Hillary Comes Back from Iraq, Speaks Out Against Escalation

I awoke this morning to NPR and Hillary Clinton talking about her just-concluded trip to Iraq, and she is saying things I want to hear.

• She opposes the presidents proposed escalation and she wants to cap the number of troops deployed to Iraq.
• She wants to set conditions for the Iraqi government and put political benchmarks in place that must be met.
• She proposes that American troops be repositioned out of Baghdad and that American forces begin to pull back out of Iraq.
• She stated explicitly that we need to concentrate on Afghanistan and bolster troop numbers there in preparation for the upcoming Taliban spring offensive.(emphasis mine)

It will surprise no one that I agree with the Senator, since the only thing she is proposing that I haven't is the part about capping troop numbers - and I smacked my forehead for overlooking it as soon as she said it.

Don't get me wrong - this does not redeem her in my eyes. She still helped us get into this clusterfuck, and I not only won't support her in the primaries, I will work vehemently against her; for that reason alone. I won't be forgetting that she was wrong and we were right, and I will be reminding everyone of that at every turn between now and when the election cycle gets going in earnest.

But on the other hand...Hawks deserting the cause is a necessary step in the process. I welcome them aboard, but they better be chastened because God Damnit, when you are this wrong, and the consequences are this big, you don't get a Mulligan.

Surging the wrong direction

Somehow, the Republicans managed to paint the Democrats as wanting to surrender the "War on Terror" because we see the folly of continued involvement of American forces in Iraq.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and it is time to set the record straight.

The war in Iraq and the War on Terror are far from the same thing. In fact, I would argue that their respective circles barely overlap. Iraq is a sectarian civil war and American forces are caught in the crossfire. The front in the War on Terror is located on the other side of Iran, in Afghanistan.

They keep asking for a Democratic plan. Fine. This Democrat has one. The first thing we do is get our diplomats together with Iranian diplomats and we agree to stop meddling around on their borders if they will stop meddling in Iraq. (And make Juan Cole one of the Diplomats we send.) Acknowledge that the location of American combat forces on two of her borders has something to do with Iran's sudden interest in developing nuclear weapons. Especially when it is established fact that a lot of American commando activity has been going on in Iran below the CNN line. I understand their motivation because I can read a map.

The next thing we do is start pulling brigades back to Kuwait and let them rest up and have some leave. Reduce forces in Iraq by 10,000 a month, and when they are rested, add them to the NATO effort in Afghanistan, where 21,500 additional troops would make a real difference.

I accept that Iraq is a disaster no matter what, and can't be won militarily. It is an apostacy that 3000 Americans have died in an unnecessary war. But I am not willing to lose Afghanistan too.

But that is what is certain to happen if we continue focusing on Iran, and if we lose Afghanistan, then literally, the terrorists win. (That might be the only time those words have been used properly.)

As it stands, all signs point to a Taliban re-emergence in Afghanistan in the spring, and that comes in February in the south.

It is time for us to put Afghanistan at the forefront. I support the justified and justifiable war, but I can't support the vanity war George W. Bush is intent on pursuing to the bitter end in Iraq. It is time we all take a hard look at reality, and not just the parts we want to see, and start making some hard choices. And it is time we started framing the issues.

cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose

Un.Fucking.Believable

(I originally intended to write two posts. One telling the right-wing punditocracy to go Cheney themselves, we have every right to be angry and ill-tempered, and another about the obscenity of moving troops out of Afghanistan and into Iraq. Somehow I segued from one to the other in one post. And then I got started, and I tied obscenity and profainity up in a single bow.)

The right-wing punditocracy has been clucking about the profanity of the left-wing blogosphere lately. I guess you complain about your opponents methods when you've been absolutely fucking wrong about everything for six years. I figuratively moon them while blowing a kazoo and send up a rousing fuck you and the horse you rode in on. I can't swear to it, but I think that's what Ben Franklin would do, and that's good enough for me.

If you can't use profanity when you are talking about an obscenity, when the fuck can you use it?

The war in Iraq is an obscenity. The idea of a troop buildup is an obscenity. Turning away from the justifiable conflict in Afghanistan and allowing the Taliban to re-emerge in that country is an obscenity. And taking troops from Afghanistan and the hunt for terrorists and moving them to Baghdad in an effort to quell the sectarian violence that has seized Iraq is a fucking obscenity.

