posted April 05, 2006 03:56 PM            

Traitor John Kerry was a liar during the Vietnam War and he still is a liar.

The leftist democrats, their leftist friends in the press and leftist groups have been trying to hand a victory to the terrorists....and they're still trying.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006 12:51 a.m. EDT
Kerry Urges Iraq Pullout Deadline

Defeated 2004 presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., says the U.S. must set a pair of deadlines for Iraqis - get a new government up and running by May 15, and agree to a U.S. pullout by year's end.

Moreover, Kerry writes that if the Iraqis fail to heed the first deadline, the U.S. should pull out immediately leaving the Iraqis to fend for themselves.

Writing in an op-ed piece in today's New York Times, Kerry insisted that Iraqis have shown that they only respond to deadlines, citing past U.S. imposed deadlines to transfer authority to a provisional government, and the demand to hold three elections.

"Now we must set another deadline to extricate our troops and get Iraq up on its own two feet," he wrote ... "Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15 to put together an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military."

The junior senator from Massachusetts warned that if Iraqis "aren't willing to build a unity government in the five months since the election, they're probably not willing to build one at all." The alleged civil war, he predicted, will only worsen, leaving the U.S. no choice but to pull out of Iraq.
Once that government is formed, Kerry wrote, "we must agree on another deadline: a schedule for withdrawing American combat forces by year's end."

Kerry argued that by so doing the new Iraqi leadership will be empowered and put into the position of running their own country. It would, he predicted, also "undermine support for the insurgency, which is fueled in large measure by the majority of Iraqis who want us to leave their country."

He conceded that those U.S. "troops essential to finishing the job of training Iraqi forces should remain."

"We are now in the third war in Iraq in as many years," Kerry claimed, saying the first was against Saddam Hussein and "his supposed weapons of mass destruction." The second, according to Kerry, was fought against terrorists "whom, the administration said, it was better to fight over there than here." Now, it seems, the U.S. is in the midst of what he called "an escalating civil war."

The man who helped bring about America's defeat in the Vietnam war by his virulent and often untruthful anti-war actions and rhetoric said: "Half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work."
That war, claims Kerry, was "immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion," adding that although we want democracy in Iraq, Iraqis must want it as much as we do. "Our valiant soldiers can't bring democracy to Iraq if Iraq's leaders are unwilling themselves to make the compromises that democracy requires."

Claiming that "our generals" - who he failed to identify - insist that the war cannot be won militarily and must be be won politically, Kerry wrote, "No American soldier should be sacrificed because Iraqi politicians refuse to resolve their ethnic and political differences."

Kerry failed to address the valid Bush administration claim that by setting a deadline or a timetable for troop withdrawal the United States would provide the strongest motive for al-Qaida to hang in there until our troops leave.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/5/130333.shtml?s=ic

posted April 05, 2006 07:24 PM            

The most effective thing a manager can do when someone's not performing up to par is to start imposing deadlines. It's a very clear way to communicate goals and the urgency behind them.

Do you think he's wrong in stating that Iraqis would prefer for us not to be there?

posted April 05, 2006 08:13 PM            

It took the United States most of 10 years to get a ratified Constitution and there was no terrorist or insurgent activity going on simultaneously.

It took Germany the better part of a decade to get things sorted out...with our help before the left over insurgency was finally defeated, the government was fully functional and the institutions were up and running. Just because the unconditional surrender was signed didn't mean fighting didn't continue with some elements within Germany.

It took many years in Japan before there was a functioning democracy even with all the guidance, money and support given by the US.

Kerry is a quitter, a traitor and is attempting to hand over Iraq and the Iraqi people to the insurgents and terrorists.

His blather is designed to aid the enemy, to keep them fighting in hopes we will leave. That's a Kerry trademark, aid the enemy as he did with the communist North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.

Sure, Iraqis want the US to leave Iraq...at some point. Only the insurgents, terrorists, Iranians and those who think they will be able to force their radical fundamental religious Islamic system on the country want us to leave Iraq now. The vast majority of Iraqis are counting on the US to stay until the government in fully operational and their security forces are trained and capable of defending them. In fact, they are afraid we will leave Iraq too soon.

posted April 05, 2006 09:37 PM              

almost 2 years after juniors "mission accomplished" speech, this article in the beginning of 2005 gives the impression that training was just starting.......what happened to the plan for "mid 2006" ??

**********

U.S. Troops Race to Train Iraqi Forces

By CHRIS TOMLINSON, Associated Press

Monday, February 21, 2005

The Iraqi war has become a race between the U.S.-led coalition, which is trying to train a large, effective Iraqi security force, and the insurgents who are seeking to demoralize and destroy it before it destroys them.

Since the Jan. 30 elections, insurgents have killed at least 64 police officers, 43 Iraqi National Guard troops, 15 regular soldiers and 31 people waiting outside recruiting stations. During the same period, 32 Americans died in hostile action.

If all goes according to plan, the soonest Iraqi forces will be fully equipped and trained to handle internal security is mid-2006, U.S. officials have said.

But there have been setbacks. In the town of Samarra, northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi police abandoned their posts en masse, forcing U.S. commanders to send in Iraqi National Guard forces. Samarra has been an insurgent stronghold.

