Friday, 09 April 2004
President Bush: AWOL From His Own War?
It's been a busy couple of days. I'm moving the site over to a new
server, and trust me when I tell you that it's no picnic. Posts may be
sparse for a while, but hopefully it'll be worth it.
Apparently, I'm not the only one who's been hard at work lately. Here's
a quick snippet of what's been happening:
- Main Iraqi Military Developments
- Fallujah: Ten Iraqi insurgents and two US soldiers were killed as marines met ferocious resistance. As the day drew to a close, sniper fire and mortars were being fired around the main marine compound in the industrial area on the eastern edge of town.
- Baghdad: Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr's militia, the Mehdi Army, vowed to resume combat against US-led occupation forces, after US tanks and gunships destroyed the group's main headquarters in the capital. Some 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the capital, a US patrol was attacked and armed insurgents could be seen dancing around two blazing military vehicles.
- Baghdad: Five Iraqis killed and 18 wounded by a makeshift bomb on a fruit stand that went off in the town of Baladrooz, 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. The blast killed five passersby and wounded 18 other people, police said. Six cars were also destroyed.
- Samarra: Fighting broke out between US troops and unknown gunmen. Protestors fired rocket-propelled grenades at the headquarters of the US army and Iraqi paramilitary forces in the city, triggering retaliatory fire. Earlier, mosques urged people to show solidarity with the residents of Fallujah.
- Karbala: The United States sent 120 troops to help Bulgarian troops in Karbala deal with the escalating conflict, after Sadr's militia issued an ultimatum to occupation forces to quit the holy city. The Polish army said its troops were meeting with moderate Shiite clerics to try to ease tensions, adding that patrols had been suspended within the town for the soldiers' protection.
- Kut: The US commander of ground troops in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, said his troops will retake the central Iraqi city "imminently". 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers evacuated their base in the city under US protection on Wednesday, leaving it a militia stronghold.
- Najaf: The inner part of the holy city remains under control of the Mehdi Army, including police stations and government buildings. Hospital officials said 10 Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded in clashes there on Wednesday.
- Samawa: Japanese troops in the southern Iraqi town have temporarily halted humanitarian operations amid reports they have come under attack for the first time.
- Afghan Renegade Continues Advance Despite Talks
The Afghan government tried on Friday to persuade a renegade adviser to
President Hamid Karzai to withdraw forces that overran a remote
northern province in a fresh challenge to the U.S.-backed government.
General Abdul Rashid Dostum's largely ethnic Uzbek militiamen invaded
Faryab from neighboring provinces on Wednesday. They took over the
provincial capital Maimana on Thursday, forcing the governor and
provincial military commander Mohammad Hashim Habibi to flee.
- Three Japanese Civilians Held HostageSeven
South Koreans, three Japanese and a Briton have been seized in Iraq and
militants have threatened to burn the Japanese alive unless their
country withdraws its troops.
- MSNBC: A Bureaucrat Testifies In Front of the 9/11 CommissionRepublicans
who had been hoping that Condi Rice would calm the political waters
with her testimony to the 9/11 commission have to be disappointed.
Stylistically and tactically she was serviceable. Her voice seemed to
quaver at times, but overall she was a confident master of detail,
choosing, for the most part, to praise rather than confront the
accusatory Richard Clarke. But the larger picture she painted of
herself, her president and the administration certainly won't help
George W. Bush's re-election chances.
Iraq is in shambles, Afghanistan continues to fall apart, and the
National Security Advisor has absolved herself of any responsibility
relating to our nation's security. Not to mention the fact that the US
is currently running record deficits, huge trade imbalances, plummeting
currency rates, etc. etc. Even the most optimistic American must be
concerned about the present state of affairs.
Luckily, we've got a President who knows what to do in times of crises.
When the going gets tough, as they say, the tough go on vacation:
This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since
becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas
ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his
78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine,
Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three
retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.
[...]
Bush spent the morning watching national security adviser Condoleezza
Rice's televised testimony to the commission investigating the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks, then toured his ranch with Wayne LaPierre Jr., chief
executive of the National Rifle Association, and other leaders of
hunting groups and gave an interview to Ladies' Home Journal. He is not
scheduled to appear in public until Sunday, when he will visit nearby
Fort Hood, the home base for seven soldiers recently killed in Baghdad.
President Bush leads a tour of Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas
with wildlife conversation leaders and sportsmen leaders, Thursday,
April 8, 2004.
becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas
ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his
78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine,
Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three
retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.
[...]
Bush spent the morning watching national security adviser Condoleezza
Rice's televised testimony to the commission investigating the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks, then toured his ranch with Wayne LaPierre Jr., chief
executive of the National Rifle Association, and other leaders of
hunting groups and gave an interview to Ladies' Home Journal. He is not
scheduled to appear in public until Sunday, when he will visit nearby
Fort Hood, the home base for seven soldiers recently killed in Baghdad.
President Bush leads a tour of Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas
with wildlife conversation leaders and sportsmen leaders, Thursday,
April 8, 2004.
This editorial from today's New York Times puts it better than I ever could:
Condi Rice was in Washington trying to pass her oral
exam before the 9/11 commission yesterday, and the president was on
vacation in Texas. As usual, they were in close agreement, this time on
the fact that neither they nor anyone else in this remarkably aloof and
arrogant administration is responsible for the tragic mess unfolding in
Iraq, and its implications for the worldwide war on terror.
The president called Ms. Rice from his pickup truck on the ranch to
tell her she had done a great job before the panel.
It doesn't get more surreal than that.
Mr. President, there's a war on. You might consider hopping a plane to
Washington.
exam before the 9/11 commission yesterday, and the president was on
vacation in Texas. As usual, they were in close agreement, this time on
the fact that neither they nor anyone else in this remarkably aloof and
arrogant administration is responsible for the tragic mess unfolding in
Iraq, and its implications for the worldwide war on terror.
The president called Ms. Rice from his pickup truck on the ranch to
tell her she had done a great job before the panel.
It doesn't get more surreal than that.
Mr. President, there's a war on. You might consider hopping a plane to
Washington.
Posted by flow Frazao on April 9, 2004 at 09:21 AM | Permalink
Post a comment
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/851371
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference President Bush: AWOL From His Own War?: