Oh Crap.

Today in Iraq:

American soldiers helped Iraqi troops battle insurgents in downtown Baghdad on Sunday, repelling a major attack in the heart of the capital five days after President Obama declared an end to U.S. combat operations. [...]

“Soldiers living and working at Old MoD provided suppressive fire while IA [Iraqi army] soldiers located the two terrorists that entered the compound,” he said in an e-mail. The firefight lasted “a few minutes,” he said.

The U.S. military also dispatched helicopters, bomb disposal experts, unmanned aerial drones and other unspecified “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” assets to the scene of the downtown battle, he said, highlighting the continued dependence of the Iraqi security forces on American expertise and high-tech equipment.

Glenn Greenwald tweets:

Does this sound to you like “all American combat troops have left Iraq”?

Well, it sounds exactly like what the president talked about in his Oval Office address this past week:

Going forward, a transitional force of U.S. troops will remain in Iraq with a different mission: advising and assisting Iraq’s Security Forces, supporting Iraqi troops in targeted counterterrorism missions, and protecting our civilians. Consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, all U.S. troops will leave by the end of next year.

I hasten to add here that I’d rather all the troops were out now, of course. But let’s be fair about our gripes here. The president explicitly discussed missions like this in his address. Though I suspect guys like Greenwald can’t wait to re-cast President Obama as Flight Suit Bush.

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  • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ Nicole473

    You’re right, Bob. Greenwald is wrong.Sometimes I wonder, seriously wonder, which side the [so-called self-proclaimed] “true” progs are actually on.

  • http://extremeliberal.wordpress.com/ Jim in Michigan

    I think we’ve all said it before, there is something more to that gang’s agenda…why do they have to lie and mischaracterize?

  • http://www.intoxination.net IntoxiNation

    I blogged about the problems facing Dems this fall the other day and the first point I brought up was people like Glenn, who never really listens to what the President says. They are the same ones who believed that Obama would take the oath and instantly end Iraq and Afghanistan the next day, even though Obama never once campaigned on that.

  • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ Nicole473

    Spot on, Intoxination.

  • roxsteady

    Sadly, Greenwald and the rest of the firebagger, prosessional left are more than happy to ignore what the President actually says. Have any of them bothered to point out that John Boner’s speech claimed that we’d won the war and Obama refused to thank Bush. I guess to them, it’s better to aim their fire at their friends while their real enemies are all but ignored. It’s why I rarely read them anymore. If I want to read rock throwers I’d go to wingnut websites.

  • Allonfla

    Can’t wait to re-cast him in the bush flight suit? they already have. I can’t tell you how many blogs I’ve seen where they called Obama’s recent speech “Mission Accomplished”.Greenwald must think we are not paying attention. The president told us that things like this was going to happen.

  • Kat

    Greenwald needs to remove his head from his ass. He obviously can’t hear well in that position.

  • http://kcdad.livejournal.com Charles Brown

    There is no such thing as non-combat troops. Even band members and cooks are taught how to fight. If they are in Iraq, they are combat troops.

  • http://tarackian.deviantart.com J M Ashby

    A major attack in the middle of Baghdad? Sounds like self-defense to me. What are they suppose to do, just stand around?Just because the troops left behind are deployed in non-combart roles does not mean they are un-armed and out of danger.Glenn Greenwald can go fuck himself.

  • Allen Frederick

    It’s amazing that Bob is actually proud of the hate site he’s created. Literally beyond belief. What’s next? Calls for the death of Greenwald for stating his opinion? That’s pretty much the tenor of Bob’s half-dozen minions who basically engage in the same hate-mongering against literally anyone who doesn’t agree with them.These posts of Bob’s are so predictable, so trite, that it’s embarrassing. For Bob. Even though he doesn’t know it.Bob plays his role so well. He eats up every Obama press release, every Obama slight-of-hand, and dutifully plays the role of obedient Democrat. I’m sure Bob thinks if he plays the role long enough, he may even get his own show on MSNBC or a regular column in some lame newsprint. Just like Democratic lapdog Ezra Klein. Ezra – with his massive 26 years of amazing knowledge and experience – has learned one thing: suck the Democratic teat and you’ll be on the inside for life. Cross them once, and you’re out. Bob is trying his best to make it to the top. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets there. He maintains incredible mental discipline, and attacks those who dare question Obama.Note that once again, if this were Bush – Bob would be attacking the president relentlessly. Bob would have posted what Greenwald wrote, even faster. But, it’s Obama so ….. well, you know. There’s that credibility issue again. It’s such a formality now that it deserves it’s own by-line:”Cesca. Just Like Erickson.”

