Politics: J'accuse!

[Gattigap]

Bob Woodward has started running his series of excerpts from his upcoming book in WaPo. The first piece is interesting background stuff, and contains no earthshattering disclosures, save one:

"Saddam, this time, will be out, period?" Bandar asked skeptically. "What will happen to him?"
Cheney, who had been quiet as usual, replied, "Prince Bandar, once we start, Saddam is toast."

Ahem.

So. Any of you conservatives want to know what's really going on in Bush's WH, I am available to you for a small fee.

The liberals, I'm available for a smaller one, naturally.

Gattigap,
Undersecretary for Department of Listening Devices in the West Wing

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Gattigap
Gattigap,
Undersecretary for Department of Listening Devices in the West Wing

This just tells me that you and Cheney think very much alike.

So, what are you thinking about Hamas?

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
bilmore hung like horse

Or a big tongue.

Honestly, I think it is a myth that women like big penises. Unless the woman has an exceptionally large vagina or the man has an exceptionally small penis, penis size doesn't matter.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by bilmore
thinking about Hamas?

I remember a time when my biggest concern about the middle east was remembering whether it was hummous or baba that's made with chichiti

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Not Me
Or a big tongue.

Honestly, I think it is a myth that women like big penises. Unless the woman has an exceptionally large vagina or the man has an exceptionally small penis, penis size doesn't matter.

A real big tougue can actually hurt during your sex rap

[Not Me]

• CAIRO (Reuters) - Spain intends to withdraw its troops from Iraq within 15 days, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos was quoted as saying on Sunday.
  
  . . . .
  
  Zapatero said he would withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq because the mission was deeply unpopular with the Spanish people and he did not expect a U.N. resolution to be adopted "that conforms with the conditions we have set for our presence in Iraq".

http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsA...toryID=4857793

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
A real big tougue can actually hurt during your sex rap

Unless it causes you to have some sort of speech impediment, if you keep it inside your mouth, it should be fine.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sgtclub
I'm not, I'm reading the polls that have been taken there.

Cite, please, for the proposition that 70%of Iraqis are "thrilled" by our actions.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sgtclub
Because the UN was so selfless in the oil for food program? And estimated $10 billion was siffoned off from money which otherwise would have gone to feed the Iraqi people by UN beauracrats. I don't understand constant need to elevate the UN to sainthood status. They are politicians like every other politicians. Some good, some bad, but most self interested.

No, what I'm saying has nothing to do with oil for food. That was a part of the sanctions. It had nothing to do with selflessness. And the idea that money was siphoned off by UN bureaucrats is odd to me -- I thought it was diverted by Iraqis. But whatever. None of this has anything to do with why we should want the UN there.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Tyrone_Slothrop
Cite, please, for the proposition that 70%of Iraqis are "thrilled" by our actions.

Not Club, but here is a survey that found 70% of Iraqis felt their lives were good post-war.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world...ll_040314.html

Here is an earlier poll of Iraqis:

http://www.cpa-iraq.org/government/political_poll.pdf

[Not Me]

• Two American soldiers opposed to the war in Iraq have abandoned their units and fled to Canada in a desertion evoking the exodus of young men north of the border during the Vietnam era.
  
  The two soldiers are seeking asylum as refugees, arguing that they face persecution for their beliefs - and in theory the death penalty - if they return.
  
  Their decision to run may not yet herald a mass migration but no one expects the pair to be the last to abandon their units and slip across the frontier, even at the cost of becoming deserters.
  
  "Just because you sign a contract, that doesn't mean you abdicate the right to be a moral human being," said Jeremy Hinzman, 25, a private at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and the first of the two to reach Canada. "If you know that an order is unjust, it's your duty to disobey it."
  
  Speaking from his new home in Toronto, he shied away from urging other servicemen to copy his example, afraid, he said, of being "seditious". But he had this message for other soldiers with moral qualms about the war in Iraq.
  
  "They need to do what they think is right," he said. "If that means going to Canada, follow your conscience."
  
  Already he has been joined by a second fugitive, Brandon Hughey, 18, a private who abandoned his unit the night before its deployment from Fort Hood, Texas, to the Middle East and is now living with a Quaker couple in the Ontario city of St Catharines.
  
  "This is a war based solely on lies," Pte Hughey said. "If other soldiers feel that they cannot take part, they should talk to their superiors about it. But Canada is an option."
  
  They both call the war in Iraq a violation of international law, a crime that overrides their duty to the army they signed up for.
  
  Pte Hinzman had no qualms about serving in Afghanistan although he did ask his officers for a non-combat role.
  
  They now face a difficult battle in the courts to become the first Americans to be given refugee status in Canada, although the country's ban on deporting anyone at risk of suffering the death penalty may count in their favour.
  
  . . . .

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html

[Skeks in the city]

Originally posted by sgtclub

The point it not to have a fighting force. The point is to have an international imprimatur on the future of Iraq. It's harder to persuade the Iraqis that what we're doing there is selfless when we won't let the UN help make the decisions.

Who believes the UN acts selflessly? Club's point about the oil for food program was that it's an example of the UN's corruption and participation in corruption. Seems Kofi's son Kojo was acting as an employee and later consultant for the company that was supposed to be monitoring the company. It's alleged the company was complicit in bribes and kickbacks. It's also alleged that businessmen related to Chirac and russian politicians were complicit to the bribes and kickbacks. Maybe KPMG and Freshfields' inquiry into the scandal will expose France, the UN and Russia.

Link to NY Post editorial: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/17982.htm

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
2 During the Shia militia attacks, most other countries' soldiers simply ran.

***

France is really the only other country that could send soldiers who might actually fight, isn't it?

Hank, I recall your conern for the honor of the Italian people, or actually (Italian-American), so I will note again that the Italian troops in Nasiriyah fought the Shia militia and held the bridges over the Euphrates.

S_A_M

P.S. Must be trying to make up for the ass-kicking they took from the Ethiopians back in the 1930s. Or . . . their time in La Cosa Nostra toughened them up.

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by Gattigap
Bob Woodward has started running his series of excerpts from his upcoming book in WaPo. The first piece is interesting background stuff, and contains no earthshattering disclosures, save one:

I liked this line, which is home truth: "'You have to follow through on your threat,' Rice said. 'If you're going to carry out coercive diplomacy, you have to live with that decision.'"

S_A_M

[Not Me]

http://www.forbes.com/home/newswire/...tr1335645.html

• WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day, journalist Bob Woodward said in a television interview Sunday.
  
  In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" about his new book "Plan of Attack" on the Bush administration's preparations for the Iraq war, Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, said Prince Bandar pledged the Saudi's would try to fine-tune oil prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move they understood would favor Bush's re-election.
  
  Questioned about his assertion at a time when oil prices are nearing a 13-year high, Woodward responded:
  
  "They're high. And they could go down very quickly. That's the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer or as we get closer to the election they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly."
  
  It was not clear from the interview precisely when Prince Bandar's pledge was allegedly made.