No end in sight on Iraq?
By Thorne Dreyer / April 10, 2008 / The Rag Blog
Below is video from Keith Olbermann’s Countdown from this evening, April 10, 2008. It features snippets from President Bush’s speech on Iraq with the usual gleefully caustic and sardonic commentary from Olbermann.
Keith calls the president a “liar” one more time. He points out that the post-surge “drawdown” leaves more American troops in Iraq than were there before the surge. And, in response to W’s announcement that GI’s will now alternate between 12 months in Iraq and 12 months at home, Olbermann reminds us that the Democrats proposed just that a year ago and were voted down. He says that GI suicides are occurring at a record rate. And, that most sane voices now advise that nothing short of two years at home and one year in the field will suffice — in terms of the sanity of the soldiers and their families and the effectiveness of the fighting force.
Most interesting, though, was Olbermann’s interview with Col. Larry Wilkerson, former chief-of-staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Wilkerson was ascerbic in his criticism of Bush and of the state of the military in Iraq. First, he said, “I don’t believe Iraq is a theater in the war on terrorism,” and added that the mumbling among the generals about the conditions with the military is growing louder. The situation in Iraq is now “reminiscent of the worst days in Vietnam,” he said.
Col. Wilkerson said, in his opinion, that Bush and Cheaney decided on a strategy for Iraq in the summer of 2007 to “put enough troops in Iraq and a Commander in Iraq and an Ambassador” whose mission was set the course in a manner designed to avoid “major damage to the Republican Party, and further damage to the White House,” and to pass the problem on to the next administration. That was their strategy, he says, “and it looks like they’re going to get away with it.”
In sum, Col. Wilkerson said, “you’re talking about an administration that treats the troop as if it’s as disposible as a plastic glove.”
