Bob Woodward has a new book coming out. It it, we learn more about George Bush’s management style.
In response to a question about how the White House settled on a troop surge of five brigades after the military leadership in Washington had reluctantly said it could provide two, Bush said: “Okay, I don’t know this. I’m not in these meetings, you’ll be happy to hear, because I got other things to do.”
I’m watching a segment of Bill Moyers’ Journal right now about the deployment to Iraq of New Jersey National Guardsmen. They all are expressing the opinion that they have better things to do than go on a second trip to Iraq. But they’re going anyway because that’s their duty. President Bush, ladies and gentlemen. Do you think Sarah Palin would be in those meetings? Are you ready for four more years of the same?
More:
As a kid, I was avid consumer of CBS News with Walter Cronkite. If my memory is correct, it was Friday nights when that week’s casualty counts were featured: KIA and injured. I think the categories were US and ARVN, then NVA and VC. Maybe to-date tallys too. It was macabre in retrospect, but I was preteen who naively regarded it as a scoresheet.
Of course, it was later revealed that the enemy casualties were inflated, and that the body counts had no correspondence to tangible progress.
Given that background, I was surprised when this type of stuff was resurrected for the Iraq war.
No further comment is necessary.
Fighting back?! B-b-b-b-but it is the IRAQIS who are being attacked. It is the IRAQIS who are fighting back.
It reminds me of an Army officer who insisted that after the initial invasion all the U.S. military actions were defensive. I pointed out to him that when you are the aggressor it is the aggressor whose actions are defensive, and that NONE of the U.S. military’s actions are defensive because they are all part of an act of aggression. He had nothing to say to that.
The pond is filled again. We can splash around and have fun. Seriously, I haven’t been able to access the site all day today. Great to have things in working order again.
I got to this: Do you think Sarah Palin would be in those meetings? and thought, “Shouldn’t that be McCain?” As I understand it, McCain has been gone from the senate for a very long time – missing both discussion and voting are important negatives.
Then I wondered if Cheney was in the meetings instead of Bush, so I glanced at the article. I didn’t see any mention of Cheney.
So I go back to thinking the question should be: Do you think John McCain would be in those meetings?
It says something that John McCain is such a nothing candidate that he’s totally eclipsed by his VP pick. Sarah Palin is not running for president. Or is she? Given McBush’s age and health she very well could be. Her speech was also in total contradiction to McSame’s. But neither one of them addressed the issues.
And on the issues IMHO McCain doesn’t know/doesn’t care. Like Bush he wants to be a “War President”. He hardly seems concerned about domestic issues.
What, no post on the Cancerthon tonight?
It’s just shameful that this country can build nuclear weapons, but can’t cure the cancer uranium can cause.
My longest term friend just lost a third family member to cancer. Or was that the fourth? There have been so many. I was lucky NOT to lose my mother to cancer.
On the show, they said that one in every two men and one in every three women will get cancer at some point. Advice to avoid it? Quit smoking. Don’t start smoking. Eat less read meat. Exercise, don’t stress.
Of course, I can’t help but wonder about the concentrations of cancer in certain areas, the other causes no one wants to discuss because it cuts into someone’s profits….
Anyway – just my little plea to all of you. Even if you only have $5, every bit helps. Here’s a link to the American Cancer society if you missed the show.
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/don/don_0.asp?from=hpbox
I read a couple of years ago that while the US had a “body count,” the Vietnamese kept a “broken tool” count because it was a lot harder for them to construct a helicopter than it was to put a bunch of farmer’s sons into uniform and to to give them sub-machine guns.
The thing is though, is that the essential PR problem with a guerrilla war is that, in a conventional war, there are lines on maps whereby a country can gauge progress. American citizens could see in World War II that the front lines were inexorably moving closer to the Rhine, that Allied forces had then grabbd a few bridgeheads, that they then moved beyond the Rhine.
By contrast, body counts in a guerrilla war don’t mean very much even if they’re accurate.
Hey, I have an idea! Stop committing nakedly aggressive invasions of people’s countries, and you will not have to worry about how to make PR.
Awww, maaannn! Now THERE ya go! Bringing in (ugh) facts and reality when we’re all tryin’ to have a good discussion! [/snark]
Sorry.
NOT!