BEIRUT -- Sigh Another attack on the war corps by a guy who's now the senior domestic policy advisor for President Bush. He's also the guy who wrote this gem:
In another article, this one at the American Enterprise Institute's Web site on June 20, 2005, Zinsmeister, after another period as an embed, wrote, "What the establishment media covering Iraq have utterly failed to make clear today is this central reality: With the exception of periodic flare-ups in isolated corners, our struggle in Iraq as warfare is over....Contrary to the impression given by most newspaper headlines, the United States has won the day in Iraq.... the battle of Iraq is no longer one of war fighting—but of policing and politics." The article is titled, "The War Is Over, and We Won."
Yeah, 'cause policing and politics have proven to be so easy. But I just don't have it in me today to take issues with this guy. Maybe I'm just whiny and appallingly soft.
I thought this was interesting…
Salon has posted a Der Spiegal interview with Iran’s Ahmadinejad:
[Link]
In the course of the interview Der Spiegel says the following:
It is interesting to see that this is apparently the mainstream perception of the status of the war in Iraq outside of the US.Of course this guy is the Zinsmeister is the man. He figured out how to spin the war so that “We won”.
An utter, unmitigated ass hat. Maybe he means the US has ‘won’ in the orwellian sense of the word…
Rational people on the left should either ignore this guy, or tacitly agree with him. The only way we’re going to get out of there is to paint the whole thing as a victory, and how many more deaths do we want to see? Of course the world knows that the whole thing was pre-ordained to fail, but we don’t have rational people running our country at present. The only way the neo-cons will pull out of there is if the world pretends to go along with this completely idiotic victory zeitgiest. They’re not rational about anything else, why would we expect them to be rational about this. Let them have their little conceit if it saves a few thousand more lives.
There is plenty happening in Iraq besides the violence.
www.centcom.mil
Sgt. Gehlen U.S. Central Command Public Affairs
If the US has REALLY won the war, why are there no plans of pulling out the troops?
I like the term cvanwey used above - ass hat, with a pause between the two words.
There will be troops in Iraq five years from now. There will be troops there in 2025.
They may be in huge “Superbases”, training, assisting in the training of Iraqis, Sending out units at the request of the Iraqi government or Military, but they will be there.
We might even have bases in Iran and India by that time.
Pakistan? Well, maybe after we have our war with them. Which might be sooner than we think.
Pakistan is just one well aimed bullet away from being governed by the Islamics.
Don’t forget that they already have the bomb.
The Democrat Administrations as well as the Republicans will continue to build our presence in the ME and in Eastern Europe, well into the future.
Even after Oil is not a problem, that part of the world will require our presence and focus.
Indonasia by then will be past dangerous to our security and well on its way to becoming a threat to American interests.
We will have plenty to blog and talk about for years and years and years..
Papa Ray
Then why bring in more troops?
SGT Gehlen,
Es gibt auch viel anderes dass im Gebiet Lebensraum passiert:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB146/index.htm
Sorry - given your family name couldn’t resist. Should add that I actually met your namesake, way back when. A very bright competent man, as you probably are also…
IMHO there is nothing we are currently doing in Iraq that will have a long-term positive effect. This was a fool’s errand from the onset. Hope I’m wrong but doubt it very much…
I don’t get it. It sounds like a lot of people here are whining…it’s as if they want more murder and violence so they can have something more to complain about and reason to say that, really, THEY WON THE ARGUMENT. Let’s face it, in these peoples’ minds, the U.S. government will be wrong NO MATTER WHAT IT DOES (that is, no matter what it does while Bush or another Republican is president)! I’m not a fan of Bush, but that’s what this is really about, isn’t it? So, now, what is the proposal? Pull out of Iraq? I say, go for it! But when all hell breaks loose there, I wonder how many western journalists will be running around saying: “The situation is indeed improving.” And remember who took over when there was a power vacuum in Afghanistan; those standard bearers of civil liberties, THE TALIBAN. Does that or something similar to it sound like an improvement for Iraq? If it does, then I repeat: Go for it. Pull the U.S. out of Iraq. The sooner the better.
I HATE THE “F” ING media!
I have seen things happen and seen the MAIN STRAM media mis-report it. The media is one of if not the LEAST respect professions in the US.
Hell, they make lawyers look good!
The stupid ass media OVER report bad thing and do NOT report good things or they UNDER report them. The media is responsible for our NOT being as effective as we should by reporting we were intercepting their cell phone calls.
The media has cost the lives of our spies and caused the Branch Dividans to be ready for the AFT raid which got all kinds of people killed. (To name a very few of the times our stupid ass media has screwed the American people.)
There are 18 areas in Iraq and only around four or five of them have problems. Only reading our media, you would think the whole country is in deep trouble.
I read blogs written by our troops in Iraq, by Iraqi’s living in Iraq and by free lance guys proven to be trustworthy like Michael Yon so I have a clue as to the facts.
The FACTS are Child, Zinsmeister is much closer to being right than YOU ARE!
