A vast majority of Americans might want U.S. troops out of Iraq but President George W. Bush wants to keep this country's men and women in uniform in harm's way in that war-torn country for at least 50 years.
Just like Korea.
Although the "official line" from the Bush administration has been that America would not have a "permanent" presence in Iraq, Presidential spokesman Tony Snow admitted Wednesday that current plans accept the fact that "you get to a point in the future where you want it to be a purely support model."
Snow said such a model would be based on "the Korea model…in which the United States provides a security presence, but you've had the development of a successful democracy in South Korea over a period of years and, therefore, the United States is there as a force of stability."
The U.S. has been a "force of stability" in Korea for a half-century and Americans have died over the years in numerous "incidents" along the border between the north and south.
Writes Steve Holland of Reuters:
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a statement he believes it is time for Bush to "recognize the reality on the ground in Iraq," that U.S. troops are mired in an Iraqi civil war and a change in course is urgently needed.
"Democrats know that Americans demand realistic plans, not more White House rhetoric, rosy predictions and best-case scenarios. Our troops and the American people deserve better," Reid said.
Iraq's neighbors have raised concerns about the possibility of the United States maintaining permanent bases in Iraq, and some U.S. lawmakers have said they think the Iraqi insurgency may have been fueled by perceptions the United States wants a permanent presence in the country.
Washington has consistently denied wanting permanent bases in Iraq.
Snow said U.S. bases in Iraq would not necessarily be permanent because they would be there at the invitation of the host government and "the person who has done the invitation has the right to withdraw the invitation."
"I think the point he's (Bush) trying to make is that the situation in Iraq, and indeed, the larger war on terror, are things that are going to take a long time. But it is not always going to require an up-front combat presence," Snow said.
"The president has always said that ultimately you want to be handing primary responsibility off to the Iraqis," he said.
"You provide the so-called over-the-horizon support that is necessary from time to time to come to the assistance of Iraqis but you do not want the United States forever in the front."
21 thoughts on “Troops could be in Iraq for half a century”
Thanks Gene for the compliment…! It makes me happy that I’m part of your “pick-me-up” routine. I write from both my heart and knowledge base.
I want to assure those that might be fearful, that I “know” these mattoids will fail, and fail miserably in the end. Why, you may ask? Simply because the bottom line indicates people worldwide don’t like being told what to do nor controlled especially after seeing what free markets and unfettered, benign capitalism can bring in terms of prosperity.
The mattoids that are at the highest level of world governments still think they are living at the high-water-mark of the nation-state paradigm; i.e., the very nation-state concept they wish to destroy. The world and world markets have left them behind. They want to destroy the world, turning it into their concept of a New World Order, but at the people’s of the world’s expense and as long as they are in control of their world-encompassing tyranny!
Poster children for this flawed, antediluvian pseudo-intellectual thinking construct; i.e., “real politik” are none other than Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brezhenski, Carrol Quigley,”Tragedy and Hope” (deceased) et. al., all “running dog” think tank facilitators for the “republicrats” and Eurocrats; i.e., the NWO crowd! For some reason these quasi-commie/fascist elitists hate the concept of a middle class. It’s the middle class that’s paying the freight for their continuing national/international profligacy. So, to me it’s a bunch of lazy-assed, coffee shop, hang-out, pseudo-intellectual, over-educated types scheming on how to destroy the very barristas that serve them their latte’s…?! :)) I loathe them all!
I ascribe to Chairman Mao’s solution. I’d put all these lazy-assed, scheming, pseudo-intellectual bureaucrats to work in the fields similar to “Dirty Jobs” as shown on the Discovery Channel, the cable TV series;i.e., then placing the laborers into the government positions with the elitists now to do the “dirty jobs”, rotating them every 3-5 years or so. Possibly they could be re-educated as to the error of their ways; i.e., thinking they are somehow individually better than the rest of humanity; that is, elitism at it’s worst as we now must suffer! My narrative probably would scare the crap out of an oldline “Chinese Red Commie” because they have become the very essence of all that is bad about capitalism; i.e., effete, lazy-assed, money-hungry, “pirate capitalist” elitists… :)) In my book, elitism is the ultimate flaw in human psychology and is key to our downfall, simply the thought/s that somehow I’m better than you or anyone else around me. I loathe elitists! We “all” need to get our hands dirty in the business of life in order to bond with each other and creation itself!
Carl Nemo **==
Who is Tony Snow kidding with his invitatiion concept? Remember Shock and Awe? Remember Reichsfuhrer Bremmer and all he did to Iraq? How many politicians in Iraq get assassinated? How many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died since the US arrived to liberate them? The current puppet government is weak and useless and lives inside the US fortified Green Zone, which is their sphere of control and influence. The Iraqis don’t want us — and our continued occupation/colonization of Iraq is an additional flashpoint for jihadists and terrorists. One day, if and when the Iraqis do have free elections, you will see the long awaited Islamic Republic of Iraq, which Saddam and the Baathists forestalled. Then, we will receive a very clear disinvitation…as if killing that has now excalated to 100 US soldiers a month hasn’t give us a clue that maybe we’re not wanted. Ony 50 more years of this?
