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June 12, 2006

Fixin' To Stay, And Stay, And Stay Iraq

Via BillMon:

The impression that's left around the world is that we plan to occupy the country, we plan to use their bases over the long period of time, and it's flat false. — Donald Rumsfeld, Press Conference, April 21, 2003

Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed an amendment to the Iraq supplemental spending bill...that would require the Bush administration not to use any appropriated funds for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq. — Think Progress, Congress Has Spoken: No Permanent Military Bases In Iraq, May 4, 2006

I've told the American people I'd like to get our troops out as soon as possible. — George W. Bush, Press Conference, June 9, 2006

Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country...Senate aides said Republican staffers removed the provisions from the bills before House and Senate negotiators convened this week in a late-night work session to write a compromise spending bill. — Reuters, Iraq war bill deletes US military base prohibition, June 10, 2006

Mr. Bush on Friday made clear that the American commitment to the country will be long-term. Officials say the administration has begun to look at the costs of maintaining a force of roughly 50,000 troops there for years to come, roughly the size of the American presence maintained in the Philippines and Korea for decades after those conflicts. — New York Times, U.S. Seeking New Strategy for Buttressing Iraq's Government, June 11, 2006

To achieve lasting peace in Iraq, America will have to make concessions, including an explicit commitment not to seek permanent military bases in Iraq. Perhaps no issue in the coming years will more clearly expose the real purpose of the Bush administration's postwar mission in Iraq: to build democracy or to obtain a new, regional military platform in the heart of the Arab world. — Larry Diamond, The seeds of insurgency, June 30, 2005

And yet all you hear in US public discourse is that the White House is trying to establish democracy in Iraq. That's a given. The only debate is about whether it's working.

It's not about oil. It's not about putting the US military's thumb on the world's oil jugular. There happens to be oil there, but that's not the point. It's about democracy.

Idiotic nonsense. Only a professional pundit would believe it.

Posted by Jonathan at June 12, 2006 08:00 PM  del.icio.us digg NewsVine Reddit YahooMyWeb

Comments

Wow - you think the pundits really believe that stuff ?

The idea of this makes me wonder if propaganda systems can become self driven after a while - brainwash enough people then stop adding in new "information" and watch the ball roll on with ever greater velocity.

Didn't work so well in Germany (or Russia) of course.

Posted by: Big Gav at June 13, 2006 04:42 AM