Iraqi blasts kill 145 in two days, stirring worries of insurgent push

It is time for the US to get out of this quagmire, let the Saudis, Egyptians,and othe Arabs patrol Iraq, no white boys, black dudes, hispanics guys can understand the Arab language, culture. They are just sitting ducks for the Sunnis and Chiites, we should just get out and force our "arab allies" to put more than just money into this hell whole. These cowards in Saudi Arabia etc..should start sending their own young men in to harms way.

Iranian cleric Rafsanjani: "We also criticize America for not having the will to preserve Iraq's security"

But, but, haven't the Iranians and the Iraqis themselves been demanding that America get out of Iraq? Jeez, ya can't win with some people.

Haven't you heard of the old adage, 'if you broke it, pay for it'"

When you can't understand arab language or do not have much assistance via translators,how can you do good with iraqi arabs.

elbudamexicano- I agree,the arab allies must solve these woes.

Arab allies say they do not want to,because Iraqi arabs do no want arab allies to interfere in Iraq.

Actually it is really up to Iraqis to unite, put away their differences and move towards a united goal of nation building of iraq.

metto - Can't win with you either.

"a network of militants from Tunisia brought in to replace the dwindling ranks of Iraqis willing to carry out such attacks"

OK, so all that needs to be done is to dwindle the ranks of Tunisians willing to carry out such attacks.

Isn't the correct term a "surge" rather than a "push."

setting a timetable for withdrawal was a bright idea. nothing like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. good going obama.

Sarge, how much longer would you like young Americans to continue fighting and dying in Iraq?

2 years? 5 years? 10 years? 50 years?

And when you answer, please also tell us where the money is going to come from to sustain a continued presence, considering:

a/ America is completely bankrupt b/ The America government is right now borrowing money off the Chinese to fund its continuing operations.

VOR - "setting a timetable for withdrawal was a bright idea. nothing like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory."

Or boring, stale cliches. Same question for you - how much longer would you like young Americans to continue fighting and dying in Iraq?

It's good strategy to get out of Iraq. The laternative is - what - stay there indefinitely bleeding money...for what?

Some Republicans have tried to answer that. Sarge says America should stay to 'honor the fallen,' while continually ignoring the obvious reality that to do that will mean letting even more good soldiers get killed - it's a never-ending cycle and a corrupt notion.

Others have said America needs to prop up a democracy and spread freedom.

Get real and provide specifics.

Metto says 'if you broke it, pay for it.'

America is paying for it all right, and it is bringing down not only the U.S. but the global economy.

The longer America stays in these battles, the more money the U.S. will need to beg to borrow from China and Japan, which will continue to enlarge America's debt, devalue the dollar, and ultimately lead to interest rates, inflation and prices going up. And no one really wants that, not even Republicans.

It would be great - really great - if the Republicans who argue for America to stay would for once consider the wider implications of their desires - financial costs, social costs, medical costs, you name it.

Unfortunately, they rarely, if ever, do.

Time to get out.

Obama's strategy is sensible. .

VOR said:

nothing like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

That is pretty much what happened - in Afghanistan!

Iraq is falling apart because it was a bad idea to invade a sovereign nation that posed no threat to any other nation. It should have been up to the Iraqis to overthrow Saddam. We stuck our noses where they did not belong and now we have more terrorists in the world vowing revenge on the U.S. then we did on 09.11.2009 because the conservative failed to keep our nation safe. Keeping a nation safe does not only mean stopping immediate threats so you have a record of no more attacks during your watch. Any fool knows that if your actions are perpetuating more terrorists than can be reduced by attrition that eventually they will do harm again.

No one can dispute that the Iraqi invasion has lowered the safety level of America. By the end of 2002 we had contained the terrorists in Afghanistan. By the end of 2008, under the conservatives, Iraq was still not stable, Afghanistan was worse then it was in 2003 and Pakistan which had been stable was now extremely unstable. Now Pakistan is extremely dangerous and the world may need to intervene to prevent the terrorists from getting nuclear weapons into their hands.

We had one simple, concentrated mission for the conservatives to accomplish - continue to contain or defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan.

How many of you out there think that the 100,000 troops engaged in Iraq would not have made a difference in Afghanistan?

