Cognitive Dissonance ^10
NEW YORK The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says shows that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."
This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government."
It's actually far worse than that, as the details published below indicate, which include references to abductions, threats to women's rights, and "ethnic cleansing."
President Bush spoke similarly at a Republican fund-raiser here Monday night, asserting: "An early withdrawal would embolden the terrorists. An early withdrawal would embolden Al Qaeda and bin Laden. There will be no early withdrawal so long as we run the Congress and occupy the White House."
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq for three days have been found dead, their bodies showing signs of "barbaric" torture, an Iraqi general said on Tuesday, after an intensive hunt involving thousands of troops.
"Coalition forces have recovered what we believe are the remains of the soldiers," U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said, declining to comment on how they died.
...and we're afraid removal of our troops will embolden the enemy? The enemy that didn't exist in Iraq, prior to March of 2003? Who's still swallowing this 'ferus / againus' line and how is retaining our presence in Iraq translated over to real troops support?
Posted by kerry at June 20, 2006 10:30 AM