippies) lost Vietnam due to their pesky war demonstrations.
Petraeus is what he seems to be … not a flacl, but a soldier. He gave a factual report o Congrses but refused to answer any questions about strategy, US safrety, or long term goals. His silence on those issues was more imortnat than what he did say,
In the meantime, Geov has left one critical story form last week … the Israel air strike in Syria. The rumpors surrounding this event are extremely important. Some folks claim that the Israelis were stagibng a threat to Iran, others that they took our SWyrian nukes. Interestingly, wahtev3er happened, the Syrians want it covered up as do the Israelis. In the meantime the Saudis are reluctant to come to Bush’s Camp David meetup,
This is one more piece of evidence that WE NEED A STRATEGY, Bush’s only strategy seems ot be handing his damaged goods off to Clinton or Obama so they take the blame. A the other extreme the calls for precipitous withdrawal from the mess WE MADE are at least as simple minded and self serving as anything lil Bush comes up with.
NOW is the time for real leadership. Obiwan and Athena (sorry I can not resist) seem to me to be trying very hard to walk a razer edge of pacifying the peaceniks while keepijng optoins open. In contrast Bush does not seem to give a damn and the Repricans are not yet reasy to say they f’d up and now lest MOVEON.
This is a very dangerous game of political chicken.
Damn my typing and apologies. IL will try to do better. here the same text is as posted at SJ:
This is my response to a very depressing post at HA on the Petraeus report. The report by Geov Parish extends the MoveOn controversy by painting the genral as no more than a bootlicker.
Petraeus is what he seems to be … not a flack, but a soldier. He gave a factual report to Congress but refused to answer any questions about strategy, US safety, or long term goals. His silence on those issues was more imortabt than what he did say,
In the meantime, Geov has left out one critical story from last week … the Israel air strike in Syria. The reports surrounding this event are extremely important. Some folks claim that the Israelis were staging a threat to Iran, others that they took out Syrian nukes. Interestingly, , the Syrians want it covered up much as do the Israelis. In the meantime the Saudis are reluctant to come to Bush’s Camp David meetup.
Another story Geov missed was from France. The French foreign minister has said the world needs to prepare for the possibility of war against Iran over its nuclear programme.
This is one more piece of evidence that WE NEED A STRATEGY, Bush’s only strategy seems to be handing his damaged goods off to Clinton or Obama so they take the blame. At the other extreme the calls for precipitous withdrawal from the mess WE MADE are at least as simple minded and self serving as anything lil Bush comes up with. Will those same peacniks stand by if Iraq turns into Bosnia or worse into the Blakans of WW I? What do we do if Iran , Turkey and Syria invade?
NOW is the time for real leadership. Obiwan and Athena (sorry I can not resist) seem to me to be trying very hard to walk a razer edge of pacifying the peaceniks while keeping options open. In contrast Bush does not seem to give a damn and the Repricans are not yet r easy to say they f’d up and now lest MOVEON.
This is a very dangerous game of political chicken.
According to Chuck Krauthammer, victory…er…sorry, ‘success’ is now defeating Al Queda in Iraq, you know, the group that didn’t exist prior to us invading.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....ran116.xml
Some idle speculation here: Since it appears that Cheney is actively pushing to use the Iraq war to initiate a war with Iran, would starting an impeachment case against Cheney help stop it?
It seems like we need a targeted domestic political crisis to take over all of the administration’s time until they’re gone, since clearly they don’t care about stuff like democracy, logic, truth, public safety, or the law. If Cheney were put on trial, given all the “extra-legal” and embarrassing stuff he’s done in office, maybe a lengthy procedure against him would keep the administration on their heels long enough just to get them safely out of office, or better yet to prison or a padded cell, where they can pose no further danger to the public.
Surely stopping a war with Iran would be well worth any short term political setbacks from bringing (even a frivolous) impeachment case against the Bush administration.
