Not Ready For Prime Time
By Mitch Berg
Words fail me.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.
Words?
Yep. They still fail me.
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
As a broken clock is right twice a day, just not for the right reason, so too is Obama right in this instance, but not for the right reason.
The government of the United States has no legal authority nor moral obligation to prevent genocide outside its borders. We know this to be true, else we’d have troops on the ground in Darfur today.
US troops are for self-defense, sometimes used pre-emptively. We intervened in Iraq because we thought they had WMD and were harboring/training terrorists to attack us with them. We stay because we don’t want terrorists to take over the power vacuum our departure would cause, and reconstitute the WMD and terrorist training programs to use against us.
We’ve kept troops in Japan for 60 years after they attacked us in WWII, to make sure evil didn’t take root again. We can afford a few more months in Iraq to establish a stable base in an unstable region.
He’s right – preventing genocide of Iraqis isn’t a good enough reason to stay – but he’s wrong about why we’re staying . . . it’s to prevent our own genocide. That’s plenty good enough reason for me.
.
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Yes, sadly, gone are the days Mitch, Captain Ed., and the Power Line boys were allowed to use our soldiers and tax dollars to live out their adolescent fantasies. Time for the grown ups to take over and bring some cold eyed realism and discipline to our national security.
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Ya went off the meds again, didn’t ya, Rick?
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:26 pm
The result of RickDFL’s “cold eyed realism” will be US surrender and the abandonment of our Iraqi allies. Gosh! That’ll make the terrorists stop wanting to kill us!
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Time for the grown ups to take over and bring some cold eyed realism and discipline to our national security.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese-eating_surrender_monkeys
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:01 am
Terry:
You can not blame Democrats for the failure of a Republican policy. Yes, your Iraq war will result in the slaughter of our Iraqi collaborators and it will embolden and empower terrorists around the globe. All the more reason from now on to make sure you people are kept out of serious adult business.
Bill C: Nice citation to the paradigm case of non-serious juvenile Republican foreign policy thought. Obviously we would be far better off today, if we had listened to the French about Iraq in 2003.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:57 am
Obviously we would be far better off today, if we had listened to the French about Iraq in 2003.
Sure we would. So would the Iraqis. They’d be as happy and prosperous as the NoKo’s. I know they would be.
What is it about the left and being enamored with murderous dictatorships?
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:18 am
The government of the United States has no legal authority nor moral obligation to prevent genocide outside its borders.
I agree we don’t have a moral obligation to prevent genocide outside our borders but our government certainly has the legal authority to send the military to intervene wherever and whenever our democratically-elected representatives decide. There’s no constitutional limitations on the use of the military much as some isolationist nutters (I’m talking to you Ron Paul) might like to believe otherwise.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:20 am
What is it about the left and being enamored with murderous dictatorships?
I dunno, I guess they’re part of their plan to bring some “cold eyed realism and discipline to our national security.”
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:42 am
Obama was right.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:44 am
BillC:
You need to catch up on your right-wing talking points, after six years of useless huffing and puffing, your glorious President has decided to negotiate with North Korea on pretty much the same terms Bill Clinton put in place before then. Oh except now, during the period Bush repudiated the deal, North Korea has had a chance to test a nuclear device.
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:53 pm
RickDFL-
Once again I shall remind you of the definition of defeatist:
de·feat·ist /dɪˈfitɪst/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[di-fee-tist] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a person who surrenders easily or is subject to defeatism.
2. an advocate or follower of defeatism as a public policy.
–adjective
3. marked by defeatism.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Terry:
To correctly call someone a ‘defeatist’, you need to actually win the the war in question. Given that you have lost the war in Iraq, calling me ‘defeatist’ serves only to make you look more like a, well, loser.
P.S. Some guy named Adolf called from the Bunker. He wants to know if you know when Army Detachment Steiner will launch their counterattack.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Detachment_Steiner
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
“To correctly call someone a ‘defeatist’, you need to actually win the the war in question.”
Not true. Yet another lefty with reading comprehension problems. Read the definition again:
“a person who surrenders easily or is subject to defeatism.”
