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Maybe I better stick to the softball threads.... like the ones the media throws to Obama.

Zee

From what I hear the softballs are becoming fast balls, curves, sliders, fork balls, knuckleballs, drops, and riser and some change ups.....thrown from different motions .......

Indy posted this probably before he went to work. I wondered about it so I found this. Apparently the tv hacks at CBS were trying to do him a favor.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/22/eveningnews/
main4283813.shtml

McCain: "We Will Come Home In Victory"


"......Couric: Senator McCain, Sen. Obama says, while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?

McCain: I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane (phonetic) was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history. Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership, and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. I mean, to deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think, does a great disservice to young men and women who are serving and have sacrificed..... "


In fact, as Spencer Ackerman and Ilan Goldenberg have reported, the record firmly establishes the opposite: instead of being caused by the surge, the key signs of the Anbar Awakening occurred not only before that strategy was implemented, but before it was ever conceived.

[/quote]

Sky...these kind of military situations are very fluid. Fluid means that they have a lot of situations going on all at one time. There will always this sign or that indication there...to dispute or to issue. And you can grasp at straws....real easily. Meaning false hopes.

You need to look at was was happen prior to the surge....and then after the surge.....before you had a country in disarray and nearly failing.....the extra forces came into town.....and today.....10 of the 18
province are in Iraqi hands...the majority of the political objectives have been met.....violence is down.....AlQeada is broken.....Shia are coming into the Gov't.....Sunni are still there....Kurds are still there....

Say no additional forces went to Iraq.....what was to stop the decline in the situation? Only the Iraqi IDF. They likely looked at the IDFs abilities and training level.....before making the decision to send them.
Made the decision they needed more time....the surge gave that to them. Military units are only as good as their training and equiping....it takes time to get them ready.

Now that the IDF has stopped AlQeada in Mosel.....fought semi well against the al-Sdyar group in Basra.....not that I want it to go there.....the only other enemies to them are nation states (Iran and Turkey)

Had we just sent the IDF up against al-Sydar group and AlQeada prior to having them ready....and they lost big time......the country was really in trouble. The surge was as much to defeat both AlQeada and al-Sydar....as it was to strengthen the IDF.

Barak is well known to have opposed the surge. Saying now...all this could have happened without it......is like Monday quarterbacking a football game that was won on the weekend. Asking the coach....hey do you think if you ran this play on that 3 and 7 situation where you were stopped....it could make the 7 yards...and then you can have scored a another TD? When I was coaching my standard reply to the question was this...."Yes, we could have ran that...and maybe fumbled....and a gave up a TD ....kept them in the game enough to lose."

One common element to war and sports.....you play one play(sports) at a time....or one situation (war) at a time. The trick is figuring out the key and criticial situations...win those....then the winning the contest or the war is possible.

I get the feeling that Barak was less than happy with Gen. Peatris.
Also that when Gen. Peatris explained the danger that a set timeline would make to American forces. Barak comment is the $10b per day being spent there and we have things at home to attend to. Seems to me, American lives are American lives, where ever they are. That if we spend $11b a day in Iraq and it keeps Americans alive....it is a good thing.

Gen. Peatris is airborne....he will not mix words with Barak. He will lay it on the line and let Barak chew it and digest it. Or will let him trip over it. I remember Peatris questioning in the Senate prior to the surge. He did not come out after this meeting with Obama....and say....hey I told you all this before in the Senate hearings. He kept it professional and polite. Barak uses the meeting as a attack on the cost of the war. Politics I guess.

Why the heck don't guy's like you run for office Tom. I would cast my vote your way. You are obviously well versed in military strategy, willing to do what is necessary to achieve success and wanting to avoid conflict if possible. Where are our choices here, so limited?

I'm concerned about McCain 'tho I respect his military background. Not only because of this instance (Indy he wasn't edited to make him look bad) but because of the series of incidences where he can't seem to keep the time lines, geography or names straight. How's that going to play in sensitive situations Tom. The president speaking as the leader of our country continually making gaffs? How many do-overs will he get especially in the middle east?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/22/politics/politico/main
4281173.shtml

Critics Pile On As McCain Gaffes Pile Up
Politico: Verbal Blunders Bring New Attention To Sensitive Issue Of His Age


Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “Iraq” when he apparently meant “Afghanistan” on Monday, adding to a string of mixed-up word choices that is giving ammunition to the opposition.

