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2010-03-10 Iraq

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Posted by ryuge 2010-03-10 06:55|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 But this election is a big deal because Iraqis with the help of the U.N., the U.S. military and the Obama team, particularly Vice President Joe Biden overcame two huge obstacles. - Thomas Friedman

nuff said. A$$hole of the day award. The man loves authoritarian China over the rough and base politics of American democracy. He lauds his masters, to whom he's sold his soul to, ignoring the blood and sacrifice of the American soldier and W's surge effort his masters denounced as failed. Note to NYT, there is no memory hole with the internet.

Posted by Unererong Lumumba4394 2010-03-10 07:52|| 2010-03-10 07:52|| Front Page Top

#2 Oops, #1 twas moi.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-03-10 07:53|| 2010-03-10 07:53|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm no Friedman fan, but at least he does give some credit to Bush:

Former President George W. Bushs gut instinct that this region craved and needed democracy was always right. It should have and could have been pursued with much better planning and execution. This war has been extraordinarily painful and costly. But democracy was never going to have a virgin birth in a place like Iraq, which has never known any such thing.

As for those who, "argue that nothing that happens in Iraq will ever justify the costs.", they are either willfully ignorant or think nothing is worth fighting for. What do they have to say about the cost and sacrifice incurred to give birth to our own democracy? What do they have to say about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWII? Were those not worth the costs, as well?

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-John Stuart Mill

If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
-Samuel Adams

Posted by eltoroverde 2010-03-10 09:03|| 2010-03-10 09:03|| Front Page Top

#4 And here I thought we were being bvisited by Patrice's spawn.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-03-10 09:04|| 2010-03-10 09:04|| Front Page Top

#5 "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
-Samuel Adams

Makes me yearn more for the writings of our founding fathers. We have strayed too far away from their wise guidance...

Posted by JohnQC 2010-03-10 09:21|| 2010-03-10 09:21|| Front Page Top

#6 Methinks Obama needs to read less of Saul Alinsky and more of Sam and John Adams and Thomas Payne and Jefferson and Hamilton...but he won't he's an America hater from way back and we were played by the media who were played by the Obama team who were played by Obama.

Newsflash to all of you dingbats that voted for the moron that is President....ITS TIME TO SCRAP OFF THE BUMPER STICKERS. You don't want anyone to know you willingly voted for him!!!

Posted by Karl Rove 2010-03-10 10:13|| 2010-03-10 10:13|| Front Page Top

#7 Former President George W. Bush's gut instinct that this region craved and needed democracy was always right. It should have and could have been pursued with much better planning and execution.

My take on the whole thing is that W didn't want to fight both wars at the same time. The region and the type of enemies we are fighting demands the kind of fighting we are doing today with restrictive ROEs and therefore insane numbers of troops. Can't do both at the same time. So he fought to settle the war in Iraq first, and left Noblahblah to figure out how to deal with Afghanistan since his mouth already wrote the check that "Afghanistan is the right war" and Noblahblah's political promises wouldn't allow him to walk away from it without crushing results. I'd say W did as well as anyone could possibly have imagined once he saw the path through the chaos, which was impossible to foresee. With as many armchair generals as we have, myself included, some of them will see it before the rest but the trick for those in charge is to recognize whose vision is correct in foresight, not hindsight.

Posted by gorb 2010-03-10 11:14|| 2010-03-10 11:14|| Front Page Top

#8 Good job Iraqis, doin just fine, lots to do still, keep it up.

I know much has been made concerning Obama's Dad's view of the British. Those names listed were not exactly fond of the British as well. Would it be irony or (classical) tragedy for Obama to ruin a country designed and built by men who shared some deep opinions and/or goals similar to his dad?

Posted by swksvolFF 2010-03-10 13:04|| 2010-03-10 13:04|| Front Page Top

#9 Logging in from new work computer

Posted by Sherry 2010-03-10 14:02|| 2010-03-10 14:02|| Front Page Top

#10 The reason the Left hates Bush is that according to Marxist theory, individulas can't influence the course of history, only social forces can.

Bush's invasion of Iraq was a project to shape the 21st century in the ME by bringing democracy to the region. It may yet fail and you can argue it wasn't worth the cost, but GW Bush has done more to influence the course of the 21st century than any other man.

Succeed or fail in Afghanistan, it will and can never be more than a sideshow.

This is the reason for the deranged hatred of Bush on the Left.

Posted by phil_b 2010-03-10 16:07|| 2010-03-10 16:07|| Front Page Top

#11 It needs to be said, apparently again and again, for the amnesiacs who were pushing containment as the alternative to going in. By the time of the two major sweetheart oil deals in late 2002 between Saddam and a) ChIrak's TotalFinaElf and b) Putin's LUKoil, the containment regime was kaput, finito, shredded. Saddam was signing major, multi-billion $$$$$$$$ oil deals with two of the five UNSC members who had pledged not to do business with him! He was most assuredly out of the "box" that, we were told, containment had placed him in.

Posted by lex 2010-03-10 16:24|| 2010-03-10 16:24|| Front Page Top

#12 Bush's invasion of Iraq was a project to shape the 21st century in the ME by bringing democracy to the region. It may yet fail and you can argue it wasn't worth the cost, but GW Bush has done more to influence the course of the 21st century than any other man.

That right there sums up the strategy in a nut shell. We could have done the status-quo, or tried to change things in a way that hasn't been tried before. It may fail, it may work, but now Iraq's future is in the hands of Iraqis.
The only other option we have is to slaughter vast numbers of the guilty and the guiltless. Rubble don't make trouble.

Posted by DarthVader 2010-03-10 17:45|| 2010-03-10 17:45|| Front Page Top

#13 The only other option we have is to slaughter vast numbers of the guilty and the guiltless. Rubble don't make trouble.

This would be my preferred approach. Not only does rubble not make trouble, but the Victor gets to dictate to the Vanquished how their rehabilitation proceeds. Additionally, stomping your adversary flat sends a powerful message to other would be miscreants.

Might always makes right...always. That is natures law.

Posted by Chugum Dingle3255 2010-03-10 18:18|| 2010-03-10 18:18|| Front Page Top

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