Rumsfeld: What we've gained in Iraq

[Abcdxxxx]

just thought your might be interested in reading on the reality of tribal relations between between sunni's and shi'ites .... y'know, so like, you don't have to keep mumbling about civil wars.

in terms of what might happen if we evacuate before a solid infrastructure is in place, just look at gaza. if that's cryptic to you, then you probably shouldn't be having this conversation. if you don't think the united states can do better then it has, then hell, you just sound full of self hatred. i'd like to see america continue to do what it ideally should have done within months of the operation. we're capable of providing them with more security, and support, beyond the cash dolalr, and i'm dissapointed it's taken so long, frankly. of course, you probably think i'm being cryptic again, because i'm speaking to you as if you have the base understanding of what's happening over there. i don't think you're going to find the resolve which is best for the people of iraq by a pullout. it's a different type of pullout then say, when your parents accidently concieved you.

[mburbank]

Did someone hack your account? I've often thought you were a little one note, but I've never known you to post such know nothing crap. It doesn't even sound like your regular writing. the 'base understanding'?

" i don't think you're going to find the resolve which is best for the people of iraq by a pullout"

Who are you, Kultureklub?

"it's a different type of pullout then say, when your parents accidently concieved you."
Who are you, Vinth?


Either this isn't you, or you're drunk, or you fell on your head. I'm always up for a fight, but this is just crap. Sleep it off.

[Abcdxxxx]

Seriously, you're the last person who should talk about one note. You're getting tired old man. Kulture, Vinth, and the Bush administration. Sometimes I feel bad enough for you that I hit reply. Shit, get a blog or something. I'd love it if i provided you with some new material to fixate on... lord knows you need some new schtick. Oh, and you still don't give a fuck about Iraqi's, no matter how many "kiss my ass" essays you write claiming otherwise. Their ties to Iran will prove to be a far greater threat then their ties to America... but since you're all about self interest, and bashing Bush, that's beyond your scope. Aren't you a father? Is there a reason you spend this much time breaking down losers like Kulture, instead of spending it with your own family? You lost your funny a long time ago.. at the very least, TRY and hold on to your dignity, aight boo?

[ziggytrix]

wow, ABC, what a convincing pile of shit you just posted. a bunch of vague "i know what i'm talking about"s and an anonymous blog entry from "a reporter in Bagdad"

such mastery!!! you so totally win.

really man, he may be dead wrong about how much actual good our troops can do in Iraq right now, but Max is right about one thing. you usually post a lot better than that tripe.

[Abcdxxxx]

Thanks for the compliment.

Anyway "tripe" gets "tripe".... or "trife". If you haven't figured it out - I give about as good as I get. Sissies.

[mburbank]

Okay, you convinced me. You got boring. Ta.

[Abcdxxxx]

This coming from a man who thinks correcting grammar on a web forum = hilarity.

P.S. Refugees are returning to Iraq, the Umm Qasar port has been restored and functioning for the first time in decades, there's an interim constitution, water treatment systems have been repaired, the phone lines, electricity, and sewer systems are available to side towns on a consistant basis for the first time outside of Baghdad, they're building an evironmental test center in Mosul, commercial airlines are set to serve Iraq, the school text books have been replaced so that Saddam's picture isn't on every page, girls are being encouraged to attend , UNICEF are teaching hygene and disease prevention..... either you really don't know, or don't care.... I have to believe you don't care, or need to stop writing essays on this shit till you know what the fuck you're talking about.

P.P.S Come back when you're funny, because that's always been your main defense for your lack of knowledge. Toodles! : )

[Girl Drink Drunk]

Why are you so determined to prove that Max doesn't care about the innocent people in Iraq? This is getting rediculous, unless this is some elaborate to annoy the hell out of him (of course, even then, if you were just trying to take the piss out of him, why bother going through the trouble of being so elaborate).

[Abcdxxxx]

Elaborate, as in devoting multiple threads to the cause? That would be outright pathological.

Don't worry, this isn't much effort. I'm more of a graph, and flowchart powerpoint kinda guy.

[mburbank]

Jeez, there's a shock.

I'm on board with Murtha. I heard he's just a jerk who doesn't know anything about what's goping on in Iraq and is totally uniformed and doesn't care about human lives, so I said yep, there's my boy.