  • CaliCat

    Yes, Bob. This is how you know that Firebaggers like Greenwald are full of crap. They cherry pick news particles and twist them to fit their bogus narratives. The F-baggers couldn’t wait to claim that Obama is trying to bamboozle the country with the old troop-rebranding-switcheroo-trick. See, he’s just like Bush.This is another example of what Gibbs was saying. The left will never be happy with anything Obama does. They go out of their way to look for crap to complain about. And if they find themselves running low on things to complain about, they will spin something into something to complain about.F-ing F-Baggers, they’re so transparent.

  • Allen Frederick

    Sirota today, quoting the US military:———–The war isn’t even close to over. And we know that because the military is quietly acknowledging as much.Just beyond pundits’ soaring paeans and President Obama’s history-referencing declaration of victory, the Pentagon admits “nothing will change.” That isn’t a paraphrase-it’s a direct quote from the Army’s chief spokesman in Iraq. It came just before a Colorado Springs Gazette dispatch quoted another military official saying “our mission has not changed.” The article then went on to point out that “current and scheduled deployments will resume as planned,” as 50,000 soldiers remain stationed in Iraq.”American troops in Iraq will still go into harm’s way,” notes the Brookings Institution’s Kenneth Pollack. “American pilots will still fly combat missions in support of Iraqi ground forces, and American special forces will still face off against Iraqi terrorist groups in high-intensity operations. … (The United States) will probably face casualties therein the years to come, regardless of how we label our mission there.”———–Why does the military hate Obama? Clearly, the military can’t wait to re-cast President Obama as Flight Suit Bush.The US Military: Just Like Greenwald.

  • alopecia

    Iraq is in the midst of a simmering civil war, so an attack in Baghdad isn’t surprising in the least. The Iraqi Army isn’t exactly a crack outfit, so the US having to provide expertise and firepower isn’t surprising in the least. This sort of thing will continue for long time.Glenn Greenwald is trying to be snarky or edgy, or he’s trying to prove his independence from the Democratic Party, or perhaps he’s just a berk. I don’t know and I don’t care.Shorter me: Yes, Glenn, it does sound to me like “all American combat troops have left Iraq.” Dumbass.

  • Lexaburn

    No matter how many tweets they use to undermine President Obama, they’ll never win favor with the wingnuts, who will go on to use them for target practice after the midterms.This is a foolish game these professional lefties are playing, filled with temporary boosts to their profiles, but no one will ever trust them if they keep up the faux caterwauling. These shenanigans of theirs has gone beyond mere criticism, into the realm of nitpicking. I’ve seen this before. It was during the 2000 election, when established “liberals” were criticizing Al Gore. Then as soon as the election was stolen, they cried hell and high water over it, as if they weren’t claiming Al Gore said he started the Internet and shit like that. History is repeating.It seems to me that they’re trying to please the higher-ups within the media establishment. No one disregards the entire picture in this way without being coaxed to do so. We all saw how easily the establishment media, as well as congress itself was coaxed into accepting this war, no matter how much the public didn’t want to pursue such a conflict. Now it appears that since Republicons cannot remove the stain of the quagmire off its brand, they simply attempt to smear every individual they can, by any means. This is where the likes of Greenwald come in. He’ll criticize any and everyone willy-nilly in order to show how concerned he is over this matter. It’s his shtick and he’ll never deviate. It’s his foot in the door of the establishment.I’m not fooled by the theatrics of professional leftists. I always anticipate them turning on one they claim to support. It’s what professionals and social climbers do. It’s always been this way.Good night, Mr. Cesca and all you good Cescans.

  • http://www.twitter.com/bobcesca_go Bob_Cesca

    Thanks for stopping by, Allen. KA-CHING!

