The Pentagon just released a report that says attacks in Iraq are UP 15% and Iraqi deaths are up 51%. The Report says this a set back and impacts reconstruction in Iraq. So Much for things are getting better in Iraq!

Disagreeing with your opinions don't make the person who disagrees a liar.

Bush thinks Iraq is the central front. You don't agree. That doesn't make him a liar.

When the facts clearly show the fight is between the sectarian factions within Iraq and Bush tells us the violence is being conducted by the Islamic Terrorists that are responsible for 9/11 it is a LIE to justify the mistake he made by invading Iraq.

You know, I think Gene actually has a point here, about sectarian violence being distinct from global terrorist activity.

Of course, my opinion doesn't help Gene much, since

1. He obviously doesn't need my agreement to reach his conclusions,

2. I still don't agree with his conclusions,

3. I still don't agree with his proposed solutions.

He is confusing disagreeing with lying.

What is it with liberals and the word "lie".  Everyone's lying (except them).  If I the sky is blue and they think the sky is gray, am I lying?

Pentagon Gives Gloomy Iraq Report
By ROBERT BURNS (AP Military Writer)
From Associated Press
September 01, 2006 11:00 PM EDT
WASHINGTON - Sectarian violence is spreading in Iraq and the security problems have become more complex than at any time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, a Pentagon report said Friday.

In a notably gloomy report to Congress, the Pentagon reported that illegal militias have become more entrenched, especially in Baghdad neighborhoods where they are seen as providers of both security and basic social services.

The report described a rising tide of sectarian violence, fed in part by interference from neighboring Iran and Syria and driven by a "vocal minority" of religious extremists who oppose the idea of a democratic Iraq.

Death squads targeting mainly Iraqi civilians are a growing problem, heightening the risk of civil war, the report said.

"Death squads and terrorists are locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife," the report said, adding that the Sunni-led insurgency "remains potent and viable" even as it is overshadowed by the sect-on-sect killing.

"Conditions that could lead to civil war exist in Iraq, specifically in and around Baghdad, and concern about civil war within the Iraqi civilian population has increased in recent months," the report said. It is the latest in a series of quarterly reports required by Congress to assess economic, political and security progress.

Iraqi forces were dealing with more violence Friday as officials said a mortar attack on an open-air market in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, killed three people and wounded 12. Elsewhere, two policemen were also killed and authorities said they found the body of a Saddam Hussein-era intelligence officer who had been kidnapped and shot.

The bloodshed capped a week in which hundreds of Iraqis were killed despite a security crackdown that targeted some of Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods.

A growing number of members of Congress are calling for either a shift in the Bush administration's Iraq strategy or a timetable for beginning a substantial withdrawal of American forces. Although administration officials say progress is being made in Iraq, U.S. commanders have increased U.S. troop levels by about 13,000 over the past five weeks, to 140,000, mainly due to increased violence in the Baghdad area.

In response to the Pentagon's report Friday, the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, said it showed the Bush administration is "increasingly disconnected from the facts on the ground in Iraq."

"It is time for a new direction to end the war in Iraq, win the war on terror, and give the American people the real security they deserve," Reid said.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who recently returned from a visit to Iraq, said the report squared with what he saw there.

"Iraq is tipping toward civil war," Reed said.

Col. Thomas Vail, commander of a 101st Airborne brigade operating in the mostly Shiite areas of eastern Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday that an intensified effort to root out insurgents and quell sectarian violence in the capital is bearing fruit, leading to a decrease in sectarian murders in recent days.

"They understand a big stick," he said, referring to a bigger U.S. and Iraqi force confronting militias and others responsible for violence like the barrage of coordinated attacks across eastern Baghdad on Thursday. Iraqi police said they killed at least 64 people and wounded more than 286 within a half hour.

Peter Rodman, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, in a separate session with reporters, said that despite progress this summer in reviving the Iraqi economy, raising electricity production and increasing the number of trained Iraqi troops, security conditions have deteriorated.

The report covered the period since the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki was seated May 20.

From that date through Aug. 11, the average number of attacks per week against Americans and Iraqis was 792, up 24 percent from the previous period of Feb. 11 to May 19. The 792 figure was the highest for any counting period since the war began. The previous high was 641 in the Feb. 11 to May 19 period.

"The last quarter, as you know has been rough," Rodman said. "The levels of violence are up and the sectarian quality of the violence is particularly acute and disturbing."

That assessment was tempered by a degree of optimism that the Iraqi government - with support from U.S. troops - will succeed in quelling the sectarian strife.

Optimism among ordinary Iraqis, however, has declined, the 63-page report said.

When asked if they believe "things will be better" in the future, the percentage of Iraqis responding positively has dropped over the past year - whether they were asked to look ahead six months, one year or five years - according to polling data cited in the report.

