Rumsfeld defends $87bn war request as 'exit strategy' (ROFLMAO!)

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059480137901

Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, last night defended the Bush administration's request to Congress for $87bn (£52bn) to spend on Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the US would not get involved in nation building and that the funds represented an "exit strategy" for American troops.

"We are not in Iraq to engage in nation building," Mr Rumsfeld told a Washington conference co-hosted by the US army and attended by its top officers. "We are there to help Iraqis build their own country."

President George W. Bush's request for $20bn for reconstruction work in Iraq was part of a "strategy". The faster Iraqis assumed authority, the faster US troops could leave, he said, rebutting critics who have accused the Pentagon of having no postwar plan.

...more...

hahahahahahaha - oh this guy is too funny!

when do we exit - oh in a few hundred years????

If they are comparing this to the Marshall Plan - aren't we still in Japan and Germany 50 years later????

exit plan my ass!!!

After the help Bush promised our troops is "on the way."

the oil should last only another 50 years or so.

where is the exit strategy for germany, japan, and s. korea? those wars are 50 years old, and we're still there. oh yeah - kosovo? where's the exit strategy?

last week. Milosevic id in chains and Bosnia in Peace. Any questoins?

That we'd be in Germany, Japan & South Korea for only ten years. How come noone has ever questioned this ?

13 years ago, so the US has only shot over 3 years or so...

That's when we make our 'exit'.

Jeez, you really have to wonder about the sanity of this guy. It was only a week ago a post on DU said 'Bush will need more money', and here Ream-filled makes a statement, which is a quote, mind you, that "the funds represent an exit strategy" for the US.

Meaning, we're holding our hand out for the last time. EVERYBODY knows this is just the first installment of Rum-Bum and the others driving us off a cliff.

He'll be held accountable for this one.

Rummy, you are soooooooo full of shit.

<snip> Mr Obey {the leading Democrat on the House appropriations committee} noted the administration was requesting $400m for two new 4,000-bed maximum security prisons in Iraq. "That works out, I think, to $50,000 per bed," said Mr Obey. "How can it possibly cost us that much to build that kind of a prison in Iraq?"

Mr Bremer responded: "I asked the budgeting people about that. They did some cost analysis and the only immediate number they could come up with was a cost of something like $32,000 a bed for a maximum security prison in the US 10 years ago." </snip>

They did cost analysis after the budget for this Iraq appropriation had already been set. And the only figure they provided Bremer was outdated by a decade?!?

Halliburton or Bechtel put out a bid to build the prison to local Iraqi companies. The local companies bid against each other and Bechtel/Halliburton accepts the lowest bid. The Iraqi company builds the prison for $20 million but Bechtel/Halliburton still bill the U.S. government for $400 million.

Their contracts are not only 'no bid contracts' but they are also classified so no one can find out anything about them.

Read more about it here.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Of course, a true strategy would be plannable, would have timetables, estimated costs BEFORE THE FACT, list of assumptions and plans to test each assumption for renewal and revision of the plan.

Other than that, this is clearly a strategy. No strike that. It's a strictly tactical boondoggle run by people without the slightest idea of what they're doing.

Almost the same thing, right?
The Professor

Thrashing about like a drowning man. Reaching for anything to grasp onto in order to draw another breath.

It would be comical if it weren't so damned tragic.

"We are not in Iraq to engage in nation building."
"We are there to help Iraqis build their own country."

So we are there to engage in country building, but not nation building?

God, help me understand this doublespeak.

Nation building bad... country building good. These guys are toast.

It wasn't too long ago that we were being told:

The US isn't alone in this. We have a coalition of many many nations. So many to name, we can't name 'em all. In fact these countries represent every race and faith, on every continent, with a population of 1.2bn and a GDP of $21 trillion. We don't need no stinkin' help, and we don't know what you are talking about when you say "going it alone". We are the coalition of the willing. We have all the answers.

Oh, the brain-wrenching sophistry. How can he stand to say such things with a straight face? Halliburton/KBR and Bechtel are there to help Iraqis build their own country? When there are plenty of Iraqi companies that are quite capable of doing it?

"Gag. Ack. Barf." --Bill the Cat

...and for some troops while you are at.

What's a matter Rummy- you dont remember that "Coalition oif the Willing" that you said would "support the United States" in the war on Iraq?

Ask your fake fucking coalition for the cash- I'm BROKE!!!!

I wonder if Von Rumsfeldt spent his summer at the Robert MacNamera School For English Bastardization.

Letsee...now if we're not "nation building" with $20 billion of our own money along with the supposed $60 bin our "allies" are supposed to chip in (so far not even $2 bin has been offered)is going to what? Not rebuilding the power plants, water filtration systems and other infrastructure we bombed? So what is it? Replacement? Nation restoring?

The longer these bastards refuse to share their spoils with the rest of the world, the deeper this mess will get. Even if WhistleAss all of a sudden wakes up tomorrow with a brain and says we should get the hell out (and pigs WILL fly) it'd take at least a year just to make a hasty retreat.

