February 22, 2007--The Coalition of the Dwindling
Tony Blair announced yesterday that the British would withdraw 1,600 of its 7,100 troops from Iraq. At the same time, the Danes said they would pull out all of their 460 soldiers; and the Lithuanians, not to be outdone, indicated they are thinking about taking out its force of 53 soldiers. (See NY Times article linked below.)
By my count this pretty much leaves us holding the bag. Sorry, I forgot about the 1,000 Australians troops who will remain well behind the lines of combat, in spite of Prime Minister John Howard's recent boasting about staying the course.
Asked what they thought about the British decision to begin to end their commitment, Secretary of State Rice said that what the Brits are doing is “really the plan for the country as a whole—which is to transfer security responsibility to the Iraqis.” And Vice President Cheney and President Bush, responding from the same talking points, said that this withdrawal is not evidence that the plan is not working but rather the opposite—why would our closest ally be leaving if they and we hadn’t decided that they are no longer needed since things are going so well.
On the other hand, no one in the administration indicated how all of these withdrawals square with the need to add 21,000 more U.S troops. I suppose talking point about how to answer that embarrassing question are not as yet available.
At the same time that Blair is beginning to phase out British involvement, third-in-line to the English throne, Prince Harry is asking to be sent to Iraq. He was quoted as saying, “After graduating from Sandhurst [England’s West Point], I don’t feel good about being in England while our guys are having their asses shot off over there.” This is pretty much a direct quote. And, I feel, pretty impressive.
This caused me to have a wicked idea—since Prince Harry is also considered to be one of the world’s “most eligible bachelors” and will soon be in Iraq, maybe the Bush twins, who appear to be having some difficulty calming down, might think about enlisting in the army. By doing so they could expiate their father’s lack of Vietnam service, take some personal responsibility for their father’s war, and maybe one of them might get lucky with the prince.
By my count this pretty much leaves us holding the bag. Sorry, I forgot about the 1,000 Australians troops who will remain well behind the lines of combat, in spite of Prime Minister John Howard's recent boasting about staying the course.
Asked what they thought about the British decision to begin to end their commitment, Secretary of State Rice said that what the Brits are doing is “really the plan for the country as a whole—which is to transfer security responsibility to the Iraqis.” And Vice President Cheney and President Bush, responding from the same talking points, said that this withdrawal is not evidence that the plan is not working but rather the opposite—why would our closest ally be leaving if they and we hadn’t decided that they are no longer needed since things are going so well.
On the other hand, no one in the administration indicated how all of these withdrawals square with the need to add 21,000 more U.S troops. I suppose talking point about how to answer that embarrassing question are not as yet available.
At the same time that Blair is beginning to phase out British involvement, third-in-line to the English throne, Prince Harry is asking to be sent to Iraq. He was quoted as saying, “After graduating from Sandhurst [England’s West Point], I don’t feel good about being in England while our guys are having their asses shot off over there.” This is pretty much a direct quote. And, I feel, pretty impressive.
This caused me to have a wicked idea—since Prince Harry is also considered to be one of the world’s “most eligible bachelors” and will soon be in Iraq, maybe the Bush twins, who appear to be having some difficulty calming down, might think about enlisting in the army. By doing so they could expiate their father’s lack of Vietnam service, take some personal responsibility for their father’s war, and maybe one of them might get lucky with the prince.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
10:19 AM
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