The Iraq News

War Czar Lukewarm on Surge, Bush's Poll Numbers Blow, Kokesh, Romney, Moyers, More

The war sucks. There's no overarching narrative to contextualize it anymore. Never was really. It needs to end and everyone knows it, but our political process and our President with shit for brains continue to stand in the way.

Here's the Iraq War News:

• 28 percent of Americans approve of President Bush's performance leading the Iraq War. I would like to see these people. I don't believe they exist.
• Today war czar nominee Douglas Lute expressed his skepticism for the surge. I am expressing my skepticism about his skepticism. Somehow this made up job requires Senate confirmation, so, it seems pretty likely that the would-be czar's quandary is a convenient and temporary front.
• Today Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the Iraqi military to surround striking oil workers blocking a pipeline near the city of Basrain in southern Iraq.
• Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh lost his honorable discharge status from the Marine Corps for protesting in uniform. Kokesh has a lot of charisma and doesn't mind telling people where he's coming from. As Cindy Sheehan recently reminded us when she, as one of the only national anti-war leaders, stepped away from the movement, leadership is a vital commodity. Perhaps Kokesh will grow into that role.
• Guess who said it:

  If you're going to go in and try to topple Saddam Hussein you have to go to Baghdad. Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists? How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States military when it's there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave?

  Answer here.
• Point of order: Someone tell Mitt Romney that Saddam never kicked out the weapons inspectors.
• New York's Wilton High School's Principal banned students from preforming an anti-war play. Well, the play has finally hit the stage, sort of. The students did a dramatic reading of the script of Voices in Conflict for a packed house at a nearby theater.

VIDEO: Bill Moyers looks at the cost of the Iraq War.


TAGS: Bill Moyers, Iraq War, Adam Kokesh, Mitt Romney