Listen, grumpy puss, whatever early childhood button I'm pushing with you I'm very sorry. I'm not your dad or your old social studies teacher or whoever frightened you or pissed you off or made you look bad in front of your debate team chums. I'm going to tell you something shocking, so brace yourself. There re people in this world who actually hold opinions that differ from yours, and hang on now, deep breath, many of them are not monsters. Kev thinks we should 'stay the course' and I think he's totally wrong, but somehow I manage to not think of him as morally deficient. Don't know how I do it, what with him thinking something different. I don't think he's ill informed either. He's just coming to a differeent conclusion. WHOAH! JUMP BACK! You wanna try on being a prick instead of just a know it all, well... I don't know, see how it's suits you. maybe it will turn out to be a calling.

Gosh. If I didn't know better, I'd think you didn't like me.

It's pretty hard to take your rejection, but I guess I'll manage somehow. Thanks for bringing up my kids though. Classy and funny, plus a really good argument. Except that 99.9% of the time I post from work, and 'take your daughters to work day' only comes once a year. I making a special exception right now on account of their watching a diisney channel original movie about five feet away. If someone ever allows your seed into them and it results in a human child, I'll be sure to give you some parenting tips to return the favor.

In conclusion, I'm very, very, very sorry I trespassed on one your areas of infallability and had an opinion. I know it's awfully rare that someone posts on a message board without the kind of comprehensive, PHD type knowledge you posses, but then almost no one on easrth is as smart or well read or informed as you. Now straighten up and face me. The light of God streaming out your ass is about to blind me.

[Abcdxxxx]

Turns out that Vinth/KultureKamp costume really does suit you better after all! Keep posting those sinker threads... you'll really work your way up to the the Daily Show that way.

[mburbank]

Hush up, grumpy puss.

And that's all you know, thinking Vinth and KulturKlub are the same thing. You might as well say an American Beauty rose is the same as another type of prized rose that I'd know the name of if I was interested in roses, or one very expensive wine and an equally expensive wine that had totally different Bouquets I could describe if I were a wine snob.

I'm going to guess you don't care for my humor, or my writing style and I couldn't be sadder. Here's a tip. When you see my avatar? Skip the post, as I generally have done with yours.

In the meantime, I'll keep my fingers crossed for the undoubtedly major peaks you regularly achieve in... whatever the hell you do involving flow charts and power point and knowing everything about everything.

[Chojin]

MAX YOU'RE NOT FUNNY I WILL PROVE THIS BY BEING A CANTANKEROUS BABY PENIS

[Abcdxxxx]

I know he thinks I hate him, but I'm probably his #1 fan.

[mburbank]

Oh, well, then, everything is all...

OH, NOW, WAIT JUST A MINUTE THERE, ARE YOU TRYING TO BE CLEVER?!

But I will be saying now I have a noticement of you making an argument at the giver as opposed to having at the issues I put down to rights. Dumbass.

[Abcdxxxx]

I do amdit, though, that if history is any guide, I will hate the next Republican President more than I hate Bush, which is very scary thought, because while you think it's just knee jerk pro forma hatred, I think it's because the ones in my lifetime have been exponentially evil until Nixon looks like a twelve year old girl at a sunday school picnic. Just imaging what the next Republican President will need to do to make me hate him more makes my stomach do the uneven paralell bars. Eat babies during the State of the Union I guess. I could see Newt or Frist doing that, though Frist might coyly turn his back to the cameras and muffle the squeals with a tea towel.

[Abcdxxxx]

Now that you've sobered up, how do you feel about Sistani, anyway?

[davinxtk]

eric made me lol.




then max made my brain try to escape.

[mburbank]

I think Abcaweenie is trying to make a very subtle point here. By venturing into humor, an area where he has little expertise, and stinking like sulfur, he is saying:

"This is what it's like when you try to speak about anything anywhere in the middle east. It is as futile, senseless, and stinky as when I, who wouldn't know comedy if it bed to death in my arms, try to make jokes."

Or perhaps I'm reading too much in. Maybe he's only saying:

"Hey, look! If you use the 'cut' and 'paste' commands, it's just like your 'cutting' and 'pasting'! These computers continue to BLOW MY MIND!"

[Abcdxxxx]

So no opinion on Sistani huh?
(no Groucho)

[mburbank]

Uh uh chumly. You give it up on what you think an armed united states military is doing that helps more than it hinders TODAY, or tomorrow or in te near future. Not what we may or may not have accomplished. How does it help keep Iraq stable for us to stay, and don't just make vague analogies (If I just say 'this is just like Vietnam' I don't think you'd concider it a very forceful argument. Although there certainly are some similarities). Tell me what you think our soldiers can do at ths point. 'It will get worse' doesn't work either, unless you say worse in what way and how we'd prevent it, or try to. If it's just encouragement, why not leave (or get) a diplomatic core and enough soldiers to protect them. What are we going to do with guns, bombs and bodies that helps?

