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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: ieffinhatecardio on May 31, 2007, 09:43:44 AM
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq)
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer 51 minutes ago
U.S. military commanders are talking with Iraqi militants about cease-fires and other arrangements to try to stop the violence, the No. 2 American commander said Thursday.
And he suggested he might not be able to strictly meet the September deadline for telling Congress whether President Bush's military build up in Iraq is working.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said commanders at all levels are being empowered to reach out for talks with militants, tribes, religious leaders and others in the country that has been gripped by violence on a range of fronts including insurgents, sectarian rivals and common criminals.
"It's just beginning, so we have a lot of work to do in this," he said. "But we have restructured ourselves ... to work this issue."
He said he thinks 80 percent of Iraqis — including Sunni insurgents and Shia militants — can reach reconciliation with each other, though most al-Qaida operatives won't.
"We are talking about cease-fires, and maybe signing some things that say they won't conduct operations against the government of Iraq or against coalition forces.," Odierno told Pentagon reporters in a video conference from Baghdad.
On the assessment of operations that is due in September, he said he thinks it will take longer to tell whether the increase of nearly 30,000 troops will work as intended — that is, to quell violence enough to give Iraqi officials breathing space to work on reconciliation and development issues.
"The way I understand it, is we're going to be required to provide an assessment in September. So I will provide my assessment," Odierno said, adding it might not be complete.
He said he will be able to assess the work of forces that arrived for the beginning of the build up in February, but that the ones just arrived this week won't be in place for a couple of weeks — meaning it will be August before he might be able to tell how they're doing.
"So that'll be the first time I'll be able to make a real initial assessment of the true affect of the surge," he said. "The assessment might be 'I need a little more time. ' The assessment might be, 'I've seen enough, and it's effective or I've seen enough, and it's not going to be effective.'
"Right now if you asked me, I would tell you I'll probably need a little bit more time to do a true assessment," he said.
"If I think I might need a little bit more time, I will give an assessment saying, 'But I'd like to have more time'," Odierno said.
He said the increased effort by commanders to reach out to militants goes hand in hand with reconciliation efforts by the Iraqi government.
Odierno noted that efforts to engage tribal leaders in Anbar province — who have been turning against al-Qaida there — has helped draw people to serve in the Iraqi security forces in record numbers and has helped reduce attacks there.
For example, the attacks in Anbar in May 2006 totaled 811, while this May they were just barely over 400, Odierno said. Since the beginning of 2007, over 12,000 Iraqi citizens have volunteered for Iraqi security forces in Anbar. In all of 2006, only 1,000 had volunteered.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other leaders are under increasing pressure from Washington to do more to achieve reconciliation among factions because, officials argue, no amount of military force can bring peace to the country without political peace.
Al-Maliki announced a national reconciliation proposal nearly a year ago that has made limited progress. It offered some amnesty to members of the Sunni-led insurgency and a change in a law that had removed senior members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from their jobs.
"I believe there are elements that are irreconcilable, but I believe the large majority are," Odierno said. "I believe about 80 percent are reconcilable, both Jaish al-Mahdi as well as Sunni insurgents," though very few of al-Qaida.
"There will be always people that are irreconcilable and ... the Iraqi government, with our support, will have to continue to conduct operations against those forces," he said.
"Prime Minister Maliki and the government of Iraq have to continue to reach out to all these groups ... bringing these groups into the political process so we can deal with their differences in a peaceful way instead of in violent ways,:" Odierno said.
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Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said commanders at all levels are being empowered to reach out for talks with militants, tribes, religious leaders and others in the country that has been gripped by violence on a range of fronts including insurgents, sectarian rivals and common criminals.
Looks like cooperation with terrorists to me.. They've finally figured it out?
Where's Mr Hate when you need him? :D
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Looks like cooperation with terrorists to me.. They've finally figured it out?
Where's Mr Hate when you need him? :D
He's somewhere seething with anger.
I'm all for a different strategy, the one we're currently using clearly isn't working despite the best efforts of this administration to spin it.
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WOW!
Legitimate GOOD NEWS from Iraq!
I think I'm going to go get an ice cream cone now.
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WOW!
Legitimate GOOD NEWS from Iraq!
I think I'm going to go get an ice cream cone now.
Good for you OZMO, don't forget to visit an amusement park and ride the Merry-Go-Round.
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WOW!
Legitimate GOOD NEWS from Iraq!
I think I'm going to go get an ice cream cone now.
Don't forget the cotton candy and carmalized pop corn! I hear it's literally the bomb!
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Looks like cooperation with terrorists to me.. They've finally figured it out?
Where's Mr Hate when you need him? :D
What happened to the big tough warhawks?
Talking withe the enemy now?
Proof this Bush war is lost.
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Negotiating with terrorists now?
are you kidding me???
People who are "winning" DO NOT negotiate with terrorist/militant groups!
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240....here, have an ice cream cone.
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240....here, have an ice cream cone.
Can I get red, white, and blue sprinkles on it? I'm wearing my USA t-shirt and going on a tour of Falujah today and I really want to look patriotic. Thanks brah!
