Iraq Timeline: The Broken Record on "the Next Few Months" »
Posted by: TechnologyExpert 1 year, 1 month ago205 Comments Report this Story
The Bush administration have told Americans time and again during the past 4 years that the 'next few months' will be the 'decisive, critical period' of the Iraq war. The timeline below catalogs the broken record we've been hearing. Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the timeline to scan backwards in time all the way to the beginning of the war.
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david_nwpa1 year, 1 month ago
What will happen when September 2008 arrives, we are still in Iraq, and 5,000 US soldiers will have died and over 50,000 will be wounded? Will we realize then, perhaps, that our plans are failing and that Bush is just running out the clock?
As the US pulled out of Vietnam, the American public was told by the staunch right Republican party that the Viet Cong would follow us over here with their Communist ideas. I have not heard tale of a single Vietnamese boat of any kind pulling into harbor in LA. Did it just slip past the radar? Communists do not run Hawaii, so perhaps they were mistaken?
How are these so-called terrorists planning on getting here? Oh yeah, they will run for office as Republicans.
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bubba21 year ago
The Dems haven't stopped the war funding because your hero Bush is "the decider" and he will veto any such bill and the Republicans will support him which will prevent an override of the veto.
I just love that phrase "all ya gotta do is ..." -- famous last words ...
If it is SO EASY then why don't you go up there to D.C. and get it done??
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injest1 year ago
"The Dems haven't stopped the war funding because your hero Bush is "the decider" and he will veto any such bill and the Republicans will support him which will prevent an override of the veto."
Are you saying that the Dems didn't know what would be required to stop the war when they promised to stop the war?
The dems promised if we put them in power they would stop the war. They told us that 70% of the country wants the war stopped now.
Were they lying or just stupid?
Dems lied even more have died.
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white-pawn1 year ago
My sense of the issue is that it is more complicated than simply cutting funding. That aside, I have to admit I'm disappointed with the lack of progress made by the Democrats. Polosi took the momentum away by taking impeachment off the table. Maybe Sheehan can bring back some energy to the movement.
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wallyone1 year ago
Polosi took the momentum away by taking impeachment off the table.>>>>
once again we lose faith in our elected officials.. face it, they are all in the same boat.. i suppose polosi is convince a 757 hit the pentagon and fully subscribes to the pancake theory too.. impeachment should be job 1 and if it isn't polosi should go, and soon..
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bigG1 year ago
They are looking for a few good men. Kindly visit your local recruiter.
No? Chicken?
If you and your ilk want that war so bad - you fight it.
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libsRfunny1 year ago
"Obviously, the democrats are a bunch of rotten liars who have no balls, aren't they!?"
Yes, and no leadership. It's funny how the Dems keep changing their tune on Iraq. First they overwhelmingly vote for the war, then they claim it is lost, and now they say the polticial timelies are being met to their satisfaction when it's obvious we are not losing. And now some Dems say we need to invade Pakistan - on a premise far weaker than anything Bush ever was falsely accused of lying about,
Face it, the Democrats are hoping for defeat in Iraq. They have become quite desperate. NO wonder their approval ratings are so abysmal.
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djn3nunez31 year ago
>And now some Dems say we need to invade Pakistan
Nope they are saying that we should attack Al Queda where they are if the Pakistani government cannot. Far better than invading a country that did not attack us on 9-11.
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DoerNotASayer1 year ago
"First they (democrats) overwhelmingly vote for the war"
A blatant El Drugbo style lie. MOST Democrats voted against the war.
If you have to base you argument on blatant lies, what does that say about your position?
"the Democrats are hoping for defeat in Iraq"
Another lie. Democrats hope for no such thing. They are just in touch with reality enough to know that that's all that is going to happen with Dumbya as commander in chief.
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Goppy1 year ago
You is so right libR.
Them democrats always seems to be changin.
We Christian Conservatives always stick to our plans - no matter how stupid, ideeological, or just plain bizarre.
In fact, the more irrational our plans - the more we liek stickin with em. Its a validation of our faith in our Republicans and their God politics.
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Natureboy1 year ago
Yep, in America, lying fascists come in two flavors.
Democrats won't save you, they're just the other white meat.
It's high time to organize and start doing what needs done without involving Washington, DC.
