Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Watch this meme
As I predicted after the election, the Republicans are looking for a chance to pull out of Iraq post haste. They've started up the media campaign with comments from right wing think-tanks; soon they be echoing this call as if it weren't their idea.
Then, sometime after the elections (March? April?), most of the military will pull out. We'll keep some bases, I expect, as trophies, and forward positions for the next war (Iran). Iraq will collapse into civil war, or worse.
But still, do they have to pour salt in our wounds? Take this quote:
Yes, that's the rightwing saying that Michael Moore and Howard Dean were right. Do you think they realized this just yesterday? Or a year ago? Yes, they played all those Red Staters for suckers, knowing all along (as any reasonably intelligent toaster oven would) that invading Iraq has made us much less safe.
Then, sometime after the elections (March? April?), most of the military will pull out. We'll keep some bases, I expect, as trophies, and forward positions for the next war (Iran). Iraq will collapse into civil war, or worse.
But still, do they have to pour salt in our wounds? Take this quote:
"Our large, direct presence has fueled the Iraqi insurgency as much as it has suppressed it," said Michael Vickers, a conservative-leaning Pentagon consultant and longtime senior CIA official who supported the war.
...
"The end of the foreign occupation will seriously undermine the terrorists' claims that their acts of violence against Iraqis are somehow serving the interests of Iraq," according to "Exiting Iraq," published by the conservative-leaning Cato Institute. Moreover, "The occupation is counterproductive in the fight against radical Islamic terrorists and actually increases support for Osama bin Laden in Muslim communities not previously disposed to support his radical interpretation of Islam."
Yes, that's the rightwing saying that Michael Moore and Howard Dean were right. Do you think they realized this just yesterday? Or a year ago? Yes, they played all those Red Staters for suckers, knowing all along (as any reasonably intelligent toaster oven would) that invading Iraq has made us much less safe.
