Bush is "Embracing the Feingold Plan" (Take The High Road, DUers!)

[MannyGoldstein]

Bush and his gang are now announcing an enforced timetable for our leaving Iraq. No matter how they spin it, any adult with a brain in the US realizes that this is EXACTLY what Bush swore that he'd NEVER, EVER do (it runs in the family -- remember "Read my lips, no new..."?).

There is a great temptation to drop to the level of the Republicans, and heckle them with names like "cut and run Defeaticans" or some such thing. This is a race to the bottom - let's not yield to temptation.

Instead, we can take the high road here (and sufficiently amuse ourselves at the same time) by giving credit to the originator (I believe) of this strategy, Russell Feingold. Feingold proposed this strategy long ago. As usual, Feingold was viciously mocked (and most of his fellow Democrats fled in terror). Also as usual, Reingold was dead-nuts correct.

So let's honor Feingold by calling the Republican retreat by the more-charitable "Embracing of the Feingold Plan". It keeps things out of the gutter, confers appropriate credit - and it's funny as hell.

[Mass]

1. Sorry - read again - this is not an ENFORCED time table.

I know this is the first reaction, but they say if the Iraqi do not accept or reach the timetable, they will NOT withdraw anyway.

This is BS, and we know it. Sure, they are coopting the words, but they definitively not doing anything serious.

This sentence says it all - Even if you dont do it, we will not leave.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/21/frontpage/web.1021security.php

Although the plan would not threaten Maliki with a withdrawal of American troops, several officials said the Bush administration would consider changes in military strategy and other penalties if Iraq balked at adopting it or failed to meet critical benchmarks within it.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Read The Entire Thing

"A senior Pentagon official involved in drafting the blueprint said that Iraqi officials were being consulted as the plan evolved and would be invited to sign off on the milestones before the end of the year."

We are writing a plan for them that they are being "invited" to accept. Think about what this means.

[Mass]

9. Sure, where do you see leaving?

They are being invited to sign, but the article says explicitely that even if they do not, we will not leave.

[MannyGoldstein]

What's The Possible Alternative?

Anything less than what we're doing now would consist of massing all of our troops in the Green Zone in something resembling the Battle of the Alamo.

Be real.

[Mass]

17. Staying until the job is done!

We may see things move after the election, but this is clearly (and unfortunately) more disinformation.

[Mass]

18. This comment by Rummy says it all...

But Rumsfeld was quick to play down expectations: "There's no doubt in my mind but that some of those projections we won't make; it will be later, or even earlier in some instances. And in some cases, once we meet the projection, we may have to go back and do it again.

It does not seem like a plan for leaving for me.

[ShortnFiery]

2. Do you have a link for that?

Perhaps Baker, et. al., are discussing a potential time table, but Dear Leader IMO, will have NONE OF THAT "cut and run" bullshit.

I don't believe they've briefed Lord Pissypants on this idea yet. :shrug:

[babylonsister]

3. Kerry, Levin, Murtha, and I'm sure there are more, all had plans.

I wonder which one dimson will claim as his own?

[Mass]

4. None. This is NOT an enforced plan.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/21/frontpage/web.1021security.php

By for now 2 years, DU jumps and proclaims that Bush is using Democratic plans when it is just coopting the words and an empty shell.

What the Kerry-Feingold and the Murtha plan proposed was withdrawal. This one does not!!

[rodeodance]

14. yes, i think Feingold was the first though-correct me if wrong on this.

[Mass]

15. No, I think he was the first one to use the word "DEADLINE"

[Mass]

5. Where did you see "LEAVING"?

[MannyGoldstein]

8. See Above

I really can't read this any other way - but how do you read it, in terms of reasonable outcomes that fit the "new" strategy?

[Mass]

10. This is called coopting a plan - Something the GOP has done again

and again, and then it has rendered it meatless. Same thing here. They know by the polls the public want a timetable. So they offer one and they make it meatless.

[katinmn]

7. Telling Maliki to take charge and end the violence is not a plan!

Maliki has proven to be as incapable and incompetent as Bush and Rumsfeld and their generals.

This means nothing.

[Mass]

11. Definitively!! Without any deadline for withdrawal, this is another

empty plan.

[rodeodance]

12. READ MY LIPS: WE will NOT IRAQI till the job is DONE!

[rodeodance]

13. wish i could make it better-shorter and sweet. Maybe you all can?

[rodeodance]

16. hey, heckling is good for the soul.

.....There is a great temptation to drop to the level of the Republicans, and heckle them with names like "cut and run Defeaticans" or some such thing. This is a race to the bottom - let's not yield to temptation.

[rodeodance]

19. "reasonable and measurable benchmarks", is the new term for Timetable

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/15817336.htm

Posted on Sat, Oct. 21, 2006

U.S. encourages Iraqi government to take more responsibility

By John Walcott

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will intensify its efforts to prod the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to take greater responsibility for governing and pacifying the country, senior U.S. officials said Saturday.

The new plan, which is still being developed, calls for Maliki and other Iraqi leaders to agree to a series of milestones in 2007 for disarming Iraq's sectarian militias, restoring its economic infrastructure, rooting out official corruption, expanding government services and strengthening local governments, the officials said.

President Bush discussed the plan, as well as broader strategic and tactical issues in Iraq, with his top military commanders on Saturday, and the officials stressed that any effort to step up the pressure on the Iraqi government would be consistent with the president's longtime strategy.

........



They said that if the Iraqi government agrees to what one official called "reasonable and measurable benchmarks", the administration would be prepared to ask Congress to approve millions of dollars in additional aid to Iraq, much of it earmarked for economic and political purposes.

[rodeodance]

20. says this plan could take pressure of repugs. prob--Bush has a new PLAN

....The new tactic could take some pressure off Republican candidates in next month's elections at a time when many are finding it increasingly difficult to defend the administration's "stay the course" rhetoric. It also could blunt Democratic calls for a new direction in Iraq or for a phased withdrawal of American forces.

[Mass]

21. Yep, this is the only goal for this plan that is actually an empty

shell as all those they have been promoting.

Rhetoric, Rhetoric, and Rhetoric.