FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned. US presidential candidate Barack Obama is right when he talks about 16 months. Assuming that positive developments continue, this is about the same time period that corresponds to our wishes.

The changed quote:

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.

Read the entire Speigel interview here.

And, then read the shortened pro-Obama Reuters version.

What Reuters and other news accounts will fail to emphasize is that under Barack Obama’s anti-SURGE policy, Prime Minister al-Maliki would not be in the postion to see an American withdrawal of combat troops. It is because of the success of General Petraeus and President Bush that the United States has won the Iraq War.

Let’s look at Obama’s quotes about the SURGE:

• In October 2006–three months before the president’s new strategy was unveiled–Obama said, “It is clear at this point that we cannot, through putting in more troops or maintaining the presence that we have, expect that somehow the situation is going to improve, and we have to do something significant to break the pattern that we’ve been in right now.”

• On January 10, 2007, the night the surge was announced, Obama declared, “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq are going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”

• A week later, he insisted the surge strategy would “not prove to be one that changes the dynamics significantly.”

• And in reaction to the president’s January 23 State of the Union address, Obama said, I don’t think the president’s strategy is going to work. We went through two weeks of hearings on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; experts from across the spectrum–military and civilian, conservative and liberal–expressed great skepticism about it. My suggestion to the president has been that the only way we’re going to change the dynamic in Iraq and start seeing political commendation is actually if we create a system of phased redeployment. And, frankly, the president, I think, has not been willing to consider that option, not because it’s not militarily sound but because he continues to cling to the belief that somehow military solutions are going to lead to victory in Iraq.

Democrat Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Senator Barack Obama said the war was “LOST” and the surge would not and did not work. Now, the Democrats are spinning the credit for peace in Iraq that President Bush and pro-SURGE pols, such as John McCain rightly deserve. The Iraq War is over - America won.

Fancy that and the MSM like Reuters are happy to spin the story for Obama and the Democrats.

But, will the media get away with it with the American voters?

Stay tuned……..

Flap wants to remind the Speaker that Congress enjoys less popularity in the polls than the President.

The public’s view of Congress is even worse. Its approval rating has hit a new low of just 18 percent, down from 23 percent last month, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. Bush’s approval is at 28 percent, about even with the 29 percent rating last month.

No Class Nan…….

But, do American voters expect NO LESS from their pols?

Sadly so, unless they demand Congress change the ridiculous methods the pols find to avoid transparency of corruption.

Which ……. they won’t.

President Bush traveled to the home of Thomas Jefferson Friday to help swear in new U.S. citizens as part of Independence Day celebrations.

“When you raise your hands and take the oath you will complete an incredible journey. This journey has taken you from many different countries and has now made you one people,” Bush said at the naturalization ceremony at historic Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“From this day forward, the history of the United States will be part of your heritage. The Fourth of July will be a part of your independence day and I will be honored to call you a fellow American.” he said.

Bush was heckled several times, with some people yelling “War criminal!” One man shouted, “This man has brought fascism to our shores!” About nine people were removed from the ceremony.

“Impeach Bush. Impeach Bush. Amend the Constitution,” shouted another protester, prompting both cheers and boos from the audience of about 3,000 people.

What a bunch of crap. They have the right to protest but……there is a time and place.

No class MORONS….

Here is something MORE to be proud of as Americans this Independence Day: The largest reenlistment ceremony in the history of the U.S. military took place in the rotunda of the Al Faw Palace in Baghdad, Iraq on July 4, 2008.

President Bush, reversing a longstanding position, will call on Congress on Wednesday to end a federal ban on offshore oil drilling, according to White House officials who say Mr. Bush now wants to work with states to determine where drilling should occur.

There really is NO reason to delay new oil and natural gas exploration unless the American people wish to change their lifestyles.

If America had taken these steps ten years ago we would not be having the problems with $4 plus gasoline today. And, who is to blame? Guess who?

The Congressional moratorium was first enacted in 1982, and has been renewed every year since. It prohibits oil and gas leasing on most of the outer continental shelf, 3 miles to 200 miles offshore. Since 1990, it has been supplemented by the first President Bush’s executive order, which directed the Interior Department not to conduct offshore leasing or preleasing activity in areas covered by the legislative ban until 2000. In 1998, President Bill Clinton extended the offshore leasing prohibition until 2012.

It is time for the Democrat controlled Congress to do SOMETHING. The GOP in Congress and now the President have made concrete proposals.

Over to the the Democrats.

Think they will do anything?

Iran on Tuesday insisted any demands it should suspend sensitive atomic activities would cross its “red line”, days after world powers submitted a new package aimed at ending the nuclear standoff.

“We have said several times that uranium enrichment is Iran’s red line and we must have this technology,” Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Reza Sheikh Attar said, quoted by the state IRNA news agency.

Suspending uranium enrichment — which the West fears could be used to make a nuclear weapon — is the key demand in the deal offered Saturday to Tehran by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on behalf of world powers.

The package offers Iran talks on a package of technological and economic incentives, so long as Tehran suspends uranium enrichment.

As Flap has been writing about for years now. Iran WILL NOT voluntarily suspend uranium enrichment. So, the choice is clear to the West:

1. Allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons possessing country

2. Militarily destroy Iran’s nuclear weapon producing capacity

3. Embargo Iran and sanction them so severely that they are “forced” to forego uranium enrichment.

Apparently the EU and United States are not serious - even yet!

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Iran Nuclear Watch: Britain to Increase Iran Sanctions

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad Taunts Bush

This may sound like ancient history, but it matters. After Sept. 11, President Bush did not want to risk allowing Hussein, who had twice invaded neighboring nations, murdered more than 1 million Iraqis and stood in violation of 16 U.N. Security Council resolutions, to remain in possession of what he believed were stocks of chemical and biological warheads and a nuclear weapons program. By glossing over this history, the Democrats’ lies-led-to-war narrative provides false comfort in a world of significant dangers.

You don’t say.