The War Within - The Gulf States Pushed for the Surge

On page 257 to 259 of Bob Woodward's The War Within, it talked about Secretary Rice went to the Gulf Cooperation Council to meet with foreign ministers of the Gulf states. In that meeting, many of the foreign ministers were convinced the U.S. would pull out of Iraq. One was quoted of saying "You don't need to be thinking about pull your forces down. You need to think about doubling your forces."

When Rice returned to brief Bush, she was quoted, "I came out of that meeting convinced that not only did they believe that we were about to fold in Iraq, but that that was going to be the end of American power in the Middle East." She went on to say, "The very act of increasing American forces would have a salutary effect, whether or not it achieved population security. The fact that the president of the United States, against all odds, against all voices, would in effect double down, would have a hugely important effect on the region."

Taken these quotes together, you can see a sub-plot that the "surge" strategy is not just the President's strategy, not McCain's strategy, or General Petraeus' strategy. In fact, the "double down" strategy is, in some way, forced on the President by the Middle East states. It was done with "a salutary effect" and "whether or not it achieved population security." It was more a show of power than security.

Despite all the hoopla about the debate of the strategy, who is for and against it. It turned out the oil rich gulf states did have a say in this matter and they were for it. The "oil man" Bush did not want to lose influence at the Middle East and probably became one of many reason they went along with me. Again, let's face it, this war is not about freedom, or democracy, or WMD. It is about oil.

One last point. I admit that I was never impressed by Condi Rice. But as the Secretary of State and the country's chief diplomat, if someone is to ask her to double our force, at minimum, I would expect her to say, "So, how many of those extra troops would your country willing to commit?"

I know that I would that and I am not even a diplomat. And I bet you and no one would ever able to pull that off with former Secretary of State, James Baker.

The War Within - Lying to the American People

I am in the middle of reading Bob Woodward's latest book, The War Within - A Secret White House History, 2006 - 2008. I am not going to do another review or debate the disagreement within the government, the military, the surge, which were already being discussed elsewhere (although I would never limit myself). But I do want to touch on my impressions on the smaller and maybe more obscure points that the mainstream press would likely overlook. So, I will start with the first one here and more later.

Throughout this book and previous reports, high level government officials, including Rice, Rumsfeld, Pace, Casey, Abizald, and others, have serious doubt on the strategy in Iraq and often have contradicting public versus private view. Yet, they would to Congress and lie to their teeth that the strategy was working and things are going well, but in reality, they are not.

Excuse me. I thought lying to Congress is a crime. It is committing perjury. Remember the baseball steroid hearings, the District Attorney firing hearings, and of course, the Monica hearings. People are threatening to tell the truth or go to jail.

But yet, as you compare their testimony versus what is reported, these high level government officials lied and lied and lied to Congress and the American people. And they always get away with it. No wonder the American people hate Washington.

Colin Powell Endorsement of Barack Obama

Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell made a strong endorsement for Senator Obama for President on Meet The Press (10/19/2008). It was a powerful and elegant argument that only Colin Powell can make. He is insightful and well-spoken that is unfair and impossible for a man like me to translate or paraphrase what his said. Here, I am going to simply quote his key points from the transcript:

• "In the case of Mr. McCain, I found that he was a little unsure as to deal with the economic problems that we were having and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem. And that concerned me, sensing that he didn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had. "

• "And I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin. She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made."

• "I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on day one. "

• "the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He's crossing lines--ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He's thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values."

• "And I've also been disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Senator McCain has taken recently, or his campaign ads, on issues that are not really central to the problems that the American people are worried about. This Bill Ayers situation that's been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign. But Mr. McCain says that he's a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him? And why do we have these robocalls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted. What they're trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that's inappropriate."

• " And the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration."

• "I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

• "And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities--and we have to take that into account--as well as his substance--he has both style and substance--he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world--onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama."

I don't know of anyone in America can say it better than Colin Powell.

But I do want to come back to the point he made about Muslim in American, so I quote again:

• "I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions."

Here is that picture.

So, ask yourself these two questions, as Colin Powell did.

1. Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?
2. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?

Substitute the word "Muslim" with any religion that you prefer. Is this what this country is all about?

John McCain - Tame your supporters

I got to give John McCain some credit for trying to tame his supporters from the crazy idea of calling Obama a Muslim, a terrorist, and so on < link>. This flame was brought on by the McCain campaign, maybe unintentionally, but their supporters went crazy as you can see here. People were yelling "terrorist" and "kill him". This is uncalled for, dirty, and outright dangerous to call for "killing" a felling candidate, let alone a United States Senator, and definitely not a Presidential candidate.

It is extremely scary to think if one nut-cake out there might actually go carry it out. If you are old enough to remember the 1992 LA riot over the acquittal of the white police officer beating a black man, Rodney King. Can you imagine if anything do happen to Obama, it would be 100 time worse and spread all over the country.

John McCain, is that what you want for America? This country has enough crisis on our hands, we don't need another one.

Like all American, I do respect John McCain as a veteran, a POW, and a Senator. I understand winning is important and it is not everything. You got to put the country first and calm your supporters. You might not like the poll, but it is safe to say their is a 50-50 chance Obama will be the next President of the United States. Let's not induce hate into this campaign. No matter who the winner is on Nov 4th. Everyone is an American and need to support the next President. There are so many challenges that this country face that it demands support from every American, not just the 50+% that voted for the winner.

McCain's New Slogan - "Campaign First"

Wait a minute. Remember 3 weeks ago, John McCain suspended his campaign to go back to Washington to work on the $700 billion bailout bill. Yes, he did. But reports said he had nothing to say at the White House meeting with the President, Obama, Henry Paulson, and member of Congress from both parties. Well, those are from the liberal media and can't be true. Right?

Fast forward 3 weeks to today, the news today is "McCain proposes $52.5 billion economic plan", http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081014/ap_on_el_pr/mccain. Wait a minute. Wasn't McCain part of the last economic plan discussions 3 weeks ago? If so, why didn't he proposed this "economic plan" along with everyone else's? Or maybe this is his last ditch effort to save his campaign.

Did someone say "Country First" or "Campaign First"?

Vice President Debate Review

Just like the Presidential debate, you can't expect a clear winner or loser, and there were neither tonight. Both Vice Presidential candidates exceeded expectations, but then expectation for both candidates were very different. Sarah Palin was to make sure she doesn't embarrassed herself and she didn't. That was good for her. As for Joe Biden, he was able to stay discipline and not to put down a woman. He succeeded in both count. Bottom line, both candidates played it safe and no one lost.

As for contents, Palin was able to stand toe-to-toe with Biden during the first part of the debate about domestic policy, tax-cut, energy, etc. I call it even. When the debate moved to foreign policy, Palin was no match for Biden. Being a good politician that Palin is, she managed to avoid answering many of the questions, but given the debate format, Gwen Ifill, the moderator, can't have follow-up questions that Katie Couric was able to do. And Biden also wants to play it safe and not willing to point those out.

All in all, a very interesting and entertaining debate. Republicans love what they see in Palin that no mistaken was made. Democrat love what they see in Biden that he was discipline, staying on message with Obama.

But the best summary of the debate comes from Carl Bernstein. He said Sarah Palin clearly qualified as the Secretary of the Interior, but not as the Vice President of the United States.