Our new progressive Chairman of Intelligence:
In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the soon-to-be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a stepped up effort to “dismantle the militias.”
The soft-spoken Texas Democrat was an early opponent of the Iraq war and voted against the October 2002 resolution authorizing President Bush to invade that country. That dovish record got prominently cited last week when Speaker designate Nancy Pelosi chose Reyes as the new head of the intelligence panel.
But in an interview with NEWSWEEK on Tuesday, Reyes pointedly distanced himself from many of his Democratic colleagues who have called for fixed timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Coming on the eve of tomorrow’s recommendations from the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton commission, Reyes’s comments were immediately cited by some Iraq war analysts as fresh evidence that the intense debate over U.S. policy may be more fluid than many have expected.
“We’re not going to have stability in Iraq until we eliminate those militias, those private armies,” Reyes said. “We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq … We certainly can’t leave Iraq and run the risk that it becomes [like] Afghanistan” was before the 2001 invasion by the United States.
Ready for the long haul?
He might as well issue a call for taking out the Iraqis (women and children spared except for children who might grow up and join militias).
Is it too late to go for Holt?
What are you talking about? They haven`t spared the women & children so far. Why would they have a change of heart. Get with it, man.
What dada said. WTF= we`re truly fucked
Oy.
try U Haul…to some other place
more troops?! Jezeus! That’s not what got the d’s elected…meet the new boss, same as the old boss…guess 60%+ of the population that wants to get the fuck out is just wrong…buckle up boobie, gonna get bumpy
“take out the militias”???!!!…that’s fucking nuts…the militias, should they choose to do so, could cut off the supply lines and annihilate the troops that are already there…this is really beyond the pale
pathetic
we are well and truly fucked
I know.
And this is apparently what passes for “progressive” in America.
Sad. Very. Sad.
Oh, but TPTB will pat him on the head and praise him for being “responsible.”
Seriously–I didn’t see THIS coming from him.
we are well and truly fucked
Oh indeed. The next two years will be one continual demonstration of that in every area of policy, foreign and domestic.
‘
I would’ve thought that Pelosi would have made sure the next chairperson of the Intelligence Committee wouldn’t say something asinine. I guess I was wrong.
There is nothing wrong saying that bringing the troops home is the right move. Hell, most of the country wants it. Perhaps the Democrats have been too used to catering to what they believe is the minority opinion?…
Wonder which militias he is talking about?
WaPo: Census Counts 100,000 Contractors in Iraq
The problem is, Iraq is the central battlefield in the War for Oil.
Just because we have truly and publicly lost does not mean we can give it up.
Now, the deeper wisdom would be to abandon the war, and face reality.
But no one is ready to do that. Americans expect to gas up their SUVs, now and forever. They are not ready to hear that it is over, and that they are going to have to pedal their bicycles to work.
And the Dems are no more ready to tell them than the Repugs. Even the Greens won’t tell them.
What does that leave? Staying in Iraq. Forever.
By our own free choice, blood for oil will be our epitaph.
It would be sad if it weren’t pathetic.
This article , The Surreal Politics of Premeditated War by R.W. Behan, is lengthy but is one of the best analyses I’ve read about the role of oil regarding our actions in Iran AND Afghanistan. I highly recommend it.
Good article. Only one quibble:
Yes, the War for Oil is being done for American oil company profits. But if the US was to cede to foreign companies, an economic crisis would ensue in the US because:
No matter what we do, the “non-negotiable” American “way of life” is coming to an end. Wisdom would be to start preparing and making other arrangements. Putting all our effort into wringing out a few more years of happy motoring bliss (at the price of tens of thousands of murders per year) is such a total dead end.
The only relationship that Iraq and oil has shown is that because Iraqi oil has not been on the market the price has risen. I’m tired of the argument of using their oil for our profit; it hasn’t happened and it won’t. What has happened is that many of our young and old Americans have lost their lives and limbs. If your argument is to stay then would you please go to your national guard and enlist. Then I’ll believe your sincerity. You don’t have to be young to fight in this war; you don’t have to be male either.
is, if you cannot possess it yourself, to keep others from getting it.
So no, while the US exists, it will never, ever leave Iraq.
You may be missing the real meaning of “we don’t do body counts.”
I saw a long interview with Reyes on C-SPAN just a few days ago… this guy is much more Alberto Gonzales (or Mel Martinez) than he is Robert Menendez. He was spouting off practically Republican talking points about illegal immigration… this guy from Texas who still has a Spanish accent! Sheesh…
Physically he looks like a Hispanic Rep. Rangel too.. its weird. Dont like either of em.
Pax
@#&#(&^%$*#@%&(!!!!!!!!!
I know that sending more troops is absolutely crazy, but I need to ask if there is any responsibility or possibility for protecting the Iraqi people from the violence. Do folks think the violence will escalate if we leave? I just don’t know what to think.
I do know that yesterday when NPR was discussing the Gates hearing, they reported a lot of discussion about the “rules of engagement,” which meant US troops NOT intervening in sectarian violence. This sounds crazy-making to me – what other kind of violence is there right now. Are they suggesting that US troops be there – but just stand by while people are killed? If those are to be the rules of engagement – then we might as well just leave.
Its all just such a mess.
The new Rules of Engagement won’t be hard to understand at all:
Attacks on civilians: Do not engage; local issue to be settled between the natives
Attacks on oil infrastructure: All hell breaks loose – A threat to the soverign rights of the USA!
Do folks think the violence will escalate if we leave?
I think the violence will escalate no matter what we do. The thing that has everyone (Saudis included) worried is that the violence will spread to surrounding countries and destabilize the entire region. There really are no good options to the catastrophic strategic failure that is the occupation of Iraq, no way to ‘win’, whatever that means.
and nobody came?
Now they’re having to bribe immigrants with the promise of citizenship, jailbirds with the promise of freedom, killers with the promise of blood – to get soldiers to fight their wars.
It looks like the visions of glory and martyrdom are starting to become unsatisfactory. Battle just is not worth the risk of death.
The only way you will dismantle the militias at this point is 500,000 boots on Iraq ground and we don’t have em and we never will. I wish these stupid fucking assholes who have never been to war college would just shut the fuck up. I wish the stupid fucking assholes who started all this would have listened to the people who went to war college when they schmoozed their way into this. It wouldn’t make the war any more legal but fewer innocent Iraqis would have fucking died and wouldn’t be continuing to die. It’s all so FUBAR, but hey……throw another 20,000 or 30,000 in there for shits and giggles……it’s like throwing cups of water on a grease fire! Today is going to be an F word day for me, sorry everyone. Not enough shoes made to make today okay.
I’ll fucking second that Tracy..today is definitely going to be a dam fucking ‘F’ word kinda a day…and visions of F words danced in my head..forget the goddamn sugar plums.
why is anybody surprised by this?
He’s a rightie. He’s always BEEN a rightie. The Dems have made it increasingly clear that they will remain supine before the Military Industrial Complex … when they aren’t HELPING it, of course.
The Democratic Party needs to be abandoned by the left, forcing it to lose a few times, before it will offer a true countervailing force to the right. Quit enabling them. They are running a protection racket, stealing your votes so that they can help use YOUR taxes to kill and steal and plunder.