That 87 billion Rummy's begging for is already spent...what he's doing now is playing the guilt game that we have to have an open-ended checkbook for the Defense Department (notice not a single investigation into the assured price gouging that goes on in any war) or we're not "supporting the troops" or being "Amuricans". You know they wouldn't come to Congress if they not only had spent the money they ask for, but double or triple that by the time all the cost over-runs and waste is built in.

The only quick exit strategy this country could do to attain the Vietnam minimum of "Peace With Honor", would be to hand over the occupation to a friendly Arab government, but you don't see anyone wearing a towel stepping forward for that job.

This regime isn't set to leave Iraq (as noted) until all the oil is gone. And it's too pig-headed to admit they've been caught with the real motives of this invasion. The sad part of this noise is Rummy probably got a standing ovation from his jack-booted lackeys...all who are enjoying a fancy dinner while grunts sweat and die in their mess.

Yes, we want to siphon the oil. But we also want to use Iraq as a point of departure to attack other Mideast nations. That's why they haven't been able to figure out how to keep the electricity on after six months, and that's why Halliburton is trying to construct buildings while being targeted by guerillas.


rocknation

We're starting to see the monkeys come out and start scratching at each other...I can't wait for the real blood-letting to happen.

You've got the Pro-Israel faction that wants to invade Syria and onto the Bekaa Valley. Then there's the oil boys who want to grab Iran's oil...the stuff they used to own. Then there's the fundies who don't care who we kill as long as they're brown-skinned heathen who refuse to convert. Oh, and let's not forget the contractors who don't care where you blow up the bombs or need the portable latrines, just send us those signed no-bid contracts so we can run in the back room and start printing Benjamins.

The fun will be when they start finger pointing "who lost Iraq". Of course Clinton will be the first target, but who after that card is played out? Rummie? Wolfie? Pearle? Minute Rice?

ShrubCo pockets over half of the billions spent and "exits" to a place with no extradition treaty with the US.

Unfortunately, Rumsfeld's lies are all that many in DC--even some on our side-- may need to vote in favor of the 87 billion. They can tell their constituents, "Hey! It's for the exit strategy," and keep the money flowing to their corporate patrons at the same time.

the rancid rooster isn't strutting quite so much lately, is he. Acting more and more like the discarded old condom he is, shrivelled up and damn useless.

in Iraq if we are looking for an exit strategy?

And why is one of the biggest budget items paying back Saudi Arabia and Kuwait the debts that Saddam incurred during his rule? Why are the American taxpayers expected to pay for Saddam's debts? And what happened to all that Iraqi oil that was supposed to pay for all this. I guess $16 billion per year from oil revenues isn't enought to pay for all the greedy FOBs who supported Bu$hCo's war.

Yes the permanent bases were the PNAC'ers dream and they actually announced this when the sand storms hit. There is no exit strategy this whole hting was an entry strategy.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=vest&c=1
The final slide of the Defense Policy Board presentation proposed that "Grand Strategy for the Middle East" should concentrate on "Iraq as the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia as the strategic pivot Egypt as the prize."

As for the oil money:
Pay off Iraqi debt
Rebuild infrastructure (even though they claimed they could "cut off the head and leave the body" :shrug: )
Pay for our military costs
Give a decent return on investment to US contractors
Enrich the Iraqi people

That's one magic oil dollar there.

When asked for specifics of the exit plan, "It's too complicated for the Americaqn people to understand." Really? Then publish it so we can read about it. Hey, they managed to print the 900 page Ken Starr document a couple days after questioning Clinton!

You know what I thought of when I read that headline? Rumsfeld giggling and running with giant bags of cash (you know, with a dollar sign on the bags) like some guy that just robbed a bank.

And somehow that imagery is very appropriate!

they know they are going to loose so this is a last ditch cash grab by the GOP before they are booted out of the white house.

that we'll believe they actually have one. All part of the "say it often enough and it becomes true" Rove credo.

Rumsfeld used to sound at least half-way credible a year or two ago. Now his statements are sounding simply outrageous--the groping quality is manifest. He has no idea what he's doing anymore.

I believe that this whole Iraq debacle is going to magnify the Vietnam syndrome a thousand fold for the next generation to come. When these asses are out of office and the true extent of their crimes and the damage becomes known, no one is going to trust the government about anything for decades to come. Which is really not a good thing, IMO. Thanks a bunch, you d*ckheads.

Read my reply to Paschall above. It looks like we used the same brain, just different words.
The Professor

"the funds represented an "exit strategy" for American troops."

Rumsfields heart felt warmth for the American troops is summed up at the following URL, be prepaired to be PO'ED.

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/onearmy.html

Air-drop the whole $87 billion across the country to distract the Iraqis who are shooting at us, while US troops run like hell for the borders to save their asses.