Pathetic…….actually apathetic is more like it.
A nation of ignorant half-wits.
Most should have not been allowed to breed……seriously.
Most shouldn’t be allowed to vote (that is if voting isn’t rigged now).
The attention span of a goldfish, and the backbone of a jellyfish, that’s your average American.
Men fought and died in wars so these losers could let it all go to hell?
God, if only the soldiers of yesterday would have known.
The bright side?
It doesn’t take that many people to make a change.
I’ll say it again….it doesn’t take that many people to make a change.
A group of directed, educated individuals, with the ability to lead the way.
Lead the way.
Leaders (not followers) unlike like the sheeple that sit on their fat ignorant duffs and watch the sewage that spews out of the propaganda box they are so proud of…..complete nonsense that should be insulting to any person with an IQ over 30, and yet they watch it, and even PAY for it….ha ha.
Everyone wants to be famous…….it (the TV) shaping their views, their opinions, thier truth, their whole world, and life. Sickening.
Nothing will be done about Iraq, and Americans are getting what they deserve.
They’ll believe what the news media says because “hey it’s on TV it MUST be true.”
The saddest part is that earlier generations of Americans gave thier lives, and died in foreign wars, forsaking their families, their lives cut short, so that these modern day wastes of human sperm could sit around and watch American Idol, or Monday Night Football and drink beer, letting their country go to hell.
Not caring, and unable to comprehend even the most elementary thoughts, void of any critical examination.
Pathetic…….no apathetic…..no both.
Carl do you realize that those three (3) active brain cells of mine can handle only a limited volume of information at any given time. (Information overload) gives me one hell of a headache, not to say I do not appreciate your focused intelligence and admire you for that ability. Obviously with only 3 brain cells working at any given moment (focused intelligence) is simply a non-issue for (yours truely).
Yes I know that much of what I say here is “preaching to the choir” especially with individuals such as yourself who comment often.
But Carl (your comments) do help to maintain my sanity in a very insane world. You are intelligent, knowlegable and able to express this wisdom in a very detailed and informative way that educates humbled mortals such as myself.
So with my ativan, a good stiff drink and one of (your) comments (my favorite) life just doesn’t get much better for me.
Great minnie-rant gene! I’m sure the Bushistas have their butts puckered everytime the official hurricane season starts and it’s due soon. Last year was lucky, but I have a feeling the we are going to get hit hard by more multi-billion dollar damaging hurricanes. It’s predicted to be a “tuff” season!
What irritates me greatly is how poorly managed the Katrina recovery has been; i.e., the corruption, the wastage and general mismanagement, all the while our leaders are pissing hundreds of billions down an Iraqi rathole.
Btw, doing Ativan is ok because that’s part of another government sponsored boondoggle. Ativan is in the same class of drugs as Valium, Diazepam etc. Compared to Prozac and all the drugs in it’s family, Valium is incredibly benign even when chased with booze. It was referred to as “mothers’ little helper” in the 60’s… :)) But the government frowns upon Valium and its’ associated analogs as being almost the equivalent of “crack cocaine”. No kidding?! If someone asks their doctor for a prescriptipon of Valium they get the uh-oh, we’ve got a “druggie” look. :)) Why so? There’s no money for big-pharm concerning Valium, Diazepam etc. These very calming and quite safe drugs are very cheap in comparison to the newer class of anti-depressants which have many dangerous side effects linked to a track record of associated violence via suicide, publicly inflicted mayhem etc., but that’s were the bucks are for big-pharm. It’s estimated there are 60 million Americans are on this class of anti-depressants at this time. That may also explain why things have gotten so bad with little response from the national peanut gallery. They’ve been chemically lobotomized.
You’re entitled to your “quite safe” Ativan chased with a shot. You are among kindred spirits on CHB with most if not all knowing we are headed towards a financial black hole sooner than most think. So just remember you are preaching to choir in most cases… 😉
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorazepam
Best regards…
Carl Nemo **==
Americans do not have a complaint about anything this idot says. We are the ones leaving him in office. We are the ones who are leaving the corrupt politicians in office. Therefore we get what we deserve.
Most Americans are pathetic, they should be made to go to Iraq and live. Democracy carries a price tag, but most Americans are not willing to help pay it.
Go for it Mr. chimp president, turn this great nation into what ever you want to, our people don’t care.
Give our job away, we don’t care.
Kill our soldiers, we don’t care.
Create your own constitution, we don’t care.
Take away our freedoms and rights, we don’t care.
Do away with our pensions and social security, we don’t care.
Let big business have what ever they want, we don’t care.
Don’t ever let anyone talk tou into gun control, we may need those guns to get our contry back from the government.
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