Answer that (and then ask a question about sistani instead of asking 'what I think of him) and I'll let you know. Now I'm gonna scoot over to te spcial thread I made for you and see what Bon Mot you've coughed up.

[Abcdxxxx]

"P.S. Refugees are returning to Iraq, the Umm Qasar port has been restored and functioning for the first time in decades, there's an interim constitution, water treatment systems have been repaired, the phone lines, electricity, and sewer systems are available to side towns on a consistant basis for the first time outside of Baghdad, they're building an evironmental test center in Mosul, commercial airlines are set to serve Iraq, the school text books have been replaced so that Saddam's picture isn't on every page, girls are being encouraged to attend , UNICEF are teaching hygene and disease prevention..... either you really don't know, or don't care.... I have to believe you don't care, or need to stop writing essays on this shit till you know what the fuck you're talking about. "


Mmmm, cut n' pastin.
Now play your position, and muster up some laugh lines, you fucking has been joke monkey. Talk to me about Sistani, you sissy.

[mburbank]

Not yet, because obviously you think I can't read. I read what you wrote and I'm curious about it's accuracy.

"The Iraqi government can no longer count on U.S. funds and must rely on its own revenues and other foreign aid, particularly from Persian Gulf nations. 'The Iraqi government needs to build up its capability to do its own capital budget investment,' said Speckhard."


-Daniel Speckhard, Director of the US Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, which is in charge of rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure

As far as your infrastructure stuff goes, we are JUST begining to approach the levels Iraq was at prior to our invasion, and we have decided not to do any more.

I'm glad the text books don't have pictures of Sadaam in them, does that make up for the fact that a lot of kids can't take the risk of setting foot outside let lone going to school?

Support your argument. It's nice commercial airlines are making plans, but since even with our fully militarized presence we can't protect the road from the airport to Bahgdad what do those plans mean? When the Iraqi ministry of the interior is running death squads, what do we do about it? Complain to the government? In Bahgdad, right now, people are shifting into ethnically controlled zones.

If they can form a unity government, if there is anything even remotely resembling loyalty to the state as oppose to the tribe in the military and police, I can see Iraq doing something about it's problems, but what do WE do about their problems right now apart from making anyone we use force for look like an American puppet?

Don't just cut an paste me a press release from the Lincoln group. It isn't the bad ol' press that's wrong in Iraq.

I'll be the first to admit, I have no idea what it's like to be an Iraqi right now. If you have some unique window into the experience, why don't you share? My guess is that for everyone who appreciattes that we can get them a few hours of electricity a day, there's a lot more folks discovering they hate us more than they thought they did when everyone in a house including toddlers gets killed by our bullets and the initiaial report is that they died in a car bomb explosion.

Maybe you're thinking of what we could do their if there was a different commander in cheif running the show, a different secretary of defense, how much we could help if not for 'mismanagement'. Well, this management team is in place or another few years, and I don't see any sign of serious rethinking.

I read your post. It was flippant, arrogant, and it didn't answer my question. Why, one would almost think you were more interested in 'getting off' scoring points on me than actual Iraqi lives.

[Abcdxxxx]

Right, well you check on the accuracy of my claims, and get back to me before writing them off as a Lincoln group press release.

I listed improvements, not restoration. I also forgot to add free press to that list.

Kids are going to school. Baghdad was already "ethnically zoned"... and you're still talking out of your ass.

Speckhard wants to see a self-reliant Iraq, with improved support from the Arab League. Yup, that's the goal. That quote could have just as well come from Rummy, or Bush. You're doing a heck of a job there, Burbank.

So enough reactionary psycho babble. Ever hear of this Sistani guy?

[mburbank]

Wait, are speckhard and Bush and Rumsfeld NOT making the decision about what we are doing in Iraq? Are you living in some little magical fairy world where pixies will float down on winged ponies and make different decisions about what are armed forces do and where money goes? Is your argument that we should stick around until they go away and keep our fingers crossed, and then be useful? Instead of waiting for me to check the accuracy of your claims, how about you source them? When I source mine, all you have to say is "Oh, the meanie weenie press are all CIVIL WAR, CIVIL WAR!!"

And okay, you got me. I have no idea at all who Sistani is. I thought he was the soup guy on Seinfeld. Or he might be the most widely respected religous leader currently in Iraq, and it might be really, really hard to guage his influence and I would say our continued military presence in Iraq takes people away fom supporting him by encouraging extremism. I've know doubt your knowledge of him, his political position,his teachings and precepts is deep beyond all measure, you being Iraqi and living in Bahgdad and having a PHD is middle east studies and once having fought your way into Afghanistan with Dan rather if Mufti Drag.