Think of it as the ultimate filibuster! :-)
SJ @4,5: I didn’t miss those stories; they are, indeed, important. But if I were to be summarizing all of the Middle East, not just Iraq, the post each week would be twice as long as it already is, and since Goldy doesn’t believe in jumps, well, nobody wants that.
As for Petraeus, we disagree. He’s a soldier, sure, but nobody rises to that rank of the military without also being a consummate politician, and Petraeus has willingly let himself be used for over a month now nearly full-time doing nothing but selling the surge, in presentations to Congressional delegations, media interviews, and the like. He also has a history of politically timed intervention on behalf of Bush prior to the 2004 election. And his opinions as to the military value of continuing the surge seem notably at odd with those of his superior, Adm. Fallon, as well as the Joint Chiefs and any number of other military leaders. Bush went shopping for an Iraq field commander on the basis not of his military capabilities, but his ability to credibly sell a war Bush himself can no longer credibly sell. And in Gen. Petraeus, he found his man.
2 BDM
“The endgame for Iran and Al-quaida is to establish cells in the American homeland.”
Why would you conflate the aimes of Al Qaeda and Iran? ANd I am NOT talking baout the inconsequential organization known as “Al Qaeda in Iraq.”
Al Qaeda (you know the one that is reconstituted in Pakistan) attacked the US by infiltrating what you might call “cells” into the country who prepared and waited to perpetrate an organized, coordinated attack.
Iran, on the other hand, has never “infiltrated” the US with operatives to curent public knowledge, even when US-Iranian hostilties were at their height after the Revolution. In fact, Iraq aided US forces during our initial operations in Afghanistan in 2001-2002, which ya kinda wouldn’t expect a nation hostile enough to attack us would do. There is no evidence from any credible source that Iran has any intention or plan to attack the US. To mention such a nonexistent plan as if it were reality is to catapult the neocon propaganda.
I believe Petraeus is essentially well-intentioned and honest. On the other hand, he has been put into a position that is impossible–he’s been asked to grade his own work while in the heat of battle. Reports out of Iraq, and from retired military officers here, plainly indicate that Petraeus’s report suffered from a lack of objectivity. I don’t blame him for being unable to step back from the fray and dispassionately assess whether “progress” is being made. I do think, however, that treating him with kid gloves is unwise. His judgment is suspect because of his personal involvement in that which he’s being asked to judge.
@7: Fergit it. Just occurred to me that while Clinton was being impeached he launched Operation Desert Fox. We’re doomed. Back to work.
ElBaradei on Iran:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.a.....=351020104
I’d like to point out that all of Iran’s enrichment activites are totally legal under the NNPT as long as they report and undergo inspection as required under that agreement, which they have only recently started to do.
Why does the left so willingly and enthusiatically embrace defeat? It is the most perplexing thing. I’m not defending the war pre se, I just want us to win because defeat and leaving Iraq in the hands of al Qaeda and Iran would be catastrophic and result in genocide on the scale never seen before. Not to mention the consequences for US foreign policy in the Middle East. Michael Ware on CNN had an excellent report on Friday night that expounded on this in great detail. No matter what your politics or feelings about the Bush Administration, you should at least support us winning and getting the hell out as soon as is feasable. What I am getting though is that the left not only doesn’t support any aspect of this way, NO! They actually want the US to LOSE!!! The left is PRO DEFEAT!!!!
At this point, I don’t believe Gen. Petraeus is either well intentioned or honest. His statistic charts were apple to orange comparisons designed to build lies around. His repeated statements about the White House having no influence upon his report are equally and obviously false. In the middle of his testimony in the Senate, during a recess, he received a phone call from the White House to recant his “I don’t know” statement to whether the War in Iraq was making America safer.
