Zakaria Makes Ass of Self; Says "War Has Largely Ended"

crap! (0.00 / 0)

I guess this means we've lost our Iraq front-pager. I suppose LT Nixon we'll be coming home, now that the war is over.

I'm on twitter.

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by: Richard Allen Smith @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 01:37:50 AM CST

No way Rich... (0.00 / 0)

...someone's gotta do the important business of powerpoints, staff briefings, crunching #s, and other elements essential to our counter-terrorism strategy. (end sarc)

I thought the article was good the first time I read it, but that comment was a little boneheaded.  Fareed is a great columnist, what was he thinking!

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by: LT Nixon @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 08:32:25 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Ah yes... (0.00 / 0)

So it is Company Grade guys like you muscling out the Field Grades with that important counter-terrorism work.

There are Field Grade Officers out in the FIELD because guys like you are doing the powerpoints instead of them!! LOL

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by: Colonel "Joe" USAR @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 09:57:47 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Haha... (0.00 / 0)

...It must be my ninja skills at cutting and pasting.  Sir, I just work where they sent me.

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by: LT Nixon @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 09:59:52 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Very disappointing (4.00 / 1)

Zakaria is usually a voice of reason, I guess he got some of the Kool-Aid.

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by: Combat Infantry Bunny @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 07:05:26 AM CST

That was what I thought. (0.00 / 0)

I was actually surprised when I read this.

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by: Brandon Friedman @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 11:06:32 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Call HRC St. Louis (4.00 / 1)

Tell that to all the IRR Soldiers that reported for mob processing last Sunday and the ones reporting in February.

For those that did not report and submitted a D&E Packet, I wonder if they could get Fareed to ring HRC and just tell them the "war has largely ended."

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by: Colonel "Joe" USAR @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 09:53:45 AM CST

Great point. n/t (0.00 / 0)

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by: Brandon Friedman @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 11:06:56 AM CST

[ Parent ]

This is just wishful thinking (0.00 / 0)

on the politicians' part.  Life would be much easier, especially on the republican side, if this war had "largely ended."  Unfortunately, however, even if we get a democratic president, this war won't end for at least another 18-24 months.  It takes time to roll everything up, and move 360,000 Americans out of theater.  If we get a republican president, this war won't end at all.

"No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they're carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the service that they've provided." - Barack Obama

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by: Chris LeJeune @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 10:41:55 AM CST

I don't see no stinking war... (4.00 / 1)

Fareed is one of countless sociopaths for whom the ongoing crime against America and Iraq is an exciting championship football game. No matter how you say it, Fareed (and his plentiful tribe of like-mindeds) won't even have a glimmer as to what the hell you're talking about. Maimed and killed on a daily basis? So what? They knew what they were doing when they signed up. (18-24 year olds are KNOWN for their careful, smart decision-making, never-you-mind about the not fully developed frontal lobe that people have until age 26 or later). Look, you want America to LOSE, or WIN? All right, then.

Republicans are people who want America to win in Iraq. Democrats are people who just want to get the troops out of Iraq. That's the difference, America. So isn't it obvious who you're gonna wanna vote for? OKAY THEN!

I actually heard one of them say that! They look like us, speak our national tongue, live in our neighborhoods, drive on our freeways (probably more than we do), but they are a different species, or might as well be.

(And about that bit where our troops supposedly "knew what they were doing" when they "signed on"--I hear just as many shallow, troop-hating Democrats say that as I do empty-eyed Republicans. These are soulless husks of flesh who speak the same language of death, interchangeable blots, as far as I can see.)

"So?" -- Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States of America

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by: Carly Corday @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 11:28:29 AM CST

Zakaria helped sell us the invasion of Iraq (4.00 / 1)

Fareed Zakaria was a participant in a secret meeting called by Paul Wolfowitz in November 2001.  The meeting resulted in a report to President Bush that recommended the invasion of Iraq.  Later, Zakaria said he "thought it was a brainstorming session" and didn't know there would be a report.

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by: rmwarnick @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 12:02:26 PM CST

Defense Authorization Bill is off to the President...again. (0.00 / 0)

Maybe this time he won't veto it...apparently Congress addressed the issues he was concerned about. My guess...he'll probably find something else wrong with it.

But, I thought y'all might be interested in this, for a number of reasons...

http://biden.senate.gov/newsro...

Call me persistent! I trust you'll let me know if I'm becoming a pain in the you-know-what.

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by: Elizabeth Miller @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 20:30:36 PM CST

Is that really what Zakaria meant? (0.00 / 0)

I think the point he was making is that the war the Democrats (except Joe Biden, of course...sorry) are "fighting" is not the war that is the current reality...ie they are advocating plans for the WRONG war!

I understand Fareed to be saying that the Democratic candidates (or the ones on the other side, for that matter)  don't seem to understand that the war that is the reality in Iraq today is a sectarian civil war and that none of their "plans" for Iraq will even come close to addressing what needs to happen to end Iraq's civil war.

Essentially, Zakaria seems to be saying that the war against the insurgency or al-Qaeda is not the paramount concern and what needs to be focused on now is the fact that Iraq remains divided and on the brink of an all out civil war. He is saying that the mere presence of US troops is putting a lid on this for now, but as soon as they are withdrawn, in the absence of a political solution, all hell will break loose and it will be 'Katie bar the door' time. None of the remaining presidential candidates are addressing this - none of them even understand it!

Could that be what Fareed Zakaria was saying?

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by: Elizabeth Miller @ Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 21:07:50 PM CST