Iraqis Visit U.S. Congress Members To Push GOP Talking Points

        The fine government of Iraq sent some of their senior people to Washington to lobby the Congress against pulling U.S. troops out of their country, saying the usual Bush chant that pulling out would have disastrous consequences.        Source

On Thursday, hours before the House voted to limit funds for the war, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh met with more than 30 House Republicans and more than a half-dozen senators, including Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., John Warner, R-Va., and Hillary Clinton.

With the clock ticking, Saleh — a Kurdish politician highly regarded by U.S. officials and who speaks impeccable English — said he came to Capitol Hill to convey the "imperative of success" in Iraq.

"Iraq is a central battleground in this historic conflict" against terrorism, he said in a brief interview after meeting with Reid, the Senate majority leader.

   I guess that it would be safe to say that Cheney didn't do to much arm twisting in regards to getting the Iraqi government to get with the program or else lose support. More like he went to make sure that Saleh had his rehearsed script and was ready to deliver the White House line of bullshit.

"Our armed forces are up to 150,000 troops; we're over $600 billion appropriated for this, lost 3,300 lives, 25,000 wounded fellow citizens. ... And the Iraqi answer? We're taking a summer off. Goin' fishing," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.

Saleh said he expects the vacation to be shortened by at least a month, although nothing had been decided. He added that Iraqis value being independent and do "not take kindly of (U.S. officials) telling us when to recess."

    A statement such as that one would have me pulling the plug on Iraq no matter how much oil the country has.

   If Bush were a real man and President, he would have told this Iraqi Republican wannabe to shut the fuck up and get ready for the policing of your country by your own military because ours are leaving.

    On the other hand, if Bush were a real man we would never have gone into Iraq in the first place.

Tags: Barham Saleh Rahm Emanuel Iraq Congress George Bush

Tony Snow Press Briefing Was A lot About Nothing, As Is Usual

      Ladies and Gentleman, a peek at today's White House press briefing with the ever faithful, severely mis-guided Tony Snow!

  May 10, 2007

Q One last thing about -- in connection with the Vice President's trip. On board Air Force Two yesterday, senior administration officials said of the trip, and the message, "We've got to get this work done. It's game time." -- what does that suggest about the first four years of the war? Is it that the administration is just now saying that that was a scrimmage and now it's game time? What does that mean?

MR. SNOW: I think that's simply -- it gets back to what the President is saying. In some ways, there may be perceptions of two different clocks, Baghdad and Washington. The President said, you've got to speed up the clock. It is a matter of realizing that there have been a lot of efforts now. We've been working on this joint way forward in Iraq. You are getting results in a number of areas. We have been talking and working with the Iraqis on political, economic, and other reform.

As the President was pointing out, there are very key things that people want and expect to see, because you know it has to happen. If you want success in Iraq, you have got to have political accommodation, you've got to have the oil law, you've got to have constitutional reform, you've got to have the elections, you've got to have de-Baathification. All of those things are necessities; everybody knows it. It is tough to get to those points, but you've got to do it.

 

Q Is there a point when the President does become concerned with the political ramifications for the party? As I understand it, during the meeting there was an argument made that "our members are worried they're going to lose their seats," and that will be bad for the war policy overall.

MR. SNOW: What the President's main concern is, it's bad for the country if you have a vacuum. It is, in fact, it is something that the country simply must not permit to happen and cannot afford, which is a failure in Iraq that would create a vacuum that would empower Iran, that would give al Qaeda a staging ground, that would shred American credibility in the region, that would create economic consequences --

Q Who's the cause of all that?

MR. SNOW: Well, notice again --

Q Who went into Iraq and created this chaos?

   Next dish, please!

MR. SNOW: Thank you. And so, to continue

      Again with the al Qaeda staging ground bullshit! In case Mr .Snow has not noticed, the United States has no credibility in the mid-east, with the exception of Israel. The United States has no credibility anywhere, not even at home thanks to George Bush.

Q The President emphasized September and he emphasized General Petraeus' report -- all week you moved away from September. Is it a real important date for us to decide things?

MR. SNOW: I think what the President is saying is --

Q Does he know that we have civilian rule in this country?

MR. SNOW: Yes. Do you?

Q I do.

MR. SNOW: Okay, good.

Q I'm not waiting for Petraeus.

   I like this reporter. someone up near the White House with a set of nuts! Sure Bush is aware that civilians rule this country, that's why he is trying his damndest to strip those rights away from us citizens.

 

Tags: Tony Snow George Bush Iraq al Qaeda