Paul Hackett on the Ed Schultz Show

Michael "Raygun" called for Howard Dean to be hung for treason, I wonder if he feels the same about Paul Hackett. The level of incompetence of this administration runs deep, even the idiot they chose to command the invasion, Tommy Franks is a cannon cocker, no problem there except I have seen powder socks with more on the ball. The military really is broken, dazed and confused. The equipmment worn out and stretched thin. All the capable generals, Shinseki, etc. were put out to pasture and the military has opened the door to category 4 recruits, it can only get worse. With the history of the United States in the middle east all the way back to the Shah of Iran, our supply of chemical weapons to Saddam and the use of same against Iran, does anyone believe that we could ever be percieved as the "good guys"?

Paul Hackett on the Ed Schultz program:

Transcribed from an interview on the Ed Schultz show, taped live at a rally in Columbus, Ohio on October 28.

Schultz: You were in Iraq when?

Hackett: I was in Iraq from mid-August '04 to March of this year. As a matter of fact, a year ago today (October 28, 2005) I just took over my little forward operating base outside of Fallujah.

Schultz: In your opinion, has it gotten better?

Hackett: No, not at all.

Schultz: Not at all...even with the constitutional vote?

Hackett: Yeah, I mean, hey, that's a success. But my question is, is that what the American people signed up to spend their tax dollars for, and is that what we wanted to spend 2000 lives for on the theory that we're going to spread democracy on the business end of an M16? I don't think so--I didn't. (Applause). So, if you look at what's gone on in Iraq for the past 2 1/2 years, and you look at it nonemotionally and objectively and try to ferret out the successes, the security situation today is not as good as it was six months ago, a year ago, two years ago. And the infrastructure is not as good as it was six months ago, a year ago, or two years ago, and the reason we aren't having success in fixing the infrastructure is because the security situation is so bad. And the security situation is so bad because this administration ignored the generals and their advice on what it would take to secure that country after we toppled Saddam Hussein, so we're back to where we got started.

Schultz: These guys were telling Wendy and I the other night at dinner that the intensity, the sophistication, and the organization of thes insurgents, these road side bombs that are going off, it is phenomenal how sophisticated they've gotten.

Hackett: These guys are not rookies.

Schultz: We've trained them. This event has trained them and given them a lot of knowledge, and they're only getting better at it.

Hackett: To diminish the smarts, skill, and tenacity of the insurgents that we're fighting over there is to not face reality. These folks--and they're bad SOBs--but they're good fighters and they're smart, and it doesn't do anybody any service to sort of downplay them and say silly things like "They're in their death throes" and their about defeated, it's silly. I suppose they appear to be in their death throes from the White House, but I'm not drinkin' that Kool-Aid. I was there. (Applause)

Schultz: Okay, Paul, you're on the Senate floor--what would you advocate America should do right now in Iraq?

Hackett: Here's what the president of the United States has to do. He has to face the fact that--and I'll say it this way, we as a nation made a mistake in going into Iraq, and he's got to face the fact that he's got to withdraw from Iraq, and the way he accomplishes that is to rely on the military expertise and task the generals to extricate us from Iraq...

Schultz: Starting now?

Hackett: Yeah. This is not something that's going to happen overnight, but the planning has to start now and the retrograde has to start now. Because make no mistake, whether we leave a year from now, five years from now or ten years from now, that place ain't gettin' better, and whenever we leave, that place is going to spiral out of control before it improves on its own. What has been accomplished over there to this date is as good as it's gonna get. And it's time to turn it over to the Iraqis. They want their freedom, they want their independence, it's time for them to pick up the ball and run with it and take care of themselves.

Schultz: Do you agree with that, folks? (Applause)