'Emperor's New Clothes' Covers GOP's Iraq Plan: More Republican Sophistry

President's New Clothes Found In Iraq. They do not exist. This is the story of illusory GOP Leadership Changes. There is evidence the GOP "new plan" in Iraq is a smokescreen from war crimes Prosecution of President

Just as the Emperor's New Clothes were illusory, so too is the GOP "New Plan" for Iraq. Bush is naked before the war crimes tribunal. Ask him how the chilly air is as the GOP "experts" abandon him.

This is a sample of an "Illusory Discussion Point" to distract attention from GOP problems with war crimes and their leadership failure to defend their choices over their reckless war planning. Floating around is an illusory plan that has no basis in reality, nor is it connected with any meaningful change in the GOP planning process.

The promise of a "new plan" is no different than Nixon's secret plan for Vietnam. Cheney well knows the value of pretending there is something hidden: It makes people think you have something, despite nothing. There is no basis to seriously consider any GOP comments on this plan. Their assessments or comments are meaningless.

Bush's "New Plan" for Iraq is as real as the Emperor's New Clothes.

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Ref As with the WMD issues, notice who is accepting the premises, as opposed who is questioning the premises. It has been asserted, not proven, that thre is a real plan. Why willing to speculate until August 2008? Answer: Patsies in the media, as with Iraq WMD, did not question the assertions.

Ref This is an example non-issue. Notice the assertion: "Secret Plan B."

Small problem: If the "plan B" was "better," and was "real," why aren't they using it?

Answer: It's meaningless.



The "secret Plan B" doesn’t help the GOP. It's a sham discussion point.

Suppose for the sake of argument the President does have a plan B:

___ Why is he announcing this?

___ What is the reason that the "better plan" isn't being implemented?

___ Why make an announcement -- implicitly admitting that you have a back up plan -- that you haven't implemented something?

If the plan was real, there would be a diversion, to hide what the plan would be done; and there would be no time frame attached to the plan.

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At any given time the "best plan" is what the President is doing. It's not that his plan is working or very good, it's just that the GOP can't argue, "Even through we're messing up, we have this better plan we're writing to implement when things get bad."

NO, they'd implement the best plan they have now.

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Even if the GOP has a "Plan B" for Iraq, it's meaningless. GOP had control of Congress after November 2006 election, but refused to implement it.

IS the GOP asking us to believe that this "new plan" that they refused to implement after December 2006 -- when they still had control of Congress -- has had a credible review between Jan-Mar 2007? No way.

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Notice what the GOP is doing: They're talking about the "end point" of Aug 2008. That's non-sense. The GOP's idea of a "plan” is to wait until Aug 2008 to get a change in place; then adjust? That's absurd.

This is a delaying point. They're trying to move the decision point to the right saying, "Give the President time," as an excuse to avoid accountability in April 2007.

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"We're not going to give it to the enemy" is non-sense. Let's back up. We know two things:

A. The GOP had control of Congress until Jan 2007, but did not implement this plan'

B. Between 2002-2007 when the GOP had control of Congress and was part of the planning process, the best they could do was a disaster.

Suddenly, out of the blue, they want us to believe that in the last 90 days they've created a plan that will only adjust after August 2008? Get real. They have no clue what is going to happen this week, much less in a couple months. Pretending that they're "not going to reveal it" is fiction.

There is no credible plan. They can't forecast what is going to happen this week. Seventeen months from now might as well be talking about landing operations on Mars. It's meaningless. They have no clue: They're stupid. The same non-sense GOP planning that failed 2002-2007 cannot be remedied in 90 days; nor can the GOP claim they have a credible plan.

This "plan" is a distraction from war crimes: To shift attention from known illegal activity, with the false, speculative, illusory promise of "change." No. IF there was a real solution, the GOP would implement it now. Remember, the President is still in charge and can "do what he wants."

This is just a discussion point to make people think that there is a plan. The assertion "we can't let anyone know" is a ruse. Members of Congress are given the chance to access classified information.

Assertions that this is secret is non-sense. Why is the GOP saying that their dubious plan -- which is a fruit of reckless planning -- should be trusted without scrutiny?

No, what the GOP is doing is creating fiction that they have a plan; asserting it is great; but then not letting their dubious planning process be subjected to the reviews of Congress -- something the GOP well communicated they require in light of the botched Iraq planning of 2002.

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There is no credible plan. The GOP is pretending they have something that is meaningless.

It is a ruse to pretend that the "reasonable" basis for "adjustments" is August 2008. That is not acceptable. That is too late. We need to see something that has weekly adjustments if not more: What is the ongoing situation; and is this President who cannot plan adjusting to reality.

