I know this was not Casey’s initial position on the war. I am glad Sen Casey is able to gather facts, think an issue through then come to a conclusion based on those facts.
Pennsylvania’s Sen. Bob Casey today said the Bush administration is only considering a token withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq to placate critics of the war, in advance of next week’s official report on the progress of the troop “surge.”He based his assessment on news reports that Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander of U.S. forces, has suggested pulling about 4,000 troops at the beginning of next year.
The Iraqis need a “very clear and unambiguous” statement that we’re going to withdraw, Mr. Casey, a Democrat, said at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank based in Washington, DC.
“We’re out of patience. Look at what we’ve already contributed to this war,” he said. “You’ve got to get moving.”
Bring em home and kill Bin Laden; Casey is right
Iraq (a country thats leaders talk out both sides of its mouth) will not get the message that what the United States says actually has “teeth in it” because they are enjoying the sacrifice of military troops, their families, and also our tax dollars. More so, the Iraqi government… which has failed to even show a mere effort to take advantage of the surge should not be afforded additional cover at the cost of not one more life of our proud men and women in uniform. It is a disgrace in leadership for us to continue as Senator Casey and Congressman Murtha say with no teeth. We need to redeploy, these troops need to be brought home, and we need to focus on fighting terrorism in Afghanistan. The corruption of the oil market over their with their people is ACTUALLY funding the insurgency. It is a self-sustaining cycle. One benchmark goal was to take weapons away from tribal groups. What did the DOD do? They gave away 190,000 weapons, unaccounted for to these militia types. Also, believe me folks, the contractors Blackwater and Halliburton do not want to leave Iraq. They are making billions and have little to show in terms of water and power results. Get those guys out of there, strike hard in Afghan, and stop privatizing the military. It leads to corruption.
JESSE
Yep...
But as we know, Bush is “playing for October, November of 2008.”
Bush and Rove saw “Wag the Dog” one too many times, but didn’t get the little plot point about the war being fake….
Isn’t is nice to see our Senator making reasonable statements about the war, or about any issue, for that matter? Can you imagine if Rick were still in? I bring this up, just as a reminder, since it’s easy to forget just how bad things were here in Pennsyltucky just a few short months ago!
I think at the core of it all, there is no way that any one of us actually knows “the truth” about Iraq. Will it fall further into chaos if we leave? Will there be ethnic cleansing? Will the oil fields burn? Will terror training flourish?
Who the hell knows? Since most of the “news” we get about Iraq is of the “IED kills two soliders” variety, it is about as usefull for determining the real story as hearing that “A car crash killed two on I-95 this morning” would be in understanding what is happening in Richmond, Virginia.
So, as reasonable people, we try to draw reasonable conclusions based on the paucity of facts on hand…and I think that is why the nation as a whole wants to wish the Iraqui’s well and give them our collective two weeks notice. We know this war is over and lost and we’re smart enough to understand that you must, as some point, cut your losses and come home. In the end, to paraphrase our former Secretary of Defense, you “Get the country you deserve.”
Piltdown Man
What Casey saw
The most interesting thing was that Casey heard the military dog and pony show, but when he went out, he observed the massive security needed for himself and his colleagues and concluded that did not match what he’d been told about how well things are going. That helped change his mind.
pd
Open Mind
As we should all be as open minded as possible, we need to think about first hand experiences when it comes to war. With this in mind, I would have no problem with my tax money going towards sending all Unites States Senators and Representatives of the House to the front lines in Iraq for 30 days. After such a trip, let them come back and continue on with the debate over the war in Iraq. Only when this happens will we start taking their words of wisdom seriously.
casey's trip to iraq
HOW CAN YOU JUDGE WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING IN IRAQ ON A TWO DAY VISIT? MY SON SERVED IN IRAQ AND KUWAIT FOR 1 YEAR. HE SAYS HE WOULD LEAVE AGAIN AT THE DROP OF A HAT. HE FEELS WE ARE MAKING GREAT PROGRESS THERE. I WANT MR. CASEY TO SPEND A MONTH, THEN LET’S HERE WHAT HE HAS TO SAY. THERE ARE MANY U.S. CITIES WHERE YOU WOULDN’T BE SAFE FOR 2 HOURS.
IF I RECALL CORRECTLY THERE IS A SAYING “ROME WASN’T BUILT OVERNIGHT.”
funny thing about rome
It wasn’t built in a day but it also didn’t come about from nation building or US tax dollars. And at the end of the day, it collapsed under greed, corruption and war.
AIPAC SUPPORTER HAS NO SAY WHEN IT IS TIME TO VOTE
AIPAC not only runs the state department, it runs our Senators from Pennsylvania as well as our congressmen. Casey is using this issue to win over the thousands of disaffected who will vote for neither the democrats nor the republicans like me. When it comes time to vote for money or for the troops or for Israel, our man casey knows where his bread is buttered.
The UN declared that this occupation and war in Iraq was illegal. And, yet, everyone is silent about their illegal behavior. The millions killed, the trillions spent, and the crimes against our constitution and the people of Iraq and the world are all the stuff of AIPAC and its lackeys. The biggest terrorist in the world is not Osama but George Bush and Areal Sharon. The biggest dupe is the American people. It looks like CASEY wants to keep it that way.
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