Posted on 12/05/2006 6:50:29 AM PST by Mo1
FROM THE SENATE Hearing on Robert Gates
The Senate Armed Services Cmte. holds an open hearing on the nom- ination of Robert Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Sec. of De- fense. CIA director from 1991-93 under Presidents Bush & Clinton, Gates is currently President of Texas A&M University. Senators are expected to call for a new Iraq strategy during the hearing.
NOW ON C-SPAN2 & C-SPAN3
Did you understand what all of that stuff that Warner was talking about meant??
He got off on a thing about the journalist embeds..and he lost me.
Kids just got home from school and I keep getting distracted and not hearing all that's being said now
He's right
Thanks for the update
Levin now asking about the Iran Contra events
Totally understandable...
Levin is all worried about Gates saying he didn't remember thing from Iran/Contra.
I wonder if he was so worried about both Clintons using that as an excuse not to answer questions in the past...ugh
The bottomline of all this hot air is: The battle between the Hildebeast and ObamaSoros for the RAT nomination, will be fun to watch provided that the Republicans decide to run an actual Republican in '08.
Cspan will reair the hearing at 8pm est
Not to split hairs but the total on the Iraq coalition casualty page ( http://www.icasualties.org/oif/ ) as of 4 dec. 06 is 2907.
My point being earlier that we have absorbed almost the same amount of casulaties over 5 years as we did in one day and the outrage is over the military ones, they ignore the civilian death toll because it reflects negatively on them.
So the administration should be more foreful in putting the casulaiteis in perspective.
And the fact of the matter is that casualties are much higher since 9/11 than on 9/11. You are only talking about deaths. We have almost 23,000 wounded, many of them very severely. They should not be ignored when the costs of the war are tallied. And the official numbers do not include military contractors or other civilian personnel in theater. Some figures suggest as many as 500 contractor personnel have died in Iraq.
No one - and you can't point to anyone - is 'ignoring' the deaths on 9/11. It isn't an equivalency game. The issue isn't whether the costs of the war are equal to the costs of that attack. The issue is whether the costs of the war are an appropriate price to pay for the benefit realized.
It is an equivalence game. Have you read anything recently? I can't tell you how many stories I've seen in the news about "Iraq deaths now surpass 9/11" or the countdown the media did to 1000 and then 2000 deaths in Iraq. They made it an equivalence game, not us.
What happens next? Is it possible that he won't even get confirmed and then W can appoint someone else?
Um...no. He'll get confirmed.
I despise this man and wish Dubya had not chosen him to be SecDef.
IMO, he can't shine one of Rumsfeld's shoes.
Blech! Very disappointing.
Just wishful thinking that some miracle would occur...like another Rummy.
Hopefully they talked with him in the woodshed. The man is a lamebrain and will be dishwater compared to Rumsfeld's diamond.
No one wishes that more than me...I really thought Rummy was gonna stay until the end of the term. I was more upset about him leaving than about losing Congress.
forget the numbers game.
had we fought "total war" in iraq and had 5000 KIA in a 6 month blitz that pacified the country - 60% of americans would have supported it. the lesson of vietnam we didn't learn in this war - is that when americans don't perceive that you are on a path to victory, when it appears to be a stalemate with the slow bleed of monthly casualties, seemingly with no endgame - that's when they turn negative on the war.
and add the MSM and the Dems to that - who have a vested interest in seeing the country and this president fail - Bush simply "played the clock" for too long. americans can't tolerate a speech every 6 months, where we are told we need "just another 12 months" for iraqi forces to take over.
I'm so disappointed. Losing Rummy is bad enough. Replacing him with this guy? I don't understand...
Tell me about it.
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