Jun 04 2008

Progress

“What I want to know is what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting the President’s unilateral intervention in Iraq?”

– Democratic Presidential Candidate Howard Dean

(March 15, 2003)

“I won’t stand here and pretend that there are many good options left in Iraq, but what’s not an option is leaving our troops in that country for the next hundred years, especially at a time when our military is overstretched, our nation is isolated, and nearly every other threat to America is being ignored.

“We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in, but start leaving we must. It’s time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future. It’s time to rebuild our military and give our veterans the care and the benefits they deserve when they come home.”

– Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama

(June 3, 2008)

12 comments

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  2. … terribly pleased with the usual “It’s time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future.”

    What does that mean?

    We destroyed their entire infrastructure.

    Progress.

    Argh.

    I will agree that there aren’t “many good options left in Iraq.”  I think that’s an understatement.

  3. . . . nearly every other threat to America is being ignored.

    What other threats?

    We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in . . .

    It is as cavalier to drag this out as it was to invade in the first place. There’s nothing progressive about imperialism. Time to go. Not in five years, not in ten years. Now.

    It’s time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future.

    They have wanted to control their own country all along. They will be able to do that when the empire withdraws its troops.

    It’s time to rebuild our military . . .

    No, our military is bloated enough. Let’s stop the imperial adventures, bring the military home, and use it to defend U.S. territory only.

    We can stay and feed the carnage or we can end it:

    The Democrats and the Slaughterhouse

    Head for the Exits, Now!

    By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

    Imagine a steer in the stockyards hollering to his fellows, “We need a phased withdrawal from the slaughterhouse, starting in four to six months. The timetable should not be overly rigid. But there should be no more equivocation.” Back and forth among the steers the debate meanders on. Some say, “To withdraw now” would be to “display weakness”. Others talk about a carrot and stick approach. Then the men come out with electric prods and shock them up the chute.

    The way you end a slaughter is by no longer feeding it. Every general, either American or British, with the guts to speak honestly over the past couple of years has said the same thing: the foreign occupation of Iraq by American and British troops is feeding the violence.

    • kj on June 6, 2008 at 03:36
    • #

    Night Owl.  Great comments.  

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