Meanwhile, In That War Obama Wanted Us to Lose…
August 29th, 2008 at 05:55am Mark Noonan
Life starts to surge in Iraq:
Pool Reopening Symbolizes Return to Normalcy in Northern Baghdad
“One of the first patrols we went on was to go assess this pool,” said Army Capt. Clint Rusch, a Multinational Division Baghdad fire-support officer.
Rusch, who along with his unit began operations here in early February, described the scene at the compound. Putrid-smelling water filled the three pools. A concession stand was decrepit, and an outer wall was crumbling, he said.
After that initial patrol, Rusch conferred with Army Maj. Olaf Shibusawa, Steel Company’s civil affairs officer, and started hatching a plan of how to make changes there.
Major renovations included repairing the outer wall, remodeling shower rooms and refurbishing the concession stand. Once the other details were decided upon, a contract was awarded and work began in early March. But after hostilities flared up in Sadr City in late March, work was halted for five weeks.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 26 marked the official reopening of the complex, but its doors have been able to remain open for business during refurbishment, collecting about $2 per admission. The accompanying pool hall also remains open and is a popular hangout for residents.
“Our contractor didn’t want to drain the pool completely when kids are still using it, so he was able to set it up so the kids could swim while construction was going on. They were working 24 hours a day on the project,” Rusch said.
“The perfect end state would be that the project becomes self-sufficient – it doesn’t require any American influence to be able to continue,” Rusch said. “We want the community to have the ability to experience a part of childhood that every kid should have,” he said.
Never, never, never forget that Obama wanted that last US soldier out of Iraq on March 31st…in service of an absurd, leftwing political dogma that America at war is always wrong, Obama urged us to surrender Iraq to the terrorists and their Iranian masters, while John McCain - standing forthright for country over politics - urged us to fight on until victory. This, in and of itself, demonstrates that McCain is ready to be President, while Obama still isn’t even ready to be a Senator.
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats, RNC08, Republicans, War on Terror
15 Comments
1. sunrunner | August 29th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Not sure what you are trying to say with this one. Are you saying Saddam Hussein did not allow the children of Iraq to swim before we invaded, and because of our invasion this is now possible?
2. extramedium | August 29th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Just think, that money and effort could have been spent opening or refurbishing a pool in a poor American neighborhood.
Never, never, never forget that this administration took us into an unnecessary war which cost a good deal of lives and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars which could have benefited Americans at home.
3. neocon | August 29th, 2008 at 8:17 am
sunrunner and extra,
How do you propose to improve our world image by becoming isolationists? Or indignantly criticizing their accomplishments?
In this country, our less fortunate have access to public schools, public transportation, public libraries, public swimming pools, public beaches, public parks. And those even more in need have access to public assitance, WIC, unemployment, welfare, section 8, public housing, food stamps, job training, and shelters.
In many other countries, those opportunities just don’t exist, yet you would rather we still just focus on us? And this will improve our international image?
4. extramedium | August 29th, 2008 at 8:44 am
There’s a lot of ground between being a unilateralist and an isolationist. I’m all for helping nations in need of intervention, but it should be done by some consortium of nations, not Team America - World Police. I know the process is a bit slow for you, but it’s the right way and the path to reclaiming our moral standing in the world.
I’m not saying that consortium needs to be the UN, by the way. Mark made a proposal a while back for some sort of new “league of Democratic nations”, which I thought was a pretty good idea. If you leave out the nations who don’t share your values and your political system, I’m confident you could come to decisions and get to action a lot sooner.
5. neocon | August 29th, 2008 at 8:50 am
So how many countries constitute a consortium? If this is what you believe then we need a hard number, otherwise any incursion could be deemed unilateralist, right?
In Iraq, we had Britain and Austrailia, just to name a couple of countries. Is that a consortium?
So, how many countries then are required to meet your definition of a consortium? And would any and all interventions require that consortium before any action is taken?