On Feb. 10, insurgents attacked Iraqi policemen in Salman Pak, 12 miles southeast of Baghdad. Iraq's Interior Ministry said 14 policemen were killed, 65 were wounded and six were missing after the two-hour gunbattle.

U.S. divisions rotating into Iraq will be embedding hundreds of U.S. trainers in new National Guard and army battalions for an entire year, Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, deputy commander of the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division told The Associated Press.

The U.S. military will also supply the Iraqis with the latest communications equipment and other critical gear, planners said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/02/21/internat ional/i102603S57.DTL

******

now 3 years later.....nada....
i guess that was just another 'good news from iraq' piece...
how many years does it take to train a soldier anyway?
you can get a blackbelt in most martial arts in 3 years.....

this seems to confirm my assertion that junior invaded iraq because it had the weakest military in the middle east .......

posted April 05, 2006 09:41 PM              

*********

Iranians to train Iraq's military
Thursday, 7 July, 2005

Former enemies Iran and Iraq say they will launch broad military co-operation including training Iraqi armed forces.

"It's a new chapter in our relations with Iraq," said Iranian Defence Minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani.

He was speaking at a joint news conference in Tehran with his Iraqi counterpart Saadoun al-Dulaimi.

Relations between the neighbours - who fought a bitter war from 1980 to 1988 - have improved greatly since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

This is the first visit to Iran by an Iraqi military delegation since the war, in which a million people died, started.

We have come to our Iranian brothers to ask them for help
Saadoun al-Dulaimi

The promise of co-operation comes despite repeated accusations by the US - which has about 140,000 troops in Iraq - that Iran has been undermining security there.

"No one can prevent us from reaching an agreement," Mr Shamkhani said when asked about possible US opposition.

Forgiveness

Mr Dulaimi echoed his Iranian counterpart's view about a new era of Iranian-Iraqi ties.

"I have come to Iran to ask forgiveness for what Saddam Hussein has done. The same has to be done with Kuwait and all Saddam Hussein's victims," he told the news conference.

Iranian special forces
Iran has one of the largest armed forces in the region
Tehran has asked Baghdad not to allow the US to establish long-term military bases on its soil, fearing that it would consolidate what Iranians see as the American and Israeli military domination of the region.

But Mr Dulaimi insisted that foreign troops were needed to ensure Iraqi security.

He added: "Iraq will not be a source of insecurity and instability for any of its neighbours. Nobody can use [Iraqi territory] to attack its neighbours."

Sensitive issues

Among other areas of co-operation, Mr Shamkhani listed mine clearance, anti-terrorism, identifying those still missing from the Iran-Iraq war and training and re-equipping the Iraqi army.

The two ministers said more sensitive issues such as a full peace treaty and war reparations were still a long way from being resolved.

"We have come to our Iranian brothers to ask them for help and we have not yet started on the more sensitive issues," Mr Dulaimi said.

In May Iran's foreign minister promised to tighten security on the two countries' border on his first visit to Baghdad.

An Iraqi government delegation headed by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari is expected to visit Tehran next week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4659287.stm

posted April 05, 2006 10:27 PM            

So, scratch that idea..at least until the government is fully functional and operational.

Second, I don't know what it is you don't understand about the training time necessary to train up the non commissioned leadership corp Petron.

All those recruits have to have leadership. In the military, it's the noncoms who run the day to day operations...in the US military too.

The junior commissioned officer training takes time too.

These people aren't trained in 12 weeks like raw recruits are Petron. Even for raw recruits, 12 weeks is just the beginning..the basics.

posted April 05, 2006 11:01 PM              

its been three years!!!.....

posted April 05, 2006 11:49 PM            

More than 200,000 trained and you think they were all trained at once? Really Petron, even for you, that's a foul ball.

Do you have any idea how many years in service a Corporal in a line unit might have under their belt? How about a Sergeant, Staff Sergeant? Sergeant First Class? Master Sergeant? Sergeant Major?

That doesn't include any of the Specialist ranks..which are just that...specialists.

Of course, none of that matters to you Petron. If it had all been done in 6 months, you would still be whining it's taken tooooo long.

posted April 06, 2006 12:43 AM            

But by the same token, we don't take people off the street and appoint them as Corporals, Sergeants, Staff Sergeants, Sergeants First Class, Master Sergeants and Sergeant Majors.

Without those ranks, all you have is a bunch of people with rifles milling around and perhaps blowing each other away.

There should be some troop reductions this year, more in 2007....as the situation on the ground in Iraq permits. I would expect to see some forces remain in Iraq for some time to continue training and help fine tune the Iraqi military forces.

posted April 06, 2006 02:50 PM            

While we have bases in Kuwait and the UAE, neither share a border with Iran from which an invasion could be launched. Turkey proved to be an uncertain friend by refusing to permit coalition forces to launch the northern portion of the Iraq invasion from Turkey.

I think there are now being built or will be military bases built in Iraq as a precaution against Iranian expansion. It's no secret Iran would like to acquire Iraq's oil fields and that's not going to be permitted.

One of the peculiar things is that the US gets the smallest part of our oil from the Middle East. Europe is the big user of ME oil. That's why I always dismissed allegations the US was attempting to steal Iraq's oil. Europe would be the big loser if ME oil was cut off and if Iran ever got control of Iraq's oil fields they would also threaten Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and use oil as a weapon against western nations.