"The security situation is currently at its most complex state since the initiation of Operation Iraqi Freedom," the report said, using the U.S. military's name for the war that was launched in March 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

When the facts are as clear as they are in Iraq and our President tells us something that is totally out of consort with the facts, he is either lying or has lost his ability to understand where we are from where he wants us to be!

Look at the Pentagon Report above. That is what Bush needs to READ!

Bush fails to accept the reality of the situation. There are two types of violence that is taking place. In both cases it is being conducted by Moslem groups.

The first type is the Islamic Terrorists groups that Bush calls The War On Terrorism. These groups operate within many countries in a loose association with HATE as their driving force. That hate is directed against Israel and the West most specifically the U.S. and England. There are two subsets of these terrorists’ groups-- Those that are mainly opposed to Israel, Islamic Jihad etc and those that are directing their violence against both Israel and the West. These two movements are what Bush calls the WAR ON TERRORISM!

The violence in Iraq is almost totally People in Iraq who HATE People in Iraq. It is NOT NEW! It has existed since the British formed Iraq which has no history as a country but history as separate groups. The fighting in Iraq is not to destroy Israel or the United States. Many of the people in Iraq most likely hate Israel and the West but that is not the objective of the violence that is taking place in Iraq. What is taking place is a CIVIL WAR and Bush wants to make us believe it has the same objectives as the Islamic Terrorists that attacked us on 9/11 and have conducted the other terrorist attacks in other countries including Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank.

The United States can not change the HATE between the factions in Iraq and that is why our continued occupation will not only fail but is adding to the unrest. That reality, if accepted by Bush, would mean a CHANGE in our policy in Iraq which Bush stubbornly refused to consider. Bush has decided (He is the DESIDER) and says the answer to Iraq and the WAR ON TRERRORISM is western style democracies. The problem is that the PEOPLE DO NOT WANT THAT TYPE OF GOVERNMENT! They have proven that in ALL the elections we have supported in the Moslem areas.

Our continued presence in Iraq will only create more American death and injuries. It will continue to spend money we are borrowing and that is needed for more important issues in our country.

WE need the Democrats to win in November and FORCE Bush to accept a different policy because his policy is NOT WORKING and will NEVER work because he refuses to understand what drives the different Moslems factions.

Bush thinks Iraq is central front.  Bin Laden thinks it is the central front:

http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3660179&p1=0

"But if the Taliban sources are correct, bin Laden may be aiming to help turn Iraq into “the central front” in the war on terror. "

Central front were even the words used.

IF Iraq becomes a place where the Moslem Terrorist groups that are responsible for attacking the United States and the West become a major force, it will be Bush and his invasion that has enabled that situation to develop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Saddam may have been sympathetic to such groups and even paid some for attacks on Israel. These groups were NOT operating in Iraq before we brought down the Saddam Dictatorship.

The Philadelphia Inquirer had an editorial Cartoon last week that says it all. The first cartoon shows a bottle full of the warring factions in Iraq with a cork with the head of Saddam keeping them from escaping the bottle. The second cartoon shows Bush removing the Saddam Cork and all the HATE groups that were contained in the bottle getting OUT. I have kept that cartoon because is JUST WHAT BUSH DID BY HIS INVASION of Iraq. This is what Colin Powell warned of BEFORE we invaded Iraq. It is the reason why Bush 41 did not depose Saddam!

Here is some more good news about what the Bush policy has accomplished:

The Afghan opium harvest has reached record levels, up 49 percent from last year, the United Nations says.

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By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: September 3, 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 2 — Afghanistan’s opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels ever recorded, showing an increase of almost 50 percent from last year, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Saturday in Kabul.

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Reach of War
Go to Complete Coverage » He described the figures as “alarming” and “very bad news” for the Afghan government and international donors who have poured millions of dollars into programs to reduce the poppy crop since 2001.

He said the increase in cultivation was significantly fueled by the resurgence of Taliban rebels in the south, the country’s prime opium growing region. As the insurgents have stepped up attacks, they have also encouraged and profited from the drug trade, promising protection to growers if they expanded their opium operations.

“This year’s harvest will be around 6,100 metric tons of opium — a staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global consumption by 30 percent,” Mr. Costa said at a news briefing.

He said the harvest increased by 49 percent from the year before, and it drastically outpaced the previous record of 4,600 metric tons, set in 1999 while the Taliban governed the country. The area cultivated increased by 59 percent, with more than 400,000 acres planted with poppies in 2006 compared with less than 260,000 in 2005.

“It is indeed very bad, you can say it is out of control,” Mr. Costa said Friday in an interview before the announcement.

