Booman Tribune

Good News for John McCain

by BooMan
Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 06:13:25 PM EST

The news out of Iraq is horrible. The main oil pipelines in the south have been blown up, while fighting in Basra threatens to turn into a "nightmare for the dwindling British forces based near by." In Baghdad, the Green Zone in under sustained mortar attack and the State Department has ordered everyone into hardened facilities.

On Thursday, the State Department instructed all Embassy personnel not to leave reinforced structures. A memo sent to embassy staff and obtained by The Associated Press says employees are required to wear helmets and other protective gear if they must venture outside and strongly advises them to sleep in blast-resistant locations instead of trailers.

Things outside the Green Zone are even worse:

Police said gunmen attacked the east Baghdad home of Tahseen Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Baghdad security plan launched in February 2007 to stabilize the capital. According to officials in the Interior Ministry, which oversees police, the attackers shot and wounded at least one of Sheikhly's guards and ransacked his home before fleeing with the spokesman.

Sheikhly has appeared frequently at news conferences alongside U.S. officials discussing what they consider progress of the security plan.

Other reports say that Sheikhly's home was burnt to the ground. In other parts of the city, Sadrists demonstrated against the government.

The protests began around 10:00 am (0700 GMT) outide the office of the Sadr movement in its Baghdad bastion, the impoverished Sadr City district of some two million people.

"Maliki you are a coward! Maliki is an American agent! Leave the government, Maliki! How can you strike Basra?" shouted the crowd as they began gathering in the area while Iraqi and US troops sealed off the streets.

Meanwhile, our president gave an upbeat speech this morning and admonished Congress.

"Some members of Congress decided the best way to encourage progress in Baghdad was to criticize and threaten Iraq's leaders while they're trying to work out their differences," Bush told a military audience at the cavernous U.S. Air Force museum.

"But hectoring was not what the Iraqi leaders needed," Bush said. "What they needed was security and that is what the `surge' has provided."

Somehow this must be good news for John McCain.



Display:
by Oui on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 06:19:32 PM EST
This is just one more reason we can't let Obama become President, since he hasn't yet passed the Commander in Chief threshold like  Hillary "Sniper Fire" Clinton and John "Four More Years" McCain have.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. Franklin D. Roosevelt
by Steven D on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 06:22:19 PM EST
are we heading for a real time version of coppola's apocalypse now ending?

...an air strike being called and the base green zone being blown to bits in a spectacular display, consequently killing everyone left...

or a re-enactment of the helicopter retreat at the embassy in nam?...the parallels are striking.

the revolution will not be televised...

by dada on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 06:56:56 PM EST
Bush: it's all proof that the "surge" is working. We're just not getting it.

by shergald on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 07:15:35 PM EST
well, we're getting the bill.
by BooMan on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 07:21:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
This shit sickens me and I miss Billmon's wise cynicism about now.


by mainsailset on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 07:29:11 PM EST
Here's a good article on the Situation in Iraq.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/80580/?page=entire

by 1watt on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 08:52:44 PM EST
Bush says that he is pleased with the current fighting over in Basra including the attacks on the green zone. Whenever Bush something weird, hold onto your jock strap cause he's got something up his sleeve.

My hunch it just might be NSPD-51 (National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive) signed by Bush back in May 9th 2007. Just to refresh recent campaign saturated memories, this was the highly controversial directive that Bush granted the President (himself) extraordinary powers for any "Catastrophic Emergency" without any permission or oversight from Congress. "Catastrophic emergency" was loosely defined as "any incident REGARDLESS OF LOCATION, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U>S> population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS."

A serious battle/bombing of the Iraq Green Zone resulting in heavy destruction could (in Bush's opinion) meet the conditional definition of NSPD-51 and trigger the so-called "Catastrophic Emergency provisions of this directive. As I recall, under these provisions the President can effectively assume control of all state and local governments along with all major business enterprises. Last year when this directive was signed, many people expressed the fear that Bush could use it a pretext to remain in office long after his term expires, by simply suspending any possible Presidential succession until after the "Emergency" has been eliminated.

A flight of fantasy? I think not. After eight years we have all come to know many of the idiosyncrasies of George W. Bush and the way he expresses himself in public. So I have my fingers crossed when he says, with his well known wry half smile, that he's pleased with the current fighting in Iraq.

by parvenu on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 08:59:05 PM EST
I think Bush's attempt will end up something like this:

Glendower:

  I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

Hotspur:

  Why, so can I, or so can any man;
  But will they come when you do call for them?

