News > Politics > Bush To Lay Out Latest Plan For Failure

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SUNDAY JANUARY 7 2007 10:00 PM

Bush To Lay Out Latest Plan For Failure

Tags: Bush, Iraq, Suddam Hussein, Muqtada al-Sadr

Bush plans to give his New Way Forward speech this week
during which he will tell the American people his new plan to utterly fail in Iraq. According the BBC, the central theme of the speech will be "sacrifice." Sadly, he will not be telling us that he will sacrifice his daughters, but rather the sons and daughters of Americans in a war that is already lost.

The speech will reveal a plan to send more US troops to Iraq to focus on ways of bringing greater security, rather than training Iraqi forces.

Earlier this year we tried this plan. We took 20,000 troops from around the country and moved them into Baghdad, in an attempt to halt the sectarian violence. At first it worked, the killings slowed. But the militias adjusted and now killings are higher than they have ever been. Bushs new plan for Iraq is just a repetition of this failure.

Iraq is lost. It is a disaster. The President has only shown that whatever action he takes will make Iraq worse. We only need to look at the execution of Saddam Hussein to see how Bush is an epic failure. While Saddam stood with the noose around his neck, the crowd chanted, Muqtada! Muqtada! They were referring to Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric who controls the Mahdi Army. The same Mahdi Army we fought against in 2004 for control of the city of Najaf. Sadr is viewed as the biggest enemy of Bush in Iraq among Shiites. The Pentagon calls his militia "the main threat to stability in Iraq."

Saddams trial was basically run out of the US embassy in Baghdad. He was held at a US military prison. His sentence was carefully orchestrated to be delivered just two days before the midterm elections. Saddam was flown to his execution in a US helicopter. But yet when he was about to be executed the Interior Ministry guards chanted the name Muqtada! In what should have been a heavily controlled environment, where camera phones should not have been allowed, where every caution should have been taken to make sure not to upset the Sunni population more, there was failure once again. The results were predictable.

In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of a convicted dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.

On the streets, in newspapers and over the Internet, Mr. Hussein has emerged as a Sunni Arab hero who stood calm and composed as his Shiite executioners tormented and abused him.

If the American leadership could not stop the execution from being infiltrated by al-Sadr followers, they have no hope of controlling Baghdad with a few thousand more soldiers. The execution was just a microcosm of the disaster that is Iraq. Al-Sadr has grown roots into every level of the government and we have lost. Sending more soldiers is futile and stupid.

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Comments

sleepingsunshine

Winston Salem, NC

December 2006

JAN 07, 2007 10:17 PM

This makes me angry..
Looks like i'll be spending another year with 2 loved ones in Iraq.
Thanks a lot Bush

Synthiviper

Chicago, IL

June 2004

JAN 07, 2007 10:36 PM

Words can not even begin to describe the amount of anger and frustration I have towards that man and this bullshit war he started.

I leave it at that before my head just up and explodes.

DefiantVerse

I'm lost

January 2007

JAN 07, 2007 10:47 PM

Keith Olbermann had some really interesting things to say about sacrifice. Check it out over on Crooks and Liars.

photoline

Edmonton, AB

January 2005

JAN 07, 2007 11:02 PM

The Bush-Cheney alliance just keeps on churning out the same old hits....

jaggy

Austin, TX

October 2003

JAN 07, 2007 11:07 PM

a completely symbolic and political move at the expense of more human lives...no fuckin surprise !!! staying the course and replacing all the commanders with ones that agree and conform! the most unilateral and heinous adminstration in us history.

hint: avoid using google to look up word spellings. i initially typed 'hanus crime' (for context) in google and i got anus cream...so that delayed me for awhile.

Holden_Caulfield

Ann Arbor, MI

April 2004

JAN 08, 2007 12:18 AM

Bush's new tactic will draw in more insurgents and result in a spike in U.S. troop casualties. The borders of Iraq are not secure. Insurgents will continue to roll in and enlist Iraqis to their cause. Things are only going to get worse.

The sad fact of the matter is that Bush isn't learning from his mistakes. He's changing his military leadership into a bunch of yes men. This is a really bad combination.

Congress needs to find a way to reign in the White House. The purse strings need to be pulled in a way that will protect the troops and our interests. Congressional investigations will take a long time to have an effect on Iraq policy.

This lame duck President needs to be shown some accountability. Perhaps then he will respectfully retreat from his position and use diplomacy to end this war.

ghost429

Gorham, KS

May 2005

JAN 08, 2007 12:29 AM

Bush is totally incompetent as a military leader. Not only did he get us involved in Iraq without a reason or plan but he won't back off. What I can't understand is why so many people are stupid enough to jion the military now! I have convinced one fool not to reup but I have to wonder did the young people of this country not learn a thing from Nam. Without troops Bush could not pull this shit off.

trocc

Chicago, IL

March 2003

JAN 08, 2007 12:55 AM

i never post in these threads, but his dragging his feet for weeks, ignoring all advice, only to announce some predictable shit like this - i am filled with the unfulfillable urge to punch the motherfucker in the jaw.

fuck. i guess i will just scream into the void.