That Tingle Means it's Working

Doesn't it set a wonderful example for democracy when leaders in this country, both Democrat and Republican, call for the ouster of the elected Maliki government in Iraq?

And now for your first lesson in elected democracy -- the coup d'etat.

Oh, and number two -- installing a CIA-backed emergency government.

But let's all see this for what it is: another excuse to buy this shitty war some more time.

The whole idea of the surge was to establish some semblance of security and provide "breathing space" so that the Iraqi leaders could make political progress. And while the military has done a better job creating pockets of security, even while overall violence is up from last summer, the political side of the equation has gone backwards. The Sunnis have left the government entirely, and an emergency summit designed at bringing them back in has failed. Half of the 36 ministries have withdrawn support for the government and don't even attend meetings. Which raises another question: how do you tell who is showing up when they're all on vacation?

So what do we do now? Try to install the Allawi government back in. That way, when General Petraeus testifies before Congress that the surge has not created an environment where political reconciliation could take place -- i.e. the surge has failed -- we'll then pretend that was because we had the wrong team in charge. But now we have the right team in charge! And you can't pull the plug now that we have the right team in charge! Just you wait and see! It's all going to turn out great! Just give us a couple more months!

And by months, I mean years.

Meanwhile, this is the kind of spin you get from the right wing, who likes to think that we're actually in control of this situation. Here's a recent National Review editorial:

"The fact is that the surge is President Bush's policy, and one that he implemented over the vociferous opposition of Democrats who thought the best strategy against al Qaeda in Iraq was to begin to leave. Now the surge has helped turn Sunni tribes against al Qaeda, advancing the goal that nearly everyone in the U.S. notionally shares of routing the terror group from Iraq."

Then, of course, there's the reality: it was the Sunnis in Anbar province who decided to create an alliance against the Al Qaeda types, and that happened before the surge even started. So we didn't do that. They did. We simply armed them, funded them, and helped them. But they're not on our side. They're on their side. They were shooting at us and blowing up our convoys just months ago. We didn't stop and suddenly realize that we're in love with each other. You're thinking of a Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan movie.

Plus, Anbar is entirely Sunni. It's like Utah for Mormons. So they don't have to deal with the Sunni-Shiite dynamic like the rest of the country. This is regular crazy Sunnis organizing against the extremely crazy Sunnis. With our guns and money. Is that the best we can do for now? Probably. Is it a long-term solution? Shit no.

So don't let them fool you with all the talk of "progress." They've simply, and for the 37th time, re-defined what "progress" means. And when we get to #65 - that more Iraqis have access to NFL Network than ever before -- I'll say, "Okay, okay. That is progress. ...Can we come home now?"

Bill Maher is the host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" which airs every Friday at 11PM.

Comments

[waynesmyer]

"We need to bring Democracy to Iran, just like we did to Iraq! but it muat be a Halliburton democracy!" you beloved and truly "vice" war presinator, F-Thee Cheney

p.s. F-Thee was recently awarded the Civilian Medal Of Honor, by himself, for his outstanding draft deferement status (5 times deferred) during te Korean War, Whoops! Police Action
Lwayno

[eggcream]

The question is WHAT ARE WE THE PEOPLE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS?? It's as though we don't even exist. We are just fed lie after lie and yet we are the ones FUNDING THIS GODDAMN WAR!!! Well, I WANT MY MONEY BACK! It's not a case of Democrat or Republican, it's a case of right and wrong! There is so much wrong with this! We have to protest at ever level. We have to make "them" see WE MEAN BUSINESS! Come on people, WAKE THE F*&K UP! Take a stand and get out there!! Write your congressman, go to a rally, call your representives. DO SOMETHING FOR CHRIST SAKE!!!!
Peace to you and yours...

[Kzb]

Dude,

You really should seek independaet confirmation that the tingle of which you speak is in fact not a gunshot wound.

[realpolitic]

Does the National Review ever get it right? They always paint the canvas with the Al Qaeda brush stroke. Has anyone told them Al Qaeda comprises 5% or fewer of the actual insurgents in Iraq, according to top U.S. commanders?

[Tinanthejew]

The sunni's turned against the Al Qeada wannabe's in Iraq because the U.S. is giving them arms and ammo. Is this a wise thing to do? When there are no more Al Qeada wannabe's who they going to point those weapons at, the shiite, the U.S or both??