What happens between April 2007 is 17 months. That's non-sense.

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The President's and GOP problem is that they assert they have a "plan" but they point to nothing that warrants confidence that the plan is real; credible; or has anything new. The planning milestones have yet to be ironed out; and if the GOP has this "magic plan" in April 2007, it can't explain why it doesn’t have this plan in place at the end of December. Nothing's changed since then: We're still in a mess; and the planning timelines to develop this "plan B' would have been accelerated once it was known to Rove that the election was lost.

It doesn't mater why. The announcement that there is a plan in April 2007 doesn't mean much: If the plan was valid:

___ Why didn't the GOP propose this plan when they still had control of Congress?

___ Despite control of the budget, why didn't the GOP resolve this plan?

___ If this plan was 'still being worked" in December 2007, and the GOP couldn't or wouldn’t implement the better plan, why should we believe they did something magical in the last 90 days?

___ What happened since 2002 and 2006 -- when the GOP had control and could do something -- to generate a mess; yet suddenly in the last 90 days, despite the "surprise" of the loss of November 2006 -- to believe that the GOP suddenly has a "new planning process" that is "better" than what failed 2002-2006?

Answer: Nothing.

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The basis for this plan, and the planning elements that went into it, would have been known, with some sort of precision, well before the November 2006 election. The GOP cannot explain why it did not approve this "better plan" as an election option for the voters to see, "Wow, the GOP really though about this."

NO, this is a ruse. Nothing magical has happened in the GOP nor the Joint Staff. The same retarded people who botched the Iraq invasion planning are still retarded, still planning, and still making botched plans. Recall, Rumsfeld was still making a mess of things up until the November 2006 election. There's been no magical change in contractors, planning, or new decision making in DoD in re Iraq. At best McCain is still spewing forth non-sense.

Let's consider that: McCain is walking down the street trying to make people thing things are great. But we know he's got a bullet proof vest on, and it's scary.


What does this tell us about the GOP Plan? Well, because he’s on the Senate Armed Services Committee, we know McCain -- if he was "involved" with this "GOP Plan" -- would have some input. Suppose, for the sake of argument, McCain’s statements about Iraq -- that things are "fine" -- are credible. What does this tell us about the people who are supposedly overseeing this plan that popped out of the blue since Gates showed up?

Answer: The people overseeing the "new plan" are delusional. SO even if the plan were real, the basis to assert the plan is "better" is dubious. McCain is trying to assert a different reality. This tells us the criteria GOP is using to assess the conditions on the ground and the basis for success in this plan are dubious. At best. At worst, the plan doesn’t exist and this is a sham attempt to pretend that something is in side the GOP warranting confidence. Get real. They’ve failed as an entity; and refused to assert power. Without oversight or questions, they have no basis to assert that any idea they have warrants believe in April 2007; forget what else we might learn about the GOP war crimes and reckless planning between April and May of 2007; not to mention the reality on the ground.

The issue with Iraq isn’t a static situation on the ground; but a fundamental problem with US Planning problems. Until the Congress digs into the reckless GOP planning that crated this disaster, there’s no basis to assert that this plan – or any statement about it – has had a real scrub. The very planning and oversight systems have yet to be publicly challenged. There’s no prospect since Jan 2007 that the GOP has woken up to anything. At best they’ve got another bathed plan; at worst, the plan is being devised on the basis of equally dubious inputs from equally reckless contractors who do not understand the laws of war, much less really on the ground or what planning is all about. The GOP hopes to throw this plan into the internet, get someone to bit onto it, and then let the contractors adjust things on their computers to weave their way through the questions. This is why Gonzalez is having a problem right now: He’s clueless as are the planners who put this supposed GOP plan together.

We learned from the Iraq WMD: When something is not examined publicly, the plan is meaningless. When the questions are ignored, the assessments about those conclusions are dubious.

There hasn’t been enough time to review the changes made to the first round of plans, and coordinate them between all the contractors or DoD, much less believe that this plan is real. There’s no basis to believe this plan has been coordinated; is real; or is linked with anything that is supportable. Same stupid 2002 invasion plan, same botched planning, and same reckless disregard for reality. There’s been on catalyst for the DoD or the President or GOP to face reality since November 2006. They’re still acting like nothing will happen: And the DNC is sending a clear message: “We’re not really about change, just talking about change. The President’ isn’t going to get impeached. You have nothing to fear.” That is not a catalyst for the GOP to be concerned, as evidenced by the DOJ White House e-mails which shows us they planned to continue with illegal war crimes and unlawful activity despite losing control of Congress. There’s been no incentive for the GOP to change any reckless planning much less offer a new plan. Even if there was, there hasn’t been enough time to force this “new plan” through the “new oversight” in GOP. This is too dubious to be anything other than laughable.

