US VERSUS THEM

WHOSE COUNTRY is it anyway? Iraq was easy when it was a case of Us vs Them.  But Them has changed and Them don’t want Us anymore.  Baby, it's not you, it's me.  What a sad breakup. As reported yesterday, at the same time Dick Cheney was denouncing cut and run cowards in America for suggesting a timetable for American withdrawal or drawdown or just getting out of there, the Iraqis themselves were saying just the same thing.  We appreciate your help.  Blah, blah, blah.  We want our forces trained. Blah, blah. But get out, Americans.  Thank you. We will do it for ourselves.  President Talabani said as much back in June. [story]

OH, AND OUR communique says targeting innocent Iraqis is bad but outside interventionists have a bullseye on their backs.  Ta Ta.  Arrivaderci.  Don’t let the door hit the coalition of the willing on the way out.

WE MAY BE THANKFUL that the likes of Jean Schmidt will march right into Iraq to straighten those pesky Iraqis out.  Or yell really loud.  How will the United States keep the Islamofascists from establishing the caliphate of hate and its ideology of violence from here to Spain to Indonesia to the entire universe if we cannot fight them there?  Will we really have to fight them here if we no longer can fight them in Iraq in the central front in the war on terror?

THE UNITED STATES NOW FACES a political catastrophe. Rhetoric falls before reality.  Trench warfare awaits as various United States officials cover their um asses and toss dirt on each other for who is to blame for digging deeper in the quicksand. 

TRULY IT WILL BE the test of democracy George Bush said it would be.  The elected Iraqi government has spoken.  We can no longer use their playground, even to kick the world’s new bullies' butts.  How dare the Iraqis opt out of the the global war on terror!  When the United States is out of Iraq, perhaps we can find and fight the terrorists where they really are.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING
CLINTON AND BIDEN CUT AND RUN FOR PRESIDENT [WaPo] Biden and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), both of whom are mentioned as potential candidates for the party's 2008 presidential nomination, praised Murtha yesterday even as they disagreed with the specifics of his proposal. Biden said he shared the "frustration" voiced by Murtha and others but was "not there yet" on Murtha's policy prescriptions. Clinton predicted that a hasty withdrawal would "cause more problems for us in America."

THE HERETIK NOTES Biden brave and noncommittal to the end.  Not there yet?  Doubtful he will ever be.  Unless everyone is there ahead of him. And who actually is out front on this?  Could be a surprise that is no surprise at all

ARE YOU TALKING TO ME? [Juan Cole] Sources at the conference told al-Hayat that they envisaged the withdrawal of foreign military forces from the cities within 6 months (i.e. mid-May?). They said that the withdrawal would be completed over a period of two years (i.e. November 2007). This timetable, al-Hayat says, appears actually to have been put forward by the Americans themselves. If that is true, we finally know exactly what George W. Bush means by "staying the course." It is a course that takes us to withdrawal.

Comments

[DBK]

Not a big fan of Hillary's and never will be. Like her, but she's dead wrong on Iraq. Hope she doesn't run in '08 for president. Can't afford the loss.

[Kate]

We need to get out of Iraq ASAP so we can use those resources to invade Syria. I mean Iran. Whatever.

[Tata]

All this sounds remarkably - what's the word I'm searching for? Familiar. Yes, that's it. We're trying to save Iraq from the Iraqis.

I'm gonna go paint my toenails. I know how this pathetic movie ends.

[Rex Kramer, Danger Seeker]

Biden's "not there yet," but the good news is that the weatherman says the wind will start blowing any day now, the handyman says the fence he's sitting on will splinter soon enough, and the latest New Hampshire polls should be in by the end of the month. Then, he most certainly will "be there." Maybe.

Truly, this man is presidential timbre. The only suprise is he hasn't formed a focus group to determine that whole nagging "hair plugs vs wig" debate.