Remember All That Liberal Rage: About Bush Playing with Toy Soldiers?

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Bush was supposed to be the one use troops as toys, pushing them here and there just to prove himself...right?

Last weekend we noted this obscure bit of news from ABC:

Gen. Odierno will receive a Stryker Brigade to replace the incoming replacement brigade diverted to Afghanistan just a week ago. That means that he will continue to maintain the current level of two Stryker brigades in Iraq.

While that story might be obscure, it's anything but insignificant. The diversion of the Stryker Brigade (one of two that were then scheduled to replace the two currently in Iraq) to Afghanistan made headlines as the President appeared at Camp Lejeune to announce his Iraq drawdown and Afghanistan "surge". As noted here at the time, that followup report - if accurate - "exposes everything you've heard about troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan over the past two weeks as an absolute hoax on the American public."

Read the first entry in this series for details of the preparations made by the Stryker Brigade for an Iraq deployment - 10-month Arabic language schools being just part of the training rendered useless by a reassignment to a country where the locals don't speak it.

Of course, "intensive, 10-month Arabic language training" and "exercises... where they had to help their commanders negotiate with native-speaker role players" were now useless - but if they were no longer needed in Iraq, so be it.

But they were needed in Iraq - just not as badly as the Obama administration needed to make it appear that troops initially slotted for Iraq were going to Afghanistan instead - seemingly making good on a key campaign promise. So with much fanfare the Iraq drawdown (consisting entirely of the Stryker Brigade)/Afghanistan surge (Strykers plus a Marine unit) was announced, and subsequent polls indicated Americans were wildly enthusiastic about the idea.

And a few days later no one would notice the bombshell reported by ABC: "Gen. Odierno will receive a Stryker Brigade to replace the incoming replacement brigade diverted to Afghanistan just a week ago" - perhaps because within 24 hours of reporting that news they changed it to this:

ABC News has also learned that Gen. Odierno will continue to maintain a Stryker Brigade presence in Iraq through the upcoming elections as he had requested. There are currently two Stryker Brigades in Iraq. When their tours end later this year, only one of those departing brigades will be replaced by an incoming Stryker Brigade.

Not only was there no explanation of the "correction", there wasn't even an acknowledgment of the change on the site.

But wait... there's more...

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/031615.html

Got that?

Take a Stryker BDE with 10-month's of Arabic training and divert it to Afghanistan (where they speak Urdu) to make it appear as if you're fulfilling a campaign promise to drawdown in Iraq and surge in Afghanistan...

...BUT...

...when no one is looking (and/or the MSM is reporting) you send a Stryker BDE with no Arabic training to Iraq to replace the Arabic-speaking BDE you just sent to Urdu-speaking Afghanistan.

All the while you get to bask in the warm glow of polls where people think you're doing a swell job.

[docstew]

Bush was supposed to be the one use troops as toys, pushing them here and there just to prove himself...right?
While that story might be obscure, it's anything but insignificant. The diversion of the Stryker Brigade (one of two that were then scheduled to replace the two currently in Iraq) to Afghanistan made headlines as the President appeared at Camp Lejeune to announce his Iraq drawdown and Afghanistan "surge". As noted here at the time, that followup report - if accurate - "exposes everything you've heard about troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan over the past two weeks as an absolute hoax on the American public."

Read the first entry in this series for details of the preparations made by the Stryker Brigade for an Iraq deployment - 10-month Arabic language schools being just part of the training rendered useless by a reassignment to a country where the locals don't speak it.

Of course, "intensive, 10-month Arabic language training" and "exercises... where they had to help their commanders negotiate with native-speaker role players" were now useless - but if they were no longer needed in Iraq, so be it.

But they were needed in Iraq - just not as badly as the Obama administration needed to make it appear that troops initially slotted for Iraq were going to Afghanistan instead - seemingly making good on a key campaign promise. So with much fanfare the Iraq drawdown (consisting entirely of the Stryker Brigade)/Afghanistan surge (Strykers plus a Marine unit) was announced, and subsequent polls indicated Americans were wildly enthusiastic about the idea.

And a few days later no one would notice the bombshell reported by ABC: "Gen. Odierno will receive a Stryker Brigade to replace the incoming replacement brigade diverted to Afghanistan just a week ago" - perhaps because within 24 hours of reporting that news they changed it to this:
Not only was there no explanation of the "correction", there wasn't even an acknowledgment of the change on the site.

But wait... there's more...

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/031615.html

Got that?

Take a Stryker BDE with 10-month's of Arabic training and divert it to Afghanistan (where they speak Urdu) to make it appear as if you're fulfilling a campaign promise to drawdown in Iraq and surge in Afghanistan...

...BUT...

...when no one is looking (and/or the MSM is reporting) you send a Stryker BDE with no Arabic training to Iraq to replace the Arabic-speaking BDE you just sent to Urdu-speaking Afghanistan.

All the while you get to bask in the warm glow of polls where people think you're doing a swell job.

Having BEEN in a Stryker BDE that was sent to Iraq, there's no 10 months of training in Arabic... It might be a few weeks, and some cultural sensitivity training, but no 10 months.  Anyone who wanted to learn the language went and did the Rosetta Stone program on the Army's dime.

[dutch508]

Having BEEN in a Stryker BDE that was sent to Iraq, there's no 10 months of training in Arabic... It might be a few weeks, and some cultural sensitivity training, but no 10 months.  Anyone who wanted to learn the language went and did the Rosetta Stone program on the Army's dime.

It's not ten months of Arabic training, It's ten months of train -up including Arabic roleplayers, language classes, Rosetta Stone, immersion, etc. You know the deal, learn the ten phrases, understand the culture, don't be an ass.

Still, they don't speak it in Afghanistan. Arabic, Pasto and Farsi/Dari are completely different. Not to mention culture, terrian, and tactics used in the two...

Kusaam Tartat?
Kodawm Taraf?
Ib-ay iteejah?