Matt,
Now, why would you trust al-Qaeda and not CBS?

because bane, whatever else they are, AQ is reliable & transparent in their motives...unlike the MSM.

I know whose winning. The Chinese who are happy to pick up the T-Bills for the wars we refuse to pay for, and the Russians who as our ally in spreading the free market philosophy on Global trade will sell nukes to anybody has the money to buy them. After all, the moto of the Glaobalists is that each country should make and market what it makes best, and cheapest. Russians could never make consumer goods, but they could build weapons.
Finally, anybody who sells or refines oil, from whatever part of the world they come from, including Iran, who'll be happy to supply our military with 80 dollar a barrel oil should so they can finance the war machines we send our soldiers to fight against.
The free market! Aint't it great?
Look forward to your responses, and have a nice day.

Back to the two year old footage of burning tanks....

By most accounts, the war we are fighting in Iraq has almost entirely been against a native insurgency, not al-qaeda. Indeed, if we are to go by the intel that has been released and by the reporting on the ground, al-qaeda has fretted about its marginal role there ever since the US invasion opened the door to establishing a significant al-qaeda presence in Iraq (a door that had been closed to al-qaeda while Iraq was ruled by their mortal enemy, Saddam Hussein).

Yes, overall, car bombings are down 20% this year, but it is impossible to tell how much of that is due to US interdiction efforts and how much is a shift in the guerrilla's tactics towards more focused death-squad activity. While car bombings have dipped a bit (not withstanding this most recent wave), execution-style assasinations have skyrocketed. Overall, Iraqi civilian non-combatant deaths have steadily increased since last summer, to a current rate of nearly 1,000 per month. And kidnappings of Iraqi civilians have been so bad for so long - and continues to worsen - that few dare let their children go to school.

After more than 3 years of effort, oil production and electricity output continue to be far below pre-war levels. Meanwhile, the rate of US military killed - between 60 to 80 per month - is currently slightly more than has been the average for the entire conflict. And spending on the war has doubled from about $5 billion per month in 2003 to $10 billion per month today.

So, with death rates and costs from the conflict increasing, and with infrastructure and economic output far below pre-war levels, and with al-qaeda continuing to be a non-presence in Iraq (while being free to plan God knows what over in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia), I ask you: who is winning the Iraq war? What does "winning the Iraq war" even mean? That people can get their fingers painted blue? Is that what we spent all this blood and treasure on?

The Bushies constantly harp that the media is presenting an overly negative picture of the Iraq conflict - but just looking at the cold statistics over the last 3+ years, it is difficult to see what there is to cheer about.

Anybody notice that the Times has to add: "The documents seemed to be released as part of an American campaign to deflate the image of the local branch of Al Qaeda and that of its leader..."

Now when they get some video off a jihadist web site, they never editorialize about whether or not it is intended as propaganda or what motivates the groups that make the films, issue the manifestoes, etc. But they just can't resist an attempt to diminish the impact of the story by characterizing the presumed motivation behind the release of this material. Oh well...

What's ironic is that al Qaeda admits their only ally is the American media.

You mean that same American media (NYT - funny, Matt, that you link to the Times when it suits your agenda) that is reporting the story about these documents? That media?

Also, CJ, I suggest you look up the definition of the word "irony."

maf who wrote, " ... the WH changed the transcript to bass ... So either he's a liar, or the world's greatest fisherman."
Tell me what the difference between flussbarsche and seebarsche is in German?
Maybe you should look up these words before you spout off about other people's use of language.

"Irony" is maf giving thesaurus lessons to CJ.

I don't think that we were ever losing this war!

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide truck bomber hit a crowded public market in the northern city of Tal Afar late Tuesday, killing at least 17 people and wounding 35, police said. U.S. troops rushed to the scene to treat the injured, officials said.

How much more "winning" can they take?

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
by George W. Bush

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/piehigher.asp

Look forward to your responses, and have a nice day.

Look forward to you learning how to write. Have a crappy day...

maf53

That could have been the dumbest thing ever said. It's so simple even a terrorist lover like yourself can understand. I'll try it again, it's ironic that the Iraqi's are not on yours and Zarqawis side but the democrat run media here in the United States is. Now do you understand or are you still confused on what the word "irony" means?

Is America winning the war in iraq? The answer is no. I guess that makes me a "terrorist lover."

Reality has a liberal bias.

Um, Rath - you look up definitions in a *dictionary*, not a thesaurus. That may be your problem. Try again, little friend.

Cj, show me where:

1) al Qaeda "admits their only ally is the American media"; and

2) the "Democrat run media" in the US is on the "side of Zarqawi"

Can you show me evidence of these two statements?

If the second statement were true (of course, it's not - you just hate when the media *reports the news*) then your statement would contain a hint of irony. But your statement is not true. So, once again, you lose.

Aaron, Frontline ran a very interesting story on al qaeda’s diminished role in the insurgency and how the continuing bungling by this administration has fueled the insurgency. The story ran last January. If our friends here at B4B would only open their eyes, they would have known this by now.

thesaurus; a dictionary of words relating to a particular subject; lexicon, vocabulary, glossary, phrase book, word list.

Perhaps you should try a tutor; language skills are beyond your grasp.

Barney,
Then you're saying we're beating al Qaeda in Iraq?