  • http://cousinavi.wordpress.com cousinavi

    What the fuck is an Allen Frederick?There have been trolls around here before, but the sheer depth and breadth of the ignorant myopia espoused by this rancid little shit stain is something to see. Add the obsessive dedication and the weird Cesca love – like the grade school bad boy who expresses his crush on the smart girl by kicking her in the shin – and it’s enough to start one paging through the DSM-V looking for rather more solid symptomatic assessment than can be achieved with a simple, “Brainless asshole.”@ Allen: Listen, you bitter little pile of shit. No one here, least of all Bob, fails to question the means, methods, words, deeds or goals of the president or his administration. What many find annoying, however, is your apparent tolerance for the treasonous behaviour, high crimes and misdemeanors, misfeasance, malfeasance and non-feasance of every Republican administration since Nixon, and the blithering idiocy required to suggest that they demonstrated anything remotely orbiting a vague definition of good government;your David Fucking Brooks like bullshit insistence that “They’re all the same…the left is as bad as the right…the Dems do it too,” when the evidence, if you had ever bothered to look at it instead of quote mining and cherry picking the sentence fragments you employ to prop up the craptastic opinions you adopt from others in the absence of any cogent assessment on your part, pretty clearly demonstrates that the right has been engaged in simply lying – saying whatever the fuck will gin up the stupid, backward racist redneck support they need.And not just little lies. Goebbels level lies; say fucking ANYTHING lies. They’ve rarely, if ever, been called on any of it – from WMD to torture, from trickle down supply side Freidmanite economic policy to Iran Contra, from Chile and El Salvador to East TImor and Iran – they have just fucking LIED…while trashing the economy, paying off their rich cronies, destroying the middle class, and jamming their heads up their foreign policy ass…while at the same time trying to sell the cunting vicious moronic argument that killing universal (HAH!) health care, killing social security, cutting taxes for the rich, and spending twice as much on defense as all the rest of the fucking world combined is the path to Jesus blessed prosperity.And YOU, Allen Frederick, come in here like a busted ass, shit-stained yammering little parrot to accuse Cesca of marching to Obama’s drum?The irony of you is apparently too fucking big, dark, ugly and weighty for you to even begin to wrap your empty fucking head around it, you stunned little apologist for capitalist fascism.The really annoying thing about you is that, while yammering your ignorant, factoid laden, cherry picked, Bill Kristol / Charles Krauthammer channeling blithering idiocy, all disguised as a pithy and insightful analysis of BOB’S myopia, you reveal yourself as nothing more than a pathetic, unthinking, knee-jerk fuckwit…exactly like the twisted fuckers who would scream “SOCIALIST COMMIE NAZI DICTATOR” at the president no matter what he does.But keep up the good work, you filthy, imbecilic little troll.Your passionate frustration, wrapped as it is in stunning ignorance, stubborn imbecility and willful blindness, is exactly the sort of thing that will soon leave nothing of the political right in America but the smoldering pile of manure it became the day it started pandering to stupid, backward fuckrags like you.

  • Sprocket

    I would honestly pay Allen Frederick 100 bucks just to respond to at least one person directly once, but he’d probably take the money and run.

  • Dale M Nelson

    Bob, if I’m reading you correctly: The far left and the far right are not opposite ends of a line, they actually meet at the top of the circle. In this case, Greenwald is carrying the right’s water on the OMG-Combat-Still-Happening-Post-End-Of-Combat-Operations frame.The frame was started by the Associated Press. HuffPo ran it apparently unmodified at the top of their Friday Home Page with the hed AP Issues Standards Memo: ‘Combat In Iraq Is Not Over’. They have continued with Sunday’s Iraq Combat Continues: Despite Formal End, U.S. Joins Baghdad Battle and will keep running it while it gets high page views. Which it will, because it’s outrageous: The AP does not get to issue “standards memos” to the White House. But most readers won’t know they meant editorial standards.And who supports this framing? The AP is “owned by its 1,500 U.S. daily newspaper members.” Chairman Dean Singleton is a conservative who introduced our President at the National Press Club as “Barack Osama,” not by accident at all. The AP’s board has a mission to protect all papers from their conservative readership, so they slant for that while claiming objectivity. And Arianna’s crew just passes it along. And Greenwald craps his supposedly progressive cage.We are up against the old and powerful investors in the old, fossil fuel-based economy. Mostly Republicans, but not a few Dems are in that group too. None of them wants to part with their pile, and they see it ending soon if they don’t take drastic action. Meg Whitman, Jan Brewer, Sarah Palin, and many others are simply dog-whistling past the graveyard—because of the cash those old bones generate. For now.We can try to convince the Americans we love to trust in the progress made and progress to come, or we can give up and watch as the Americans we don’t love fuck everything up. For good this time.I am a man of constant sorrow. Peace be with you, Brother.

  • http://www.osborneink.com/ OsborneInk

    “Well, it sounds exactly like what the president talked about in his Oval Office address this past week” — amen, Bob! In fact, it sounds a lot mroe like POLICEWORK than warfare. What they’re doing now sounds suspiciously like this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxBZXRS0i8w

  • JackDanieL

    COUSIN MOTHERFUCKING AVI.

  • http://kcdad.livejournal.com Charles Brown

    “Calls for the death of Greenwald for stating his opinion?”Really Allen Fredrick? Where?