If he was truly honorable, he would have presented the truth. That attacks on American troops and sectarian violence has risen every month of the “Surge” when compared to the same month the year prior. That the downward curve of the attacks during the summer months, when temperatures can reach in the 110+ degrees and are sustained at over 100 degrees, is actually less than it has been on any year of the post-war occupation. That Anbar’s conversion happened prior to the “Surge” not because of it. That the very definition of a “Surge” is that its temporary rather than trying to sell the inevitable and preplanned wind down of the “Surge” as a reduction of troops. That there will still be more troops in Iraq after the “Surge” is over than there were when it started, which is again lying about withdrawing troops. That the “Surge” failed to bring about its mission objective. That is the political movement of the Iraqi Parliament to come together for the good of Iraq.
Gen. Petraeus ignored all of the above in his attempt to spin for the Bush Presidency. He forgot that his oath is not to the President but to the U.S. Constitution and the American People. He is required to tell the truth to Congress. He is required to give an honest and complete assessment to Congress. Instead he gave cherry picked and misleading information. Instead he betrayed his rank, his uniform, the Army and the country.
Mark @13
We won the war. Iraq’s government was toppled. Saddam Hussein and his cohorts were captured, tried and sentenced for their crimes. Unless we intend on turning Iraq into a Protectorate or Territory of the United States we have no further business being there. It is time for Iraq to stand on its own and to determine their own destiny.
The IPS News – clearly a top news source… for whom I’m not quite sure – report about the working relationship between Adm. Fallon and Gen. Petraeus has been debunked.
However, Geov would never let facts get in the way of a good narrative. [whining] But, but, but Bush lied…so it MUST be true.[/whining]
And I gotta say I’m in favor of the Israelis bombing the North Korean nuclear materials in Syria. Turkey sent a message to Iran and Syria as well by letting the violation of the airspace happen without response or complaint. Syria hasn’t even complained, knowing they can’t without admitting to what was actually bombed.
@8 Geov
Tx for the response.
I agree with a lot of what you say but think you and others, like Mike Caine here, are falling into a trap laid by folks a lot more dangerous than the lil man sitting in the oval office.
Going after a soldier does not serve the liberal cause. Contrary to what Mr. Caine says, the military code requiires that a soldier go through the chain of command. You can even be court martialed for going outside the chain. Colin Powell’s role in Vietnam and Westmoreland’s role as well come to mind. In order to do what Michael Caine asks, the General would have ot resign his commission.
The General’s testimony was, however, very clever if yuo read what he said. He gave exactly the speach I expected .. a speech that said “I am doing my job,” a job that should have been done 4 years ago but it may be too late and I have not been told why I am doing anything.
That is the danger. If Bush I is running the country, I think we are in worse trouble than anyone realizes. These guys are not patriots. Bush knowingly fucked the whole country by appointing Clarence Thomas. The Bush Gang’s takeover of the Florida results in B v Gore, was not rivaled in American history by anything other than the political machines of Daley and Tamminy or Lincoln’s ballot stuffing. These folks gave us lil Bush KNOWING he was mentally incompetent.
The Bush Is are a lot brighter than the Bush II team and a lot more dangerous. These guys would be more than willing to create an unsolvable mess for Obiwan or Athena, believing that this would be the best way to return them to power.
Am I being too devious?
Mark,
America was defeated when George W. Bush stepped into the White House.
Gen. Petraeus may view himself as something equivalent to Gen. Marshall after World War II.
Mark
“I just want us to win because defeat and leaving Iraq in the hands of al Qaeda and Iran would be catastrophic and result in genocide on the scale never seen before. “
The insurgency is approximately 100,000 strong now, and AQI runs about 1300 “fighters” (http://news.independent.co.uk/.....961318.ece), the heavily-armed Sunni insurgency has turned against them, and the several heavily-armed Shiite militas and the Shiite government are unlikely to allow them to continue operations, to put it mildly.
Yet you cling to the fantasy that Al Qaeda will “take over” an Iraq both hostle to their aims and armed and capable of destroying them. Or in a further bit of fantasy and hyperbole, somehow Shiite Iran and Sunni Al Qaeda are to be taking over Iraq simultaneously. How would that work, pray tell?
