The Iraq war 'tipping point'? (C.S. Monitor)

[Up2Late]

(Maybe they sould have called this the MSM "tipping point?")

World > Terrorism & Security
posted August 22, 2005 at 12:00 p.m.

The Iraq war 'tipping point'?

Are comments by Sen. Hagel, protests by Sheehan, shifting US attitudes towards continued involvement?

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

Malcolm Gladwell's 2002 best-selling book, 'The Tipping Point,' argued that under a combination of certain factors (outlined in blog form here), "radical change is more than a possibility." Some columnists and politicians from both parties are now wondering if the comments of leading Republican lawmakers like Sen. Chuck Hagel from Nebraska and others, and the actions of protester Cindy Sheehan, signal that the attitudes toward the war in Iraq are slowly, but surely, moving against the Bush administration.

Speaking Sunday on ABC-TV's 'This Week,' Sen. Hagel, who won two purple hearts in Vietnam and is also considered by some as a contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, restated his position that the US needs to develop a strategy to leave Iraq.

"We should start figuring out how we get out of there," Hagel said on "This Week" on ABC. "But with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur." Hagel said "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq … we're not winning," he said.

Hagel also "scoffed" at the idea, first put forward last week by top Army general Peter Schoomaker that in a "worst-case scenario," the US might have to maintain US troops levels of about 100,000 for at least the next four years.

<http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0822/dailyUpdate.html?s=rss>
(more at link above)

[go freedom]

1. The truth about the Iraq war.

http://www.freedomunderground.org/memoryhole/fightthepower.php

[Up2Late]

2. You should but a "Graphic" or "Disturbing Images" warning on your link

or they should have one at that website. A lot of people have never see those images.

[Dhalgren]

4. That is one serious, ass-kicking video presentation!

Who could watch this and not be moved to loathing bush and all he stands for? Kick, big time...

[calimary]

6. Welcome to DU!

It's heartbreaking. DAMN! How we worked, slaved, agonized, pleaded, begged, tried to present proof, coaxed, petitioned, emailed, wrote, phoned, marched, leafleted, picketed, you-name-it, to stop all this. We failed. It's a lead weight in my heart that I wake up with every morning.

[longship]

3. Excellent article from CSM.

As usual, the CSM does a first rate job here.

Recommended.

[durutti]

5. I see one of two things happening:

1. The U.S. increases its onslaught massively, quickly transforming the current gov't into a transparent dictatorship that will do its bidding.

2. The troops are brought home. The U.S. either abandons Iraq almost entirely, or continues to exert influence through more subtle means (like assassination).