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"The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips," senior Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart told the Los Angeles Times [referring to Iraqi interim P.M. Ayad Allawi].

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"The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips," senior Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart told the Los Angeles Times [referring to Iraqi interim P.M. Ayad Allawi].

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Originally posted by Succatash:

The blood is on Bush's hands, not Kerry's.

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Originally posted by Succatash:

"Americans (and the Iraqis who attack them) will bleed for that statement..."

It seems to me that US citizens need to come to an agreement that this is the fix we're in, we can't undo it, but we CAN avoid publicly undercutting best efforts to bring about a reasonable outcome for both the Iraqi people and our own nation."

You guys sound dangerously close to saying, "Every time someone complains about the war, a soldier dies."

What an appalling concept. Silencing protestors and faking agreement is not the answer.

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That statement just gives affirmation to Zarqawi and his Thugs to attack soldiers as well as kidnap and murder civilians.

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excerpted from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45672-2004Sep23.html
President Bush and leading Republicans are increasingly charging that Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry and others in his party are giving comfort to terrorists and undermining the war in Iraq -- a line of attack that tests the conventional bounds of political rhetoric.

Appearing in the Rose Garden yesterday with Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, Bush said Kerry's statements about Iraq "can embolden an enemy." After Kerry criticized Allawi's speech to Congress, Vice President Cheney tore into the Democratic nominee, calling him "destructive" to the effort in Iraq and the struggle against terrorism.

It was the latest instance in which prominent Republicans have said that Democrats are helping the enemy or that al Qaeda, Iraqi insurgents and other enemies of the United States are backing Kerry and the Democrats. Such accusations are not new to American politics, but the GOP's line of attack this year has been pervasive and high-level.

• On Tuesday, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said terrorists "are going to throw everything they can between now and the election to try and elect Kerry." On Fox News, Hatch said Democrats are "consistently saying things that I think undermine our young men and women who are serving over there."

• On Sunday, GOP Senate candidate John Thune of South Dakota said of his opponent, Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle: "His words embolden the enemy." Thune, on NBC's "Meet the Press," declined to disavow a statement by the Republican Party chairman in his state saying Daschle had brought "comfort to America's enemies."

• On Saturday, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.) said at a GOP fundraiser: "I don't have data or intelligence to tell me one thing or another, [but] I would think they would be more apt to go [for] somebody who would file a lawsuit with the World Court or something rather than respond with troops." Asked whether he believed al Qaeda would be more successful under a Kerry presidency, Hastert said: "That's my opinion, yes."

• The previous day in Warsaw, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said terrorists in Iraq "are trying to influence the election against President Bush."

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excerpted from http://www.marinetimes.com/story.php?f=1-MARINEPAPER-356833.php
Many who fought in Fallujah may have been thinking it, but weren’t willing to say it — that Marines did not want to launch the April siege there, and once in the fight, they didn’t want to pull out before the job was done.

In a candid interview Sept. 12 with four major newspapers at his command post in Iraq, Lt. Gen. James Conway said senior coalition commanders in Iraq ordered the Marines into Fallujah against his advice and counter to the Corps’ long-term plan to quell the city’s insurgency.

Moreover, before Marines could consolidate their gains, they were ordered out, replaced by an unproven local security force cobbled together without the input of senior Marines on the ground there, said Conway, the outgoing commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force.

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Originally posted by rue:

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That statement just gives affirmation to Zarqawi and his Thugs to attack soldiers as well as kidnap and murder civilians.

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OK. Here's your chance to call me stupid.
How is Lockhart's statement an invitation to attack and murder?

Be explicit, remember, you're dealing with a stupid person.

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Originally posted by LostInTheVerse:

By not coming out and disagreeing, Kerry has given his implicit endorsement to the above statement.

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just don't believe encouraging these people is the right thing to do.

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However, if I may add my $.02, I do not believe that this statement --ill-considered as it may have been-- would have any discernible effect on the insurgents' activities. You see, their goal is to block the formation of any government which does not rest squarely on the Shari'a Law, which is to say a theocracy. To them, such a government would be a secular (read, "Unholy") offshoot of American Imperialism. What select Americans believe or don't believe about that government is immaterial to them. Whether we proclaim the legitimacy of the Allawi government or mock it as a puppet, they will still see it as a target, since it does not look like the Taliban, or the Iranian government.

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However, if I may add my $.02, I do not believe that this statement --ill-considered as it may have been-- would have any discernible effect on the insurgents' activities. You see, their goal is to block the formation of any government which does not rest squarely on the Shari'a Law, which is to say a theocracy. To them, such a government would be a secular (read, "Unholy") offshoot of American Imperialism. What select Americans believe or don't believe about that government is immaterial to them. Whether we proclaim the legitimacy of the Allawi government or mock it as a puppet, they will still see it as a target, since it does not look like the Taliban, or the Iranian government.

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excerpted from http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60725-2004Sep29?language=pri
nter
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked Tuesday about similarities between Bush's statements about Iraq and Allawi's speech to Congress last week, said he did not know of any help U.S. officials gave with the speech. "None that I know of," he said, adding, "No one at the White House." He also said he did not know if the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had seen the speech.

But administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the prime minister was coached and aided by the U.S. government, its allies and friends of the administration. Among them was Dan Senor, former spokesman for the CPA who has more recently represented the Bush campaign in media appearances. Senor, who has denied writing the speech, sent Allawi recommended phrases. He also helped Allawi rehearse in New York last week, officials said. Senor declined to comment.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and British Foreign Service officials also helped Allawi with the text and delivery of his remarks, said administration officials who were involved. The State Department and officials elsewhere in the government took the lead in booking Allawi's interviews. Administration officials said that the Iraqi Embassy in Washington consists of just a few officials and has only a dial-up Internet connection, so was incapable of preparing for the high-profile tour.

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Originally posted by rue:
BTW, fundamentalism is on a fast rise in Iraq. Hussein was actually keeping it down and maintaining a secular government and society.

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