And why would Iraq not vigorously and sucessfully resist Iranian control, when Shiite Arabs in Iraq fought a vicious and bloody war against Iraq not two decades ago? Do they forget quickly? I think it is quite apparent that they do not.
Your assertions about what might happen after a US withdrawal are completely uncovincing. Why don’t you give us some factual reason to believe other than that your ignorant opinion is so valuable?
Mark @ 13
Please share with your definition of “victory in Iraq.” The Administration talks of winning without telling us where the goalposts are, or whether there are even goalposts. Perhaps you know what victory looks like. Those supporting the Administration’s policy in Iraq, the parameters of which are utterly unclear, live in a fantasyland. I love the United States and want the best for the following generations. Accordingly, I support the Iraq plan which is plainly the best for our nation–get the hell out as soon as is reasonably possible. Why do you hate our country?
I have a reply to mark that’s in the filter somewhere…
After all this time, is it not maddening that we still have no plan in Iraq? Keeping in mind that hope is not a plan.
mark
Withraw=bloody fiasco…Maybe.
Stay=bloody fiasco….Proved.
You are wrong, SeattleJew. To speak out publicly is not allowed. However, when presenting testimony to Congress the testimony is supposed to be candid. That is, not whats ordered by the Chain of Command, but the truth.
It is not I that am falling into the trap on this one, but you. You are buying into the meme that the Executive Branch does not have to answer to Congress or the American People. That they are allowed to lie and misrepresent facts. That is the same position that Gonzales argued. It is the basis of the Unitary Executive principal.
Here is the oath that Gen. Petraeus took upon commission.
Here is what the U.S. Constitution has to say:
Congress writes and sets the rules for the military to follow. The President as Commander in Chief is supposed to execute those rules. Not ignore the ones he doesn’t want to follow. To order a subordinate to violate those rules is an illegal order. The subordinate is allowed (and expected, especially one of such high rank) to challenge the order and is allowed to refuse to follow the order. If the superior, in this case the President, wishes to file charges a Court Martial would be formed to determine whether the orders were legal.
If Gen. Petraeus had honor, he would have refused to follow the illegal order to mislead Congress. SeattleJew, you are the one falling into the trap. You are the one that is buying into the false meme. You are the one that is enabling their attack upon the truth.
Supporting our troops does not mean blindly supporting and defending catastrophically bad strategies and the people lying about them to cover their asses. It is the exact opposite. Supporting our troops is demanding that accurate assessments are made. That those charged to do so are telling the truth. And when they don’t, to call them the traitors that they are.
Again, Gen. Petraeus had a chance to tell the truth. He was honor bound to do so. His Oath of Allegiance required it. The rules set down by Congress required it. He chose to do otherwise. Therefore Gen. Petraeus betrayed his honor. Gen. Petraeus betrayed the Army. And Gen. Petraeus betrayed Congress and the people Congress represents. The only one that Gen. Petraeus didn’t betray was President Bush. In doing so, Gen. Petraeus willingly and knowingly followed an illegal order. As such, he surrendered his honor and deserves any and all derision thrown at him about those actions.
Again,
You are one of my favorite actors but the issue here is not wasting your ammo.
I know the oath, I also was in the USN and know that the Code dictates that oen goes through the chain of command. Was this the defence used at Nuremberg? Yes. But that does not mean it is invalid.
More importantly, folks like you are wasting your ammo on the wrong target. The guy in the soldier suit is no more the issue than the cops in Selma were. By focusing on whether Gen. Petraeus should quit (which he would have to if he followed out your ideas) you and MO and Geov take the heat off his boss.
It makes much more sense to point out what the Gen refused to say … he sees no plan behind what he is ordered to do.
I think it is time that the antiwar crown prepare to “moveon” before we become our own worst enemy.
BTW, SeattleJew, you may not have noticed but the Republican’s attempt to divert attention by attacking the ad hasn’t worked. In fact, it is showing signs of backfiring because the general public agreed with the ad.
