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| Iraq |
| ‘Failure in Iraq to first affect ME’: Gates |
| 2007-04-19 |
| Failure in Iraq will unleash sectarian strife and extremism and will be felt first in the Middle East, visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday. Speaking to a US Chamber of Commerce luncheon on the third day of his Middle East tour, Gates exhorted Arab countries to use their influence to dampen the insurgency and encourage political reconciliation in Iraq. “Whatever disagreements we might have over how we got to this point in Iraq, the consequences of a failed state in Iraq - of chaos there - will adversely impact the security and prosperity of every nation in the Middle East and Gulf region,” Gates said in remarks prepared for delivery. He warned that while some who disagree with the war may be cheering for failure in Iraq, “these sentiments are dangerously shortsighted and self-destructive”. The initial effects of failure, he said, will first be felt in Middle East capitals and communities “well before they are felt in Washington or New York”. Gates reaffirmed the US commitment to Iraq and to protecting allies in the area - while also alluding to the raging debate between the Democratically controlled Congress and the Bush administration over bringing an end to the war. The arguments, he said, probably reflect those going on across the Middle East but do not suggest the US is not determined to keep working with its allies in the region. That “is a responsibility we will not abandon, a trust we will not break,” he said. Gates also said that Iran and Syria need to become part of the solution by reducing the violence and helping promote reconciliation in Iraq. |
| Posted by:Dave D. |
| #22 IFF, in mathematics, stands for "if, and only if". Seems appropriate for what was being said. Joe's commentary is as clear and sparkling as the waters of Talafofo Falls. |
| Posted by: RWV 2007-04-19 21:35 |
| #21 After a few years, JoeM kinda wears on ya. Why, I'm even talkin to my friends in CAPS As for Gates, I don't care for the graveling. If the other ME don't get it by now, I suspect diplo-Gates ain't gonna ring any bells. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2007-04-19 19:58 |
| #20 Joe M---the James Joyce of RB comments!!!! Certainly, not the e.e.cummings of RB comments. "There is some shit I will not eat, said Private Olaf". Implying, of course, that there is some shit he will eat. /poet at large:) |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-04-19 17:08 |
| #19 TW did a good job of translating JoeM. The real question is how well or even if the freedom/individual liberty/personal responsibility seeds we've been trying to sow are going to take root. If we leave does everything just return to the previous status quo of tribalism and islam? Unfortunately, I think it does. There has not been a period of time where the situation on the ground got significantly better so there is no time or experienced condition for which the Iraqi people will wistfully pine (other than the Kurds). We should be re-doubling our efforts in the ME, increasing the size of our military by at least a third and keeping the pressure on hard. Unfortunately the dems and the moonbats in this country and in our allied countries won't let this happen. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2007-04-19 15:53 |
| #18 I think Joe believes that Iran will crumble from within unless they create a war against the great satan which will bind their population together with the ruling Mules and save the Mules. I don't know what evidence there is to suggest that Iran will implode. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-04-19 14:34 |
| #17 Joe M---the James Joyce of RB comments!!!! All kidding aside, I do not know that GWB has already won.....it seems that we have a lot to lose by walking away from this one in Iraq. Iraq is the focal point. All sides have put big resources in it to affect the outcome. Walk away from this one and defeat will follow us in the ME, esp in the Persian Gulf with little delicately balanced countries, esp near Iran. Let the Dems win and we will be back to the Clintonian law-enforcement model of fighting Islamic terrorists. Which means to say nothing but window dressing and bombing aspirin factories. Yes, we CAN lose this thing. And that IS what the dems are trying to do. The big front that we are losing at is the information front. Our enemies are good at using the information tool. The administration has been a dismal failure. How can this be improved? We are running out of time here, ya know..... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-04-19 12:06 |
| #16 the Iran Football Federation? |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2007-04-19 10:30 |
| #15 I read Joe's post twice - slowly and carefully the second time, and I think TW has translated correctly. The CAPS and shrthnd are an obstacle, however.... And what's with the extra f in IFF, Joe? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-04-19 10:15 |
| #14 Like they say, miss no opportunity to miss an opportunity. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2007-04-19 09:56 |
| #13 Cheney / Mendiola 2008! |
| Posted by: Raj 2007-04-19 08:42 |
| #12 I suspect, TW, that the more you have to Do with JOE, the MORE you end up using CAPS LOCK. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2007-04-19 08:16 |
