Odierno: U.S. May Never Declare Victory in Iraq

By GottaLaff

Boy Georgie sure knew how to make America look like a winner... or is that "wiener"?

"I'm not sure we will ever see anyone declare victory in Iraq, because first off, I'm not sure we'll know for 10 years or five years," Army Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.

"What we've done here is we're giving Iraq an opportunity in the long term to be a strategic partner of the United States, but more importantly, be a partner in providing regional stability inside of the Middle East," he said. [...]

"They have an opportunity to build an open economy," he said. "They have an opportunity to build, to continue to move forward with their nascent democracy."

But Odierno said Iraq won't be able to meet those goals in the next few years.

"It's going to be several years before we know," he said.

How's that legacy going for you, Bushie boy?

Of course, spending billions upon billions on Iraq is patriotic. On health care reform? Marxist/Socialist.

Joe Plumber: Media Shouldn't Report War

Too sad to be as funny as it deserves. G-d forbid people have "opinions" on war. I really didn't think he was this stupid.

[Laffy Note-- Blog title addendum: Media Shouldn't Report on Joe the Cretin.]

Afghan president wishes he could down U.S. planes

By GottaLaff

Things are not going well between Bush and the president of Afghanistan. According to Karzai, all he needs is some string and a rock to show Bush who's boss:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday he would bring down U.S. planes bombing villages if he could, in a sign of growing tension between Afghanistan and its Western backers as the Taliban insurgency grows in strength. [...]

In recent weeks, Karzai has repeatedly blamed the West for the worsening security in Afghanistan, saying NATO failed to target Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan and calling for the war to be taken out of Afghan villages.

"We have no other choice, we have no power to stop the planes, if we could, if I could ... we would stop them and bring them down," Karzai told a news conference.

He said that if he had something like the rock attached to a piece of string, known as a chelak in Dari, used to bring down kites in Afghanistan, he would use it.

"If we had a chelak, we would throw it and stop the American aircraft. We have no radar to stop them in the sky, we have no planes," he said. "I wish I could intercept the planes that are going to bomb Afghan villages, but that's not in my hands."

Not exactly a sign of a budding friendship.

Gramm-pa McCain's war fixation

By GottaLaff

Gramm-pa McCain is so proud of this line: "I’m not George Bush. If he wanted to run against George Bush, he should have run four years ago.” How about 9 years ago?

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain fixed his sights on Saddam Hussein long before President Bush sent the U.S. military to oust the Iraqi dictator in March 2003.

Four years earlier, the Arizona senator told a Kansas State University audience that Saddam was amassing illicit weapons, and that the U.S. should arm opposition groups to overthrow him, along with North Korea's leaders and other "odious regimes."

Saddam, however, no longer had any chemical, biological or nuclear arms programs. [...]

For years, McCain repeated the same assertions about Iraq's weapons programs and ties to terrorism that the Bush administration later used to make its case for invading Iraq. Today, he insists that the war was right and that last year's surge of additional troops to Iraq has put the U.S. "on the road to victory" there.

Although he's cultivated a maverick image, McCain's fixation with Iraq, and with regime change more generally, is squarely in step with his party's neoconservatives, many of whom now work for his campaign. Neoconservatives believe that the U.S. must preserve its unchallenged global dominance and military superiority, and reshape the world, by force if necessary.

Add that to a volatile temper and it spells "oy":

"There is no question that he (McCain) reflects the hard-line neocon view," said retired Army Brig. Gen. John Johns, a former supporter who's known McCain since his return from Vietnam but is backing Democratic nominee Barack Obama. "With his attitude, his finger on the trigger, the slightest thing will (cause him to) execute that philosophy."

Oy oy!

While McCain has toned down many of his hard-line pronouncements in this campaign, a McClatchy review of dozens of his speeches, interviews, statements and writings over more than two decades traces an evolution from reluctant warrior to advocate of U.S. military intervention on a global scale.

Oy cubed!

In speeches and interviews McCain:

• Has vowed, since at least 1999, to institute a "rogue state rollback" policy of arming rebel forces to replace regimes in Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea and other nations. He said such nations were developing weapons of mass destruction, supporting terrorism and threatening "our interests and values." (Background material here, here, here and here.)
• Has advocated sending the U.S. military to "back up" those rebel forces "when they meet with reversals."
• Has said that civilian casualties should be a secondary concern of military operations.
• Has invoked a variety of justifications for using force, from defending the nation's security, allies, interests and "principles and values" to halting genocide in places such as Darfur and Kosovo and salvaging U.S. "credibility."
• Has called for the creation of a "League of Democracies" to circumvent the U.N. Security Council when Russia and China oppose the use of force, tough sanctions or other actions sought by the U.S.

Barack Obama cubed.

BREAKING: Gov. Sarah Palin warns war may be necessary if Russia invades another country

By GottaLaff

Getting details.

On the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Gov. Sarah Palin took a hard-line approach on national security and said that war with Russia may be necessary if that nation invades another country.

In her first of three interviews with ABC News's Charles Gibson and the only interview since being picked by Sen. John McCain as his Republican vice presidential nominee, Palin categorized the Russian invasion of Georgia as "unacceptable" and warned of the threats from Islamic terrorists and a nuclear Iran.

Just what we need. Cheney on steroids. Bush III, Cheney II.

When asked by Gibson if under the NATO treaty, the U.S. would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: "Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.

"And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable," she told ABC News' Charles Gibson in an exclusive interview.

H/t: Jack

Do You Want Other Wars?

Warning- disturbing visuals. Send it around, it might change a mind.