The polling data shows that the average Joe didn’t believe Gen. Petraeus or President Bush. Imagine how much stronger the Democratic brand would have been if they had stood up to the Republican attacks rather than cowering in fear of the reprisal. Convincing themselves, but thankfully not the public, that the Republican Attack Machine is all powerful and that the masses are brainwashed to nod with it.
Fear is not the way live. Be it Fear of the terrorist. Be it Fear of your neighbors. Be it Fear of Republican Talking Points. One must show Courage when confronted with Fears. Deal with the basis of the Fear rather than cower or run away from it. Otherwise, you will never stop cowering and running.
Why can’t you Nutroots put your money where your mouth is? You say you support the troops but why haven’t I heard any of your organizations promoting the fund raiser that is going on to pay for the postage to send our troops Christmas packages? Oh wait that’s right, you would rather play partisan politics than support the troops that you love to bash.
http://www.operation-support-our-troops.org/
How about a PAY FOR POSTAGE FOR TROOPS page on your nutroots website?
Why cede the ground when it is unnecessary. In defending the ad the case against the President, how he abuses authority, the cronyism of his appointments, the fallacy of his planning (or lack thereof) all become part of the national discourse. It would be stronger if the party had the courage to stand up but even without them the argument is succeeding. People had their eyes opened with Katrina. They want an alternative. They want that alternative to have the courage of their convictions.
Notice that the Republicans are drawing attention to the ad less and less. That is because their false cries of outrage is backfiring and drawing people into the argument. That the majority of people agreed with the ad and saw the truth of it. That in discussing the ad, they are discussing how we got to this point and are concluding that the President is lying.
They know that Gen. Petraeus was speaking White House talking points. They know that the White House wrote his scripts. They saw what happened when he strayed unexpectedly. They know Gen. Petraeus’s loyalties are to the President and not to the military or the American People. They know that Gen. Petraeus betrayed us. They also know that when the Democrats were called to defend us, they cowered. Once again reinforcing the meme that Democrats are weak willed.
Fortunately or unfortunately they are the alternative and therefore get grudging support. Which is why the polls inched further towards the Democrats. But if they had shown a spine. If they stood up to the Republican Attacks, the swing would have been larger.
25 SJ
Shorter SeattleJew:
Don’t criticize what General Petraeus said. Criticize someone else, not him, for what he didn’t say.
@27
Ummm…. Because they have. Maybe not to your pet project but towards many others. It was the netroots that broadcast the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed and elsewhere in the VA system. It is the netroots that encourages its readership to give to a wide array of military charities rather than focusing on one or two in particular. It is the netroots that tries to push Congress into fully funding the VA and increasing GI benefits for college and housing. It is the netroots that screams about 2nd, 3rd and now 4th deployment of forces within a 4-5 year range into a warzone. It is the netroots that constantly says that the military has been going beyond the call of duty and surpassing any reasonable expectation but is ill served by the President’s Administration.
Stop listening to lies by Faux News and actually investigate for yourself.
27 IAFFF
Yeah, our troops’ biggest worry is postage.
@ 13
Why do I hate our country? That is the most perplexing, presumptuous, illogical, backwards ass question I have ever been asked.
You should be asking yourself the same thing.
You know, if KVI and the GOP didn’t consider (and explicitly make) “support our troops” synonymous with “support the president’s insane policies” I’d feel a lot better about giving to a cause like the one they are running.
33 M
yeah, it’s almost as if that question were a parody…hmmm…
passes hand over head
Swoosh!
Daddy Love @ 35
Old Mark really doesn’t get it, does he? He asks why the left wants the nation to lose in Iraq and thinks it’s a fair question, yet gets all atwitter over my asking him why he hates this country. These guys are really dense, aren’t they? Our work is cut out for us. Soldier on.
@29 First of all, while I served (did you or are you a typical ARS victim?) I understand that we do have avounteer military. I appreciate their service but this is a choice.
Second, I attend Fort Lewis 4th celebrations, I have never seen you there.
Third, far MORE important than sending Christmas packages, I support the veteran’s organizations. Guess what, they are hurting. It is pretty easy to cheer on guys willing to die for your cause, it is another thing to support them after they come home in a basket. Do you donate money to vet care? Have you ever even been in a VA?
The ARS right reminds me of the Romans cheering on the hired gauls to fight for Rome’s luxuries. No taxes please, we will live of the looting!
You know what, I knew real patriots who serves in the military. My own Dad earned a silver star. I ahd friends shot down over ‘nam. I have yet to meet a Bushie who is willing to serve.
30 Daddy
You are close, I would go further.
Bush;s choice for his final efforts in Iraq testifies that eh has not been told why he is there.
A great MOveOn ad?
Mr. Bush, Stop misusing this man! He is a better soldier than you are a President!
Michael Caine
I choose to believe Gen Petaeus becuase I don’t believe that he would put the troops under his command at risk for nothing. I do believe he takes his oath as an officer and member of the army dead serious. I believe he is a man of honor. I do believe he makes his decisions based on the welfare of his men, not the approval ratings of the president. I do believe that he answered every question asked of him by both sides while testifying, and that they had every opportunity to ask what they wanted. I believe that he believes he can achieve the goals laid out by our civilian leadership and that he is giving his guidance as to the means to make it happen.
I do believe that no matter what news was delivered, nothing would make you happy short of him saying, ” I recommend we pull out all troops immediately”
I believe he is a man of honor and he told the truth.
I enlisted into the Air Force in 1986 when I was 19. I had a freak injury while in basic training. At the time I didn’t know what the injury was. I thought it was a torn ligament or damaged rotator cuff up until a couple years ago. All I knew was that when I did any strenuous activity that involved the right arm I would have a lot of extremely painful spasms. Also about once or twice a year, on average, I would have sessions where the entire back would seize up.
Last year I found out that it was actually Thoracic Outlet Syndrome compounded by Complex Regional Pain
Syndrome. Fancy words for a nerve gets pinched, as well as major arteries, whenever I raise my arm even to slightly below my shoulder when the TOS is active. When it is really bad I can’t raise it higher than about 30 degrees (with straight in front being 90.) Even when it is good, I can raise it about level with a salute. In my younger days I would joke about it being perfect for being a Hitler Youth. A bad taste joke, but I was young.
What used to be an occasional (once to twice a year) event when the nerve would get hyper-sensitized due to overexertion has for the last 5 years become a daily routine. Enough that even on good days I have to take powerful narcotics just to remain sane.
The Air Force classified it as curvature of the spine (even though mine is minimal) and declared the injury not their fault. SSDI is still in process. So far it has robbed 5 years of my life and I am just now finding drugs that have given me more good days than bad days. Any sudden vector change sets the shoulder off. Getting up from sitting is ok if done infrequently. Driving in city with lots of stops and starts (not to mention the expansion gaps) will activate the shoulder in about 5 to 10 minutes. Elevators are my bane.
But this is probably more information than you wanted. So to answer your question more succinctly. Yes, I served but because the military didn’t want to acknowledge its responsibility for my injury, I have no veteran benefits whatsoever. Just the injury.
Oh and my dad, he was a Green Beret during the Veit Nam War period. He never was shipped to Veit Nam, he was a combat first aid instructor for the Green Beret. A quirk about Green Berets back then. They only allowed Green Beret to train other Green Beret, so he went through the entire training.
My Grandfather managed to finish his college degree, medical school and interning just in time for the World War II to end. It was rushed due to the war and he finished the entire regimen in 5 years. Starting shortly after WWII began with the desire to enter the service and save as many lives as possible as quickly as possible.
My wife’s father was a parachuter that was one of the men that parachuted into France the day before D-Day. He also participated in the liberation of Buchenwald (iirc.) He is buried in the Tahoma National Cemetery.
I do find the whole holier than thou line to be trite. Believe me, I have nothing but respect and love for the men that put on the uniform and wear it with honor. I have nothing but disdain for those that cowardly hide behind them, mouthing support while refusing to honor commitments made to them. And when it comes to those that dishonor them by abusing the trust and honor that is their due to lie or worse, I call them what they are, traitors.
