Who’s Paying The Pro War Pundits? in The Nation
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One of my (sadly, now departed) high school classmates, Joel Shin, was one of the people who was involved with Bush’s foreign policy. I gather he was Condolezza Rice’s right hand man.
He was simply the brilliant person I ever met in my life - a star Latin scholar, a Rhodes scholar, and a surprisingly humble person for all those brains. Curse him - he really screwed up the grading curve in my Physics class!
People were kind of an alien species to him; even though he was a super nice guy, he was a scholar and lacked a strong emotional intellect. I always struggled to make conversation with him, because he’d be referencing books I hadn’t read - not to be a jerk but just because he was so smart and that was how he connected to things. I’ve worked with lots of very bright, over the top brilliant people but never have I known another person who just seemed to operate on a different plane from me like he did.
I was very surprised to hear he had gone into foreign policy; with his brain power he would have made a wonderful academic, and what he was doing advising on war policy I will never understand. I’m sure that he dazzled everyone around him, but it would all be strategy for him, a giant chess game - and why he would advocate for that direction I will never understand.
He died earlier this year and it has been strange to process his death. I’m relieved he is not there to influence foreign policy anymore, yet, also, I feel like the earth lost one of its true bright lights.
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Exactly. An army general asked for ground troops. sounds like a hammer looking around and seeing nails. Not to say we wont end up getting into another dang ground war… we’ll see… It seems like that is the pattern here the last 20 years.
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Obama said in his speech that we’re increasing the number of advisers, and Dempsey says some of those advisers may need to participate in combat at some point. But if we’re all being realists, I think it’s safe to say that they already are.
The parallels to Vietnam are astonishing (as always). Here’s an utterly corrupt regime on the other side of the earth fighting an insurgency that allegedly threatens the American way of life. We will flood that corrupt regime with guns and money, then be astonished when their disillusioned soldiers prove ineffective against a strongly motivated insurgency. So we will spend more money and send more advisers and give the CIA a free hand. And at some point when it becomes clear that the Iraqi armed forces just aren’t up to the task at hand, we’ll send Marines, then regular Army. Just like the South Vietnamese government, the Iraqi government will crumble under the twin pressures of corruption and unmoderated American influence.
The only thing that might prevent the spread of ISIS is the fact that it splits the Iraqi populace along sectarian lines, and there are more Shiites than Sunnis.
Consider our track record in dozens of similar situations since 1945. Our first question is always, “Does this insurgency pose a threat to the American way of life?” But the first question should actually be, “Can we realistically do anything to effectively end this insurgency?” Since we’re using the same worn out 70 year old playbook, the answer to this question is “no.”
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Are you under the impression that Martin Dempsey makes these decisions? Fer eff’s sake, generals make all sorts of recommendations.
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It is fair to “submit the argument,” but then one has to submit evidence to support the argument. And there’s no evidence that ISIS is currently a threat to the U.S…
“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation” — Barack Obama, December, 2007
I can’t find anything searching for old news, but my recollection is that they (i.e. GWB administration) were beating the drum over Iraq well before 9/11, more like the time that they took office. It wasn’t top headlines, then.
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Ya, they picked up a taste for the filthy lucre and want some more…
Contractors Reap $138 Billion from Iraq War, Cheney’s Halliburton #1 with $39.5 Billion | LeakSource
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What a bit of yellow journalism. Nothing new has been revealed. All the General did was say he would do his job. Read his statement again, “If we reach the point where I believe our advisors should accompany Iraqi troops on attacks against specific ISIL targets, I’ll recommend that to the president,” He could have just as well said, “If we reach the point where I believe martial law should be declared for the entire USA, I’ll recommend that to the president”. or perhaps, “If we reach the point where I believe an emergency allocation of funds for buying chopsticks is necessary, I’ll recommend that to the president.” It is not the military’s job to make policy. It is their job to advise the executive on how to use the military to achieve the policy.
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Yeah I referenced that. A bunch of those guys in the Bush administration were founding members of a group called the project for the new american century. They were openly campaigning for intervention in Iraq while Clinton was in power.
Oh I like this game!
“If we reach the point where I believe Pinot Noir is best with beef, I’ll recommend that to the president.”
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Chelsea Manning wrote a piece on her proposed solution to this issue:
TL;DR: IS can’t survive by itself. It feeds off the reaction from the West so the best thing would be to control its spread and allow it to burn out on its own accord.
It was top headlines off and on for years. I remember well the run-up. Hans Blix was looking for evidence of WMDs, getting the runaround.
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