You know it’s serious when Bush finally takes note. The last time something contrary to his dignitudish certitude penetrated the concrete and barbed wire around his shrunken brain was when Americans took Congressional control from Republicans in last year’s elections.
If he thinks he took a whuppin’ then, look out. Iraq’s chaos and Republicans’ inability to keep denying it have reached critical mass.
After a weekend that left hundreds dead and wounded, there’s one thing Iraq’s leaders agree on: their security forces are outgunned. They now suggest civilians take up the slack.
Prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that claimed more than 220 lives, including 60 who died today in a surge of bombings and shootings around Baghdad.
The calls reflect growing frustration with the inability of Iraqi security forces to prevent extremist attacks.
Things are so bad that some in Iraq are ready to stop pretending that what they have is a government.
Another prominent Sunni lawmaker, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had failed to provide services and security but he stopped short of saying his followers would seek to topple the Shiite-led government.
“The situation has become terribly bad,” al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press. “All options are open for us. We are going to study the situation thoroughly, and we are going to look into the possible measures which go with the interests of the Iraqi people. We will also consider whether to keep on with the government or not.”
Republicans in Congress are finally catching on. And they’re not happy.
ABC News has been told the White House is in “panic mode” over the recent defections of Republican senators on the president’s stay-the-course policy in Iraq…
The Republican defections are seen as “a crack in the dike,” according to the senior White House official, and National Security Adviser Steven Hadley is most concerned…
The source of all this concern is the reckoning about to come later this week, when Bush has to acknowledge just how bad things are, and how, even without Rumsfeld to blame, Bush just can’t get his Iraq act together.
A senior White House official told ABC News the report will be “mixed.” The White House does believe there has been progress on the security front in Iraq, but the political progress is obviously very bad.
One official familiar with the report said there are some bizarre categories under benchmark that say “satisfactory, nonsatisfactory and unsatisfactory”.
And yet, even with classifications like subsatisfactory, dissatisfactory, and freakin-bad-anti-satisfactory, Bush is unwilling to do anything different. Isn’t that the A.A. definition of insanity? To keep doing the same thing and expect different results? We are like, so there.
Despite the report’s mixed conclusions about the president’s policy, senior White House officials told ABC News not to expect Bush to announce any kind of changes or new strategy.
- Topic: Politics
- Topics: Iraq, Worst President Ever
While the performance ratings for the Iraqi benchmarks may be bizarre, Bush’s Iraqi benchmark ratings are worse. They are mis-mal- and non-feasance, and the Republican enablers now speaking out to cover own their political asses are no better.I don’t trust them to do any more than “tut-tut” over Iraq, hoping that spreading some of their precious oil on the troubled waters will be enough to quiet the rabble. But, maybe I’m just too cynical.
Well, the writing is on the wall. folks.
The UN Security Council authorization for Coalition Forces to remain in Iraq is due to expire in December. It can only be renwed by invitation of the Iraqi gov’t and the Iraqi Parliament recently passed a binding resolution to petition the UN Security Council to NOT extend authorization for Coalition Forces to remain in Iraq without putting the question before the Parliament for a vote. In the past, the invitation has come only from Maliki.
When the Iraqi gov’t passed their binding resolution, Busholini himself, along with Minority leader, Mitch McConnell said that if the Iraqi gov’t asks them to leave they would. Carve that in stone, guys.
Recent Repugnican “defections” are just self serving ways of dealing with the inevitable, without losing the next election.
Good advice for Americans too. When the crooks become uncontrollable and uncountable to the law, it’s time to take up arms and defend ourselves!