BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE
TODAY ELDERLY SECRETARY JOHN KERRY APPEARED BEFORE THE CONGRESS LOOKING ALL GLUM LIKE SOMEONE FORGOT TO GIVE HIM A COFFEE MUG ON
NATIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS’ DAY.
HE SLAMMED REPUBLICANS WHO WROTE A LETTER TO IRAN – A PUBLIC LETTER.
REACHED FOR COMMENT AFTER THE HEARING BY THESE REPORTERS, KERRY BRISTLED WHEN REMINDED THAT WHILE RUNNING FOR THE PRESIDENCY IN 2004, HE INSISTED THAT THE FOREIGN LEADERS HE SPOKE TO PRIVATELY WANTED BULLY BOY BUSH TO LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE.
WHEN FURTHER REMINDED THAT HIS SECRET TALKS WERE CALLED OUT, KERRY INSISTED THAT THEY WERE “SECRET – SEE IT WAS GOSSIP. AND EVERYONE KNOWS I’M A CATTY GOSSIP. SO THAT’S THE DIFFERENCE.”
AS HE STORMED OFF HE NOTED HE DIDN’T EVEN GET A CARD TODAY.
THESE REPORTERS ATTEMPTED TO INFORM HIM THE HOLIDAY DID NOT ROLL AROUND UNTIL MARCH 22ND BUT HE HAD HAD ALREADY STORMED OFF.
This morning, US Senator John McCain declared, "Indeed, all four of the military service chiefs have testified that defense spending at sequestration levels would put American lives at risk. Now more than ever, a strong Navy and Marine Corps are essential to our nation's ability to deter adversaries, assure allies and defend our national interests."
He was speaking at a budget hearing the Senate Armed Services Committee was holding. Mccain is the Chair of the Committee, Senator Jack Reed is the Ranking Member. The witnesses appearing before them were Gen Joseph Dunford Jr (Commandant of the Marine Corps), Secretary of the Navy Raymond Mabus Jr. and Adm John Greenert (Chief of Naval Operations).
We'll come back to the hearing in a moment.
But let's think about what the Chair was saying.
Not in terms of the US but in terms of Iraq.
Nouri al-Maliki was prime minister of Iraq from 2006 - 2014. There were no real public works programs to repair Iraq's crumbling infrastructure. There were times when the yearly budget was such that Nouri could have given every Iraqi citizen in the country a billion dollars. But didn't.
The money also didn't go to help address Iraq's problems -- such as the severe shortage of nurses and doctors (but especially nurses). Instead, Nouri was fine with bringing in nurses from other countries.
This despite double-digit unemployment in Iraq and a severe need for employment.
Now there was money for Nouri's son to amass a fleet of sports cars in London as well as a bachelor pad where he -- contrary to the strict Shi'ite beliefs Nouri is supposed to hold (supposed to) -- entertained woman after woman. There was money for Nouri's son to party.
But there was no money spent on the Iraqi people.
Nouri created his own political slate and dubbed it State and Law.
The point being, Nouri insisted, he was law and order and restoring that to Iraq.
And he ran in 2010 on the (false) claim that he'd restored order to Iraq.
The one thing he did pour money into was the Iraqi forces.
(Not the Peshmerga. The Kurdish Regional Government paid the Peshmerga out of their portion of the national budget.)
In fact, the Iraqi forces were so 'covered' by Nouri, he was able to say, "I got this."
He was able to say, "I got this" -- and to refuse to US training for them.
This was noted in the November 30, 2011 House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia hearing on Iraq. We covered it in the next day's snapshot (December 1, 2011). The Ranking Member, US House Rep Gary Ackerman, noted how the US training program was being publicly rebuked by the Ministry of the Interior. They did not want or need US trainers. That was made clear. (There was no Minister of the Interior. Nouri refused to nominate anyone for the post so that he could control the Ministry himself.)
They didn't show up for training, these forces.
What's changed since then?
Not much.
CBS News reported Monday:
CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports there are already more than 2,500 U.S. military advisers and trainers in Iraq, but Dempsey said their work is being hindered by the fact that Iraqi units sometimes fail to show up for training, or arrive without the proper equipment.
"Right now we don't need more advisers on the ground," Dempsey told reporters on board the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, alongside his counterpart French Gen. Pierre de Villiers.