| #11 JosephM. The Shift key got a way from me for a moment, it seems. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-04-19 07:10 |
| #10 As I read JosepHM's post, he's saying that George Bush has already won, and Osama bin Laden and his allies the anti-WoT Democratic Party/Progressives have already lost. Western troops -- and even more so the seductive, addictive Western concepts tied to freedom of the individual (capitalism, democracy, modernity) -- are well settled throughout the Ummah, particularly surrounding Iran... and Bush still has time to strengthen our grip. If, in an attempt to get a Democrat into the White House, the jihadis/Iran do something as dramatic as explode a nuke in a US city, the Dems will have to continue Bush's policies, and thus be forced to give up their raison d'etre. Iran's Mullahcracy is toast, either through our military response to a major provocation, or through implosion as the effects of the sanctions are felt. Quite a change from his early, despairing posts about how the world transnationalist elites were going to force us to submit to UN rule. Or so it seems to me. There are those who are better translators of Joe's special, information-dense shorthand. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-04-19 07:09 |
| #9 I wholly agree... and I imagine Joe's predictions about the fate of radical Iran are prescient. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2007-04-19 06:09 |
| #8 Actually, Joe and the writer of this article make a point that we tend not to notice, because we are looking at the negative impacts that the current crop of anti-American democrats, loons, and terrorists have made into our own once great and peaceful societies. ME and liberals have in common the self-destructive tendency to be more interested in spiting their enemies than they are in their own self preservation. Both use the forces of blame and hatred and division to achieve power, but in the end the fires that they set do not discriminate and burn everything in their path. The ME is like a riot in a ghetto. It is a very self destructive act. The participants feel good and powerful while they lash out and burn cars and businesses and beat up the random people whom they have chosen to blame, but in the morning, they have to live in the mess that they have created. |
| Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 2007-04-19 06:01 |
| #7 Howard, not entirely. Still not quite digested. At least it is less streamy-consciousnessy... I guess that is as far as Joe would go. ;-) |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-04-19 04:47 |
| #6 twobyfour - what, you don't speak fluent Mendiola yet? |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2007-04-19 04:36 |
| #5 Failure in Iraq will unleash sectarian strife Oh horror!!! |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-04-19 03:37 |
| #4 Darn, Joe, I wish you could just write... not in that shorthand of yours. There may be something important in what you are saying, but it is hard to decode it, and so far you seem to contradict yourself, at least as my interpretative skills go. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-04-19 02:16 |
| #3 AS before, Dubya is all but officially daring Moud + Mullahs to do something. Iff my old anti-USSR Afghanistan war comrade Osama + Radical Islam's intent was to "hurt/embarrass" America, Dubya has responded by planting the US-Allied flags of pro-capitalism, pro-democracy, + pro-modernity, etal. all over the ME + Muslim World instead. Iff Radical Islam, etc fails to initiate Amer Hiroshimas inside America + the USG-NPE, in order to elect an anti-US Pol for POTUS after 2008, the US Dems are CYA = hedging their 2008 Pol/POTUS fortunes by wanting the MSM to give them full credit for US flags all around Radical Iran. IFF RADICAL IRAN DOES NOT ATTACK THE USA VIA AMER HIROSHIMA(S), ISOLATED RADICAL IRAN WILL BE SACRIFICED + PRESSURED UNTO INTERNAL SELF IMPLOSION ala USSR. The day of realization is slowly but steadily looming for Radical Iran that DUBYA IS ENTRENCHING THE USA IN THE ME + MUSLIM WORLD, + NOT EVEN HAVING ANTI-US POL(S) INSIDE THE USG AFTER 2008 MAY SAVE RADIC IRAN ANDOR THE RADIC ISLAMIST AGENDA, LOCAL = GLOBAL. Dubya still has 1-2/3 years left to continue further entrenching US influence in the ME + World - DATS A LOT OF TIME LEFT AGZ IRAN'S INTERESTS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-04-19 01:41 |
| #2 Limp. Feeble. Room-temperature oatmeal. First, you NEVER use the weasel-s**t about "whatever the disagreements about how we got here" - it grants irresponsible critics who are and were wrong about every important point an undeserved legitimacy. Second, the message about continuing to work with our allies was exactly the wrong one. Instead he should have made some news by suggesting that, if countries that had sometimes benefitted from cooperation with the US did not do everything they could to help ensure success in Iraq, they could be facing a grim future and the US might lack the capacity or desire to help them. What would they do if they heard that, retaliate by poisoning minds against us with lies and propaganda, or allow their citizens to help finance barbaric terror in Iraq? Oops - already doing that .... |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2007-04-19 00:55 |
| #1 Here Gates seems to get it, but then at some other ocassion, he utters something so inane that one wonders what mish-mash he has in his head. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-04-19 00:47 |