“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia.”
“Such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks.”
Thus spake Eric Edelman in a
letter to Senator Hillary Clinton, a woman who rudely asked the Pentagon if it had a plan for withdrawal from Iraq. How unpatriotic of her. I mean, she hasn't given the surge time to work at all, and she's asking for a plan. No wonder people don't like her.
Eric Edelman is Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; he snuck in as a recess appointment August 9, 2005 after his nomination was blocked by the Senate. So Bush made a recess appointment.
This is not Edelman's first dance by any means. He has a long history of serving the Neo-Con agenda:
Edelman advised Cheney in the months leading up to the US invasion of Iraq; he was appointed Ambassador to Turkey shortly after the invasion. It was thought that his close family ties to Turkey (his grandmother fled Russia in 1920, settling in Turkey; his mother was born in Turkey) might help sway the growing anti-American sentiment there and gain a backdoor entry into Iraq through Northern Turkey. It seems that then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was not having any success convincing Turkey to let us use them for our dirty work; Edelman was also unsuccessful.
Edelman's two-year stay in Ankara turned into a lightning rod for deepening anti-U.S. sentiment in Turkey. The Turkish columnist Ibrahim Karagul wrote: “Edelman is probably the least-liked and trusted American ambassador in Turkish history” (quoted in K. Gajendra Singh, “U.S.-Turkish Relations Go Wobbly Now Over Syria,” Al Jazeerah, March 23, 2005).
Edelman was also part of the group that crafted the 1992 Defense Planning Guidance, an early formulation of the neoconservatives' post-Cold War agenda. The "shop" included I. Lewis Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, Richard Perle, Albert Wohlstetter (former mentor to Perle and Wolfowitz), and Andrew Marshall. Oh, and lest we forget, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney was at the helm.
The DPG was eventually rejected by President George H. W. Bush (41), and evolved into The Project for A New American Century, one of the most blatantly evil "think tanks" ever created. That's my opinion, I could be wrong.
So now what? A guy with a career in Foreign Service insults Senator Clinton for asking a valid question: "What's the plan for withdrawal? Is there an exit strategy?" He attacks her for being dangerously unpatriotic! I assume you all saw Keith Olbermann last night, so there is no need for this little blog to run the video. I have to tell you, right now I'm with Senator Clinton: what's the plan? When are we going to withdraw?
Peacechick Mary said she wrote a thank you email to Senator Harry Reid. Not a bad idea. I will email Senator Reid, and Senator Clinton, and anyone else who is standing up and demanding an exit strategy. We need to bring our troops home. And we need to end our long, national nightmare.
If not for us, then for our grandchildren. See below.
10 comments:
I just re-watched the Olbermann video. It is so stunning and breathtaking. When will this utter madness end? Bush must be impeached. Sooner rather than later. Blaming the war on Hillary is the weirdest bunch of crap I've heard in a while. The Repubs must really want her to be the candidate in '08.
Let's just pack our bags, get all our supplies and equipment and leave Iraq and worry not about what a cowardly President want our brave troops to do. The things he was too chicken hearted to do himself.
I think all 370 million Americans who oppose this war and want out should send the exact same letter that Hillary sent to Error - rick.
Dear Error Rick, How do we get out of Eye Rack? Huh?
dear divaJ,
what allies did we have in Iraq? Cheney and Rumsfield sold chem weapons to Saddam and stabed the Kurds in the back. Ahmad Chalabi maybe, it's all about the oil.
peace, peter
I'd feel much better about staying if the Bush twins would suit up and spent a year on the front lines in their daddy's war.
Why is Eric Edelman still in a job? He was recess-appointed in Aug. 2005 and his term should have ended with the last session of Congress, Dec. 2006. Did Bush slip something by us?
Get ready for something stupid to happen now. With Cheney getting temp control, you can bet there is something under handed about to go down. This transfer of power is rare, and it just doesn't sit well with me. They are up to something, I can just feel it.
Here is what we get for all that hard planning:
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Despite record-low approval ratings, House lawmakers Wednesday voted to accept an approximately $4,400 pay raise that will increase their salaries to almost $170,000.
The cost-of-living raise gets lawmakers back on track for automatic pay raises after a fight between Democrats and Republicans last year and again in January killed the pay hike due this year. That was the first interruption of the annual congressional pay hike in seven years.
The blowup came after Democrats last year fulfilled a campaign promise to deny themselves a pay hike until Congress raised the minimum wage. Delays in the minimum wage bill cost every lawmaker about $3,100 this year.
Raise for What: Kissing Bush's Feet!
Edemlan sounds like a first-class tool, but I seem from the picture that he's actually a first-class toad! ;-)
Kvatch, the toad is better looking than Edelman. Kinder, too.
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