the author has written extensively on the clusterfuck the Bush Administration has made of the Middle East. He is a writer, forensic accountant, and all around interesting chap. He is putting this here because the main story doesn't have an "intro" per se, and copy and pasted it below.
First up, one of those "once a day bombs you see on TV' moments from the First Propagandist.
February 27, 2007
Tonight on Larry King Live, First Lady Laura Bush said she understands "how the American people feel" when they express frustration over Iraq, but insisted that "to leave now would be a serious mistake." She said of Iraqis, "This is their opportunity to seize the moment, to build a really good and stable country."
As AmericaBlog first noted, Bush added, "[M]any parts of Iraq are stable now. But, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everybody."
[full story, which includes stats on how many attacks are actually taking place.]
I keep seeing this theme coming from the Bushes and I just don't get it. They seem to think it is the TV that is the problem, and not the fact that a war that was supposed to over in "six weeks, maybe sixth months" and pay for itself is now heading toward four years and five hundred billion dollars. She seems to think, and her husband echoes this, that all would be fine if we were just ignorant of all the people (women and children) dying over there so we, uh, don't have to think about them dying over there for our freedom. I know, their logic doesn't make any freakin' sense, but I saw it on TV, so I can just easily dismiss it...or something.
Speaking of those "once a day" bombs. One of them spooked the VP while he was hanging out in that other warzone, Afghanistan.
MUSCAT (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked into a bomb shelter immediately after a Taliban suicide bomber struck the main American military base he was visiting in Afghanistan on Tuesday.
Up to 14 people were killed, including one U.S. and one South Korean soldier, in the Bagram Airbase attack which rebels said was aimed at Cheney.
He had been in his room at the base where he had unexpectedly had to stay the night after bad weather forced postponement of his trip to the capital, Kabul, about 60 km (40 miles) away.
"At 10 a.m. I heard a loud boom," Cheney said.
[full story]
"And that's as close to combat I've ever been, or ever want to be." he didn't add (well, if you don't count shooting that guy in the face). I dunno what it is about Cheney that sets me off so. Maybe it was the five deferments. Maybe it's that he is a guy who hates government because it is corrupt and useless...and then proceeds to be a part of the most corrupt and useless administration in history. His hypocrisy knows no bounds (as I noted the last time I mentioned his no-heart-having ass).
Maybe now he understand why starting another war before you finish the first one is not a good idea. Maybe now he understands that he is, in fact, presiding over two failing wars.
"We wanted to target ... Cheney," Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayat Khan told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location.
Understand that when the Taliban can organize and carry out at attack on such a high profile target, they either have the intelligence services totally infiltrated, or have pretty much free run of the place. Either option ain't such a good sign. As the man himself said...
The meeting had been scheduled for Monday, but was delayed when Cheney was snowed in at Bagram soon after arriving from Islamabad on a visit shrouded in secrecy because of security.
"They clearly try to find ways to question the authority of the central government," Cheney told reporters traveling with him out of Afghanistan on a military plane to Oman.
"Striking at Bagram with a suicide bomber I suppose is one way to do that."
Yea, I suppose so too. Umm, what do you plan to do to fix it?
I'm still of the opinion that we should get out of Iraq, and get back to Afghanistan. We can still use the idiotic and immoral "fly paper" strategy there, still threaten Iran with massive bombing, and keep spending billions fighting people who don't really give two shits what we do here (i.e. the vast majority of Afghans and Iraqis). All the above mentioned seemed to be the actual goals of the Neocons, and while I don't agree with a darn one of 'em, at least we could help minimize the damage such absurb policies would inflict on the world.
Heck, if we focus on Afghanistan, we might even get a glimpse of that Bin Laden fellow.
There is some good news to balance out the crap here. No, it's not that we figured out to make an anti-bomb that puts together broken bodies (the "Humpty Dumpty 2000"). It's that we are actually planning to gasp talk to some of the people that can help resolve this clusterfuck.
WASHINGTON -- In a significant diplomatic shift, the Bush administration announced Tuesday that it will join Iran and Syria at the table during a "neighbors' conference" in Iraq to discuss how to stabilize the security situation there.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the announcement in a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the administration's request for additional war funding. She said the U.S. would "fully support" the Iraqi government's diplomatic initiative, noting that Baghdad had invited both Iran and Syria to attend.
Rice added, "We hope that all governments will seize this opportunity to improve their relations with Iraq and to work for peace and stability in the region."
The Bush administrationhas accused both Syria and Iran of fueling the violence in Iraq, and before Tuesday it had resisted urgings to engage the two countries, including a recommendation from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
They sad part about these folks (i.e the Bush administration) is that they can't even acknowledge their own flip-flopping...even when the flop to an actual rational position.
Administration officials asserted Tuesday that this was not a new U.S. effort to engage Iran and Syria, but it did seem to be an abrupt change, given what both President Bush and Rice have said about engagement with the two countries.
So we got that going for us.
Maybe we are going to bond together and build an Axis of Nuetral? The world at large would certainly appreciate that one. But who knows, we'll wait and see what happens and hope for the best.
There is also good know on the "real reason we invaded" front. No, the Iraqis haven't decided they want a secular government with rights for women, gays, and minorities. They have decided on how to split the spoils they are fighting us for.
IRAQ'S cabinet signed off yesterday on draft legislation to manage Iraq's vast oil industry and share its wealth among thecountry's ethnic and sectarian groups.
Passing a law to help settle potentially explosive disputes over the world's third-largest oil reserves has been a key demand of the US, which has linked it to continuing support for the Shia-led national unity Government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Mr Maliki announced the decision after the Kurds accepted the draft oil bill over the weekend - nearly two months after the Government's own deadline for enacting a new oil law.
He hailed the measures as "another foundation stone" in the building of a new Iraq, which relies on oil revenues for about 90 per cent of its national budget.
The legislation now goes to parliament for approval but it is unclear when the 275-member parliament will vote on the measure. The legislature reconvenes early next month.
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Iraq has some of the world's largest petroleum reserves, and supporters hope the legislation will encourage major oil companies to invest billions - if the security situation improves.
[full story]
That part about "major oil companies" is the big part (and a big win) for the administration (and their financial and philosophical supporters...and all you folks driving SUVs). They are trying to get "Production-Sharing Agreements" [wiki] into place before another strongman or theocracy takes over Iraq, and decides to keep all the profits in the country, rather than exporting them in exchange for "freedom".