terminating the deployment?

[alexr_rwx]

- Write your congresscritter. They're talking about Iraq pullout plans these days. Jack Murtha -- who apparently was all on board at the beginning and had historically been a military sort -- has decided that the war is no longer a good idea. Right-o; the article from AfterDowningStreet is here. Important bits from the bill:

"The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest practicable date.

"A quick-reaction U.S. force and an over-the-horizon presence of U.S. Marines shall be deployed in the region.

"The United States of America shall pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy."

- Dennis Kucinich getting fiesty (wmv link) -- "... find out why almost everything of significance we were told about the war turned out to be false ... expose the fakery when we see it!"

- Links for you:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
http://www.senate.gov (button on the front page)

Comments

[neuroticmonk.livejournal.com]

1. The vote for this was held on Friday night and defeated almost as soundly as the vote to enter WWII passed. (In this case it was something like 432-3.)

2. Whether you wanted to go over there or not, leaving now is a bad idea. If we leave before a new Iraqi government is firmly entrenched, the country will disolve into chaos. Nothing good will come of that.

3. Diplomatic solutions are only viable if you have two entities that can negotiate. A diplomatic solution in Iraq at this point is not doable partly because the insurgents are not well organized to present a united bargaining face or powerful enough to enforce the terms of any agreement made.

4. Perspective. This is not Vietnam. There are clear goals, ways to get to them, and the military isn't having its hands tied behind its back.

I'm sorry, but we're there and at this point we have to see it through.

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

Careful. Actually, you're referencing this:

House GOP Seeks Quick Vote on Iraq Pullout (http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4921), which was a different bill. That's what Kucinich was yelling about.

The Murtha thinget is still in the works.

[rusty42.livejournal.com]

really, the only way out of this and thousands of other such interminable conflicts is...

the doomsday device.

only it has to be a really good one that can blow up mineshafts.

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

Mr. President, we must not allow... a mine shaft gap!

[reality-calls.livejournal.com]

I must admit, you have an astonishingly good idea there, doctor...

Of course, the real reason to get a doomsday device is that North Korea has the technological capacity to build one and may be working on one even as we speak.  we can't allow a doomsday gap, now can we?

Speaking of which...  North Korea developed nuclear weapons to deter an attack from the United States, right?  But if the U.S. ever gets its Star Wars missile defense program completed, the deterrence will no longer be effective and the doomsday machine will be the only practical option.

The doomsday machine is well within the capability of even the smallest nuclear power. All that is required is the will to do so!

      "Live from the People's Republic"