Guess who Bush is meeting with today ?!

[kentuck]

No, it's not Cindy Sheehan. He's meeting with his defense and foreign policy advisers, according to news reports. The Repubs in the Congress and Senate need the withdrawal as a election protection strategy next year. They are obviously putting some pressure on the White House to help them in their re-elections.
======================================================
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a3B9yheTgCi0&refer=us

<snip>
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush and his defense and foreign policy advisers meet at the president's ranch today facing a dilemma on Iraq, with pressure to start bringing troops home balanced against the risk of destabilizing the new government if the U.S. withdraws too soon.

The administration has settled on a ``rolling target'' for troop reductions as the Iraqis approach another political milestone next week by drafting a constitution, according to administration officials and defense analysts.

``We can't ramp up because we don't have the forces,'' said Loren Thompson, of the Lexington Institute, a defense policy research group in Arlington, Virginia. ``That leaves two choices: we stick it out for years to come or come up with some excuse to draw down our forces'' he said. ``It is abundantly clear that the Bush administration wants out.''

[tsuki]

1. ``It is abundantly clear that the Bush administration wants out.''

Has anyone told the freepers that?

[kentuck]

2. Good question?

Have they been told?

[emdee]

3. Does anyone think....

that Bush is just trying to "prove" by all of these meetings that he's not "on vacation" but working by dragging all of these committees and groups of people out to the "ranch"? Who's paying for all of their transportation anyway?

:patriot:

emdee

[PatrioticOhioLiberal]

4. Snort...

rhetorical question, right?

[emdee]

14. Maybe Cindy could ask Bush that question too ....

when he invites her in for tea!
:hi:

emdee

[iconoclastic cat]

5. I still think this, too, is a lie. They are not going to pull out.

The "pullout of Iraq" will be the carrot-and-stick contraption that keeps the sheeple voting for the repubs.

[kentuck]

6. Yep...

And Bush is looking for how Rummy and Condi can help him help his buddies in the House and Senate. That's exactly what it's all about. The story this morning from an anonymous source that said they would not be able to withdraw until at least next summer at the earliest, shot holes in that strategy.

[iconoclastic cat]

7. You know what I think they fear most, though? The troops themselves.

And the stories these 130K+ people will tell when they do return.

[kentuck]

9. Especially if they show up at events such as Crawford....

and start speaking out against this "war"...

[gratuitous]

13. Yeah, they can string things out as long as they want

And their media lapdogs will breathlessly pant that the administration is going to bring everyone home, oh, just any second now. But every utterance of troop drawdowns is always accompanied by "if the Iraqis can run their own affairs exactly as we tell them to" kinds of caveats. People want to hear that we're getting out, and that's all the media assholes will report.

Three years from now, when things are still as bad as ever, the media will write a bunch of hand-wringing articles, wondering why people didn't catch on back in 2005 that it was all just another round of showboating by the corrupt Bush administration. They'll cast about, looking for who might be to blame for the public's gullibility, and they'll settle on . . . me.

Yes, that's right. By calling bullshit now, I'm going to be directly responsible in 2008 for the continued quagmire because I personally, individually, and all by my lonesome, was unable to persuade the media to report in full all the lies spewing out of the administration. The administration will not be to blame, because they flat-out told us once or twice that the real possibility of a troop drawdown just wasn't in the cards. And media, naturally, recorded these comments in their entirety on page D27 or at 2:30 a.m. on their news crawl, and why didn't I raise a bigger stink about it then?

So, in advance, I'm going to apologize for all the unnecessary death and squandering of the Treasury, and further damage to our national prestige because today I didn't run amok and force the media to report what was happening right before their bovine eyes. Having seen the error of my ways, I urge you all to vote Dick Cheney in 2008.

Motherfuckers.

[lpbk2713]

8. Jack Daniels and Jim Beam

He will be conference all day and cannot be disturbed.

[Toots]

10. Maybe they feel they have given Halliburton all they can at this time.

Fourteen permanent bases built in Iraq only to be abandoned for political expediency. Halliburton has done extremely well these last two years but now it is time to find another sugar tit for them. Maybe somewhere in the USA they can find a way to plunder US Treasury for Halliburton. Oil Industry has never seen such Profits as the last year has produced for them. Dick Cheney is smiling big...

[DemonFighterLives]

11. The only excuse they could come up with is attacking Iran

They may have to move the troops somewhere when that happens. News this morning said that pullout cannot happen until next year.
Interesting call to Cspn this morning mentioned a Iran Nuke War Game that is on now or soon. She also mentioned that there were plenty of war games on 911 and also on 7/7.
Dick less cheney wants to Nuke Iran, so I guess it is time to buy duct tape and plastic and bunker up like bunkerdick.
:hide:

[cmd]

12. There is another choice - the draft

Unfortuately, I think that is the one he will make. He'll use Iran as the justification.