Yeah, this is good. We all know that scanning cargo for nuclear material is a Good Thing, right? Outsourcing that task: maybe not so good. Outsourcing that task to a billionaire Hong Kong businessman with extensive ties to the Chinese government? BAD.
This AP article seems to confirm the wishful thinking reflected in the recently leaked British memos concerning force level in Iraq, and that there are plans to withdraw substantial forces prior to the '06 elections. The question is: who's pushing this?
This is an old article (well worth reading in its entirety), after the Iraqi elections but before the selection of Jaafari for PM. I recently came across it again, and it contains a sentence which, in addition to being bizarrely hilarious, shows just how far Iraq has slipped from the neocon dream:
Another name that is frequently mentioned for Iraq's top post is Hussein al-Shahrastani, a nuclear scientist who is close to Iraq's most popular religious figure, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Brave citizens! Operation "Blame the Liberals" enters a new phase! In the face of unexpected resistance on the Iraqi front, Dear Leader calls upon all True Americans to attack Better Targets: traitorous liberals and their media allies, before they can stab our valiant troops in the back!
[/1984 snark]
I'm sure it has nothing to do with misleading Americans as to the goals, costs, and duration of a war no one can explain anymore.
So, Chimpy did successfully emulate Reagan in one respect: he's created a new army of deadly terrorists through an ill-advised foreign policy adventure.
Nebraska voted overwhelmingly for Bush (66%) in the last election. So you'd expect to find a bunch of folks that espouse the Republican ideals of free markets, unrestricted commerce, and "taking the government off people's backs". Well, you would expect that....
I know that many of us, who opposed the war from the beginning, are stunned that support for it has not collapsed altogether. There are many reasons for this of course, but one thing that seems to be cited by Conservatives is that somehow the "good news" out of Iraq is being whitewashed by the media.
Somebody posted a link to this "blog" at a message board I frequent. Supposedly written by 3 Baghdad residents, it reads like bad Rush Limbaugh material, pathetic parables of Good Americans vs. Ungrateful Ignorant Iraqis.
At this moment, there certainly seems to be a vast gap between Kerry's warchest and Bush's, and much has been made of this in the press. Who's pushing these stories?
