Quotes of the Morning: Last Throes

“The insurgency in Iraq is ‘in the last throes,’ Vice President Dick Cheney says, and he predicts that the fighting will end before the Bush administration leaves office.”
-CNN, May 31, 2005

“Let’s think about those innocent days of yore back when Mr. Cheney said that.. Ah, the last throes..”
-Skippy

“Mem’ries light the corners of my mind.
Misty water color mem’ries of the way we were.
Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind.
Smiles we gave to one another for the way we were.
Can it be that it was all so simple then,
Or has time rewritten ev’ry line?
If we had the chance to do it all again,
tell me, Would we? Could we?
Mem’ries may be beautiful, and yet, what’s too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget.”
-“The Way We Were”, Barbara Streisand

“I have quoted Streisand. Today I am a liberal. Hey, before I forget… How are those ‘last throes’ doing?”
-Skippy

“One year after Vice President Dick Cheney predicted that the Iraqi insurgency was in its ‘last throes,’ the United States military said it had had to reassign 1,500 troops from Kuwait to Anbar Province.”
-New York Times, May 31, 2006

“The troops are probably just being sent in to go to some big party the Iraqis are throwing for us thanking us for getting rid of Saddam. Cake and ice cream for everyone!”
-Skippy

“Average weekly attacks on coalition forces, Iraqi security forces (ISF) and Iraqi civilians climbed to 620 in the period between Feb. 11 and May 12, 2006, according to the latest security and stability report the Defense Department is required to send congressional lawmakers every quarter.
Only two other periods in Iraq’s post-Saddam history approach the recent numbers for violence, according to the report: the sovereignty period between June 29 to Nov. 26, 2004, which included the battle for Fallujah and major clashes with Shiite insurgents belonging to Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army; and the referendum/vote period between Aug. 29, 2005 to Feb. 10, 2006.
Each of those periods averaged about 550 weekly attacks, the report said.
Average daily casualties for coalition, ISF and Iraqi civilians also soared during the “government transition” period covered by the new report, reaching about 78 per day.
Until now, the highest number of daily casualties reported had been 59 per day, during Iraq’s pre-constitution period between Feb. 12 and Aug. 28, 2005, the report said.”
-Stars and Stripes, May 31, 2006

“Not a party, eh? I don’t understand this… Why don’t these people appreciate all that we’ve done for them? Why are the Iraqi people so ungrateful? I know who we can ask! Let’s ask Mr. Sumaidaie. He’s the new Iraqi ambassador to the United States, so I’m sure he has the answer.”
-Skippy

“BLITZER: But even months before the incident in November, you lost a cousin at Haditha in a separate battle involving United States Marines.
SUMAIDAIE: Well, that was not a battle at all. Marines were doing house-to-house searches, and they went into the house of my cousin. He opened the door for them.
His mother, his siblings were there. He led them into the bedroom of his father. And there he was shot.
BLITZER: Who shot him?
SUMAIDAIE: A member of the Marines.
BLITZER: Why did they shoot him?
SUMAIDAIE: Well, they said that they shot him in self-defense. I find that hard to believe because, A, he is not at all a violent -- I mean, I know the boy. He was [in] a second-year engineering course in the university. Nothing to do with violence. All his life has been studies and intellectual work.
Totally unbelievable. And, in fact, they had no weapon in the house. They had one weapon which belonged to the school where his father was a headmaster. And it had no ammunition in it. And he led them into the room to show it to them.
BLITZER: So what you're suggesting, your cousin was killed in cold blood, is that what you're saying, by United States Marines?
SUMAIDAIE: I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe that he was killed unnecessarily. And unfortunately, the investigations that took place after that sort of took a different course and concluded that there was no unlawful killing.
I would like further investigation. I have, in fact, asked for the report of the last investigation, which was a criminal investigation, by the way.
[Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq] is aware of all the details, because he's kept on top of it. And it was he who rejected the conclusions of the first investigation. I have since asked formally for the report, but it's been nearly two months, and I have not received it.”
-CNN, May 30, 2006

“Hey, this is just one little isolated shooting. I’m sure that they will find those responsible and hold them accountable right up the chain of command, just like they did in Abu Ghraib.”
-Skippy

“Pentagon investigations into the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians are focused on about a dozen enlisted Marines and do not target their commanding officers, the lawyer for one of the officers said Tuesday.”
-Associated Press, May 30, 2006

“Yep. That’s just like they did it at Abu Ghraib.”
-Skippy