wikistan » Iraq

Saying stupid things to stupid people

le saint — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:51:22 +0000

It’s still the same old story, told to the same adoring crowds of “open minded” supporters (and a few mythical Obamacons!). ‘We were attacked on 9/11 by Islamic zealots and we responded by. . . invading Iraq and chasing Saddam Hussein around a secret network of spiderholes.’ What a terrible example America has set–Russia now thinks it can do the same.

Russia’s incursion into Georgia closely parallels the actions the international community took against Hussein since 1990. Wait, dumbass, no it didn’t. It’s not even like that confusing affair in Kosovo, as the Ruskies claim. And Putin didn’t appear to have been stalled the least bit by corrupted allies and a disinformation regime funded by Georgian strategists giddy on the silly money leaking from unenforceable UN transfers.

So, yeah, keep making the morally equivalent jabs. It really seems to be working.

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Anbar Awakening successful because of local tribal leadership and American troops, but mostly American troops.

le saint — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:54:08 +0000

This chicken & egg argument about the Surge vs the Anbar Awakening, and how this is a major McCain gaffe is truly bizarre. No matter how desperately the Obama camp wants to steal this issue from McCain–and no matter how screechy the Obama fanboi sounds in the MSNBC message board–it is simply not factual to say the Awakening happened without American involvement! Technically, it may have happened before the first Surge brigades set foot in Anbar, but guess what? The tribal sheiks that provided momentum in the early, dark days of the Awakening were already working with American troops.

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Senator implicates himself in own Intel report

le saint — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:45:10 +0000

WaPo calls bullshit on sniveling Senator J Rockeller’s Senate Intelligence Committee report on Iraq intelligence, which (unsuccessfully) tries to bolster the legitimacy the “Bush lied” meme.

Attention Democratic Senators:� When even the Washington Post calls you out, chances are you’ve stepped in your own pile too many times.

Who, again, has done more to politicize intelligence?

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A little Cockburnian fantasy

le saint — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:52:23 +0000

How many bits of wishful fantasy can you spot in this wreck of a piece by Patrick Cockburn?

Biggest clue:

The Iraqi government wants to delay the actual signing of the agreement but the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney has been trying to force it through.

Yep, that neocon Cheney.� Forcing the deal through so he can line his pockets.

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Pivot Pelosi

le saint — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:27:21 +0000

Crazy Aunt Pelosi may be on to something.

In an interview yesterday with the San Francisco Chronicle, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed the U.S. troop surge failed to accomplish its goal. She then partially credited the success of the troop surge to �the goodwill of the Iranians,� claiming that they were responsible for ending violence in the southern city of Basra.

Asked if she saw any evidence of the surge�s positive impact on her May 17 trip to Iraq she responded:

” Well, the purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That didn�t happen. Whatever the military success, and progress that may have been made, the surge didn�t accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.”

This may not be as stupid as it sounds (and it sounds really stupid). If Tehran has been so accomodating towards ending the violence, there must be a reason.

Could it be that they were faced with a resolute adversary in Maliki? Nope.

Could it be that the hand of Iranian interference was much too visible for successful tactical operations against the Coalition? Nope.

Hadn’t she and other democratics been complaining of unwelcome American sabre rattling towards Iran over the last two years? Yes, they were.

Pelosi is tacitly admitting (without any sense of irony, of course) that the American strategy of isolating fat little Shiite clerics warlords and taking a strong, if not outright forceful, stance against an unshaven, apocalyptical buffoon is sometimes the right approach.

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In which Olbermann channels George Galloway

le saint — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:54:48 +0000

Olberman’s rant here, which begs the question:� How many Iraqi oil options did Mr. Olbermann exercise between 1997 and 2002?

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