Quotes of the Morning: The Distance

“Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags goes up,
Churning and burning, they yern for the cup.”
-Cake, “The Distance”

"We know where [the WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat."
-Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003

"QUESTION: Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?
RUMSFELD: There is no question but that they would be welcomed. Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do."
-PBS News Hour, February 20, 2003

“They deftly manouver and muscle for rank,
Fuel burning fast on an empty tank,
Wreckless and wild they pour thru the turns,
Their prowless is podent and secretly stern.”
-Cake, “The Distance”

“Washington is awash in leaks these days, giving us a rare glimpse of what really goes on behind the carefully manicured landscape of official statements.
Goodness gracious, when even Donald Rumsfeld is saying privately that the Iraq war strategy ‘is not working well enough or fast enough’ -- and someone furnishes his memo to the New York Times -- it is clear that the administration's once-legendary discipline has broken down.”
-Howard Kurtz, Washington Post, December 11, 2006

“President Jalal Talabani said Sunday that the American program to train Iraq’s security forces had been a repeated failure and he denounced a plan to increase the number of American advisers working with the Iraqi Army, saying it would subvert the country’s sovereignty.”
-New York Times, December 10, 2006

“As they speed thru the finish the flags go down.
The fans get up, and get out of town.
The arena is empty except for one man,
Still driving and striving as fast as he can”
-Cake, “The Distance”

“Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld paid a surprise visit to Iraq over the weekend and said American forces should not quit the war until the enemy is defeated.”
-Associated Press, December 10, 2006

"We feel great urgency to protect the American people from another 9/11 or a 9/11 times two or three. At the same time, we need to have the patience to see this task through to success. The consequences of failure are unacceptable,"
-Donald ‘The Don’ Rumsfeld, December 9, 2006

“Meanwhile, gunmen attacked two Shiite homes in western Baghdad, killing 10 people, police said Sunday, while seven others died in clashes elsewhere in the capital. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred late Saturday in the mostly Sunni Arab al-Jihad neighborhood, two policemen said. The attack appeared to have been conducted by Sunni Arabs in retaliation for earlier attacks on Sunnis in the capital.”
-Associated Press, December 10, 2006

“Rumsfeld's farewell tour follows a grim picture of the Iraq war that was presented this week by a bipartisan commission headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton.
The Iraq Study Group said its prescription for change is needed quickly to turn around a ‘grave and deteriorating’ situation.”
-Associated Press, December 9, 2006

“No trophy, no flowers, no flash bulbs, no wine.
He's haunted by something he cannot define.
Bowel shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse,
Assail him, impale him with monster truck force.
In his mind he's still driving, still making the grade.
She's hoping time that her memories will fade,
Cause he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But he's striving and driving and hugging the turns,
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.”
-Cake, “The Distance