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vor1 year ago
Thats BULLSH-T! And you know it! Without having the necessary majority (that means the ability to override a veto) there is absolutely nothing the Democrats can do to change administration policy. That is, as long as the Repubs in Congress continue to toe the party line for fear of losing campaign assistance for the next election. That's how Washington works! You can't stop funding the war when the other side has the necessary votes to keep it going.
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StarLord1 year ago
I believe that the Democrats in congress tries to pass a bill attaching conditions to funding for Iraq, but they ran into Republican stonewalling and Bush threatened to veto the bill.
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djn3nunez31 year ago
>Obviously, the democrats are a bunch of rotten liars who have no balls, aren't they!?
No that would be the current administration.
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JohnQPublicComment removed: User banned.
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SwampFox11 year ago
I'm not about to question your knowledge of democracy, SC, but you also know that without a 2/3s majority in the respective senate and/or house the Democrats cannot over-ride a presidential veto OR impeachment procedings...
And unlike our beloved prez, I do not lie... Peace
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injest1 year ago
A little perspective please.
4 cities 3 years 8750 lives lost for nothing, not a cause, a noble goal, nothing. And where is the outrage?
L.A. 2003 â;; 2006 all homicides. 3072
Chicago 2003 â;;2006 all homicides 1991
New York City 2003 â;; 2006 all homicides 2241
Philadelphia 2003 â;;2006 all homicides 1446
4 cities 3 years 8750 lives lost for nothing.
The sad fact is our troops are safer in Iraq than in these USA cities
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Candida1 year ago
injest: "The sad fact is our troops are safer in Iraq than in these USA cities"
I find the murder statistics for the cities outrageous too. Still, I have to point out that your comparison is a bit crooked.
How many soldiers serve in Iraq? Let's say 160,000. With yearly rotations, let's say a total of 640,000 have served, of which over 3000 are dead and 50,000 wounded (don't forget them either, some of them will never be the same person they were before).
How many people live in the four cities put together? I don't know, but many millions, of which 8,750 are dead and few maimed. I'll let you figure out the per capita casualty rate.
No, the soldiers are not safer in Iraq.
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djn3nunez31 year ago
>A little perspective please.
How many of those homicides were blown up by IED's. How about the injuried, like those who loose limbs or maybe brain damaged????
As if invading and occupying an oil rich Arab nation that did not attack us or pose any type of significant threat(as oppossed to those now in the sanctuary of Talibanistan) was some kind of noble deed.
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tdash1 year ago
Are you for real?? How many car bombs kill and maim people on a daily basis in U.S. cities? How many headless bodies are found daily is U.S. cities? How much ethnic cleasing is going on in U.S. cities? If the kind of stuff going on in Iraq was happening here, we'd be up sh!t creek. You are comparing two situations that couldn't be more different from each other.
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Spinward1 year ago
You didn't see communists following us home from Vietnam like you WOULD see terrorists emboldened enough at our defeat that they would have the nerve to step up their efforts to attack us at home. Terrorists, unlike the Viet-Cong, have no homeland to conquer... so they'll happily conquer yours.
One thing you did see as a result of U.S. lack of desire to win the war in Vietnam was the systematic execution and extermination of 2.5 million people. Do you think the Muslims will be kinder than the communists to the disaffected? If we retreat from Iraq, how many million will pay the ultimate price there? Who are you to throw that many lives away?
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rimbaud1 year ago
The terrorists are not rich and powerful, like us. They try to get as much mileage as they can from a few dramatic acts of terror (that's what terrorism is). The reason there has not been "another 911" is we are doing a good job, all by ourselves, of extending the "mileage" from the first one. Which of them ever imagined they would be elevated to the number-one feared enemy of the world's greatest military power? How can a handful of terrorists do so much damage to us, at so little cost to themselves? I guess thay know how to draw us in, eh? By creating a trillion dollar war against them, we have inflated their importance and amplified their effect. Iraq has become the jihadist battleground Afghanistan was during the Soviet occupation. It is the children of those we assembled to fight the Soviets who are fighting us, now. Iraq is AlQaeda's live terrorist training lab and world jihadi recruitment center.
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JohnQPublicComment removed: User banned.
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rimbaud1 year ago
After we left Vietnam, it was the Vietnamese who rescued the Cambodians from the Khmer Rouge. Now, they have preferred nation trading status with us.