Just in the past three weeks, McCain has mixed up Iraq and Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan, and even football’s Packers and Steelers.

Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise - foreign affairs............

The McCain campaign says Obama has had plenty of flubs of his own, including a reference to "57 states" and a string of misstated place names during the primaries that Republicans gleefully sent around as YouTubes.

But the mistakes raise a serious, if uncomfortable question: Are the gaffes the result of his age? And what could that mean in the Oval Office?.................

.....an ABCNews.com posting asserting that McCain appeared to “confuse Iraq and Afghanistan, in a “Good Morning America” interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, who asked whether the "the situation in Afghanistan is precarious and urgent.”

McCain responded: “I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," McCain said. The ABC posting added: “Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do.”

Unfortunately for McCain, that wasn’t an isolated slip. Among the other lapses:

-“Somalia” for “Sudan” - As recounted in a reporter’s pool report from McCain’s Straight Talk Express bus on June 30, the senator said while discussing Darfur, a region of Sudan: "How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?"

Senior adviser Mark Salter corrected him: “Sudan.”

-“Germany” for “Russia” - A YouTube clip from last year memorializes McCain referring to Vladimir Putin of Russia - following a trip to Germany - as “President Putin of Germany.”

-This spring, McCain said troops in Iraq were “down to pre-surge levels” when in fact there were 20,000 more troops than when the surge policy began.

-Also this spring, McCain twice appeared to mistake Sunnis and Shiites, two branches of Islam that split violently.

-In Phoenix earlier this month, McCain referred to "Czechoslovakia,” which has been divided since Jan. 1, 1993, into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He also referred to Czechoslovakia during a debate in November and a radio show in April.

-In perhaps the most curious incident, McCain said earlier this month that as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he had tried to confuse his captors by giving the names of Pittsburgh Steelers starting players when asked to identify his squadron mates. McCain has told the story many times over the years - but had always referred correctly to the names he gave as members of the Green Bay Packers.

What if Sam Houston would have said....."Remember Travis, Crocette,
and the others"...instead of "Remember the Alamo"....when he ordered his troops into the attack against Mexican and Santa Anna?

His men knew what he was saying. You still knew...what McCain was talking about the others, yes? Still knew that Putin was Russian....that Sunni was Shia or that Shia was Sunni.....You still knew the country/party, he was talking about yes?

How many typo....especially from me....that you have had to read? McCain's every word is being recorded and analysis......we all make them, yes? pretty much the same thing? If we say....our president has to have perfect diction....then not even likes of Barak will pass the test....maybe we can find a English Professor at Yale or Princeton to handle the job.

Skybow.....when we were at Tora Bora....and talking to each other on the radios....we to them....and they to us.....spelling,diction, puncation did not matter. Determination, force of will, shrewdness, intelligence, team play, better equipment, they did. Knowing if they were shia or sunni did not much mater.

What 'the world' takes as important in political correctness and diplomatic protocol.....matters very little in a fight. My Dad once told a
American General to take a flying _ _ _ _, fill in the blanks approriately, in a combat situation. The General artillery had only the day prior killed 16 of his unit's men in a friendly fire incident.

My dad was a private at the time....maybe for good reason. What was the guy going to do him? Bust him in rank? He was already lowest on the totem pole. Send him to the front? He was already there. Arrest him for insubordination? Hey that was a reward to get away from the front. And to tell Command to look at the friendly fire incident. Said his face a beet red......:-) realized that he had absolutely no control or power over this mere Private. And left.

The week later his unit got a letter request from command, to address senior officers approriate to thier rank. That is political correctness....WWII style. Now the General was not Patton. Gen Patton would not have turn beet red and ran away to write a letter. Gen Patton...would have answered him in kind....called him a SOB...but that he wants 1000s more SOBs that have the courage and spirit like that. He would not have struck my dad, like he did that other Private.

There are some men that live on political correctness......live behind it....live with it.....live for it. They see it as some slap on the back or some reward to having gotten a political opponet into a 'public situation'.
I watched a woman reporter the other day ask McCain is he thought that since Vigra was a approved drug for Medicare payments, why was birth control for women not approved. She did it purely to put him on the spot.....regarding birth control, sex and women's rights.