Barney,
Then you're saying we're beating al Qaeda in Iraq?
Posted by: Rathaven

According to Frontline, and from other sources, the Iraqi people (mostly the Sunni insurgents) have soured on the al qeada fighters due to violence directed towards innocent civilians, and general strategy differences of how best to expel American forces, so I would not say “we”, I would say they.

maf53

Did you read the article? al Qaeda says it flat out. Why are you commenting on an article you didn't read?

Cj

I read both the Times article & the article by that Captain Ed clown, and didn't find mention of it.

Perhaps you could provide the quote. If so, then I will stand corrected.

Barney,
If I read your explanation correctly you are saying we have succeeded in getting the Iraqi's to defeat al Qaeda in Iraq. Didn't you say in previous posts that we have taken our eye off of the al Qaeda ball? Which is it? Are we being defeated by the people that destroyed the Towers and killed 3,000 Americans, or have we succeeded in routing them from Afghanistan and Iraq?

Rath, if you think a Thesaurus is the place to look up the definition of a word, then this pissing match is over.

maf,
If you think getting the last word makes you right, then I've overestimated your limited intelligence.

Why not answer the question; did the WH lie about the fish? Did Bush lie about the fish? Did you lie about being able to read the German transcript? Or are you just a partisan hack that makes ridicules claims then changes the subject when you’re caught?

Rathaven - there was never much of an al-qaeda presence in Iraq (although there are more al-qaeda wannabes in Iraq post-invasion than pre). What we're fighting in Iraq is a home-grown guerrilla insurgency (you know - the kind Superpowers never win).

If al-qaeda's role in Iraq diminishes from tiny to nill, but the overall insurgency increases in strength, is the US really winning the war there? Also, if the Iraq war drains resources from pursuing al-qaeda (you know - the guys who actually attacked us on 9/11) in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia (you know - our "allies"), then is the US winning the "war on terror"?

Aaron,

Thanks for the Kossack talking points, but we long ago disposed of the notion that AQ had only a small presence in Iraq pre-liberation...

Just as an aside - the so-called "insurgency", if you prefer to call it that, really only pulls its support from about half of the Sunni population...that means that about 10% is hostile to the other 90%...how is that something which cannot be defeated?

Where did I say I was "able to read the German transcript"? Please show me where I said that.

This is what I was talking about:

""You know, I've experienced many great moments and it's hard to name the best," Bush told weekly Bild am Sonntag when asked about his high point since becoming president in January 2001.

"I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound (3.402 kilos) perch in my lake," he told the newspaper in an interview published on Sunday."

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-05-07T100113Z_01_L07638085_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BUSH-FISH.xml&archived=False

So either Reuters lied, Bush lied, or Bush is the world's greatest fisherman.

Calm down little fella, everything's gonna be alright.

I want to take a moment here and thank the mafs, the barneys, the ashs of this site. It keeps me from having to go to stupid sites like the Daily Kos for the talking points. You bring them to us so we can know what lame excuses you're coming up with to attack whatever says or does.

I do worry about you lacking real hobbies because I know that I have a list of about 1000 things that will keep me from reading the Daily Kos or CNN.com editorial pages. I have a life to live, and thanks to you, it makes my life easier to know what you're blabbing about so I know what NOT to believe.

And one other side note, I must compliment your ability to talk out of both sides of your mouth and your ass at the same time. Pretty impressive! Y'all rock!

Mark -

Wow, the paranoid Right gives Kos credit for everything these days! ;)

Anyway, my understanding of the relationship between Saddam and al-qaeda in pre-occupation Iraq was shaped more by the conservative Cato Institute than dailykos. Apparently, Cato never got that memo where you "disposed" of the notion that AQ had almost no presence in pre-invasion Iraq.

Perhaps you too would find the thinking of true conservatives (as opposed to Bush cultists) enlightening:
http://www.cato.org/new/12-03/12-15-03r.html
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/hadar-031020.html
http://www.cato.org/new/11-04/11-09-04r.html
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2751
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3017

Saddam deeply distrusted al-qaeda, tortured al-qaeda operatives, and sought to arrest Zarqawi (whose pre-invasion rag-tag group of wannabes resided in a camp in the Kurdish area of Iraq, outside of Saddam's control up in the extreme northern portion of the no-fly zone - which makes you wonder why we didn't just bomb that camp when we had numerous opportunities...)

When was the last time we were at war and also in the midst of a record breaking dow?

If you think getting the last word makes you right, then I've overestimated your limited intelligence.

You've way, way overestimated his very, very limited intelligence.

And who really gives a crap about a fish? So someone misspoke, or misquoted. Big frickin' deal; it's a fish...

Our pleasure wallyworld

Mark said: "we long ago disposed of the notion that AQ had only a small presence in Iraq pre-liberation..."

You might want to contact the Bush administration with your evidence, because they've backed off that story.

keefer,
The issue here is the "lie." Moonbats like maf throw around that word as if they understand its meaning. Just look at his explanation, "So either Reuters lied, Bush lied,"
How about no one "lied"? Just like the pre-war intelligence. Information was interpreted as best as the so-called experts could, many sources were in agreement, the information was put out for all to see, the WH issued clarification and still the wrong fish was identified.