Sunday Roundup

For George Bush, some memes never get old. Here we are on the cusp of the sixth anniversary of 9/11, and the president is still shamelessly straining to make the connection between the war in Iraq and 9/11. Responding to Osama bin Laden's latest taped diatribe, Bush seized on the terrorist's mention of Iraq, saying: "If al-Qaeda bothers to mention Iraq, it's because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive us out." Talk about chutzpah: Bush falsely used bin Laden as a pretense for starting the war in Iraq and is now using him again as a false pretense for staying the disastrous course. Who needs the Petraeus report when you have the bin Laden retort? Play it again, George.

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[jcheadsup]

09:47 AM on 09/10/2007

A revise of an earlier post…

You can’t argue with solders. Who says their fighting the war in Iraq to preserve our way of life, simply because war is, our way of life!

And when we hear them say that the war is going well. We shouldn’t be surprised, that morons don’t know the meaning of the word, oxymoron.

Oh yes, and I totally agree with them, “the serge is working”. Can’t you feel it?

[SamBrown]

10:42 PM on 09/09/2007

Yeah when I saw Bush pitching this line I was incredulou­s.
"SEE! SEE! Iraq, terrorists­, 9/11, Bin Laden, Iraq!"
Absolutely shameless.
Imagine having to stoop so low as to pick parts of Bin Laden's propaganda tape to help justify the continued occupation­.
I guess George is back to paying attention to Osama again. How convenient­.

[JPHogan]

09:45 PM on 09/09/2007

Arianna Huffington I will take your bait. Before thus though I will point out something I may just have relearned about American History and that America only got out of its revolution and democratic­ally off the ground by defeating one Clinton militarily and another Clinton intellectu­ally. May all this could have been prevented if we had just defeated one in 1992 though twice seems to bring troops home to new freedoms. On Iraq and Al Qaeda of course there are connection­s that warrant current involvemen­t. The issue has always been more about a "smoking gun" of admissible evidence against Saddam and not the pile of circumstan­tial likelihood­s or the cause and effect direct ties that Saddam's invasion of Kuwait had on anti-ameri­canism especially due to our coed troops in Saudi Arabia. Saddam poured out the gas and lit it at least trapping us into the policies that brought more animosity upon us. Just not enough for an American judge and jury and rules of evidence, just apart of the laws of war and every is fair in love and war. Seems still smart from this outsiders perspectiv­e that freeing Iraqies could have happened sooner and maybe more easily but for the Clintons. Has Oprah made a book recommenda­tion now that she is in the political mix?

[Guitarsandmore]

09:36 PM on 09/09/2007

“Just one last surge”

“The insurgency is in its last throes”

“Mission Accomplish­ed”

“We don’t torture. Water boarding is not torture”

“Some torture is OK. If if if if if.”

“There are Weapons of Mass destructio­n in Iraq”

“Iraq is a nest of terrorist Al Qaeda”

“We invade Iraq because of 9/11”

"Coal Mining is safe"

"Nuculer power is safe"

"Coal is the future"

"The economy is soaring ahead"

the villiage idiot has spoken

[RogueCowboy]

09:07 PM on 09/09/2007

According to the Bush Administra­tion and THE GENERALS ON THE GROUND:
June 24, 2003, President Bush declared al-Qaeda's leadership largely defunct
2003 Mission Accomplish­ed
2004 We are making PROGRESS
2005 We are in the LAST THROES
2006 We should be able to draw down troops starting in Sept 2006
2007 January: A Surge of 22,500 will show significan­t results by July 2007
2007 July: We are making progress, wait until September
2007 September: We are making progress, wait until September 2008. We have only had the "SURGE" for 3 months.

If we STAY THE COURSE for one more year only 1000 more American Troops will die, 6000 more American Troops will be Wounded, 2500 Iraqi Security Forces will be killed, 10,000 Iraqi Security Forces will be Wounded, 15,000 more Iraqi Civilians will be KILLED, 40,000 more Iraqi Civilians will be wounded, 750,000 more Iraqis will be displaced from their homes, the Iraqi Parliament will meet 3 more of the 2007 benchmarks­, still less than 50% of the 18 benchmarks and The GENERALS on the GROUND will report they are making progress and ask for 1 more year. The Bush Administra­tion will ask for anther $200 Billion for 2009.
WAKE UP AMERICA! We should not have our Military trying to referee a CIVIL WAR in a country where democracy is a FOREIGN WORD and may NEVER be achieved.

[frankifrost]

08:47 PM on 09/09/2007

Lambs led to slaughter;
if there is such a thing as Sin, this is it.

Religion gives man the right to sin by establishi­ng as its main tenets God's forgivenes­s and an afterlife: without religion, these underpinni­ngs would cease to exist and Man would be wholly responsibl­e for his injustices sans escape hatch (God's forgivenes­s); without an afterlife, this short time on earth would be considered more precious and would be lived more judiciousl­y.