"We've got trainers and advisers that are waiting for some of the Iraqi units to show up, and when they've shown up -- a handful of them -- they've shown up understrength and sometimes without the proper equipment. The Iraqi government can actually fix that themselves," said Dempsey.
Back at the 2011 hearing when Ackerman was noting the Iraqi forces didn't want US training, he also noted that the Iraqi forces were unable to provide security to the country by themselves as he questioned the State Dept's Brooke Darby:
He was speaking at a budget hearing the Senate Armed Services Committee was holding. Mccain is the Chair of the Committee, Senator Jack Reed is the Ranking Member. The witnesses appearing before them were Gen Joseph Dunford Jr (Commandant of the Marine Corps), Secretary of the Navy Raymond Mabus Jr. and Adm John Greenert (Chief of Naval Operations).
We'll come back to the hearing in a moment.
But let's think about what the Chair was saying.
Not in terms of the US but in terms of Iraq.
Nouri al-Maliki was prime minister of Iraq from 2006 - 2014. There were no real public works programs to repair Iraq's crumbling infrastructure. There were times when the yearly budget was such that Nouri could have given every Iraqi citizen in the country a billion dollars. But didn't.
The money also didn't go to help address Iraq's problems -- such as the severe shortage of nurses and doctors (but especially nurses). Instead, Nouri was fine with bringing in nurses from other countries.
This despite double-digit unemployment in Iraq and a severe need for employment.
Now there was money for Nouri's son to amass a fleet of sports cars in London as well as a bachelor pad where he -- contrary to the strict Shi'ite beliefs Nouri is supposed to hold (supposed to) -- entertained woman after woman. There was money for Nouri's son to party.
But there was no money spent on the Iraqi people.
Nouri created his own political slate and dubbed it State and Law.
The point being, Nouri insisted, he was law and order and restoring that to Iraq.
And he ran in 2010 on the (false) claim that he'd restored order to Iraq.
The one thing he did pour money into was the Iraqi forces.
(Not the Peshmerga. The Kurdish Regional Government paid the Peshmerga out of their portion of the national budget.)
In fact, the Iraqi forces were so 'covered' by Nouri, he was able to say, "I got this."
He was able to say, "I got this" -- and to refuse to US training for them.
This was noted in the November 30, 2011 House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia hearing on Iraq. We covered it in the next day's snapshot (December 1, 2011). The Ranking Member, US House Rep Gary Ackerman, noted how the US training program was being publicly rebuked by the Ministry of the Interior. They did not want or need US trainers. That was made clear. (There was no Minister of the Interior. Nouri refused to nominate anyone for the post so that he could control the Ministry himself.)
They didn't show up for training, these forces.
What's changed since then?
Not much.
CBS News reported Monday:
CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports there are already more than 2,500 U.S. military advisers and trainers in Iraq, but Dempsey said their work is being hindered by the fact that Iraqi units sometimes fail to show up for training, or arrive without the proper equipment.
"Right now we don't need more advisers on the ground," Dempsey told reporters on board the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, alongside his counterpart French Gen. Pierre de Villiers.
"We've got trainers and advisers that are waiting for some of the Iraqi units to show up, and when they've shown up -- a handful of them -- they've shown up understrength and sometimes without the proper equipment. The Iraqi government can actually fix that themselves," said Dempsey.
Back at the 2011 hearing when Ackerman was noting the Iraqi forces didn't want US training, he also noted that the Iraqi forces were unable to provide security to the country by themselves as he questioned the State Dept's Brooke Darby:
Ranking Member Gary Ackerman: When will they be willing to stand up without us?
Brooke Darby: I wish I could answer that question.
Ranking Member Gary Ackerman: Then why are we spending money if we don't have the answer?
[long pause]
Ranking Member Gary Ackerman: You know, this is turning into what happens after a bar mitzvah or a Jewish wedding. It's called "a Jewish goodbye." Everybody keeps saying goodbye but nobody leaves.
When will they be able to stand up?
Not then.
And apparently still not now.
In fairness to them, it turns out some of Nouri's spending was wasted on corruption and on paying people for service that they were not actually performing.
But the US is yet again working on training.
Iraqi forces, by themselves, are still not able to meet the goals McCain expects from US allies: "to deter adversaries, assure allies and defend our national interests."
Recommended: “Iraq snapshot”