Instead the poor Iraqis have to die for the conservative's mistake. Our soldiers are dying needlessly, in Iraq, for the conservative's mistake. We are getting more terrorists committed to do harm to the U.S. every month and we cannot even maintain a zero sum gain. The devotees to harm Americans are winning the war of attrition.

But VOR wants you to blame Obama for the current mess. That is conservative logic.

They wouldn't be Republicans if they made arguments based on logic. :-)

And the Republicans, apparently, want the U.S. to stay engaged in Iraq until a date they themselves have absolutely no idea of.

That's Republican "logic" for you. :-)

The insurgents sense that Obama is weak. They see him weaken the CIA and the office of the president by publishing top secret memos - against the advice of 4 different CIA chiefs - and they also conclude he is driven by extraordinary narcissism. He will do anything to be liked.

rajakumar:

" the arab allies must solve these woes. "

Who´s Arab "allies"? And, how happy do you think the Kurds would be about being patrolled by Arabs? They´ve tried that before, you know.

Anyway, it is quite a spectacle to see how Middle Eastern politics evolve under that great uniter Barak Hussein Obama. Concentrate all US forces on a wild goose chase in Afghanistan, yeah!

Bring the US troops home. We need them to enter and help invigorate national politics. Both parties could use some new blood.

WillB - "Concentrate all US forces on a wild goose chase in Afghanistan, yeah!"

Um....I think that's what the majority believe should have been the mission since 9-11.

Unless, of course, you still think that Saddam and Iraq were behind 9-11, which would actually justify your stance that it was worthwhile to send US troops on a wild goose chace in Iraq when all along intelligence said OBL was in Afghanistan, lol!

The insurgents sense that Obama is weak.

Didn't you tell us we had won? So how can this be happening? BTW, I can't express outrage over the violence for fear of being accused of "wishing Saddam was still in power."

Your post does get to the heart of the matter, inadvertently of course. As was the case with Vietnam, Iraq has ceased to be about achieving a well-defined military mission and morphed into a matter of remaining "so as not to appear weak."

By setting a timetable for withdrawal Obama essentially boxed himself into a corner. Very stupid.

The insurgents are now free to continue with terrorizing Iraqi civilians through car bombs, kidnappings and executions without fear of reprisal from the US military.

At some point the US will leave Iraq with its tail between its legs and Iraq in total disarray. Nice going Obama.

"At some point the US will leave Iraq with its tail between its legs and Iraq in total disarray."

How can that be if the surge worked? You can't have it both ways. Incidentally, it was GWB who negotiated the security agreement mandating our withdrawal. How quickly they forget.

An air of dread has spread through Baghdad following the attacks, further eroding a measure of normality and optimism that had possessed the city earlier this year but which has now made way for growing apprehension.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she saw no signs of a slide backward into sectarian war.

We were told by Dick Cheney back in 2005 that "the insurgency was in its last throes." Four years later that is clearly not the case, yet Obama is being tarred with the "cut and run" accusation. Go figure.

Sure hope Obama holds to his timeline for getting us out of there, wouldn't want the insurgents to take advantage of that and such. Go figure that McCain and Bush were agaisn't setting an exact date. Go figure.

As I recall, Sailwind, John McCain declared "the end was clearly in sight in early April 2003." That was a full two years before Dick Cheney predicted "the insurgency is in its last throes." So why are we even debating this in 2009?

As I wrote above, it's morphed into a matter of stickin' around so as "not to look weak." The American public has rejected that rationale.

Willib said:

Concentrate all US forces on a wild goose chase in Afghanistan, yeah!

As opposed to the conservative plan which was to go where the Taliban was not located and create more terrorists.

Conservatives call it "a wild goose chase" to go after the Taliban in Afghanistan and we liberals admit it may now be necessary to confront the Taliban in Pakistan.

So where again is it that the conservatives would have us root out the Taliban?

Conservatives have lost sight of the fact that it was the Taliban who plotted the 09.11.2009 attack on American soil. I guess that happens when you promise the American people you will get Ossama and fail. That is what happens when you promise to seek out and destroy the Taliban and fail.

Folks, it could not be more simple. The conservatives thought it was more important to carry out their Neo Con agenda, then to defeat the terrorist responsible for over 5,000 deaths, in America, on 09.11.2009.

Now the conservatives want you to accept that we should do things their way in Iraq. How Sad is that?