Knut

by Knut Wicksell (b_didnn@hotmail.ca) on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 09:28:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
This is shaping up precisely as Gilliard predicted. It's Dien Bien Phu all over again.

I think we will be out of Iraq before Nov, and we will long for the days of evacuations off the top of roof tops.

sigh

by AliceDem on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 09:28:47 PM EST
l'm afraid you're right alicedem.

for those not old enough to remember, the recent attacks in iraq are eerily reminiscent of the tet offensive in vietnam in 1968.  perhaps more than any other singular event in that misadventure, it marked the beginning of the end.

"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."

fredrich hegel

reintrepreted by robert fisk vis-a-vis iraq, afghanistan, and ultimately pakistan:

... It is our presence, our power, our arrogance, our refusal to learn from history and our terror - yes, our terror - of Islam that is leading us into the abyss. And until we learn to leave these Muslim peoples alone, our catastrophe in the Middle East will only become graver. There is no connection between Islam and "terror". But there is a connection between our occupation of Muslim lands and "terror". It's not too complicated an equation....


the revolution will not be televised...
by dada on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 10:58:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Tet offensive of 1968 wouldn't be so bad. I am thinking of Dien Bien Phu 1953-54

much much uglier

by AliceDem on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 11:19:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Display:
Go to: [ Booman Tribune Homepage : Top of page : Top of comments ]
Menu
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password





Find textbooks at Alibris!

NOTE: Overstock bests Amazon's prices and is "blue."

THE BOOKS WITH "BUZZ":
______________

Senator Edward M. Kennedy tells his extraordinary personal story:

True Compass: A Memoir
by Edward M. Kennedy.

Read Barack Obama's vision for America:

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
by Barack Obama

Boran2 and maryb2004 recommend:

The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime
by Jasper Fforde

Must-have information for all presidents-and citizens-of the twenty-first century?

Physics for Future Presidents: The Science behind the Headlines
Richard A. Muller

rae recommends:

Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire
by Morris Berman.

On BooMan’s shelf:

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin

This looks interesting:

Adventure Divas
by Holly Morris

Here’s a good one from
Elizabeth Gilbert:

Eat Pray Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

"Crash" * Best Motion Picture, Academy Awards * Only $11.79 at Overstock * 2006 SAG Winner, Best Ensemble

Check out
Powell's new section:
NEW FAVORITES

Selected new arrivals at 30% off

Recommended by Indianadem and ejmw:
The Conscience of a Liberal
by Paul Wellstone

From northcountry’s bookshelf:

The New Golden Age:
The Coming Revolution Against
Political Corruption and Economic Chaos
by Ravi Batra

A novel about contractors in Iraq from the woman that runs The Spy That Billed Me:

Outsourced: A Novel
from RJ Hillhouse.


Great Deals
----- * ^ * -----

Find mystery novels by Nancy Pickard ("Kansas")



Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power by Phyllis Bennis (interviewed on DN!)


Featured by Keith Olbermann, New (Powell's Sale): Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum (whose other books merit serious consideration)


"Explosive" State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
by James Risen


The book the CIA doesn't want you to read: Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander
Larry Johnson's review


BT's all-time best seller:

PERMACULTURE:
A Designers' Manual

$79.95 * Sale: $59.95


Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History (Third Edition)


The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor And Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!


The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by Timothy Egan


Green Press Initiative
----- * ^ * -----


Journalistas: 100 Years of the Best Writing and Reporting by Women Journalists by Eleanor Mills * NYT review


Bury Me Standing: the Gypsies & Their Journey


1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus



Brokeback Mountain
by Annie Proulx
----- * ^ * -----
Check out Powell's
"At The Movies"


Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World by Noam Chomsky (Power & Terror: Post 9-11 Talks)


The Price of Privilege:

How Parental Pressure and
Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of
Disconnected and Unhappy Kids

by Madeline Levine


Save 35-70% on
name brand clothing,
footwear, and outdoor gear
at SierraTradingPost.com

:





We listened to PEN American Center's "State of Emergency" and found 1940s books by Curzio Malaparte only at Alibris. (Selection (MP3) excerpted from "The Skin.")

Alibris - Books You Thought You'd Never Find
Banned Books * Are you a fan of Film Noir, Art House, Documentaries or Hong Kong Action? * Searching for a long-lost children's book or a first printing of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on vinyl? Find it at Alibris!

:
:
www.Patagonia.com


Listed on BlogShares

© 2009 Booman Tribune