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Can I get red, white, and blue sprinkles on it? I'm wearing my USA t-shirt and going on a tour of Falujah today and I really want to look patriotic. Thanks brah!
no prob mang ;D
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MM69 has taken quite the beating since posting that "ice cream cones and amusement parks" quip. LOL
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MM69 has taken quite the beating since posting that "ice cream cones and amusement parks" quip. LOL
Rightfully so. ;D
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Ur right 240....we're losing..ok well its hard to say we're losing when we could end this thing in an afternoon with the boys from Diego Garcia. Unfortunatly bombing the dog shit out of these people would piss of the rest...of...wait..forget it..crank up the B-52's. :P
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Ur right 240....we're losing..ok well its hard to say we're losing when we could end this thing in an afternoon with the boys from Diego Garcia. Unfortunatly bombing the dog shit out of these people would piss of the rest...of...wait..forget it..crank up the B-52's. :P
What ever happened to the good 'ole days? When there were actual front lines?
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yeah..nobody cared if u napalmed the dog snot outa folks.
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yeah..nobody cared if u napalmed the dog snot outa folks.
Problem is, now a days, unless the enemy has favorable terrain like in N. Korea (and even then it's not much of an advantage), no one stands a chance against us. So we may see this insurgent thing for a while.
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The problem is that they bounce around thinking they won..the only guys who are like "holy shit' are the NK's and China..because any fight with them willl be conventional. I'm telling you guys.....the insurgency is one thing...conventionally everybody else is a child.
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Ur right 240....we're losing..ok well its hard to say we're losing when we could end this thing in an afternoon with the boys from Diego Garcia. Unfortunatly bombing the dog shit out of these people would piss of the rest...of...wait..forget it..crank up the B-52's. :P
General barry McCaffrey said there were only 2500 insurgents total. Is he right?
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General barry McCaffrey said there were only 2500 insurgents total. Is he right?
The drug czar was only talking about opium smoking insurgents.
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I know 'Barry" personally he was my best friends dads' commander in Vietnam....great guy. He's wrong there maybe 2500 full time guys and who knows how many weekend warriors who pick up an Ak when its convenient. They pay just about anybody to lay IEDS.....
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I know 'Barry" personally he was my best friends dads' commander in Vietnam.
Seems like a stand-up guy from what I've seen of him.
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Seems like a stand-up guy from what I've seen of him.
If by "stand-up guy" you mean "war criminal," he sure is! And how about his focus on marijuana as an evil drug?
http://www.zpub.com/un/un-bm.html
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He was pretty cool...for a GO. I met him at my buddies' house in Virginia..just after he became the drug czar. The a few years later same place. He came up to FT Riley a few years later for the reactivation of the 24th ID. I got to say hi and he remembered me. I felt moderately important. ;D. He did have some pretty interesting stories about the Clinton Whitehouse.
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If by "stand-up guy" you mean "war criminal," he sure is! And how about his focus on marijuana as an evil drug?
http://www.zpub.com/un/un-bm.html
Ouch!!
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If by "stand-up guy" you mean "war criminal," he sure is! And how about his focus on marijuana as an evil drug?
http://www.zpub.com/un/un-bm.html
Oh wait do u mean the war where Iraq attacked a defenseless neighbor..or butchered..raped and tortured the people of Kuwait....and then on the way out they filled anything they could find with looted goods..except some good old boys in A-10s and F-16s found em and smoked the dog piss outa them..that war. Oh yeah..now i remember.
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If by "stand-up guy" you mean "war criminal," he sure is! And how about his focus on marijuana as an evil drug?
http://www.zpub.com/un/un-bm.html
Yikes, here's a few quotes from the link.
McCaffrey and Drugs
Washington D.C. - Leading black intellectuals and public health advocates have joined drug policy reform advocates to criticize Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey for "a series of inaccurate and misleading statements" he has made over the last year. The individuals are sending a letter listing the General's misstatements on February 25, 1999, the same day McCaffrey will testify before the House Committee on Government Oversight. Black Leaders and Public Health Advocates Criticize Misinformation by Drug Czar
The office of drug czar Barry McCaffrey secretly paid the television networks to propagandize its anti-drug message. According to a special report from Salon magazine, the scripts of popular television shows like "ER," "Chicago Hope," "Beverly Hills 90210" and many others were doctored to fit the requirements of McCaffrey's White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). In return for altering scripts, the networks were allowed to sell advertising time that had been promised to the government to other more high paying advertisers. Barry McCaffrey Should Resign by Alexander T. Tabarrok, January 20, 2000, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
White House Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey and Sony Online Entertainment Team Up
Barry McCaffrey lies again
DRUG REFORM COORDINATION NETWORK: Our drug czar, retired Army General Barry McCaffrey, appearing on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program on Tuesday, July 25th, demonstrated that disinformation is used not only against war time opponents, but also as a debate tactic against a war's domestic critics . . . For example, responding to a caller criticizing foreign anti-drug operations that don't work, instead of spending the money dealing with addiction here at home, McCaffrey said: "Well, you know, we shouldn't argue about facts. They're either facts or not facts. We ought to argue about conclusions. The facts of the matter are, if you look at the US counter-drug budget, it's primarily focused on enhancing prevention, education and treatment." . . . [But] according to the 2000 National Drug Control Strategy, published by McCaffrey's own office, the FY2001 budget includes $12.9 billion on criminal justice and interdiction and source country programs, versus only $6.3 billion on treatment and prevention combined, not at all the "primary focus" of the budget that McCaffrey claimed. DRCNet
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This guy worked for 'wild bill'....he didn't make all the decisions anyway..besides who cares..his boys kicked ass in the Gulf and they loved him....the war on drugs ::)
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the war on drugs ::)
Exactly.
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No repugs in sight!!
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No repugs in sight!!
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