'We Can’t Turn This Thing Around Overnight ' --Perle

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/19/after-five-years-in-iraq-richard-perle-claims-we-cant-turn-this-thing-around-overnight/

Earlier this week, Iraq war architect Richard Perle defended the 2003 invasion, writing in the New York Times that “the right decision was made.” “We blundered into an ill-conceived occupation that would facilitate a deadly insurgency,” argues Perle, because we didn’t immediately hand power to Iraqi exiles like Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi.

Appearing on the radio show of Fox News’s John Gibson on Monday night, Perle chastised Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) assertion that “we cannot win” the civil war in Iraq. “We may not win, but to say we can’t win is clearly wrong,” argued Perle.

Perle then claimed that questioning the prospects for success in Iraq at this point was foolish because “after thirty years of a brutal dictatorship,” America can’t expect Iraq to be turned around “overnight”:

There are lots of problems and after thirty years of a brutal dictatorship, we can’t turn this thing around overnight. But to say we cannot win.

Listen here:




Considering that we are about to enter the sixth year of war, Perle appears to have an odd sense of what constitutes “overnight.” In fact, by Perle’s own count, America has now been an occupying power in Iraq for a 1/6 of the time that Saddam Hussein ruled.

And though he is now “running away” from any culpability for the war’s failure, Perle was amongst the chorus of voices arguing that political success in Iraq would be relatively easy:

And a year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush. There is no doubt that, with the exception of a very small number of people close to a vicious regime, the people of Iraq have been liberated and they understand that they’ve been liberated. And it is getting easier every day for Iraqis to express that sense of liberation.

Ironically, Perle made that comment roughly four months after L. Paul Bremer assumed control of Iraq, which he now argues is when “the trouble began.”

Transcript:


GIBSON: Mr. Perle, I know you don’t have a lot of time. Let me get these two in before you have to leave us. Hillary Clinton said today, “we can’t win in Iraq.” A) is she right? B)…

PERLE: No

GIBSON: B…

PERLE: She’s wrong.

GIBSON: She’s wrong.

PERLE: We may not win, but to say we can’t win is clearly wrong, unless she’s clairvoyant. Of course we can win. And I think at the moment we’re winning, now that doesn’t mean the tide can’t be turned. But we…al Qaeda is struggling to stay in tact as an organization. And its numbers are diminishing, support for it is diminishing. There are lots of problems and after thirty years of a brutal dictatorship, we can’t turn this thing around overnight. But to say we cannot win, I don’t know what she bases that on, except that it may be music to the ears of those who may vote for her in the remaining elections.

GIBSON: Well I’m sure that’s true.

...instead of being allowed to constantly shift the goal posts as they've been doing for the last five years.

And Americans need to wake up.

Honestly, this country was doing well until someone institutionalized STUPID and called it "patriotic".

So what is the point? You want to end the war? Increase taxes to pay for it instead of borrowing. Americans aren't hurting Iraqis are.

YOU MOTHERFUCKERS SAID IT WOULD BE OVER IN 3 FUCKING MONTHS. NOW YOU WANT TO BE THERE FOR 100 FUCKING YEARS. YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE LOWLIFE MOTHERFUCKERS SHOULD BE IN JAIL LET ALONE BEING ON THE MEDIA. YOU HAVE BEEN FUCKING WRONG ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!!!!

!

He'll say anything to justify neo-con actions. He's deluded, as all of the neo-cons are. Just read the list of neo-cons and it's not surprising to see the names of many, many criminals and traitors who have plagued us since the selection of the idiot in 2000. The PNAC managed to steal our country right out from under us, and they will continue to do so until some brave soul stops them. And I don't think it will be our next president, regardless of who gets the nod.