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Recall also what we know: There are no credible benchmarks, and the success criteria under the current plan is vague. The President basically ignored the ISG.

What the GOP is asking us to believe with this "new plan" is that despite the "Great ideas" of the ISG -- that the President ignored -- they want us to believe that the same people who have no success criteria or benchmarks have a "better plan", yet the basis for assessment, oversight, and developing that plan is not from a different system; hat the best people in the GOP who know their stuff are asserting non-sense about the reality on the ground.

Get real. Even if there was a plan, there's no basis to have any confidence the plan has withstood any credible questions, challenges. McCain, Mr. GOP-leader himself, is a walking example of the delusion. The GOP -- if this plan is "better" -- have a problem: Their man on the ground is talking non-sense; but they want us to believe, "Hay, McCain may be full of non-sense, but we have a secret plan that is not non-sense."

No way. They would put their best forward: McCain is their best -- he's lost. They would leave their "less than best" in reserve until it gets finalized.

IN reality, they have no plan. And they're going to keep talking about this "new plan" for the next 17 months, and then say, "Hay things are changed."

___ What's the process to make sure this "new plan" is "constantly monitored"?

___ When is the Joint Staff going to come to congress to discuss their "plan to oversee this new plan" and ensure it is credible?

Answer: That's non-sense. This is an arbitrary date for the illusion of precision, but it defies what is required to develop a plan; and the milestones do not exist nor do the success criteria. If they did exist, they'd be incorporated into the current plan, not have us wait 17 months until August 2008. It's a random date only linked with the election, unrelated to any reality on the ground in Iraq. This is a politically driven smokescreen.

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Notice also what the GOP is doing: They're pretending that that "would support" the DNC "if only" the DNC had done X, Y, Z. That's meaningless. THey're mkaing up excuse to agree with something they are not going to support. That isn’t a position, but a distraction from their lack of a decision or comment on what doesn’t exist. Again, more signs there is no plan, but a desire to attract attention away from something more important: War crimes prosecutions in April 2007.

The planning milestones need to be public: What is their plan; and do they have one; and is the success criteria they're using meaningful? Keeping it secret isn't a basis for the GOP to support anything, but for the GOP to continue with reckless planning.

The GOP is just pretending that it "might have" supported something "if only" the DNC had agreed to unacceptable terms.

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It's irrelevant what a non-voting US Government official who is not a Member of Congress says about this "new plan". They have no input. How anyone who has no access to this plan can say the would support or not support the plan or deadlines is meaningless.

They have no clue what they're supporting; the basis for that support; nor do they understand why the milestones they've chosen to support are meaningless. There is no success criteria; and the basis for planning is non-sense. The plan has not been subject to any oversight, review, or discussion worth commenting on. It's the same convoluted process that failed before but kicking the magic deadline from now to August 2008. That's non-sense.

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Appeal to ignorance: "We will only support this plan if it isn't published." Get real. There is no deadline other than to delay action.

There is no credible basis to believe the "Secret plan" is real, credible, or that the milestones are meaningful. They might as well be throwing their pen at the door, and randomly watching where it strikes the paper. Consider the detailed plan routed thro AEI -- despite the "best estimate" the President didn’t agree with it.

__ Why should we believe that "this plan" is the "best" plan; what were the "Other" options discussed prior to arriving at "this plan"? [There are none]

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Anyone could develop their own plan, and have a better plan than the versions floating around the Pentagon. They have no clue. Most of them have no idea what is going on in Iraq. They're just moving things around on their computers screen. They're clueless.

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Judgments

If the plan were real, it would have been floated to get comments, and make it real. we have no trial balloons.

At best the US government and Senate have botched the oversight. McCain walking around Baghdad with his girdle on is evidence he's delusional and in no position to credibly rubber stamp any plan.

There are no credible changes in GOP planning to warrant confidence that something magical happened since Jan 2007.

This plan has no merit.

The timeframe for this plan is meaningless. It is a random date tied only to the election, not to real conditions on the ground. They're making up factors to make it look like "that is a great date." It's non-sense.

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The plan does not exist, it is illusory, and people running for President commenting on this "secret plan" have seen nothing to warrant confidence that the plan is real; or that their assessment of that plan means anything.

They might as well be talking about the Emperor's New Clothes.