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NOTES FOR THE STATE OF THE WAR SPEECHby Molly Ivins |
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"We're on the offensive in Iraq, with a clear plan for victory. First, we are helping Iraqis build an inclusive government, so that old resentments will be eased and the insurgency will be marginalized. Second, we're continuing reconstruction efforts and helping the Iraqi government to fight corruption and build a modern economy, so all Iraqis can experience the benefit of freedom. And, third, we're striking terrorist targets while we train Iraqi forces that are increasingly capable of defeating the enemy." -- George W. Bush"The Iraq war has been a disaster." -- CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour. |
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"To the extent we stay there with big forces indefinitely, Iraqis will come up with all these theories that we really want to stay here for their oil. We want to use their country as a springboard for more aggression. They still see U.S. as occupiers ..." -- Michael O'Hanlon, Brookings Institute. Actually, the insurgency in Iraqi is comprized mostly of native Iraqis -- old Baathists and others who don't like being occupied by infidels. International terrorist jihadists are a negligible fraction of those fighting, and they are there to fight Americans, not to take over Iraq. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel economist, now estimates the total cost between $1 trillion and $2 trillion. He includes lifetime care of the wounded, the economic value of destroyed and lost lives, and the opportunity cost of resources diverted to the war. Despite chipper denials from the Pentagon, the Army has serious problems with recruiting, especially getting quality recruits, and with regular Army re-enlistment. The reason the numbers are not worse is because of the bonuses being offered. The officer corps is also being hollowed out, as younger officers quit in such numbers that 100 percent of those remaining are automatically moved up the ladder. For example, last year the Army promoted 97 percent of all eligible captains, up from as historical average of 70 percent to 80 percent. This information is from Pentagon data in a report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. It is quite possible this administration is destroying the professional Army. I do hope this is responsible criticism that aims for cures, not defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure.Crow Eaten Here: In Tuesday's column, I mentioned that the Bush administration was still blocking the release of a Commerce Department report on the outsourcing of jobs. A sanitized version of the report was, in fact, released in September 2005, with all discussion of the harmful effects of outsourcing removed.
Albion Monitor
February 2, 2006 (http://www.albionmonitor.com) All Rights Reserved. Contact rights@monitor.net for permission to use in any format. |