White House Denies Iraq Turning Into A Quagmire

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)

The Bush administration Thursday denied Iraq is turning into a quagmire with terrorist safe-havens being established in Fallujah and other cities in the Sunni triangle.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the idea of Iraq becoming a quagmire "false analogies." "We continue to make progress as we help the Iraqi people move forward to a brighter future. We've always said that there are going to be difficulties and dangers along the way, particularly as we move closer to holding elections," McClellan said.

During a joint press conference earlier in the week, Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged that a handful of cities in the Sunni triangle - such as Fallujah, Samara, Ramadi, and Baqubah - have essentially become no-go areas for U.S. troops.

Myers said the current plan was for Iraqi troops backed up by U.S. forces to clear the cities. However, the Iraqi interim government lacks well trained forces and the Iraqi security forces have shown little appetite for combat. ..

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[cthrumatrix]

1. Cheney says the "roses" should be coming any day....

and all reporting on casualties is a forgery

[barb162]

10. and the economy is turning the corner too

When Bush the Elder was giving his lying crap to the American people, he was scoffed at as being out of touch because that was the reality of the situation. Now, the same out of touch lies are being told and many people cheer. What has happened to the American public that this moron is not being booed off of every stage on which he appears.

[Purrfessor]

19. You're correct. Rocket Propelled Rose Launchers, on order from Iraq

to celebrate U.S. intervention, due to arrive any day now.

[Richardo]

2. Just keep telling yourself that, Scottie...

:eyes:

...go to your good place and see how calm and bootiful everything is.

The rest of us are over here in the real world. And it SUCKS.

[POed_Ex_Repub]

3. I'm surprised

That they didn't find a way to say... "The Iraq war is going well, and anything that isn't going well is Kerry or Clinton's fault... and those darn gay people getting married"

:eyes:

[JoFerret]

4. And Bush is not a liar either.

(Even today C. Rice is out there linking AlQaeda and Iraq.) What liars they are. God's wrath is on the way.

[russian33]

5. Title should be 'White House is in denial about everything'

and we ain't talking about the river in Egypt either!

[MrBenchley]

6. It would have to improve considerably to be upgraded to "quagmire"

"However, the Iraqi interim government lacks well trained forces and the Iraqi security forces have shown little appetite for combat."
Fortunately we've got willing partners in our coalition like Costa Rica to pick up the slack...

[henslee]

7. Isn't Quagmire a lovely little town in Maine. Doesn't that Mrs. Olson run

a quaint little Inn there?

[hatrack]

8. "So stop saying that!!!!"

Boudelang lives!!

[MrBenchley]

9. There is getting to be a touch of Bob in GOP statements,

isn't there?

[hatrack]

17. It's either Bob, or extended "clarification" of damning, stupid remarks

These people are disgusting, shameless whores.

[jayfish]

11. "A Handful Of Cities"?

How many cites the size of Fallujah, Samara, Ramadi, and Baqubah are there in Iraq?

Jay

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. "forces to clear the cities"

And then shoot everybody at the edge of a ditch?

Image if you will, 4 more years of this.

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. "forces to clear the cities"

And then shoot everybody at the edge of a ditch?

Image if you will, 4 more years of this.

[devilgrrl]

14. You could lay a bloody corpse in front of the White House...

and they'd deny that it was dead.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

15. Notice how the White House

has shifted the focus to Iraqi elections when the reasons we were given for going there are now proven false?
The questions Kerry ought to open every speech, press conference and debate with are-
"Where are the weapons of mass destruciton?"
Where is Osama bin Laden?"

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. "Myers said the current plan was for

the media to carry on calling the cities "terrorist safe-havens" until the average American voter won't object to a massive aerial attack on them, killing thousands of innocents. This won't happen before the election; but if Bush loses, it'll happen the first time in November or December some other story distracts the world from Iraq. If he wins, he do it the next time there's any terrorist bombing anywhere in the world, because then he thinks it'll make him look strong. Myers then apologised for hitting the sodium pentathol before his press conference."

[KansDem]

18. Let's see..."Quagmire..."

A quagmire (from "quake" + "mire") is, literally, shaky, miry ground; as a political term used to describe a foreign military campaign in which there is either no foreseeable possibility of victory or the objectives are unclearly defined, and at the same time no clear exit strategy has been formulated in the absence of victory. The military campaign is likened to a kind of swamp or marsh in which the warring nation is unable to remove itself.

Typically, a quagmire occurs when a major power attempts with little success to subdue a foreign guerrilla insurgency. Often matters of national pride or belief in military invincibility are the cause of the lack of an exit strategy. The classic examples of quagmires were the American involvement in the Vietnam War and the Soviet war in Afghanistan. It is often humorously suggested that the best way to resolve the military impasse associated with a quagmire is to simply "declare victory and go home."
http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/quagmire

Yep, it's a "quagmire..."

[readmylips]

20. Wosama off the Radar....

Where is Wosama?

[dqueue]

21. they prefer the official...

festering pit of hell and damnation to the more mundane quagmire...

[Career Prole]

22. No brainer really. It was a quagmire waiting to happen...

...and the White House "happened" it, despite numerous warnings.
End of story, McLellan.

[dancing kali]

23. What reality are these people living in?!

What drugs are they on... and can I have some?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

24. Wastin' away in Quagmiritaville

Waitin' for the next rocket assault.
Some people claim that a Chimp is to blame.
But I know, it's all Cheney's fault.

[electricmonk]

25. As the Bush twins would say: Amazing

"We continue to make progress as we help the Iraqi people move forward to a brighter future. We've always said that there are going to be difficulties and dangers along the way, particularly as we move closer to holding elections," McClellan said.

Back in June didn't this statement go like this:

"We continue to make progress as we help the Iraqi people move forward to a brighter future. We've always said that there are going to be difficulties and dangers along the way, particularly as we move closer to the handover of power," McClellan said.