In our continuing watch for idiots in the blahgistocracy, we bring you more liberal lameness. Here’s the latest “proof” that the administration is A) lying B) in a quagmire in Iraq, from the virtuoso blockheaded naysayers at the Daily Kos:
Fuzzy math: Pentagon cover-up of Iraqi troop numbersby Plutonium PageSun Feb 13th, 2005 at 21:59:37 PST
(From the diaries — kos)
Let me first tell you that the best way for Iraq to be safe and secure is for Iraqi citizens to be trained to do the job.
And that’s what we’re doing. We’ve got 100,000 trained now, 125,000 by
the end of this year, 200,000 by the end of next year. That is the best
way. We’ll never succeed in Iraq if the Iraqi citizens do not want to
take matters into their own hands to protect themselves.— President George W. Bush, 9/30/04, first presidential debate
We count in total around 120,000 [Iraqi
troops] now, but we’re very aware that there are problems in the
quality. One of the big problems is a tendency for soldiers to go AWOL
and part of it’s the problem that faces them.— Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, January 19, 2005
Well, George and Paul are having some trouble with their math.
According to the UK Independent, the Pentagon has been covering up the real number of Iraqi troops trained.
The title of the story says it all:
Pentagon covers up failure to train and recruit local security forces
Police and army numbers falling far short of projections as post-election violence surges and wait for results drags on
Training of Iraq’s security forces, crucial to any exit strategy for Britain and the US, is going so badly that the Pentagon has stopped
giving figures for the number of combat-ready indigenous troops, The
Independent on Sunday has learned.Instead, only figures for troops “on hand” are issued. The small number
of soldiers, national guardsmen and police capable of operating against
the country’s bloody insurgency is concealed in an overall total of
Iraqis in uniform, which includes raw recruits and police who have gone
on duty after as little as three weeks’ training. In some cases they
have no weapons, body armour or even documents to show they are in the
police.The resulting confusion over numbers has allowed the US administration
to claim that it is half-way to meeting the target of training almost
270,000 Iraqi forces, including around 52,000 troops and 135,000 Iraqi
policemen. The reality, according to experts, is that there may be as
few as 5,000 troops who could be considered combat ready.And Senator Biden calls them on it:
The sleight of hand over troop numbers
provoked a sharp clash during Condoleezza Rice’s Senate confirmation
hearings to become Secretary of State. After she quoted Pentagon
figures claiming 122,000 Iraqis had been trained, she was told by
Democratic Senator Joseph Biden: “Time and again this administration
has tried to leave the American people with the impression that Iraq
has well over 100,000 fully trained, fully competent military police
and personnel. And that is simply not true. We’re months, probably years, away from reaching our target goal.”(The bold emphasis is mine.)
When will we get out of Iraq? The Pentagon reassures us that this is not another Vietnam, but can’t give a timeline for withdrawal of our troops.
Quagmire accomplished.
[end Daily Kos’ Dumbass Analysis Technique ©]
Well, let’s see what we have in the way of rebuttal to President Bush and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz’s figures: “according to (unnamed) experts”. Experts in what? What experts? Names please, resumes, something in the way of qualifications or access to facts that rebut what the president and d.d.s. have laid out.
But wait, there’s more:
“And Senator Biden calls them on it”
No, he doesn’t call them on it. He gainsays them on it. He offers no facts in the way of proof, no actual statistics or facts. He simply expects us to believe him when he says “that is simply not true.” Like its not true that Biden cribbed campaign speeches from Neil Kinnock I guess? We need a bit more than your word to go on here Senator Plagiarist, like say some evidence?
If this is the best Daily Kos has for its daily dig at the president and negativism on the WOT frontlines in Iraq, the Quagmire Club is in rough shape.