The word “war” is not even mentioned, simpleton.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
RickDFL thinks we have no moral obligation to stop genocide.
RickDFL agrees with Harry “We Surrender” Reid that all is lost in Iraq.
RickDFL invokes Godwin’s Law as part of his clever riposte to Terry.
Note to DFL: You can keep Rick. He sucks.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Obama’s such an idiot. Refusing to commit U.S. troops without a sufficient force to ensure victory and a clear exit strategy is sooooo “Powell Doctrine.” That’s totally 1990s-era thinking. Doesn’t he know that 9/11 changed everything?!
Effective troop numbers and battle plans don’t matter anymore.
Rumsfeld proved that.
/jc
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Terry:
In what pray tell do you think I surrender easily or am subject to defeatism? Given the context, I assumed you thought I was giving up on the Iraq War too easily. I suppose you could have been accusing me of surrendering too easily on Brittney Spears’ acting career.
But to accuse me of defeatism regarding the Iraq War you would have to actually win the Iraq War. Since, you still have lost the Iraq War, you are still, well, a loser.
Kermit: Can’t you at least trot out some freshly painted school houses in Iraq to show how awesome the war is going. Lame insults make me think your heart is just not in the war anymore. Head over to the Victory Caucus website for a fresh dose of team spirit.
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Never mind the fact that I said nothing about the nuclear capabilties of the NoKo’s…I said that the Iraqis would be as prosperous as the Noko’s. I left out on clarifying word: citizenry.
Oh except now, during the period Bush repudiated the deal, North Korea has had a chance to test a nuclear device.
Made with the two nuclear reactors that YOUR glorious former President GAVE them. You best make sure YOUR leftist talking points are logically sound. Blaming Bush for NoKo’s nukes is the epitome of burying your head in the sand.
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Rick avoids places like Victory Caucus because his desperate need to lose in Iraq is threatened by positive news. I bet that if he tried really hard he could find a “freshly painted schoolhouse” too. There might even be girls in there. For the first time.
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:05 pm
For the first time, Kerm? You’re confusing Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, like Bush did.
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:22 pm
AC is right! Girls had it so good under Saddam. They might even have gotten a personal audience with Uday and Qusay.
Look at this from the BBC:
” Tigris School is now receiving a face-lift as part of a programme by the US-led coalition to improve conditions in Iraq – after the bombing campaign in March and April, the looting that followed it, and the years of degradation that preceded it under the self-serving and internationally-isolated former regime.”
Hey Rick! A freshly painted schoolhouse! Now say “I’m sorry, I am a BDS addled moonbat.”
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:43 pm
It’s like trying to explain calculus to a flatworm.
You’re claim not to be a defeatist — Lord knows why that bothers you — rests, on your own admission, on the fact that we — the US — have already ‘lost’ the Iraq War. This would come as news to the troops on the ground, the officers who command them, the Maliki government, and the people who live in the large areas of Iraq where we do enforce peace.
All of them are in a better position to know the truth about the the state of the war than a partisan DFl’er in the middle of another continent.
You dream of defeat not because its better for the Iraqi’s, better for the American people, or a good thing in some absolute sense, but because you hope that it will give your party a political advantage.
And you are not even doing that in a sane way:
When did “Mitch, Captain Ed., and the Powr Line boys” have control of tax dollars and soldiers?
July 24th, 2007 at 7:52 am
I guess that’s the closest you wingnuts come to saying “I was wrong, Angryclown. I prostrate myself before your superior intellect,” eh Kerm?
Lotsa nasty stuff happened in pre-invasion Iraq, to be sure. But in comparison to other countries in the region, Islamic fundamentalism and its associated bigotries weren’t that big a feature of Iraq under Saddam. You worried about girls, Kerm? Maybe we should invade Saudi Arabia. Or Iran, but I don’t think Bush actually has the stones for that fight.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:51 am
There needs to be something to prostrate myself before, first.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:52 am
How about THIS?
July 24th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Three words. A succinct display of “superior intellect” indeed.
July 24th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Invade Saudi Arabia or Iran, angryclown? Why?
Do you need a couple more fights to proclaim defeat in?