Well for a week now I have been reading how the assault on the JAM in Basra was a failure . But as so often happens in war ;the first 3 reports were inaccurate . Turns out that his army got it's butts kicked and he as the losing party called for cease-fire. While his thugs slithered into the civilian population the Iraqi Army continued it's block by block clean up operation.

While this was happening the Iraqi Parliment in bipartisan action that encompassed leaders of all major factions Shia Sunni and Kurd were drafting a Bill and proclaiming they would support banning parties that maintain militias from running for office.

al-Sadr has said that he would disbanned if the clerics instructed him to do so .
Iraq's Sadr to disband Mehdi Army if clerics order - Yahoo! News

Major clerics like al-Sistani have been clear about their position .
Al Jazeera English - News - Sistani 'Wants Militias Disarmed'

Going into tomorrows hearings on Capitol Hill I wonder how the Congressional Democrats will spin this news ?

tomder55

civil war ..... semanitics ....actually I look at the JAM as simular to Hezbollah ;on the payroll of Tehran.There is nothing nationalistic about their side at all . We are supporting the elected government of Iraq from the quasi take over from a hostile neighbor ;just like we should be supporting Lebanon from the same threat. .

speechlesstx

He has since apologized, but did you catch Obama fan Jay Rockefeller's incredibly outrageous smear of McCain?

The guy puts his life on the line for his country, spends years as a POW and he's "insensitive to many human issues." More evidence of the left's utter disdain for those who protect them and defend their right to be complete idiots.

tomder55

I could have another couple of theads dealing with Sen. Jay Rockeffeler. He has in my opinion never served in the best interest of the country. He took a neat little field trip to Syria before OIF to tell Assad and other thugs that the decision to invade already had been made ; all before President Bush even made a public speech about Iraq ;to the U.N. or anyone else. He was also almost certainly the leaker of the classified and top secret CIA satellite program to the NY Slimes. in 2004

tomder55

Steve , Laser-guided munitions were not used in Vietnam;at least not before McCain was captured (1st used in 1973)
VA-145 Swordsmen: Squadron Chronology

Besides;their use has reduced non-combatant casualties. Also McCain was shot down from 4500 ft because they wanted more precise targetting . Had he dropped his bombs from 35,000 ft he probably would not have been hit.

And indeed McCain has experienced the effects of the munitions having been on the USS Forrestal when the munitions from a buring jet detonated and blew him 20-30 feet away while he was trying to rescue the pilot of the jet. He was also on the ground in "Hanoi Hilton" during the Linebacker campaign.

George_1950

This sounds like just another Democrat lie; they will say anything and sacrifice everything to maintain and further their world-view of more and larger government. I just don't understand how an otherwise reasonable guy like excon has fallen into that.

speechlesstx

tom, no one ever accused Rockefeller or newspaper reporters of being smart did they? Speaking of slamming McCain, Howard the Deaniac is doing so again in the latest DNC email.

He is right in that last line. Apparently Dean has never read the 9/11 Commission report.

What makes these ignorant Democrats think they no longer cooperate, election year?

McCain Was Right, Iran Works with Al Qaeda

tomder55

they continue to get away with that distortion because the media controls the narrative ;like the spin that the Basra campaign has been a failure .Why ? Because a cease fire was called ? In the Muslim doctrine a hudna(freeze) is called when you are in a position of weakness.

BABRAM

I don't think the Democrats need to spin any news out of Iraq since they have seven and half years of George Bush on record. I won't get into a "he said this or he said that" because I think there's already enough commentaries and blogs that amount to nothing more than campaigning. Capital Hill turned out to be scripted campaign speeches by all the candidates. It's war folks, yet the loss of lives has turned into a campaign circus. Personally I want phased redeployment out of this huge strategic blunder. I do think Petraeus has done fairly well considering the mess he took over. But it's obvious Petraeus doesn't know how long this will drag on and that in and of itself is very telling. I think most level headed Americans don't want to be having the same conversations rehashing what is working and what's not working concerning the Iraqi war, four or eight more years down the road.

tomder55

I still fail to see where announcing a withdrawal ahead of time is in our best interest or how that will motivate the Iraqi gvt to acheive artificial " benchmarks" (most of which they have made substantial progress on).The reality is that until they can manage their own security then the loss of the US pressence will create a vacume that the Iranians will be more than happy to fill. You should be encouraged that General P. is talking about consolidation and assessing gains . There cannot be an end game until that step at least is evaluated. An early withdrawal will not help acheive the goals but it is a legitimate question to ask if the goals ultimately can be acheived . I think the General and the Iraqi government has demonstrated recently that they can be.

You are right about the political atmosphere . In a saner system these hearings would be closed door . The people of the US did not know how the end game of WWII was progressing just a few months before Hitler was brought down . I would love to see how Teddy Kennedy would've spun the Battle of the Bulge.

You are also right that part of the problem has been the bluster of the Bush adm. in the early days of the war. Mission accomplished and last throes rhetoric was not helpful .I'd say the cautious and plodding steps taken since then shows that they learned a lesson .

excon

Hello again,

I dunno. I hear you talk about spin, and I have to laugh.....

I've given your dufus in chief the benefit of the doubt in the past because EVERYBODY believed what HE believed, although he had resources to know otherwise. However, yesterday Petraus told us how we almost lost in 2006.

Bush, the liar in chief was telling us that we were making progress over there.

Now, I know you're gonna say that Bush was just "supporting" the troops..... And, I'm gonna say, here smoke some of this.... It's certainly a lot better than what you're smoking.

excon