Pretty Good Rhetoric

Pace: U.S. troops in Iraq could rise - 16 Jul 2007 at 3:24pm - BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military is weighing new directions in Iraq, including an even bigger troop buildup if President Bush thinks his "surge" strategy needs a further boost, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.

"One last push" = unlimited time & troop strength?

Pentagon balked at pleas from officers in field for safer vehicles - 16 Jul 2007 at 8:30am - Pfc. Aaron Kincaid, 25, had been joking with buddies just before their Humvee rolled over the bomb. His wife, Rachel, later learned that the blast blew Kincaid, a father of two from outside Atlanta, through the Humvee's metal roof. Army investigators who reviewed the Sept. 23 attack near Riyadh, Iraq, wrote in their report that only providence could have saved Kincaid from dying that day: "There was no way short of not going on that route at that time (that) this tragedy could have been diverted." A USA TODAY investigation of the Pentagon's efforts to protect troops in Iraq suggests otherwise.

Hamilton worries about prospects in Iraq - 16 Jul 2007 at 11:45am - WASHINGTON -- Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, said Monday he's "extremely doubtful" that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be able to secure the country and allow American forces to leave any time soon. "There is no chance that the Iraqi forces could take over at any time, or certainly by the first of the year," Hamilton said in a nationally broadcast interview. "All of the support efforts, logistical and medical and so forth, they are not close to being able to meet," Hamilton said. Hamilton said al-Maliki's government also has made little progress on needed legislation and other efforts at reconciliation. "He's had quite a bit of time now," Hamilton said. "He's known exactly what he's had to do. He hasn't done it. His rhetoric is pretty good. His performance is pretty bad."

Thought for the day:
"Say little, and love much; give all; judge no man; aspire to all that is pure and good." -White Eagle