Lieberman Confronted By Troops In Iraq: "When Are We Going To Get Out Of Here?"

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Spc. David Williams, 22, of Boston, Mass., had two note cards in his pocket Wednesday afternoon as he waited for Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Williams serves in the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., the first of the five "surge" brigades to arrive in Iraq, and he was chosen to join the Independent from Connecticut for lunch at a U.S. field base in Baghdad.

The night before, 30 other soldiers crowded around him with questions for the senator.

He wrote them all down. At the top of his note card was the question he got from nearly every one of his fellow soldiers:

"When are we going to get out of here?"

More quotes:

"He looks just like me," he said. "I didn't want to come back. . . . We're waiting to get blown up."

"I don't want him to snap his fingers to get things fixed," Williams said, referring to Lieberman. "But he has influence."

"We're not making any progress,"

"It just seems like we drive around and wait to get shot at."

But as he waited two chairs down from where Lieberman would sit, Hedin said he'd never voice his true feelings to the senator.

"I think I'd be a private if I did," he joked. "It's just more troops, more targets."

"It's like everything else in this war,"

"It hasn't changed."

As for Lieberman:

"Overall, I would say what I see here today is progress, significant progress from the last time I was here in December. And if you can see progress in war that means you're headed in the right direction."

"I think it's important we don't lose our will," he said. "To pull out would be a disaster."

Progress in a picture:

A suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah on Thursday, killing at least 25 people and wounding 50, police said. U.S. forces backed by helicopter gunships clashed with suspected al-Qaida gunmen in western Baghdad in an engagement that lasted several hours.
Not So Good

The deaths of three more Iraqi journalists were reported on Wednesday, bringing the monthly total to nine and equalling the worst month on record for reporters in the Iraq war.

Iraq is already the deadliest conflict in 25 years for journalists. RSF puts the total death toll of journalists and media assistants in Iraq at 177, while CPJ says 104 journalists have been killed. The figures do not include the latest deaths.
No News is Not Always Good News

While the political world obsesses over whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales can survive the outcry over the politically motivated dismissal of eight United States Attorneys, the legal academy has been debating a different aspect of the fallout:

Could a case be made that the chief law-enforcement officer of the United States should be disbarred?

(snip)

Bar-association rules, which are established by state associations-Mr. Gonzales is licensed in the state of Texas in addition to being admitted to the Supreme Court bar-typically forbid "conduct that involves deceit, fraud or misrepresentation." There are also various means of censuring lawyers for bad behavior that fall short of disbarment, such as a public reprimand.

"Lawyers are not allowed to lie," said Nancy Rapoport, an ethics expert and the former dean of the University of Houston Law Center. "That one, everyone agrees on."

Bush envisions U.S. presence in Iraq like S.Korea

President George W. Bush would like to see a lengthy U.S. troop presence in Iraq like the one in South Korea to provide stability but not in a frontline combat role, the White House said on Wednesday.

The United States has had thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea to guard against a North Korean invasion for 50 years.

Democrats in control of the U.S. Congress have been pressing Bush to agree to a timetable for pulling troops from Iraq, an idea firmly opposed by the president.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush would like to see a U.S. role in Iraq ultimately similar to that in South Korea.

50 years?

Bush taps Zoellick for World Bank

President Bush today plans to name Robert Zoellick, a former U.S. trade negotiator and career diplomat, for the presidency of the World Bank.

Zoellick will become Bush's nominee to replace Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy secretary of defense who became World Bank president in 2005 only to make a personnel decision that ultimately would result in his withdrawal under a cloud this summer: Wolfowitz moved girlfriend Shaha Riza from a job inside the bank to a higher-paying bank-financed role at the State Department to avert conflict in his new post.

....

Wolfowitz, as one of the architects of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq at the Defense Department, had entered the World Bank facing animosity from European leaders who opposed the war. Zoelleck, who also was among the foreign policy advisers whom Bush brought to office with him in 2001, is not viewed as representing as much of a hardliner as the neo-conservative Wolfowitz is regarded.

Still a Puke

In a January 2000 Foreign Affairs essay entitled "Campaign 2000: A Republican Foreign Policy," he was one of the first of those now associated with Bush's foreign policy to invoke the notion of "evil," writing: "[T]here is still evil in the world - people who hate America and the ideas for which it stands. Today, we face enemies who are hard at work to develop nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, along with the missiles to deliver them. The United States must remain vigilant and have the strength to defeat its enemies. People driven by enmity or by a need to dominate will not respond to reason or goodwill. They will manipulate civilized rules for uncivilized ends." The same essay praises the "idealism" of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Two years earlier, Zoellick was one of the signatories (who also included Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Zalmay Khalilzad, John R. Bolton, Richard Armitage, and Bill Kristol) of a January 26, 1998 letter to President Bill Clinton drafted by the Project for the New American Century calling for "removing Saddam [Hussein]'s regime from power."

Confronted with strong opposition to his Iraq policies, President Bush decides to interpret public opinion his own way. Actually, he says, people agree with him.

