Dear George "Staying the Course" Bush,
Want to thank you for the completion of your fourth year in increasing international goodwill. Congratulations on a job well done... while draining the nation's influx of revenue through tax cuts and the expenditure of ~500 billion in unregulated and mismanaged dollars in a war zone, you've managed to create an environment that not only strengthens the position of those justifying 9/11 through our behavior, but come close to surpassing the civilian death count number you used to go after Saddam.
In keeping with tradition, I believe you're entitled to either linens or the more modern approach, appliances. Can we request that you translate the gifting of linen into Kevlar or the appliances into armor plating for Humvees?
On the 1460th day of your war of choice, let's see how things are going... last throe-ish maybe? Still working to be greeted as liberators?
BAGHDAD - Sunni insurgents, resilient despite the five-week security crackdown in the capital, killed at least six more U.S. troops over the weekend. A Sunni car bomber hit a largely Shiite district in the capital Sunday, killing at least eight people.
The American military said four U.S. soldiers died and one was wounded when the unit was struck by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad. During the ongoing security sweep in the capital and surrounding regions, the battalion had found eight weapons caches and two roadside bombs and helped rescue a kidnap victim, the military said.
A fifth soldier was killed in an explosion in Diyala, an increasingly volatile province just northeast of the capital. A Marine died in fighting the same day in Anbar province, the vast, largely desert region that sprawls west of Baghdad to the Saudi Arabian, Jordanian and Syrian borders. The regions are controlled by the Sunni insurgency.
mmmm, not so well.
(via) A Nation in Ruins2,000,000 Iraqis now live outside Iraq, according to UNHCR
12,000 doctors have fled Iraq since the war began. Another 2,000 are said to have been killed, and at least 250 kidnapped
50% Average inflation in 2006, according to the World Bank
6.3 hours of electricity daily in Baghdad in December 2006. In May 2003 there were 16-24 hours
32 percentage of people in Iraq with drinkable water
3,700,000 Iraqis now receive food aid from the UN World Food Programme
16% Proportion of Iraqis who said in January that their income meets their basic needs
Hearts and Minds, lost.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said on Friday it was sending some 2,600 soldiers to Iraq earlier than planned, raising the number of extra U.S. troops being deployed in a new effort to stabilize the country to nearly 30,000.
News of the latest deployment came as Democrats who now control Congress pushed legislation to end a war that is increasingly unpopular in the United States.
The combat aviation brigade from the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division would deploy in early May, some 45 days sooner than previously envisaged, the Army said.
The brigade is the third element to be announced in a package of support units being deployed to assist 21,500 extra combat troops ordered to Iraq under a plan unveiled by President George W. Bush in January.
Goodness Shrub, you getting caught in a lie again or is this an augmentation of truthiness? All this measure of success and you're still perplexed as to why your approval ratings have tanked and the American voters no longer take you seriously? Why has the credibility gap issue spread to the DOJ, DOD, your cabinet and most of the rubber stampers you have buffaloed in Congress?
Your inability to figure this out makes you out to be the buffoon we thought you were.
Posted by kerry at March 19, 2007 06:28 AM