[JPHogan]

This all really makes me miss those early days of the Clintons' administration when an international coalition was still a fresh and sharp tool in the shed of global politics. Those days when Bill and Hillary could have used such with alittle refreshing to (and for maybe their full eight years) to prosecute Saddam for mutiny at least mutiny like William Blygh of English (just after our revolution days) history sought for the crew of the Bounty. So anticlimatic is Bill, Bill Clinton, not born William Jefferson Clinton but much more William (Blygh) Blythe III. The deeper and deeper you dig into Clintons the more lost political opportunities (not personal) you discover. He still seems so not a man of his times, though hungry for Kennedy Camelot and Marylin he does. What do we really know about Hillary and will she release her White House Papers so we can judge her for who she was and not just who she says she was? I am for moving all primaries such that no primary is held before April 16th or 18th of that election year. All this jumping earlier is only likely to have us choosing a leader not right for the times we find come November. With technology shortening campaign time should be not only possible but maybe the recommended best method.

[OhPlease2007]

Bill, by the way, ... I hope you keep on posting here. The Huffington Post needs MORE bloggers -- like you -- who are not afraid to point out the flaws of BOTH political parties (Democratic and Republican). Bill, I hope you have a great week.

:)

[asher18]

Practical wisdom gleaned from such republican follies as watergate and Iran contra calls for us to 'follow the money'.The events unfolding in Iraq are mere shadows cast by the puppeteers called Carlisle Group/Hali­burton/KBH­/Royal Saudi Family/The Patricians­(BushCrime­Family/Mel­lon).The sad truth is that we cannot get a thousand Justice loving Americans together no less a million to "man the barricades" in an attempt to strike fear in the hearts of those striking fear in ours!The fault is not in the stars...but in ourselves.

[Hansharriet]

All wars have economic reasons and this war's reason is OIL. We didn't trust Saddam to keep our oil pipe line open, so we killed him off. Some may say he was a murderer, but so are a lot of other dictators and so called democratic regimes.

This Iraq blunder will continue to kill our soldiers and the Iraqi people until we find a substitute effort to make a profit for our war profiteering corporations. I guess we have to get the money out of the pockets of the American people, to give it to the large corporation. This may turn out to be an invasion of Iran or even Venezuela, to recapture and secure their oil reserves for our international Oil companies.

We accommodate our large war profiteering corporations like Boeing, Lockheed, Hallibuton, KBR, Bechtel,etc. by giving them our tax dollars and make the rich richer. Or we may also begin another zillion dollar Atomic Warhead Defense Program.

These warmongers are Democrats as well as Republicans. There is no real difference between the two Parties when it comes to wars.

[IzaakSzerman]

There was an extremely important exchange in last night's 'Real Time With Bill Maher' between Bill and John Mellencamp.

John said that people that he saw in his travels did not want to live their lives as cynics. They needed to believe what they were given as news about their government.

Bill responded by saying that they should damn well be cynical.

An objective look at these people who need to believe their government makes it quite clear that they are being manipulated. (The Indiana folks that John alluded to are soaked in and surrounded by the Fox like news and opinion dealt to them by the Louisville, Cincinnati and Indianapolis 'news'papers. These people are so soaked in this Pravda swill that any kind of objective detection of the lies of Bush & Co. is beyond them.

Let me put it this way: the vast majority of these people are so job-scared and church-ind­octrinated that they will remain a silly, backward subculture until something outside themselves comes along to open their eyes to their own self-delusion and their own bowing and scraping to a government that doesn't give one flying f*ck about them.

One possibility for this outside event will be the total collapse of this lying, incompetent and corrupt 'government' that they follow.

[Bintdeeb]

I hope Bill Maher applies the same disdain about the Bush administration undermining the "democratically elected" Al Maliki government in Iraq to the Bush administration undermining the truly democratically elected Hamas government in Palestine.
And, oh, by the way, ixnay on the snide remarks about the Iraqi government taking the month of August off, because guess where Bush and Congress spent August. . .

[frankifrost]

MaherMan,
Good show last night.
Poor John Cougar (ha ha); he was certainly out of his depth.
Cougar- Naivete is good
You- Come again? Say whaaaaa?
Cougar- It's charming.
You- It's dangerous... and you're an idiot
LOL

[rboylern]

Bush and his cronies and the lest of the louts in Congress sure went our of their way to fuck things up big time. Now they don't know how to un-fuck it all. Either that, or they don't want to - which is probably closer to the truth.

[ResidentChimp]

I think this is comparable to when Maher was tossed of commercial television. Democracy does work.

[Purple Girl]

We're not just paying fo rth ecivil war and war of factions, but the capitolists war. Not only do they want our money, but our blood, sweat and tears. Not only let the sunni's &shites fight it out, let Hallaburton an d their mecenaries join the party.
If those SOBS (Oil, govt, Car co....) had not decided to screw us 30 years ago this would never have been an issue. But GEE I've got a DVD player for my kids in the back of the Suburban.Here's your brain :), heres your brain on whatever these assholes have all been doing #$^&^^^#$%­^*&.Mainli­ning greed (four horsemen)

P.S. Much better guests tonight-We need a candidate like Gravel to bitch slap these idiots sometimes- esp, the Dem "Top Tier"