Not that I expected Condaleeza Rice to be able to convince the now democrate-led Foreign-Relations Committee, but her performance this morning has been horrificly bad. Her non-answers to some reasonable questions seem laugable.
Tim Greive of the War Room has a good run down of Rice's repeating mantra: we have to send more troops. What if the Iraqis don't cooperate? Well, you see, we need to send more troops. How long will the troops be there? Well, you see, we need to send more troops. Apply, Rinse, Repeat.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Iraq - Has the Esclation Begun? - Update
The BBC is reporting that U.S. forces have seized the Iranian consulate in the Iraqi city of Irbil. We are now holding six Iranian nationals from the consulate. Reasons are not forthcoming. Details sure to follow.
In the same vein, some bloggers over at Daily Kos are pointing to a small line in Bush's speech. In the same breath, he mentioned sending an additional carrier strike force and patriot missile batteries. As ps2006voter points out, patriot missile batteries are not an anti-insurgent weapon. None of our many opponents in Iraq possess weapons which would require patriot missilesto counter.
A message to Iran? Or getting ready for the "new front"?
In the same vein, some bloggers over at Daily Kos are pointing to a small line in Bush's speech. In the same breath, he mentioned sending an additional carrier strike force and patriot missile batteries. As ps2006voter points out, patriot missile batteries are not an anti-insurgent weapon. None of our many opponents in Iraq possess weapons which would require patriot missilesto counter.
A message to Iran? Or getting ready for the "new front"?
The President's Plan - On a Wing and Prayer
Alright, after sleeping on this, I have more and more doubts. Further, Rice and Gates are out and about this morning adding elaborations to the plan which need some examining.
First, the plan itself ... as I wrote last night, there seems little reason to trust the al-Maliki regime now. Promises have been made in the past to no avail. What is different now? Nothing it seems except we're saying we'll give it another go. All this in light of National Security Advisor Hadley's assessment last November that Prime Minister al-Maliki is "either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action." The ENTIRE plan now rests on this the trust of this individual. That much was clear last night.
But this morning, it deepens. Accoridng to Rice, the new way forward is actually an Iraqi plan that al-Maliki layed out for Bush in Amman, Jordan last November. Really? This could be the beginning of shifting the blame, laying a nice rhetorical touch in case things do not go as planned.
Speaking of fall-back positions, it seems like Rice's rhetoric is the only one we have. This morning, Secretary of Defense Gates was asked what we do if the Iraqis don't live up to their side of the plan. It's a good question. After all, the President said last night that our committment to Iraq is not open-ended. Gates' answer? Well, you see ... we're not sending all our troops at once ... we'll know ahead of time if the Iraqis arent' cooperating ...
Ok, so what do we do if they don't cooperate? Nothing it seems ... just keep on keepin' on. There is a lot of talk in the media that this is the "last chance plan." But I don't think so. Bush has been annoyingly consistent in one belief, that we cannot fail in Iraq. So no matter what happens or doesn't happen in Iraq, he'll try "one more time" until the end of his term, passing on the horrid mess to someone else.
I'm just not sure what he can pass on. The plan to surge and accelerate essentailly tops out our global military committment. We've got essentially nothing left to send anywhere. As the military has already said, the military is breaking. If this plan doesn't work, we've got no other options of sending troops. The only way out of that trap is to expand the military, which has already been planned. As to that plan, I have to turn to my phrase from last night, "if wishes were wings ..." It's all fine and good to say let's expand the military. It's quite another to find the volunteers to do so. All of tihs says nothing of the cost (if wishes were dollars ... well, you know).
And lastly, speaking of a strained military, there was an ominous vagueness of Bush's speech concerning Iran and Syria. The President said we'd stop their support of insurgents, logistical, training, and otherwise. How we'll do that remained undefined. Although he did mention that we are sending an additional carrier group to the region. This morning, when the questions was put to Rice (would we strike Iran directly) ... Rice demurred, nothing is off the table, we'll do what is necessary, etc. To that notion I can only reel from shock. We can barely scrape up 20,000 troops for this "surge" and we might consider radically escalating the conflict?!
Not much new here ... bad news all around.
First, the plan itself ... as I wrote last night, there seems little reason to trust the al-Maliki regime now. Promises have been made in the past to no avail. What is different now? Nothing it seems except we're saying we'll give it another go. All this in light of National Security Advisor Hadley's assessment last November that Prime Minister al-Maliki is "either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action." The ENTIRE plan now rests on this the trust of this individual. That much was clear last night.
But this morning, it deepens. Accoridng to Rice, the new way forward is actually an Iraqi plan that al-Maliki layed out for Bush in Amman, Jordan last November. Really? This could be the beginning of shifting the blame, laying a nice rhetorical touch in case things do not go as planned.
Speaking of fall-back positions, it seems like Rice's rhetoric is the only one we have. This morning, Secretary of Defense Gates was asked what we do if the Iraqis don't live up to their side of the plan. It's a good question. After all, the President said last night that our committment to Iraq is not open-ended. Gates' answer? Well, you see ... we're not sending all our troops at once ... we'll know ahead of time if the Iraqis arent' cooperating ...
Ok, so what do we do if they don't cooperate? Nothing it seems ... just keep on keepin' on. There is a lot of talk in the media that this is the "last chance plan." But I don't think so. Bush has been annoyingly consistent in one belief, that we cannot fail in Iraq. So no matter what happens or doesn't happen in Iraq, he'll try "one more time" until the end of his term, passing on the horrid mess to someone else.
I'm just not sure what he can pass on. The plan to surge and accelerate essentailly tops out our global military committment. We've got essentially nothing left to send anywhere. As the military has already said, the military is breaking. If this plan doesn't work, we've got no other options of sending troops. The only way out of that trap is to expand the military, which has already been planned. As to that plan, I have to turn to my phrase from last night, "if wishes were wings ..." It's all fine and good to say let's expand the military. It's quite another to find the volunteers to do so. All of tihs says nothing of the cost (if wishes were dollars ... well, you know).
And lastly, speaking of a strained military, there was an ominous vagueness of Bush's speech concerning Iran and Syria. The President said we'd stop their support of insurgents, logistical, training, and otherwise. How we'll do that remained undefined. Although he did mention that we are sending an additional carrier group to the region. This morning, when the questions was put to Rice (would we strike Iran directly) ... Rice demurred, nothing is off the table, we'll do what is necessary, etc. To that notion I can only reel from shock. We can barely scrape up 20,000 troops for this "surge" and we might consider radically escalating the conflict?!
Not much new here ... bad news all around.
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