President Hamid Karzai expressed disappointment at the results in a statement issued on Saturday and urged the international community to expand its commitment to strengthen the Afghan police and law enforcement agencies.

The Bush administration has made poppy eradication a major facet of its aid to Afghanistan, and it has criticized Mr. Karzai for not doing more to challenge warlords involved in opium production.

On Saturday, a State Department spokeswoman, Joanne Moore, had no immediate comment on the United Nations report, but she pointed to a fact sheet posted on the department’s Web site that outlined efforts to support Afghanistan’s counternarcotics campaign.

The increase in cultivation was mainly a result of the strength of the insurgency in southern Afghanistan, which has left whole districts outside of government control, and the continuing impunity of everyone involved, from the farmers and traffickers to corrupt police and government officials, Mr. Costa said.

Afghanistan is already the world’s largest producer of opium, and 35 percent of its gross domestic product is estimated to come from the narcotics trade.

Most of the heroin made from Afghan poppies is sold in Europe and Asia, drug officials say. Most of the increase in poppy cultivation has occurred in five provinces in southern Afghanistan, in particular Helmand, Kandahar and Oruzgan, where security has sharply deteriorated this year because of Taliban attacks, Mr. Costa said.

“The southern part of Afghanistan was displaying the ominous hallmarks of incipient collapse, with large-scale drug cultivation and trafficking, insurgency and terrorism, crime and corruption,” he said in a statement released by his office.

“We are seeing a very strong connection between the increase in the insurgency on the one hand and the increase in cultivation on the other hand,” he explained in the interview.

The Taliban had distributed leaflets at night, inviting farmers to increase their poppy cultivation in exchange for protection, Mr. Costa said. The rebels also profit from levies in return for protection of drug convoys passing through the border areas they controlled.

There were also signs of a pernicious strategy to encourage farmers to increase poppy cultivation in an effort to force a government reaction, which would then turn the population further against the government, Mr. Costa said.

But he did not blame only the Taliban for the increase. He specifically accused the former governor of Helmand Province, Sher Muhammad Akhund, of encouraging farmers to grow more poppies in the months before he was removed from office. The result was an increase of 160 percent in that “villain province” from its harvest last year, he said, the highest rise in the country.

“There is evidence of major pressure exerted by him in favor of cultivating opium,” Mr. Costa said.

In the news briefing on Saturday, Mr. Costa also criticized the government’s action of removing the governor and giving him a position in the upper house of Parliament.

I saw a squirrel today...he was looking at me...cute little guy.

~Zoo

Reply #12 I saw a squirrel today...he was looking at me...cute little guy. ~Zoo

Cool. What color was he?

Lying is a pretty serious implication. It requires that the accusing party know for a fact that the accused understands and knows the truth concerning a topic and deliberately claims the opposite to be true. That's expecting a lot of anyone. Next time you talk with Mr. Bush, please ask him what his truth is. Only then can you know if he is lying or not. You can't base someone else's beliefs on your own.

That is why the democratic agenda is not for me. I find it is heavily based on ego, emotion, pride, and selfishness. There is no interest in the big picture. Only about what is good for today, and maybe the next few days, or even few years. I'm convinced that if the democratic leaders that we have today were in power in the 1940s, the world would be a much different place today. The title "Greatest Generation of All Time" was not earned by people claiming we 'cannot win'.

Bush may have opened a can of explosive worms in Iraq, but how long would those worms be kept under pressure, building in their hate and anger, until something serious like chemical weapons on civilians or atomic explosions over iraqi cities occurs? Oh wait, one of those already happened under the watchful and protective direction of Saddam. Why do we forget so quickly the bad that others do, and just as quickly forget the good that the US does?

Day to day the Iraq conflict is hard to swallow, but the end result is what matters. The short term approach of 'leave now' is childish and un-thoughtful, inconsiderate of Iraqi citizens. So, it's taking a little longer than we thought. Does that make it not worth it? How long were American forces in German in the 1940s and 50s . . . and 60s etc? How long were there attacks by German Nazis after the 'final shot' was heard? Go ask your Grandpa, I'm sure he remembers.

How many years were there between the two seperate attacks on the world trade center towers?

Anyway, War is bad, but the result, if we don't shoot ourselves in the foot, is good for everyone. In War's the US and allis have won, the effect is always a positive one for generations. Hard truth, but you're a 'liar' if you say it isn't so.

I had this dream the other day . . . it was a frightening dream . . .

Gene finally wrote an article that wasn't about politics at all, and we all realized that there is a man behind the "Bush-bash" motormouth . . . he finally realized that he's not convincing anyone here to change their views and his time and efforts are being totally squandered.

And then I woke up to another "Bush-bash" thread. Keep it up, Colonel!