General Shinseki Vindicated

Its interesting that President Bush said, the Democratic-led Congress shouldn't be telling the generals how to handle the Bush's Iraq war or micromanage his war. However, if the Republican-led Congress had done their job at the time, we wouldn't even be in this waror the resulting mess of this war.

General Shinseki said at the start of the war, several hundred thousand troops were needed, who listened to him? he was a general with knowledge of what was needed. Who was micromanaging then instead of the generals?

Donald Rumsfeld retired in shame rather ran out of office. Paul Wolfowitz is now at World Trade Bank causing another scandal. Gen Tommy Franks, nowretired supported Rumsfeld. Gen. Richard Myers is now retired. These folks escaped the fiasco they created or allowed to be created. Those, who were micromanaging the war into this quagmire we now have, have left the governement. The excuse, mistkaes were made, is an understatement as many soldiers and citizens have died needlessly. President Bush said we are fighting the global war on terror but we are in Iraq not Afghanistan where the terrorists are. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or terrorism we experienced. Since we have devoted all our resources to fighting in Iraq we arent fighting the global war on terror. President Bush and his co-horts actually think USA citizens can't see through their smoke screen.


The judgment of how many troops would be needed to invade Baghdad and secure the country in the months ahead should have been based on military knowledge. Months before the invasion, Shinseki, then the Army chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Service Committee that occupying Iraq would require "several hundred thousand troops," partly because of "the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems."
Shinseki, the first Japanese-American to wear four stars, was the right man to ask that question, having successfully commanded the NATO peacekeeping force in Bosnia. However, his estimate was quickly denounced by Paul D. Wolfowitz, then Rumsfeld's deputy at the Pentagon, as "wildly off the mark," and the secretary repeated that sentiment. Shinseki was shunned and set for retirement; Rumsfeld did not attend his retirement ceremony.

Bush's New Definition of Victory in Iraq

Bush has simply defined "victory" as a decrease in sectarian violence, and doesn't really talk about the "strong ally" (or ally, period), or about the shining democracy that will make dictators across the Middle East tremble. Heck, we don't even care about car bombings, unemployment, a deadlocked Parliament, or refugees in the new picture of "success".

Robert Gates has even gone so far as to suggest that that Iraqis kicking us out would be considered "victory".

Harriet Miers focused on Debra Yang.

Ms. Yang was investigating Jerry Lewis, who was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Ms. Lam and most of the other purged prosecutors were fired on Dec. 7. Ms. Yang, in a fortuitously timed exit, resigned in mid-October.
Ms. Yang says she left for personal reasons, but there is growing evidence that the White House was intent on removing her. Kyle Sampson, the Justice Department staff member in charge of the firings, told investigators last month in still-secret testimony that Harriet Miers, the White House counsel at the time, had asked him more than once about Ms. Yang.

He testified, according to Congressional sources, that as late as mid-September, Ms. Miers wanted to know whether Ms. Yang could be made to resign.

Yang's resignation, as has been discussed here before, found her land at the powerful Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher firm with a nice bonus. We don't know if they enticed her to leave public service or recruited her after the resignation, but as Cohen says, these questions should be asked under oath.

Well well With Ms Yang working at the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher with a nice bonus and the firm defending Mr Lewis, I suppose she will tell all the evidence against Mr Lewis. So he should get off nice.

It must be nice to be Republican, have a brain like a Karl Rove, a nominess for Supreme Court who loves like a dove but is really a vulture while smiling, and an attorney general who cant remember, and a war with the insurgents "in their last throes" for 3 years.