@39 Blind faith is never good to have in any mortal. Gen Petraeus has betrayed the trust you placed in him. The statistics he gave in Congress were lies, completely out of whack with every other organization that studies Iraq. His mission was to provide breathing room for 6 months with him promising that will produce Iraqi reconciliation. Not only did that not come to pass, but the situation got worse. Rather than acknowledge that obvious fact, he tried to change what his mission was after it was over.
Hey Michael Caine: You typed “It was the netroots that broadcast the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed and elsewhere in the VA system.”
I’m glad you brought that up.
Who was contracted to fix those conditions Michael Caine? Perini Corp
Who is the chairman of Perini Corp? Richard C. Blum
Who is Richard C. Blum? Dianne Feinstein’s husband
Who is Dianne Feinstein? Donk Moonbat! Senator who used to sit on Milcon who steered the funds to fix WRAMC to her husband’s company Perini Corp WHO DID NOT DO THE JOB, AND SHE HAD TO QUIT THE COMMITTEE EARLIER THIS YEAR.
Puddy remembers!
@40…MC…
Thoracic Outlet Syndrome is nasty. The surgery necessary to correct it isn’t pleasant nor uncomplicated.
All kidding aside…If you haven’t been evaluated by a neurologist, do so immediately. I was once diagnosed with TOC by a family physician who sent me to physical therapy, which was a total bust. Finally, a neurologist, in nothing flat, diagnosed the numbness in my left arm and hand (ruined my piping for a long time, BTW) as ulnar nueropathy, which was mostly rectified by out-patient neurosurgery.
While we disagree on most things political, I respect both your willingness to serve when you did, and I sympathize with what you’re experiencing now.
The Piper
Just heard Gen. Wesley Clark heap praise upon Gen. David Petraeus as someone who used to work for him and for whom he has the highest respect and regard as an honest man, a loyal soldier, and a commander who deeply and genuinely cares for the soldiers under his command.
Additionally, Gen. Clark had nothing good to say about the MoveOn.org ad, and he went out of his way to repudiate it.
John McCain, who knows a bit about things military, said of Hillary Clinton that if she can’t stand up to MoveOn.Org, how can you expect her to stand up to anyone else in the world.
Also…now some lefty bloggers are dumping on Elizabeth Edwards, of all people, for deviating from the party line. Sheesh…whatever happened to free speech and diversity? Jane Hamsher ragged on Edwards, not for the truth of what she said, but because she was critical of the left.
I guess it’s OK to rip into the right, but never criticize the left even when it’s deserved and right on target.
In the war of words, the MoveOn.org ad was a blunder, and there’s not a single, solitary Democrat of any stature saying anything to the contrary.
The Piper
@43 Thanks. Right now they are doing botox injections into the brachial plexus. Along with Lyrica to reduce the nerve sensitivity and opiates to lower pain when aggravated. They are trying to ween me off of the methadone but have me keep the percacets for flares. They also want me to quit smoking but the pain is a major trigger. Though I have been reducing and hope to be completely stopped by Thanksgiving.
I have been seen by a couple of neurologists. Basically, the nerve conduction tests ruled out peripheral nerve entrapment. They have tried various therapies, ranging from drugs (antidepressants, anticonvulsants and muscle relaxants) to physical therapy to acupuncture to massage therapy. All of them (except the drugs which usually did nothing and the PT which made it worse) had short term effects of relieving pain but as soon as I stood up it would build up again. The next surgical step would be to remove my first rib, however they are leary of operating as the procedure mainly for congenital TOS (born with it) rather than disputed TOS (caused by injury.) There has been some discussion on Ketamine but the procedure is not FDA approved so they really can’t discuss much on it and can’t actually perform it.