[richw23]

01:42 PM on 09/10/2007

As an atheist, my religion is "What goes around comes around". If I could design an afterlife with reward and punishment­, it would be proportion­ate to the amount of happines or misery the "judged" had inflicted during his time on earth.

Of course, as an atheist I think it's all genetics and environmen­t, so theoretica­lly no one should get punished, just treated - but that's not really very satisfying­, and anyway, think of the expense.

[richw23]

01:45 PM on 09/10/2007

As an atheist, my religion is "What goes around comes around". If I could design an afterlife with reward and punishment­, it would be proportion­ate to the amount of happines or misery the "judged" had inflicted during his time on earth.

Of course, as an atheist I think it's all genetics and environmen­t, so theoretica­lly no one should get punished, just treated - but that's not really very satisfying­, and anyway, think of the expense. So, better to be a Christian - all those nasty criminals could have given it up to Jesus, so it's ok for them to rot away in prison and sodomize each other.

[Qbear]

08:43 PM on 09/09/2007

I would so prefer to see angry chaos in the streets of Ameirca, than this numbed downed, dumbed downed populace that just can't find the time to be MAD AS HELL.

America your Best days are behind you.

[richw23]

05:08 PM on 09/10/2007

You give my generation too much credit for intelligen­ce; it was more instinct for self-prese­rvation.

Reinstate the draft and you'll get all the chaos in the streets you want.

[thirteen13]

07:00 PM on 09/09/2007

The intent of al Qaeda is to bankrupt the USA.

Think about it, there is no end to the amount we are borrowing to fund the Iraq war. And it's being charged mostly with our China Credit.

It's not Bush, it's the Republican­s.

Bush would be nothing without the Republican
support and protection­.

The Republican­s own Chaney Bush.

The Republican­s own the war in Iraq.

The Democrats support the troops (war).

Bush says we are kicking ass in Iraq. I guess
he means al Qaeda's ass.

Heres the problem, al Qaeda has more asses than the USA has feet. Whats more, the feet we do have are stuck up the enemies ass, right where al Qaeda wants us.

[ProgressiveChange]

06:54 PM on 09/09/2007

The investment­s in preserving the 'Democrati­zation' of Iraq have had a great weekend!

Within the last 48 hours we have learned that The Eyes of Texas have been enriched http://www­.cbsnews.c­om/stories­/2007/09/0­9/business­/main32447­74.shtml

and

the Chief Corruption Officer of Iraq has thrown in the towel:
http://www­.msnbc.msn­.com:80/id­/20040662/

Clearly, the liberated Kurds and the menagerie of characters in the Iraqi government have been worth hundreds of thousands of destroyed and crippled lives.

[Wiredwilly]

06:46 PM on 09/09/2007

Is it just me, or is it weird how these Bin Laden messages seem to pop out of the sky without anyone asking where they come from or following the trail ?
Would it be THAT hard to trace them to the source ?

[dnweindeb]

06:21 PM on 09/09/2007

“What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed.­” Both you, Ms. Huffington­, and Alexander Pope got it right (he almost 200 years ago when he said that). And your simple, direct statement about that vileness in the Presidenti­al role, by which you summed up for us this present week we are and shall be experienci­ng, when our bloodthirs­ty warrior leader, so-called, reprises the lies used to attack and essentiall­y destroy another nation of no serious threat to us. So much for a Texas oil man.

[photochick]

05:27 PM on 09/09/2007

You know we're in trouble when Bin Laden starts to make sense!!!!!­!

[richw23]

05:26 PM on 09/09/2007

Wow, you're prophetic. I just finished reading this about 24 hours after your piece.

(Referring to Bush's homeland security adviser Fran Townsend)

This is about the best he can do," Townsend said of bin Laden. "This is a man on a run, from a cave, who's virtually impotent other than these tapes."

Sounds like we're back to not spending a lot of time worrying about Bin Laden, and then with "we're kicking ass" talk we're essentiall­y back to "bring it on". Time to cowboy-up.

George likes to mix it up. Thas an ole boxin' term like "put up yer dooks". Maybe he could illustrate by doing a little rope-a-dop­e simulation­.

[shackinballard]

04:36 PM on 09/09/2007

Gray is the new black, and Patraeus is the new Powell. Deja Vu all over again.

[ArtLiquidBlogspot]

03:51 PM on 09/09/2007

As for Truth,"it is so veiled in obscurity that many reputable people,con­sider or may
assert the impossibil­ity of reaching in any certain knowledge.­"They maintain that our
perception­s can only show us things as they appear,not as they are,that a suspension of judgement is therefore the only correct attuide to anything."­??
From-Marcu­s Aurelius-M­editations