If this isn’t ‘chaos,’ what is it?

November 13, 2006

On Meet the Press yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) rejected a troop redeployment plan for Iraq out of hand, insisting that it would “lead to chaos.” Indeed, McCain ended up using the word “chaos” four times during the interview.

I’m curious, if this isn’t chaos, what is?

Baghdad’s morgues are full. With no space to store bodies, some victims of the sectarian slaughter are not being kept for relatives to claim, but photographed, numbered and quickly interred in government cemeteries.

Men fearful of an anonymous burial are tattooing their thighs with names and phone numbers. […]

While no one knows how many Iraqis have died, daily tallies of violent deaths by The Associated Press average nearly 45 a day. About half of them are unidentified bodies discovered on city streets or floating in the Tigris River. The United Nations estimates about 100 violent deaths daily. The Iraqi health minister last week put civilian deaths over the entire 44 months since the U.S. invasion at about 150,000 — close to the U.N. figure and about three times the previously accepted estimates of 45,000 to 50,000.

We’ve reached a point in which over-flowing morgues are not only turning away bodies, but grieving families are asked to literally dig though piles of corpses in the hopes of finding a loved one.

But John McCain thinks we’re still short of “chaos.” Wow.

As far as the other side of the aisle, a growing number of people are taking a second look at John Kerry’s approach to the war and coming to the conclusion, “Maybe that Kerry guy knew what he was talking about.”

Some U.S. military officers say they sense a growing consensus in Washington for imposing firmer deadlines and reducing U.S. troop presence. Some said they believed that would be the right move.

“The John Kerry position of timetables as a forcing mechanism for the Iraqis to get their act together is not that far off from what other people [involved in the U.S. effort in Iraq] are saying,” said one officer, referring to a proposal by the Democratic Massachusetts senator.

Indeed, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace, explained that the Bush administration is basically currently pursuing the same strategy of containing terrorism that Kerry advocated in 2004.

Bush’s Iraq Study Group, meanwhile, also seems to believe a Kerry-esque approach may be the way to go.

A commission backed by President Bush that is exploring U.S. options in Iraq intends to propose significant changes in the administration’s strategy by early next year, members say.

Two options under consideration would represent reversals of U.S. policy: withdrawing American troops in phases, and bringing neighboring Iran and Syria into a joint effort to stop the fighting.

My hunch is the Bush White House has just been looking for an excuse to give up on its foolish and disastrous policy, and the ISG may give the Bush gang the chance to change course. The administration has already failed, but now it has the chance to stop digging deeper into the hole.

And, somewhere, John Kerry will whisper, “I told them so….”

and bringing neighboring Iran and Syria into a joint effort to stop the fighting.

W?T?F? Let me see if I understand this. After calling Iraq and Syria hot-beds of terrorism, blaming them for everything that is wrong in the Middle East and insulting they mommas, George is going to give Iraq and Syria a ring and say: Hey, can you help us out with our little war problem?

I’d like to hear that phone call.

  • And, somewhere, John Kerry will whisper, “I told them so….”

    Don’t forget the fact that the British stopped the latest airliner plot not with military force in Iraq but with policework in Great Britain.

    That was a Kerry “I told you so.” moment too.

  • TAIO, you mean Iran and Syria, not Iraq and Syria.

    I think.

    And yes Boy George II is going to look like an idiot. But than BG2 used to boast about how Syria and Iran were helping in the War on Terrorism (God, do I hate that title) until he found it more useful to start attacking them.

  • One thing more: Am I the only one who regularly dreams of hitting John “Torture? Why not?” McCain with a rock? Over and over and over? That toxic little toad should be ashamed to show his face in public, much less offer his opinion on anything. Of course he doesn’t recognize chaos. He doesn’t recognize torture (unless it is being done to him) he doesn’t recognize cowardice either. Arsewipe.

  • Why is anyone still letting McCain talk? He said we need to send in more troops, and they’re AREN’T any. Can someone ask him how he plans to square the circle?

    Also, I would like someone to ask Bush for a definition of civil war, so we can know when we’re there. I know… when the morgues are so full that they can’t fit any more bodies in it, then it’s a civil war.

  • The more I see the Honorable Senator John McCain, and hear his take on what ought to be, the more I am against him ascending to a higher office. Mr. McCain is greatly lacking in terms of an overall platform he stands for or even with. He has conjured nothing but suspicion as he approaches a decision to run for President. Don’t run John, our country doesn’t need you! -Kevo

  • McCain is so damned busy trying to kiss rightwing ass in prep for an ’08 run for the White House that, quite frankly, anything he says should be viewed with that in mind.

    In other words, remember that damn near everything to leave his lips is nothing more than a steaming pile of crap put forth to mend the fences he destroyed in 2000.

    As far as Kerry’s plan being right, all I can say is …

    DUH!!!!

    I may not be a big Kerry fan, but he nailed it — we will never, ever, eliminate everyone who wants to destroy us, just like we will never, ever find a way to stop murders or drug abuse or just crappy stuff in general. All we can do is mitigate it as much as possible.

  • ***Am I the only one who regularly dreams of hitting John “Torture? Why not?” McCain with a rock? Over and over and over?***
    ——————–TaiO, going through self-doubt phases….

    No—although I prefer the relentless application of my good friend, Mr. Crowbar, to the cranial appendage “mr. scat-talk express.” I reserve the rocks for nasty little republican children who dare come to my house for Trick-or-Treat. The Good Little Democrat Children get candy, and apples, and money….

  • I think Syria and Iran might actually be open to the idea of getting involved, although not for any truly idealistic purposes.

    1) To see the USA come crawling hat in hand to them for help would be delicious revenge for Bush’s posturing and pressure up to now.

    2) It would allow them to gain enormous influence in their former competitor, Iraq, and consequently better access to the mother of all prizes, Iraqi oil.

    3) It would enhance their prestige and influence in the entire Arab world and ensure protection for their own regimes since any action against them by the West could bring the whole house of cards down in a flaming mass of chaos and destruction.

    Not a very pretty picture, is it? Thanks a lot, George and Dick and Rummy and the rest of you neocon chowderheads for giving away the keys to the kingdom and putting our fate in the hands of these turkeys.

    On the bright side, at least Iran and Syria might then have a vested interest in not upsetting the applecart too much which might conceivably have a calming effect on the region somewhat. It’s not much but we have to take our silver linings where we can find them.

  • Why is anyone still letting McCain talk? He said we need to send in more troops, and they’re AREN’T any. Can someone ask him how he plans to square the circle?

    Didn’t you hear about his little confab with Tweety and all the kids at the university? He figures that once the younguns understand the crisis we’re in, they’ll gladly step to the fore ready to take up their weapons. After that Tweety asked how many of them would do so, and the hands were few and far between. McCain has delusions more suited to a WWII mindset than today. That he’s still considered by many Dems to be a good guy is appalling and scary. I find him to be not far from Dumbya himself on the contemptibility meter. Maybe worse, because I think the chimperor is pretty much too stupid to understand his own denseness. McCain, on the other hand, is devious while pretending to be candid.

    Man oh man, it would be refreshing if the Repugs could come up with a possible candidate who we wouldn’t have to loathe, wouldn’t it? Where’s Ike when we need him?

  • Bush’s Iraq policy is now in the political equivalent of receivership — a bankrupt project that is about to be placed in the hands of the worldly-wise pragmatists who surrounded the president’s own father. Think of them as receivers in bankruptcy, looking for ways to salvage Dumbya, the America’s military and moral assets after a post-September 11 adventure that voters and most of the rest of the world concluded was a waste of blood and treasure in the first place.

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