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SwampFox11 year ago
My cool friend, first please forgive my late responses to your timely posts. I've had a death in the family and until that's taken care of, my presence on this cool site will be erratic at best. But, right you are. What most Americans still don't know is that Korea, Vietnam, AND Iraq were all started by CIA bogus reports. All babbling Bush wants' someone else to take the heat that he alone deserves.
That is sadly the only thought on Bush's empty brain: keep the troops there at all costs.
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bubba21 year ago
Those 'high-jackers' came from SAUDI ARABIA, not from Iraq.
If you really are worried about 'terrorists' then you should be INFURIATED that the "war" in Iraq continues and all of our soldiers are there, because the REAL threat is coming from Afghanistan and Pakistan. We should have STAYED there and NOT pulled all of our soldiers into a country that was NO threat to us.
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wtagg1 year ago
Amen. It has dilluted our efforts in finding Bin Laden. I actually believe the current administration has no real interest in finding him.
Ironic, because I think finding and dealing with Bin Laden would be a feather in the administration cap. That is, unless the administration is planning to capture him a month or two prior to the 08 elections a la Nixon's announcement of leaving Viet Nam in the fall of '72.
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Spinward1 year ago
When intelligence as reported to us by Bush and, remember please, both of the Clintons, says WMDs are present or will be in moments, it would not be prudent to stand-by and see if Los Angeles vaporizes.
Only hind-sight says otherwise as when we went into Iraq, it was a good idea. Now those supporters of the war are protesting it? What's that? You can't go to war and simply quit whenever you feel tired. You need to see it through and quit demonizing the positions that you supported only a few months ago like Hillary, who, I guess, is claiming amnesia? She's nothing more than a political prostitute willing to jump on any paying customer without regard to consequence as long as she can get a bump in the... polls.
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JohnQPublicComment removed: User banned.1 Reply
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SwampFox11 year ago
And trained at a top-secret CIA airport in Florida, then home to George's beloved little brother Jeb...?
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skyking2p1 year, 1 month ago
well the amrs dealers and war mongers want to keep this war going so they can make more money. This is a wondeful time for them. More bombs, bullets, trucks, weapon systems etc, ect, etc,etc,etc on and on and on and on. Whats a few more dead. We can make more. But don't you dare try any stem cell reserch
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RussianThreats1 year ago
But cushi, didn't you realize that Democrats are responsible for all of the ills in America today....including but not limited to:
-homelessness
-illiteracy
-godlessness
-rampant jaywalking
-hemorrhoids
-hangnails
-flat soda
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Ratskii1 year ago
Depends on which democrat(s) you're talking about. I'd say a majority would be willing to go the distance to try and stop this mess, but the leadership in the Dem party is being too cautious.
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lestparker1 year, 1 month ago
It really sucks that there is good news from Iraq doesnt it? Even the NY Times seems to say so (op ed piece I believe). I really hate the way the war has been handled, but it just may be that things are looking better. Maybe I am an optimist, but I hope things do continue to get better for all of our sakes.
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bubba21 year ago
Here is how 'good' things are in Iraq ...
http://donoevil.netscape.com/story/2007/08/08/i...
Back in Saddam's time, coffin maker Abdul-Wahab Khalil Mohammed used to sell one or two coffins a day at $5-$10 each. Now he produces an average of 15 to 20 coffins a day and charges $50-$75 each. The violence has also been good for Saif Tawfiq al-Ani's funeral supplies business, which has expanded from one tiny shop to 4 shops and 2 pick-up trucks.
Yep .. business is booming in Iraq ... at least the DEATH business is ...
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bubba21 year ago
More 'good news' from Iraq --
http://donoevil.netscape.com/story/2007/08/08/i...
Many internally displaced persons in camps in Iraq are facing water shortages, and the situation is being exploited by unscrupulous militants. Some displaced families said militants have been delivering clean water to their camps by truck and demanding money, goods, or "favors" in return. Local authorities have been informed but have not responded.
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Obaku1 year ago
You are not an "optimist" you are friggin' delusional.
What the NYT piece says is "good news" is in reality not at all. Would you congratulate LAPD for making a deal with the Crips AND the Bloods, to supply them with arms and training, in exchange for them not wasting LAPD officers, and concentrating on whacking MS 13 members?
