Posted on 11/11/2006 5:38:22 PM PST by FairOpinion
A commission of experts appointed by President George W Bush will advise him to abandon his dream of cementing a new democratic system in Iraq and instead tackle the security crisis so that the withdrawal of American troops can begin.
The advice from the Iraq Study Group, a high-level bipartisan panel headed by James Baker, the former Republican secretary of state, will sideline the so-called Bush doctrine of spreading democracy in the Middle East. Mr Bush will meet the panel tomorrow and Tony Blair is expected to offer his views via a video-conference call on Tuesday.
Mr Gates is a member of the Iraq Study Group and has been a strong critic of his predecessor's handling of policy in Iraq and the use of pre-war intelligence. He will provide the White House with the political cover for changes that would have been unthinkable a few months ago.
The Baker panel, which has been charged with looking at all options for Iraq, is expected to recommend a phased US troop withdrawal, timed to accord with deadlines for Iraqi forces' taking responsibility for specific security zones.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
There is misinformation being spread around deliberately. I'm not falling for any of it.
President Bush didn't become a different person on November 7th. And the RAT leadership doesn't have that much power. We just need to be patient, and keep thinking clearly.
Did I say it was?
If we need to temporarily increase the troops we should.
Maybe you haven't noticed the Army and Marine units meeting themselves coming and going.
My bet is he bleeds yellow when cut.
Kudos! Even better!
Okay, this is your reminder.
That is true....
Excellent points -- I looked at your home page and you are completely correct, the socialists have taken over the Democrat party and are determined to destroy the US and nobody is listening, until it will be too late.
Posse comitatus does not apply to the use of our armed forces in combating an invasion and that is what we have on our southern border.
"The main object was and is still riding the civilized world of the evil terrorists who want to kill us all who refuse to bow down to their religious belief's."
Really?
All we've done is polarized more muzzies against us. We better get the bullet factories working overtime...we've got another 2-1/2 billion more to kill.
Lee Hamilton
Vernon Jordan
William Perry
Chuck Robb
Leon Panetta
GOP commission members:
James Baker
Lawrence S. Eagleburger
Edwin Meese
Alan Simpson
Sandra Day O'Connor
One highlight of the Baker Commission will be to setup disintegration chambers for Israeli Jews. This way every time a suicide bombing or mortar attack is thwarted, the number of Jews who had expected to be killed will be required to turn themselves in to be vaporized for the sake of peace.
We will have adopted the posture that works so well for Europe.
When did it become our job to be father and mother to the whole freakin' world-- guaranteeing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for everyone? We can't afford to do that in blood or treasure. Life sucks for some people-- like the people born into sh!tty families and neighborhoods in the US-- and, just as we ridicule Democrats who believe we have some obligation to make every downtrodden person into a man of wealth and taste, we should be ridiculed for believing we have some obligation to make every citizen of the world a man with rights to free expression and such and being free from fear. Because we can't, it doesn't make us not a superpower, it makes us not God. We should be able to manage with admitting that we aren't God.
Poor souls were led to believe that their brave act of voting would instantly and magically bring peace and prosperity to their country. The uneducated had no real understanding of real democracy and freedom. The act of going to the polls is important but there is so much more to democracy and they knew nothing about it. As one Iraq member of pariliament has said. American opened the bird cage they had been imprisioned in for 1400 years but they have no knowledge as to how to proceed out of the cage.
I remember back in 2000 we were planning on a great future with all of our loved ones participating in some form of vacation or entertainment together living our lives peaceably.
Now every year after 2001 we have memorials to help those left behind try to ease the pain of seeing their loved ones on tv dropping from the World Trade Center. Or the huge hole left in PA. The Pentagon might have restored the building but there are still lives marred from that day. I looked forward to seeing and reading Barbara Olsen's work. Too bad others planned on destroying nations.
Seems a lot of things changed after 2000.
We've made it 5...
We could make it 10, but it will require leadership. It will require selling the war to america again and again. And frankly, the silence has been deafening.
I myself am not advocating American withdraw from Iraq. I am however questioning weather manufacturing a liberal democracy ex nihilo is all that good an idea.
In the first place the American people quite unrealistically will expect that to happen fast, and will in all likelihood give up on it as soon as it becomes obvious that even at best America will have to maintain that democracy for the foreseeable which means we simply never will be able to leave except at the risk of said democracy collapsing.
Second, what is so important about justifying our actions with a "legitimate" Iraqi government? Any government that has the ability to provide the Iraqis with a healthy degree of liberty and is strong enough to maintain itself is "legitimate" in my book and as long as it is friendly to America and opposed to terrorism, I'd be happy with it. The assumption that a true democracy in the Arab world will be "anti-terrorist" I don't buy. This insistence on creating a working and stable "democracy" within a period of time that the American people will have the energy for is unrealistic in the extreme.
As I said in a previous post, with this policy "we run the risk of reenacting the Weimar Republic in Bagdad." And the fact is, our successes are only appreciable in the context of a peaceful and liberal society.
After serving a tour in 67, I remember what it was like on my second tour in 69 and 70 after the signal had been sent to the military that we would be getting out of Vietnam. It was as if a bell had been rung and everyone knows a bell cannot be unrung. Poor morale spread like a virus. I hope and pray that if the decision is made, we don't string it out for two or three more years.
Bernie Sanders? You made me swallow my tongue.
Re: Posse Comitatus Act
House Permits Pentagon to Assign U.S. Military Along Mexican Border
Friday, May 12, 2006 - Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is looking at ways the military can help provide more security along the U.S. southern border, defense officials said Thursday, once again drawing the nation's armed forces into a politically sensitive domestic role.
On Capitol Hill on Thursday, the House voted 252-171 to allow Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to assign military personnel under certain circumstances to help the Homeland Security Department perform border security. The House added the provision to a larger military measure.
.......
Under the Civil War-era Posse Comitatus Act, federal troops are prohibited from performing law enforcement actions, such as making arrests, seizing property or searching people. In extreme cases, however, the president can invoke the Insurrection Act, also from the Civil War, which allows him to use active-duty or National Guard troops for law enforcement.
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