Quotes of the Morning: Progress and Success!

“Blair said today that Britain will cut its forces in Iraq to 5,500 by summer, down from 7,100 currently. And additional cuts to as few as 5,000 British troops in Iraq are possible by the end of summer, Blair said.
But in an exclusive interview with ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney said the move was actually good news and a sign of progress in Iraq.
‘Well, I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well,’ Cheney told ABC News' Jonathan Karl.
‘In fact, I talked to a friend just the other day who had driven to Baghdad down to Basra, seven hours, found the situation dramatically improved from a year or so ago, sort of validated the British view they had made progress in southern Iraq and that they can therefore reduce their force levels,’ Cheney said.”
-ABC News, February 21, 2007

“Yes! Finally success in Iraq. The British have done their job, there is peace in Basra, and now they can go home.”
-Skippy

“Iraqi special forces and British troops stormed the offices of an Iraqi government intelligence agency in the southern city of Basra on Sunday, and British officials said they discovered about 30 prisoners, some showing signs of torture.
The raid appeared to catch Iraq’s central government by surprise and raised new questions about the rule of law in the Shiite-dominated south, where less than two weeks ago Britain announced plans for a significant reduction in its forces because of improved stability.
News of the Basra raid, with its resonant themes of torture and sectarian-driven conflict, coincided with the next stage of the intensified security plan here in Baghdad, where more than 1,100 American and Iraqi soldiers moved into Sadr City, a stronghold of Iraq’s largest Shiite militia. The soldiers met no resistance in what the Americans called the plan’s biggest test yet.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a conservative Shiite, condemned the raid in Basra, but he publicly said nothing about the evidence of torture.
‘The prime minister has ordered an immediate investigation into the incident of breaking into the security compound in Basra and stressed the need to punish those who have carried out this illegal and irresponsible act,’ said the full text of a statement issued late Sunday by his office.
It remained unclear why he sought to pursue the raiding force aggressively rather than the accusations of prisoner abuse. Efforts to reach officials in his office were unsuccessful.”
-New York Times, March 5, 2007

“Ok, so it isn’t perfect (I mean, the torture chambers have opened under new management- making this about as moral as Saddam’s rule), but it is working. It must be, or we’d be moving to plan ‘B’ by now, right?”
-Skippy

“During a White House meeting last week, a group of governors asked President Bush and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about their backup plan for Iraq. What would the administration do if its new strategy didn't work?
The conclusion they took away, the governors later said, was that there is no Plan B. ‘I'm a Marine,’ Pace told them, ‘and Marines don't talk about failure. They talk about victory.’
Pace had a simple way of summarizing the administration's position, Gov. Philip N. Bredesen (D-Tenn.) recalled. ‘Plan B was to make Plan A work.’"
-Washington Post, March 5, 2007

“And it WILL work. Iraq will be a success. It will be at least as successful as our triumph in Afghanistan.”
-Skippy

“A NATO airstrike hit a house during a firefight between Western troops and militants, killing nine Afghans who lived there, Afghan officials said Monday.
Militants overnight fired on a NATO base in Kapisa province, just north of Kabul, said Deputy Governor Sayad Mohammad Dawood Hashimmi. When soldiers returned fire, they hit a home, killing five women, three boys and a man, he said. “
-Associated Press, March 5, 2007

“Hey, everyone makes mistakes. Just a little civilian collateral damage. Oops. It isn’t like this was a major incident that would get thousands of people up in arms against us.”
-Skippy

“Thousands of angry demonstrators took to the streets in Afghanistan yesterday after US forces were involved in a panicked shooting which left 16 civilians dead and 23 injured.
Local people as well as a number of Afghan officials accused the American marines of opening fire indiscriminately following a suicide bomb attack on their convoy in Nangarhar province.
With protests continuing to grow, and the police coming under attack from stone- throwing crowds, the US military maintained that the casualties were the victims of a ‘complex ambush’ in which gunmen had carried out a synchronised attack following the blast in which a marine was injured.
But Mohammad Khan Katawazi, the district chief of Shinwar district, where the deaths took place, insisted that they ‘treated every car and person along the highway as a potential attacker’ as they attempted to speed away from the scene of the explosion.
Abdul Ghafour and Noor Agha Zwak, speaking on behalf of the Nangarhar police and government, and Zemeri Bashary, the Interior Ministry spokesman in Kabul, also claimed the deaths and injuries were due to American fire.”
-The Independent (UK), March 5, 2007

“Iraq: At least as successful as Afghanistan!”
-Skippy