That’s the end game. Everything else is just political posturing.

They, unlike the Democrats, didn’t abandon their vote when the war became unpopular.

amerpundit on May 10, 2007 at 2:27 PM

postscript: most Dems voted against the war.

Incomprehensible ingrates.

Next time, cruise missiles.

profitsbeard on May 11, 2007 at 2:22 AM

You know what would really be appropriate for these miscreants? Put a really monstrous dictator in charge who just makes their lives miserable.

Oy.

Anyways, did OUR Congress skip any of THEIR vacations? Aren’t we at war?

That’s a false comparison. Right now EVERYTHING is riding on the surge, and tangible progress therefrom. Tangible progress would result from the Iraqi legislature acting like an effective and legitimate governing body. In the current US political climate that gives them what? A few months, tops, or so it seems right now. A vacation under those circumstances is not only insulting, it’s suicidal.

Honora, it wasn’t a mistake to go there. It wasn’t a mistake to have stayed. It would’ve been a mistake to leave before being asked to.

I’d also like to point out that the Republicans have stayed with their original vote, in favor of military action. They, unlike the Democrats, didn’t abandon their vote when the war became unpopular.

amerpundit on May 10, 2007 at 2:27 PM

First, appreciate your ability (which is apparently really, really hard to develop) to disagree civilly.

Second, re: above. Heard Cheney on the news yesterday. He talked about how Iraq is the battle of our time, we can’t leave without risking mayhem and worse. In the next breath, he says, well our success in Iraq is really up to the Iraqis. You and others are now saying, well if they ask us to leave, that’s ok, we’re gone.

So, the “battle of our time” is largely out of our hands per Cheney. And, leaving Iraq when proposed by Dems is cutting and running because Iraq is now peppered with al Q and leaving will trigger a bloodbath. But if the Iraqi gov’t asks us to leave, that’s OK. ????

You can see my confusion: it looks for all the world like we are hoping to be asked to leave as a cover our ass thing. Are you suggesting the bloodbath won’t occur simply because the Iraqi gov’t gives us the heave ho???

Dems, you can go piss up a rope, but you come near me with your anti war, anti military crap and I will be sending you to a plastic surgeon.

LakeRuins on May 10, 2007 at 2:29 PM

Honey, you send me to a plastic surgeon and be prepared to hand over everything you own to me. Know what beats fists? Lots and lots of money. Ain’t American grand?

Asking the only force preventing pure unleashed carnage from erupting to leave, the Iraqis prove themselves to be hopelessly poisoned by their greed and tribal hatreds and ancient vendettas and sectarian Islamic insanity.

We gave them bowls and spoons- and they put the bowls on their heads and started poking each other’s eyes out with the spoons.

Incomprehensible ingrates.

Next time, cruise missiles.

Anyways, did OUR Congress skip any of THEIR vacations? Aren’t we at war?

Keep in mind, aside from Sunni Arabs, most Iraqis are not that unhappy with things today. Over 50% of the non-Sunni-Arab population says life is “quite good” or “very good,” whereas the American public probably puts it at 90% “very bad.” It may seem like a hellhole of violence to us, but these people just spent 24 years under Saddam Hussein and many are still digging relatives out of mass graves.

USA, all the way!

You go to war with the public you have. Right now we don’t have the public to fight, and we have to deal with this fact.

Keljeck on May 10, 2007 at 1:07 PM

Two words: PAPER TIGER. Anyone who doesn’t believe that’s what this is about is completely missing the farking point (I’m lookin’ at you, leftards), and God help us and the world if they think it’s just a rhetorical issue. Maybe it’s just time to knock the Iraqis back into line and stop kissing their collective behinds, so we can get the job done and secure their crappy country (and the rest of the region, in the process).

Could you guys wait for that before wailing in a frothing panic? Or is it too much fun to whine and bitch about how doomed we all are?

Egads, I thought I was depressing.

Have the other 131 pols be approached to see what their exit strategy is?

Jen the Neocon on May 10, 2007 at 4:47 PM

Even if it is inaccurate, there’s no debating the fact that the Iraqi parliament is on vacation while our troops are dying for them. Kind of like the Democrats.

Heh, Allahpundit, you’ve crossed from admirable realism to embracing fatalism. Here’s the relevant line:

according to Nassar al-Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc.

Of course he’s going to claim that. The Sadrists also claim they’re the greatest army in the world, and probably claimed Al-Sadr was the father of Anna Nicole’s baby too.

Skepticism has to run both ways. I mean think about it: how many Iraqi MPs are really going to sign off on something that could be their death warrant?

This has “Jamil Hussein story” written all over it.

TallDave on May 10, 2007 at 3:39 PM

TallDave’s exactly right.
Take a deep breath and step back, it’s from the AP, which I call Al-Presseera, who are thoroughly in the bag for the bad guys.

Bush would have to have americans standing there alone.

nothing compared to the rant of my own. Wish I could say I could blame the Irish in me but I can’t. The constant defeatism I hear on the MSM side got me boiling. To any I offended I apologize.

I think we’re necessary for the future of Iraq and its people. However, if the government keeps pulling crap like this, or even on this one alone, its simply impossible to a) fight terror, or b) set up democracy. If the Iraqis themselves aren’t willing to cooperate in setting up their own democracy, there’s not reason our men and women should die doing so.

If the Iraqi government throws us out, there’s nothing we can do, but leave. Going against their will wouldn’t do anything but make the situation worse. If we need, we can bomb targets, to fight terror in Iraq. However, if the Iraqis themselves are going to do everything in their power to stop democracy, there’s no way to force it on them.

We, a rag tag group of minutemen, won against the British, because we wanted to. We wanted freedom more than anything, including life itself. We didn’t have the opportunity the Iraqis have. We didn’t have a world superpower come in, remove our problem, fight for us, build up a government for us, rebuild our country, strengthen our economy and defense, and stand by us.

Iraq has the opportunity, and the support of the President of the United States, and just enough of a majority in Congress, to give them that chance – a chance for freedom and self rule. It’s theirs to take or leave.

What I know is, the way you express your want for a stable, elected, free government, isn’t by teaming up with the very people who hate those qualities, and go off fighting for them. If the terrorist groups didn’t have support from the common man in Iraq, and in the Middle East, they’d be nothing. They’d be dead by now. Fact is, they have both support from the government, and regular people. All people? No. But enough.

Freedom is the Iraqis’ to lose.

Personally I’d like to see the Senate abolished.

I’d rather see it reinstated as the body that represents state legislatures, acting as a brake on the transfer of power to Washington.

There are thousands if not millions of laws that force states to enact certain laws, and enforce them to the satisfaction of some USGOV agency, that never could have been passed by a Senate that had to be elected by the state lawmakers coerced by those laws. 55 mph, uniform 21/yo drinking age, mandatory seatbelts….

according to Nassar al-Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc.

Of course he’s going to claim that. The Sadrists also claim they’re the greatest army in the world, and probably claimed Al-Sadr was the father of Anna Nicole’s baby too.

Skepticism has to run both ways. I mean think about it: how many Iraqi MPs are really going to sign off on something that could be their death warrant?

This has “Jamil Hussein story” written all over it.