24.9.04
For the record: Deputy Sec. of State Richard Armitage
House Hearing on Reconstruction and Security in Iraq (, the Appropriations Cmt.)
Dep. Sec. of State Richard Armitage
Testimony on Iraq Funding (09/24/2004)
Dick Armitage is in the 2nd position at the State Department.
For the record from wikipedia: "He is considered to be a conservative "neo con" (neo-conservative). He currently serves as Deputy Secretary of State. Armitage is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[1] He is one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, Project for the New American Century (PNAC) letter to President William Jefferson Clinton.[2] He is also a former board member for CACI, the private military contractor, which "is being investigated by no less than 5 US agencies for possible contract violations" and "employed four interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison" in Iraq, one of whom was singled out by General Taguba in his report on abuses of Iraqi detainees at the prison.[3]"
He was asked (52nd min),
He responds,
Update:
If I'm not mistaken, I believe the opinion poll both Bush and Armitage are parroting to the press about is the June/July one. I'll try to double-check that, but I'm 95% sure that it is the same one.
Juan Cole says,
I was even willing to give Allawi a chance in the beginning. I had to force myself to be a little optimistic, even though I always thought this sovereignty was a joke. He had little time to prove to the people he was doing something well. And that time ran out.
I'm seeing more and more interviews of Allawi on US tv. Namely, Jim Lehrer's of The News Hour.(<---txt) [& real audio] All of them seem like they have been scripted by Karl Rove. Seems like he got some talking-points at the very least. It's such an election stunt by Rove. Some people aren't buying it, though.
Old opinion polls don't justify what is happening now. It's amazing how this administration uses old data when it suits them, and invents new data from thin air when it suits them (WMD, Al Qaeda connection), and everybody continues to believe it. I don't get it. Are the masses in America really that vacuous?
Dep. Sec. of State Richard Armitage
Testimony on Iraq Funding (09/24/2004)
Dick Armitage is in the 2nd position at the State Department.
For the record from wikipedia: "He is considered to be a conservative "neo con" (neo-conservative). He currently serves as Deputy Secretary of State. Armitage is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[1] He is one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, Project for the New American Century (PNAC) letter to President William Jefferson Clinton.[2] He is also a former board member for CACI, the private military contractor, which "is being investigated by no less than 5 US agencies for possible contract violations" and "employed four interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison" in Iraq, one of whom was singled out by General Taguba in his report on abuses of Iraqi detainees at the prison.[3]"
He was asked (52nd min),
How can you give us confidence... that this shifting of funds will really improve the situation in the short term?
He responds,
I think that the best I can say, the most accurate thing i can say is this: unlike the previous agreement with the CPA...is that [this] is work with a government, although not democratically elected, is pretty representative, pretty moderate...and if opinion polls in Iraq as I suggested in the closed hearing the other day, are to be believed, [they] are a pretty popular government...
Update:
If I'm not mistaken, I believe the opinion poll both Bush and Armitage are parroting to the press about is the June/July one. I'll try to double-check that, but I'm 95% sure that it is the same one.
Juan Cole says,
President George W. Bush cited a poll done in June and July to argue that Iraqis are more optimistic about their future than Americans are about theirs. First of all, even if this were true, it is not good news for Bush.
Second of all, that poll was done before the US assault on Najaf, and the significant deterioration of the security situation in August and September. Many Iraqis had at that time been willing to give Allawi a chance, hoping security would improve. I am sure those numbers would be much lower now.
Moreover, the same poll found that more than 80 percent of Iraqis want an Islamic Republic with Islamic canon law or shariah as the law of the land. So if they are optimistic, it is because they think they can achieve such a goal over US objections. Again, this is not actually good news for Bush.
I was even willing to give Allawi a chance in the beginning. I had to force myself to be a little optimistic, even though I always thought this sovereignty was a joke. He had little time to prove to the people he was doing something well. And that time ran out.
I'm seeing more and more interviews of Allawi on US tv. Namely, Jim Lehrer's of The News Hour.(<---txt) [& real audio] All of them seem like they have been scripted by Karl Rove. Seems like he got some talking-points at the very least. It's such an election stunt by Rove. Some people aren't buying it, though.
Old opinion polls don't justify what is happening now. It's amazing how this administration uses old data when it suits them, and invents new data from thin air when it suits them (WMD, Al Qaeda connection), and everybody continues to believe it. I don't get it. Are the masses in America really that vacuous?
0 comments:
Post a Comment