The whiny little baby requests that we please stop criticizing him. It makes him cranky.
Question: Everybody and their grandmother's been posting about some new law/proposed law that will ban "annoying" comments on message boards. Is that for real? 'cause I RSS all the big mainstream news sources and can't find any mention of this law. (For all I know, it's all over the TV news, but I haven't got cable).
President Bush, known both at home and abroad for his reasoned, logical arguments, is urging his critics to be more responsible when debating Iraq. It is important, he says, that our political discussions do not bring "comfort to our adversaries."
Sah, this is nothing new. This is the same old /having different opinions hurts the troops/. Which is bull. Did you know that people criticized World War II? And if I recall correctly, we won that war.
You know what's irresponsible? Entering a war that's going to end up costing us about 2 trillion dollars without an exit strategy. Bear in mind that this is a pre-emptive war. It's not like Saddam Hussein attacked us and we had to respond as best we could--we had time to plan this war, and we didn't.
posted by Marie Antoinette at 2:27 PM
7 Comments:
Howard Roberts
A Seven-point plan for an Exit Strategy in Iraq
1) A timetable for the complete withdrawal of American and British forces must be announced.
I envision the following procedure, but suitable fine-tuning can be applied by all the people involved.
A) A ceasefire should be offered by the Occupying side to representatives of both the Sunni insurgency and the Shiite community. These representatives would be guaranteed safe passage, to any meetings. The individual insurgency groups would designate who would attend.
At this meeting a written document declaring a one-month ceasefire, witnessed by a United Nations authority, will be fashioned and eventually signed. This document will be released in full, to all Iraqi newspapers, the foreign press, and the Internet.
B) US and British command will make public its withdrawal, within sixth-months of 80 % of their troops.
C) Every month, a team of United Nations observers will verify the effectiveness of the ceasefire.
All incidences on both sides will be reported.
D) Combined representative armed forces of both the Occupying nations and the insurgency organizations that agreed to the cease fire will protect the Iraqi people from actions by terrorist cells.
E) Combined representative armed forces from both the Occupying nations and the insurgency organizations will begin creating a new military and police force. Those who served, without extenuating circumstances, in the previous Iraqi military or police, will be given the first option to serve.
F) After the second month of the ceasefire, and thereafter, in increments of 10-20% ,a total of 80% will be withdrawn, to enclaves in Qatar and Bahrain. The governments of these countries will work out a temporary land-lease housing arrangement for these troops. During the time the troops will be in these countries they will not stand down, and can be re-activated in the theater, if both the chain of the command still in Iraq, the newly formed Iraqi military, the leaders of the insurgency, and two international ombudsman (one from the Arab League, one from the United Nations), as a majority, deem it necessary.
G) One-half of those troops in enclaves will leave three-months after they arrive, for the United States or other locations, not including Iraq.
H) The other half of the troops in enclaves will leave after six-months.
I) The remaining 20 % of the Occupying troops will, during this six month interval, be used as peace-keepers, and will work with all the designated organizations, to aid in reconstruction and nation-building.
J) After four months they will be moved to enclaves in the above mentioned countries.
They will remain, still active, for two month, until their return to the States, Britain and the other involved nations.
2) At the beginning of this period the United States will file a letter with the Secretary General of the Security Council of the United Nations, making null and void all written and proscribed orders by the CPA, under R. Paul Bremer. This will be announced and duly noted.
3) At the beginning of this period all contracts signed by foreign countries will be considered in abeyance until a system of fair bidding, by both Iraqi and foreign countries, will be implemented ,by an interim Productivity and Investment Board, chosen from pertinent sectors of the Iraqi economy.
Local representatives of the 18 provinces of Iraq will put this board together, in local elections.
4) At the beginning of this period, the United Nations will declare that Iraq is a sovereign state again, and will be forming a Union of 18 autonomous regions. Each region will, with the help of international experts, and local bureaucrats, do a census as a first step toward the creation of a municipal government for all 18 provinces. After the census, a voting roll will be completed. Any group that gets a list of 15% of the names on this census will be able to nominate a slate of representatives. When all the parties have chosen their slates, a period of one-month will be allowed for campaigning.
Then in a popular election the group with the most votes will represent that province.
When the voters choose a slate, they will also be asked to choose five individual members of any of the slates.
The individuals who have the five highest vote counts will represent a National government.
This whole process, in every province, will be watched by international observers as well as the local bureaucrats.
During this process of local elections, a central governing board, made up of United Nations, election governing experts, insurgency organizations, US and British peacekeepers, and Arab league representatives, will assume the temporary duties of administering Baghdad, and the central duties of governing.
When the ninety representatives are elected they will assume the legislative duties of Iraq for two years.
Within three months the parties that have at least 15% of the representatives will nominate candidates for President and Prime Minister.
A national wide election for these offices will be held within three months from their nomination.
The President and the Vice President and the Prime Minister will choose their cabinet, after the election.
5) All debts accrued by Iraq will be rescheduled to begin payment, on the principal after one year, and on the interest after two years. If Iraq is able to handle another loan during this period she should be given a grace period of two years, from the taking of the loan, to comply with any structural adjustments.
6) The United States and the United Kingdom shall pay Iraq reparations for its invasion in the total of 120 billion dollars over a period of twenty years for damages to its infrastructure. This money can be defrayed as investment, if the return does not exceed 6.5 %.
7) During the beginning period Saddam Hussein and any other prisoners who are deemed by a Council of Iraqi Judges, elected by the National representative body, as having committed crimes will be put up for trial.
The trial of Saddam Hussein will be before seven judges, chosen from this Council of Judges.
One judge, one jury, again chosen by this Council, will try all other prisoners.
All defendants will have the right to present any evidence they want, and to choose freely their own lawyers.
There we go...
Is it a double-whammy if my comment not only gives aid and comfort to the enemy but also annoy's the shit out of the nut-case that I'm debating?
Now, not only do I need asbestos shorts, but I have to have my lawyer proof all of my comments before I submit. What a pain.
Now THAT is a plan.
Which will be extra-hard because sofar as I can tell, there's no legal definition of "annoying." I have my own peeves that probably wouldn't bother other people at all.
"we had time to plan this war, and we didn't.."
Oh, there's a plan, alright. A way-cool plan, I should add. I'd show it to you, but of course, that'd only give aid and comfort to the enemy.
I just want to say that when I was in the Navy I watched on the evening news, when I got the time which was hardly ever, as Clinton got bashed by the right wing while my battlegroup pummeled some terrorist camps in Sudan and in Afghanistan. I really could have cared less. I'm gonna get right to the point. The troops are too worried about staying alive to give a damn about what we say about Bush. It's just some crap the right wing media likes to do to make the left wing seem like they don't care for the troops. I'm sure you know that already, I just wanted you to know that it's a view that is shared by vets as well. SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!! BRINGEM' HOME!
I'd had that suspicion, since the people who are all "don't upset the troops" are never people who've been in the military. But it's good to hear it from somebody who actually knows.
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