It is also a stab-in-the-back to our allies in the war in Afghanistan who have troops there and who in good faith want to check the terrorist threat. It's a big ole "fuck you!" to the Canadians, Dutch, British, French, Germans, Italians, Portugese, Spanish, Australians, Norwegians, Pakistanis, Czechs and New Zealanders - just off the top of my head. There are several more. And by pulling troops from Afghanistan and repositioning them in Baghdad exactly the opposite of what should be happening we are personally insulting every head of state who committed troops and every allied troop who has served in the conflict. Even fucking obscene isn't quite strong enough.

And how timely! Frank Luntz is on Fresh Air chastising left-wing bloggers for being angry. What the fuck do you expect? When you have been absolutely right about everything for the last six years...and had your patriotism questioned and general threats made against your safety for having the audacity to be right...about absolutely everything, lets see how fucking nice you are about it all. If you are squealing like bitches now, I am investing in earplug futures.

Oh! And lest you think we on the left have anger cornered, I give you a post reader/commenter Apollo 13 left at Political Animal

When Marla Ruzicka, the founder of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, was killed by a car bomb in Iraq, Little Green Football-ers just had to comment:

It’s probably George Bush’s fault for letting her wander around Iraq instead of putting her in a gulag.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer tool.

Oh, I know what’s next. Her parents will sue the car manufacturer, or maybe the tire maker.

There’s no better useful idiot than a dead useful idiot.

Nominate her for the Mincemeat/Pull-Yourself-Together Award

At least the moonbat parents aren’t yet saying "they killed their best friend."

I can guess what color her eyes were! BLEW!

I’m having another drink to celebrate another moonbat meeting a well deserved demise.

She went from "peace" activist to piece activist.

Another moonbat bitch slapped by reality....

And Hugh Hewitt had the audacity to say of the lefty blogosphere: "They are training a generation of young Democratic activists to be angry, vulgar, profane, and cruel."

So not only does the Wingnutosphere get it wrong, it's not so well-mannered.
Posted by: Apollo 13 on January 9, 2007 at 1:13 AM | PERMALINK

And then there's this: Our wingnuts don't send your hate-peddlers fake anthrax. Domestic terrorism seems to be the province of the wingnuts on the right. But the FBI infiltrates the Quakers.

Fiddling While Afghanistan Burns

The Taliban is back. Remember them? The theocratic thugs who siezed control of Afghanistan in the 90's, and extended harbor to Osama bin Laden and al Qae'da, our real enemy, the one who made September 11 possible? Surely you remember Osama?

While we were getting bogged down in Iraq under the guise of fighting terrorism (it must be remembered here that Iraq had nothing to do with September 11) and distracted from the focus of the *War on Terra,* the Taliban fell back and regrouped. Now they are pervasive in the cities of Afghanistan and ready for a winter of urban guerilla warfare, punctuated by explosions, car bombs and suicide bombings. Afghan intelligence is warning of 35 suicide bombers who have infiltrated the cities and are planning to launch simultaneous strikes during this week’s Eid holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Apparently the Taliban are effectively challenging NATO forces, because the NATO allies are considering establishing a Baghdad-style "Green Zone" to keep allied interests and representatives "safe."

This is quite the turnabout. If you will recall, the troops who invaded Afghanistan and routed the Taliban were indeed met with cheering throngs, after three decades of civil strife.

That was then. Now the Afghans are increasingly disillusioned with the deteriorating security situation. In Farah province, the Taliban revived local support when they beheaded a group of highwaymen that the local authorities had failed to stop.

The NATO allies have the winter to either turn the tide, or face a slow grinding guerilla war, like the one in Iraq. The British have been kicked out of Afghanistan three times, and the Russians learned their lessons there in the 1980's. After three decades of civil war, the Afghan people just want some peace and security. If the Taliban can provide that, they will put their kites and musical instruments back in their attics and follow the theocrats.

There is a historical long-view that needs to be considered, and how the momentum was lost must be evaluated honestly, and blame fairly apportioned.