So say a 71 year old ATHEIST VET.
Neil C. Reinhardt
Rational people on the left?
You on drugs?
On the far right you have programmed religious Robots who are pretty logical about everything OTHER than their religion and things connected with their religion. Like they are totally illogical on abortions, homosexuals AND putting their religious bull shit where it does not belong like in our pledge and on our money.
Then you have the LOONY LEFT who are clueless on damn near everything there is. Like Iraq, guns, defense spending, the death penalty, & the idiot unions who are bankrupting the state of Calif.
Mr. Rheinhardt,
Your views are understandable as you have been badly informed all your life. Watch one documentary on the palestine situation (not made by the israelis) and then get back to me about your world views. Maybe something by John Pilger. I would be very curious as to your resaction, as you sound like someone who feels strongly about justice. I guarantee you that you will be shocked at how little information we have about whats really going on over there. And then ask yourself, why do we never see any pictures of the green zone? Why no pictures of the enduring bases? Why doesn’t anyone know what Abu Ghraib looks like from the outside? The media is filtered alright, but not in the way you believe.
It never ceases to amaze me how simplistic people can be in their view of the world. Let’s see, we have left, right, far left and far right and that’s it. It’s views like this that are condemning the human race to self destruction. And no, this is not saying killing is excusable, but the origins of killers are many times based on fanaticism, whether it be religious or otherwise.
If I’m wrong, tell me and I will consider it, if you are wrong take my words and think before tossing them aside. Covering up the truth goes hand in hand with war, you won’t find out the truth for at least 15 years. By that time it will be next generation that is the judge and jury, and who also will be paying the penalty for our sins.
Cheer up — historically in the US peace movement we’ve had to spend years getting the US people to notice that our government is making wars that screw us — I rather enjoy seeing this guy have to try to convince the US people that up is down and the sky is pink. Usually it is the peace movement fighting overwhelming media concensus.
They think they make their own reality — sometimes they fail and get bitten.
SGT Garth Gehlen,
As a fellow soldier I had at first thought you were just another one who’s just drank too much of the “koolaid” but then after checking you out online I realize that you work for Army Reserves 304th MPAD (Military Public Affairs Det.) — so apparently your simply posting things online as a part of your “day job” as cog on the gears of the spin-machine.
Garth, please take a moment to read a rational and objective analysis of the situation: Cordesman: Iraq’s Evolving Insurgency http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/060622_insurgency.pdf
Mr. Cordesman will clue you in far better than either I or your koolaid drunken superiors in Florida or Doha can.
Some excerpts; “Coalition reporting has shown that the insurgency managed to increase the average number of weekly attacks during the period from around 470 in mid-2005 to 620 in May 2006, and succeeded in triggering a steady increase in civil violence and sectarian and ethnic conflict….”
“The December 15, 2005 election did no more to stabilize the situation and limited the insurgency than the transfer of power from the CPA to the Iraqi interim government in June 2004, or any of the other elections that followed. MNF-I intelligence estimates that the number of insurgent attacks on coalition forces, Iraqi forces, Iraqi civilians and acts of sabotage rose by 29% in 2005. The total rose from 26,496 in 2004 to 34,131 in 2005. These attacks have had a relatively consistent average success rate of 24% (attacks that cause damage or casualties.) Put differently, the average number of attacks per month in the Coalition count (which tended to sharply undercount attacks on Iraqi civilians) rose from an average of around 750 in late 2004 to a peak of nearly 3,000 in October 2005, and was 2,500 in December 2005. The average had been well over 2,000 per month from April 2004 onwards.”
“Provoking civil war and undermining the Iraqi political process may not bring the insurgents victory, but it can deny it to the Iraqi government and the US. … The insurgents have continued to carry out a large number of successful killings, assassinations, kidnappings, extortions, and expulsions. These have included a significant increase in the number of successful attacks on Iraqi officials, Iraqi forces, and their families. Well over 2,700 Iraqi officials and Iraqi forces were killed in 2005. … Suicide attacks have increased, and killed and wounded Iraqis in large numbers. The number of car bombs rose from 420 in 2004 to 873 in 2005, the number of suicide car bombs rose from 133 to 411, and the number of suicide vest attacks rose from 7 in 2004 to 67 in 2005. In case after case, Shi’ite civilians and Sunnis cooperating with the government were successfully targeted in ways designed to create a serious civil war. … The use of roadside bombs (improvised explosive devices IEDs) remains a major problem for US and other Coalition forces. The total number of IED attacks nearly doubled from 5,607 in 2004 to 10,953 in 2005.”
So Sgt. Gehlen, when you say, “There is plenty happening in Iraq besides the violence…” you are basically like a real estate agent showing a crack house in the ghetto telling us, “Never mind those dead people in bedroom and in the hallway, come here and check out the new drapes and updated cabinents!!!”
You have to be kidding me.
I wonder how much of this you’ve seen with your own two eyes by putting your boots on the ground?