Thanks again Piper. I do enjoy our discussions, they can get heated but atleast I know you are actually thinking usually. Just remember that if sometimes I seem less cohesive in my post that I probably took a pain killer recently. :)
@45 sympathy
If there is no efferent issue (motor nerves) do yuou know what the evidence is for TOS? Not sure I can help but if yu want to send me private email I can at least think if I know anyone who might be able to.
TOS has been used for many years as a default diagnosis for nerve impingements on nerves leading into the shoulder and down into the arm. That is why Piper’s GP initially diagnosed his as TOS and when he went to a neurologist they distilled it into an Ulnar Nerve Entrapment.
Luckily for him, that was repairable with an outpatient treatment of actually carving a groove in the bone for the nerve to be cradled in. Protecting it from ligament that was squeezing it into the bone when the arm was in certain protracted extensions.
There are three basic diagnostic procedures that are currently used. The first that was used on me was to have someone hold the arm in an extended position (the patient is supposed to be as relaxed as possible, to the point that if the support is released the arm would flop to the side.) The arm is then gently raised to be even with the shoulder. The diagnosis is confirmed for the broad spectrum of TOS and related issues if the blood pressure in the extremity (wrist usually) decreases noticeably as the arm is raised. For severe cases, such as mine, the blood pressure is completely gone when the arm is raised even to the shoulder.
The second method is similar but not as reliable to detect. Especially if the cause is beyond the rotator cuff. That is to again have the patient in a relaxed state and manually turn the head (the clinician physically turns the patients head) while checking for reduction in blood pressure.
The third method is to use Ultrasound imaging to monitor the vascular flow through the brachial plexus into the shoulder/arm as it is raised and lowered. On some it shows diminished flow. On mine and others with severe TOS the blood flow was completely stopped. Luckily the minor arteries and capillaries still allow enough blood flow to enter the arm that I don’t have to worry about tissue death. It does cause my arm to go numb and fall asleep if I hold the arm in one position to long, however.
I am typing these by memory so there may be small details I forgot but the basic principles and procedures are correct. Also there are numerous other diagnosis methods used that have varying support but little consensus. After diagnosis of the broad spectrum that TOS gets lumped as, the specific and true TOS gets diagnosed as a process of elimination.
That is, it is proved that you don’t have various nerve entrapments up the arm and through the shoulder until you reach the actual Thoracic Outlet. The Nerve Conduction Test early on, ruled out impingements upon the nerve like Piper had. There are also various other negative proof used, that I don’t remember off hand, until it is decided that none of the other possibilities are true.
TOS in itself is painful and annoying but is not truly disabling, other than not being able to raise your arm all the way up. You can usually change the angle of rotation on the arm and lift it above your head and while the spasms are incredibly painful they are often very brief. Which leads to the second half of the diagnosis, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.
Basically, the nerve gets over sensitized over time by the frequent spasms. It then starts to send signals to the brain in an amplified manner such that casual and minor pains, as small as a simple touch, are interpreted as major. It is much more complex than that, but the description is a simple explanation that is more or less correct. That is where the Lyrica is used to lower the responsiveness of the nerves. It is also where Ketamine induced comas are used to theoretically “reboot” the system. Though again, Ketamine is not an FDA approved method in the U.S.
SeattleJew, would love to email you but I can’t find your email address. Mine is posted on DKos in my Diary Page under the nym of Tempus Figits.
Well, Iran is certainly cooperating with the Bush agenda:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....ran118.xml
@48
It sounds to me as if you are seeing good people but if I can help I will. If you go to my blog, seatlejew, ther is an email address in my personal description. Since I do not usually read that address, leave a message in one of the comments telling me to look for email.
Tell me ion the mail where your care is. I know a lot of folks in town. At a guess the issue sounds vascular. In generla that vessel is hard to graft but the may be alteranteive such as shunting or even an external stent, I am one of the world’s scientific experts on blood vessel ,, but not a clinician so all of this may be worthlrdss, but at least I may be able to figure out who you could see.
Another thought is that I am regular at DL, So if you come there and see a fat old Jew, that is me.