"Last November, the American people said they were frustrated and wanted a change in our strategy in Iraq," he said April 24, ahead of a veto showdown with congressional Democrats over their desire to legislation a troop withdrawal timeline. "I listened. Today, General David Petraeus is carrying out a strategy that is dramatically different from our previous course."

"I recognize there are a handful there, or some, who just say, 'Get out, you know, it's just not worth it. Let's just leave.' I strongly disagree with that attitude. Most Americans do as well."

In fact, polls show Americans do not disagree, and that leaving - not winning - is their main goal.

The security guard industry found itself involuntarily transformed after September 2001, from an army of "rent-a-cops" to protectors of the homeland. Yet, many security officers are paid little more than restaurant cooks or janitors.

(snip)

Congressional investigators reported last year that 89 private guards working at two military bases had histories that included assault, larceny, possession and use of controlled substances and forgery. The Army says it has purged guards with criminal histories from its bases.

(snip)

Bergendahl (a $19,000 a year private security guard at a skyscraper in Los Angeles) said his training usually consists of a real estate manager reading security measures to him every few months. His building rarely has evacuation drills. Management's advice? "Keep your coat buttoned. Keep your shoes shiny," Bergendahl said.

Giving one of his rare presidential press conferences since becoming the US leader in 2000, Bush was busy defending the beleagured US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, when the avian heckler swooped by to deliver its whiter than white verdict.

The bird is yet to be formally identified, some say it was a pigeon, others, a sparrow, but its contribution to the proceedings was brief and to the point.
Guardian

Bush: 'US would leave if Iraq asks'
May 24th, 2007

Washington - US President George W Bush, who has warned that a hasty US pullout from Iraq would be catastrophic, said on Thursday that US forces would leave if the fledgling Baghdad government asked them to.

"We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation," he said at a White House press conference.

"If they were to say 'leave', we would leave."

Iraqi Bill Demands U.S. Troops Withdraw
May 10th, 2007

BAGHDAD (AP) - A majority of Iraqi lawmakers have endorsed a bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number of foreign troops already in the country, lawmakers said Thursday.

The legislation was being debated even as U.S. lawmakers were locked in a dispute with the White House over their call to start reducing the size of the U.S. force here in the coming months.

The Iraqi bill, drafted by a parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, according to Nassar al-Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc.

Bush told a news conference that the last troops in a 30,000-troop buildup should be in place by mid-June, and said "This summer is going to be a critical time for the new strategy."

"We expect heavy fighting in the weeks and months" ahead, Bush said. He said more American and Iraqi casualties should be expected.

VOTE ALERT: Dick Cheney Dems Plan to Hide Votes On Iraq TODAY

Today is the day House Democrats are expected to vote on Iraq - except, news out of Washington this morning says the leadership has come up with a nifty little trick to try to prevent the public from seeing who voted for giving Bush a blank check, and who voted against it. If you thought Democrats were behaving like cowards by caving into a President at a three-decade low in presidential polling and giving him the very blank check they explicitly promised not to give him during the 2006 election, you ain't seen nothing yet. We are watching the rise of the Dick Cheney Democrats - that is, the rise of Democrats who endorse governing in secret and hiding the public's business from the public itself.

Here's how it is expected to work today in a process only Dick Cheney could love (though you never know - it could change at the last minute). Every bill comes to the House floor with what is known as a "rule" that sets the terms of the debate over the legislation in question. House members first vote to approve this parliamentary rule, and then vote on the legislation. Today, however, Democrats are planning to essentially include the Iraq blank check bill IN the rule itself, by making sure the underlying bill the rule brings to the floor includes no timelines for withdrawal, and that the rule only allows amendments that fund the war with no restrictions - blank check amendments that House Democratic leaders know Republicans will have the votes to pass.

Puke

Thanks alot Nancy and Harry!!!

Mary Cheney's baby is born

Vice President Cheney's daughter Mary gave birth today to Samuel David Cheney.

Under Virginia law, Mary's partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, "will have no legal relationship with her child. She can't adopt as a second parent. She won't have her name on the birth certificate." President Bush will still not say whether or not he supports gay adoption.

Death Star

The carrier strike groups led by the USS John C. Stennis and USS Nimitz were joined by the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard and its own strike group, which includes landing ships carrying members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The Navy said nine U.S. warships passed through the narrow Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Merchant ships passing through the busy strait carry two-fifths of the world's oil exports.

Aircraft aboard the two carriers and the Bonhomme Richard were to conduct air training while the ships ran submarine, mine and other exercises.

Bush may turn to UN in search for Iraq solution
If troop surge fails, strategy is to involve other nations under UN umbrella

The Bush administration is developing plans to "internationalise" the Iraq crisis, including an expanded role for the United Nations, as a way of reducing overall US responsibility for Iraq's future and limiting domestic political fallout from the war as the 2008 election season approaches.

(snip)

Four years after bypassing a hostile security council, the Bush administration is expected to take the Iraq question back to the UN at the annual opening of the general assembly in September.

"We foresee a very significant role for the UN and its agencies. The UN has great expertise that is badly needed in Iraq," a senior US diplomat said at the weekend. The World Bank and IMF would also be asked to do more, he said.