UPDATE: White House Fact Sheet on the Camp David/Baghdad meetings.
It's buried a little deep but the President committed 7,200 troops to aid 49,000 Iraqi troops in subduing terrorist elements in Baghdad.
BTW - This is also known as an outline of what's called a "plan".
Was it a mistranslation or a promise?
Zarqawi's death, the completion of the formation of the Iraqi government, President Bush's visit and the beginning of the crackdown might be coincidental.
I might be the King of Siam, too.
Will al-Maliki order the deguello played from the minarets in the morning? It would be truly fitting.
Our thoughts and prayers are with our troops and our Iraqi allies in the coming days and with the Iraqi people as well. They deserve to be freed from the threat of terror.
5 comments:
Bush's visit does not seem to be getting a lot of attention. The succession of these events is quite remarkable, given the gripes from the usual suspects not long ago. There was: "We haven't even gotten Zarqawi" (interesting that tonight Frontline runs a program about the insurgency discussing, in part, Zarqawi's importance); "there's no functioning government"; "Bush won't even go to Iraq".
On Charlie Rose, Richard Armitage is more than hinting at the problem of corruption in the Iraqi government (although no mention of the Oil-for-Food corruption that helped make the war necessary and no mention so far of Joe Wilson). So many folks, like Armitage, assume troop levels were too low, but simultaneously say we need to draw down to not be seen as occupiers os much. I don't know what the magical right troop numbers were, but I think no one does now. We will do a Monday morning quarterbacking of the Iraq war over many years. Maybe someday we'll understand more clearly what were mistakes and what was not preventable and what was actually smart even though it didn't look that way at the time. But I am cynical of the know-it-alls who think they know now what should have been done before, while this process is still unfloding.
Hear, here, on your last graph. Had to look up "deguello". Handbook of Texas says, "The word degüello signifies the act of beheading or throat-cutting", in short. Odd choice I suppose, but even odder, apropos. Blade to grindstone. Nuts on the table. Let's get'er done. Apologies for my coarseness.
Luther,
The deguello came to Texas via Spain - which copied it from the Moors. The Arabs have a traditional way of ending insurrection which is time tested and proven. Bush meeting with al-Maliki today puts the US imprimatur on what follows.
Barry,
Armitage was Powell's man and Powell wasn't much. I think we'll be seeing Bush's hand played out here and I know where I'd put my money.
Same place as always.
Well, I learned a new word"deguello". Thanks. It should come in handy someday.
I think the last time I heard the word deguello was in an old Zorro movie with Basil Rathbone or something.
Good word.
I think the new Iraqi government will have to get tough and assert its authority over the militias and outlaws.
The corruption problem is there, but then again it is part of the culture not only in the Arab world but in Europe as well. I bet Chirac could teach them a thing or two about stealing from your own people, and let us not forget the Russians.
I think Americans forget that we English speakers tend to be a little more strict about this kind of thing than most of the world is. That might explain the UN's corruption as well.
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