Now the clip is making the round of utube and the far left websites. Thier giggle for the day. I wonder Gen. Patton would have said to her.
More likely when she found him putting her over his knee.....and spanking her bottom....she would have a reason for a law suit. Patton would not have cared...simply because she insulted him.

Audicity is the way great military leaders lead.

Since more people remember "Remember the Alamo" than remember who said it (unless they are Texan), than it would have been likely forgotten.




Tom we are not talking about spelling,diction or punctuation here. As for political correctness.

http://www.matrixbookstore.biz/politesse.htm

"Having become a new instrument of society and often ridiculed, the commonly-used phrase ‘politically correct’ was coined sometime during the 1960’s when a few groups began to discourage the usage of insensitive terms in favor of better-sounding ones. .....

True to its name though, and probably where the term came from, political correctness has been around for centuries within the diplomatic corps. To be a diplomat is to know how to tactfully say what needs to be said. Just as important is what not to say. After all, certain words said at the wrong time, or said in the wrong manner, can start wars. Over the centuries official diplomacy became practically a science whereby, as an example, a certain term used by a diplomat can reflect a level of interest, agreement or level of opposition. In short, diplomats have their own language... except, it's not the only 'language within a language'........"

You make a persuasive argument for soldiers behavior in battle. This is a place where neither Obama or McCain will not be present. They are going to be well protected and likely far behind the front lines.

I for one don't want anyone to have to "_ _ _ _, fill in the blanks" for my president. Especially in the very inflammatory, unstable world of today. As I said in my previous post McCain is making far more serious mistakes than simply bad punctuation or diction.

He is getting the names of people and places wrong while on the campaign trail. I'm sure those he doesn't get right now are at least upset by his gaffe's at the worst downright angry. Why would anyone think this will improve if he is elected?

Those are mean things those Triffids,not Truffles,TRIFFIDS!!!!!!

The Trouble with Triffids is they just keep on multiplying, rapidly and endlessly.

Thought those were Tribbles.

Give the man a cigar, you're absolutely Right.

For your entertainment value:

The media and Barak:


Half See Pro-Obama Bias and Say Media Make Economy Seem Worse
More than three times as many Americans see a media tilt in favor of Democrat Barack Obama than toward Republican John McCain. A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey released Monday, of 1,000 likely voters, "found that 49 percent of voters believe most reporters will try to help Obama with their coverage, up from 44 percent a month ago," compared to a piddling 14 percent who "believe most reporters will try to help John McCain win" while "just one voter in four (24%) believes that most reporters will try to offer unbiased coverage." Exactly half, 50 percent, "believe the media makes economic conditions appear worse than they really are," a separate Rasmussen Reports telephone survey posted on Monday determined. That poll discovered "a plurality of Americans (41%) similarly believe that the media has tried to make the war in Iraq appear worse that it really is, while 26 percent say reporters have made it look better than reality and 25 percent think they've portrayed it accurately." Meanwhile, the "Scapbook" section of the latest (July 28) edition of the Weekly Standard magazine dubbed Newsweek "Obamaweek" and illustrated the media's infatuation with Obama by displaying images of six Newsweek covers featuring Obama, five of them just this year.

So when did it become illegal to register to vote at VA hospitals????

Yea Indy Obama looks and sounds better on camera, the camera does fall in love you know, it's well known. McCain is more of a "Everyman type" even the camera is not having a love affair a lot of people trust him and not just because of his military background. Obama may be able to give more inspirational speeches McCain comes across as more "real" in interviews without the teleprompters running.

Now consider this Indy, here I am surrounded by very "Hot", intelligent Republican men and I'm a lone liberal Dem. Can you imagine our pillow talk it if any of you would find a way through all these politics to date me?

Sad but also, pretty damn funny to think about isn't it?

Hello all you wonderful peoples!!!




I'm busy as a beaver for the next hour or so - but I'm going to crack open a huge bottle of wine when I get home and hope you'll be around to play with!

Missed you!

He Wish, I was just mourning the gulf between all these Romeos and my Juliet.

I have to run out to the bank and check on mom but I'll be baaaak.

I never touch the Danish.