Gates, Rice try to line up support for Iraq plan

[rodeodance]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-11-iraq-rice-gates_x.htm?csp=1

Gates, Rice try to line up support for Iraq plan
Updated 1/11/2007 2:47 PM ET

SPEECH HIGHLIGHTS


NEW 'WAY FORWARD' IN IRAQ?

Latest: Congress skeptical over revised Iraq strategy | Video: Gates, Rice sell surge


U.S. reaction: Americans weigh speech | Poll: 70% against surge | Poll details | Video


World reaction: Iraqi government pleased | Video: Civilians mixed | EU gives cold shoulder



Analysis: A 'make-it-or-break-it moment' in Iraq | Roundup



Speech: Bush accepts responsibility for 'mistakes' | Transcript | Video



Opposition: Democrats reject Bush's 'way forward' | Transcript | Video


Staff and wire reports
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders sharply criticized President Bush's proposal to send 21,500 new troops to Iraq even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and new Defense Secretary Robert Gates fanned out across the capital today to rally support for the strategy.
In elaborating on the president's plan, Gates would not put a timetable on how long the the additional troops would stay in Iraq, but said he thought it would months, not years.

"I don't think anybody has a definite idea of how long a surge would last," Gates told the House Armed Services committee. "I think for most of us in our minds we're thinking of it as a matter of months, not 18 months or two years."

Both officials, speaking one day after the president presented his new plan, said Bush's new strategy must succeed.

"Given what is at stake, failure in Iraq is not an option," Gates, joined by Rice at a White House briefing, told reporters.

[gratuitous]

1. They don't even believe their own nonsense, and I'll prove it

First, Gates and Rice are fanning out across the capital. I don't know how two people "fan out," but since I'm not a professional journalist, I'll take the report's word for it. How many people are Gates and Rice going to talk to who might conceivably sign up to be part of the new 21,500 contingent Bush wants to send to Iraq? I'll go out on a limb and say zero.

Second, Gates and Rice both claim that failure is not an option. Oooh, goose bumps! Just like that scene in the movie Apollo 13! They talk very tough. But how many times do you suppose they're going to make a statement appealing to their supporters to sign up for the military, or to sign up their children for the military? I'll go even further out on that limb and say zero again.

These people don't believe what they're saying. If someone comes rushing in and says the building's on fire, and then sits down to watch Sanford and Son on Nickelodeon, would you believe that person, or would you be skeptical? Gates and Rice are using alarmist, inflammatory rhetoric about what a crucial time and momentous decision is upon us, but neither one of them acts as if what they're saying has any basis in fact.

[54anickel]

2. "failure not an option" - but it is a high probability short of taking the

"freeper" stance and blasting the ME into a sheet of glass. :eyes: As long as they continue to refuse to attempt diplomacy outside our small and rapidly decreasing "circle of friends" failure (more death and destruction) is inevitable.

Hey Gates, there are plenty of "optional plans", each with various possible outcomes. There is no "option" regarding a result, the "option" applies to the choice of action.

[donkeyotay]

3. The biggest failure is allowing slogans to replace thought.

If failure is not an option, are they saying that bush's escalation is the only policy that can prevent it? Are you giving us an ironclad guarantee that following the neocon gang that couldn't shoot straight further into the wilderness will deliver us from failure? This whole administration is one giant failure. Among other failures, he has failed to provide the funding for this stupid war, which would be another failure unless you're one of his gang of war profiteers and oil men. Was wrecking the Consitution a failure? How's Afghanistan going? Peace break out for Israel? Country united? Dismal fuckin serial failure. Failure's the only thing bush knows.