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NavArmy1 year, 1 month ago
2ndchance: the dems were held up by the repugs and the administration lackies. You expect the dems to do in less than a year what the repugs couldn't do in 5? Get a grip! The only thing that matters is our troops! Come home, redeploy, or stand fast doesn't matter. The damage has been done by the administration and your eyes just glaze over your end of the problem while whining about how little a new congress has acomplished.
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white-pawn1 year ago
We'd also have to get the CIA and PNAC to stop funding the terrorists.
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cushi1 year ago
Who are you trying to psyche? You know it's not that simple...well, perhaps it is...to a simple mind....
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fishfry0011 year ago
NavArmy
2ndchance: the dems were held up by the repugs and the administration lackies. You expect the dems to do in less than a year what the repugs couldn't do in 5? Get a grip! The only thing that matters is our troops! Come home, redeploy, or stand fast doesn't matter. The damage has been done by the administration and your eyes just glaze over your end of the problem while whining about how little a new congress has acomplished.
----------...
Roger that!
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Spinward1 year ago
The dems are the majority, held up by nothing but their own self-interests.
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disraeli1 year ago
To add a little cheer to the Bush administrations droning about the war in Iraq and their open ended timeline I suggest that they adopt Tomorrow from Annie as their theme song.
"The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!"
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cushi1 year ago
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!"
Perhaps a slight change toward the end would fit the Bush mafia a little better: "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya Tomorrow, you're always a war a way!"
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bubba21 year ago
The mortality rate for children under 5 years in Iraq is the highest in the modern history of the country.
80% of Iraqis have NO access to clean water and 75% have no access to sanitation. The average amount of available electricity is 2 hours per day.
Fewer children are attending school. More children are working in the streets selling candy or other goods, becoming prostitutes, working for insurgents (making bombs used on US troops) to raise money for their families so that they at least have food to eat. (By the way, much of the food being sold has expired dates, which is also making people sick ...)
More children are suffering PTSD and are doing drugs to escape the violence and abuse.
Women are losing their jobs and/or being forced to quit working because of threats - and killings - from sectarian extremists that hold to 'traditional' roles for women. Meanwhile, many of those women are widows, so how are they supposed to support their families?
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StarLord1 year ago
Now I shall perform a most unusual scientific feat: I shall prove the efficacy of my Univeral Translator by translating Spinward's Rovian speech to plain English:
"If we quote statistics, of course they're truthful. If the opposition quotes statistecs, then of course they're lies."
Thank you. Thank you. (Bows)
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KYRed1 year ago
We don't need no friggin' oil. Bring the troops home. I am with Obama. Genocide? So what.
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jovial1 year ago
Hello Ladies and gentlemen. More and more people are araid. Afraid of terrorist attack. Woolsey said there might be nuclear attack this summer. Chertoff has a peculiar feeling in his stomach. This video although at times very graphic, shows us the real threat to America. Please watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoXgRtDysLY
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PapaWolf1 year ago
I don't think that was funny. Zombies ARE a real threat. Didn't you hear our president say so? After all, he was so right about everything he said on Iraq. How could he be wrong about Zombies?
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Spinward1 year ago
Democrats have always supported more government in our lives. I find them curiously at odds with themselves when criticizing the Republicans in public for bills that they just finished voting for.
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bigeric1 year ago
A much more looming problem is the $ cost of all the socialist programs (universal healthcare, etc.) the Dem's are promising the ignorant and self-serving voters in exchange for their votes if they manage to get elected. Where is Ronald Reagan when we need him?
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ibstilyn1 year ago
Reagan? One of the worst presidents EVER next to shrub.
Ketchup is a vegetable--to shortsheet poor kids on the school lunch program.
Taxed tip income for the working class poor while giving tax breaks to the wealthy-reverse robin hood incarnate.
Also ended deductions for credit card & auto loans AND made passbook savings interest taxable
Savings & loan "deregulation"-if it wasn't for the program of FSLIC incorporated by a democrat FDR ronnie would be the 2nd republican president to herald in a depression. And who was that guy from silverado savings & loan..? Oh Yeah , Neil BUSH--GW's brother. Good thing convicted felons can't serve as president--too bad GW didn't go down with him.
Arms for hostage deal--Iran/Contra.
Ignoring the AIDS issue as a "gay" issue
If the Clinton surplus had not been squandered , taxes cut and this stupid war we'd have the money for universal health care like canada , britain,germany , and countless other DEMOCRACIES/REPUBLICS.
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