6. sunrunner | August 29th, 2008 at 9:10 am
How do you propose to improve our world image by becoming isolationists? Or indignantly criticizing their accomplishments?3. neocon | August 29th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Great if we are talking about some of the poorest nations of the world. Iraq sits upon a pool of oil. Our military and taxpayers are the most generest in the world. I just don’t believe either are needed in Iraq building swimming pools. They have their own resources to do this; let them. Republicans are trying to spend their way out of a problem, in Iraq. I just don’t see it happening.
7. neocon | August 29th, 2008 at 9:20 am
They have their own resources to do this; let them. - sunrunner
Let them eat cake, right?
8. Bigfoot | August 29th, 2008 at 9:23 am
So, how many countries then are required to meet your definition of a consortium? And would any and all interventions require that consortium before any action is taken?
Neocon, I’m still waiting for the leftwing critics of our invasion of Iraq to explain why they called it “unilateral”, with some even saying we went in “without allies”, despite the 30+ countries that were in our coalition, and why this term was NOT used during Clinton’s bombing of Serbia, in which we were joined by only ONE country, the UK. This is not to say that Clinton was unjustified (which is a separate matter), but that justified or not, his actions were just as “unilateral” as anything Bush has done, if not more so.
Come to think of it, I have yet to hear anyone call Russia’s invasion of Georgia “unilateral”. Have Code Pink, MoveOn, ANSWER, etc. been protesting in front of the Russian embassy? If so, I’ve missed it.
In other news, Baghdad might be getting (can you believe this?) a Ferris wheel.
9. extramedium | August 29th, 2008 at 9:23 am
It’s not the number of countries that makes the distinction, it’s that the consortium openly and collectively makes the decision prior to taking action. By consortium, I don’t mean an ad-hoc collection of allies agreeing to following our lead, but a proper organization like the UN, NATO or some yet to be formed body.
The U.S. would be ok to act alone, if the action was mainly in response to a threat to it’s own rightful interests. If it’s something more abstracted from U.S. interests, like protecting a democracy, the action should be initiated by an organization of nations committed to protecting democracy.
10. sunrunner | August 29th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Let them eat cake, right?
7. neocon | August 29th, 2008 at 9:20 am
You are the one saying you are doing better now than eight years ago in another thread. Why don’t you take a sabatical and a pocket of cash and go over to Iraq and help build a road or something.
“..And today, today, as my call for a timeframe to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush administration, even after we learned that Iraq has $79 billion in surplus while we are wallowing in deficit, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.” Senator Obama August 28, 2008
11. neocon | August 29th, 2008 at 9:48 am
sunrunner,
I don’t recall the Iraqi government echoing Obamas plan to withdraw all troops by March 2008.
I donate give quite a bit of money to charitable organizations, which is doing what I can sunrunner. How about you?
extra,
Do all decisions need to be made “collectively”? What happens if you have one or two countries in that consortium, who put national interests above international interests? For example, France and Russia abstaining to vote on Iraq because of their sweetheart oil deals with Saddam as we later learned. How would that be reconciled?
And what countries get to participate? All countries of NATO? Would we require 100% agreement or a simple majority?
And what body other than the UN do you propose?
And once members support such actions, should they be allowed to change their minds half way through the incursion because of political expediency?
12. Rich | August 29th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Extra and Sun- Would you think it would be a good idea to send some troops into Darfur unilaterally to stop the genocide? No other nation seems to be willing to do jack, and it seems the U.N. is usefal as ever. I would send them in. What say you?
13. extramedium | August 29th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
neocon - do you even read the posts of people debating with you? Are you just asking a lot of questions to be a smartass, or do you really want to know? From above:
“I’m not saying that consortium needs to be the UN, by the way. Mark made a proposal a while back for some sort of new “league of Democratic nations”, which I thought was a pretty good idea. If you leave out the nations who don’t share your values and your political system, I’m confident you could come to decisions and get to action a lot sooner.”
In summary, yes you do have to deal with all of the pitfalls (of working with a group) that you can dream up and throw at me, but it’s still better than trying to go it alone.
14. extramedium | August 29th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Rich,
I don’t think we should send troops into Darfur unilaterally. I think we need to come up with a better way of working with other nations on problems like this than the UN. There are and will be a lot more Darfurs to deal with.
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