New blog added to the list of lefty bloggers in the permalinks (humorously located down and to the right):
Steve Soto’s The Left Coaster.
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
New blog added to the list of lefty bloggers in the permalinks (humorously located down and to the right):
Steve Soto’s The Left Coaster.
by John Cole| 4 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Jacques ChIRAQ and Gerhard Schroeder clasp arms after submitting their UN Resolution today, one that stated:
“The military option should only be a last resort,” the document says. “So far, the conditions for using force against Iraq are not fulfilled.”
The memorandum adds that there is “no evidence” that Iraq still possesses weapons of mass destruction or capabilities, although it concedes that “suspicions remain.” As for the United Nations-led inspections, they have “just reached their full pace,” are “functioning without hindrance” and “have already produced results,” the memorandum says.
The document calls for tougher inspections, including precise deadlines for Iraq to disarm, an increase in the number of inspectors, the creation of mobile units to inspect movable targets like trucks, better aerial spying on Iraqi sites and better processing of the spy data. Under this proposal, the chief inspectors would report on Iraq’s progress every three weeks.
In an apparent effort to head off criticism that the three-country initiative is a stalling tactic to avoid a decision on going to war, the declaration states that inspections “cannot continue indefinitely,” adding: “Iraq must disarm. Its full and active cooperation is necessary.”
In the first paragraph of this news story alone, we find four statements that contradict what is commonly known. The “no evidence” is laughable to anyone who watched Colin Powell’s presentation. There is plenty of evidence. How they can claim they have just reached their full pace, when Blix claims the Iraqi’s are playing games with the inspectors is beyond me- perhaps this is full throtttle obstruction? As Blix stated:
Iraq appears not to have come to genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded.
How is that for cooperation? My favorite part is this the line claiming the inspections are functioning without hindrance.
The Iraqi government, he added, has been behind “disturbing incidents and harassment” of inspectors, including raucous, staged demonstrations aimed at interfering with their work.
The final line is a real peach too- the inspections have “already provided results.” Translation- we have found things they were hiding, a clear breach of the UN resolution, and instead of coming to the appropriate conclusion- that they have no intention of disarming, we will instead come to our fantasyland conclusion that the inspections are actually working. Does this sound familiar? It should, because Ken Pollack outlined just this scenario in his interview with Josh Marshall in Talking Points Memo:
Blix handed the administration the smoking gun that they were unlikely to get in terms — as you just laid it out — of the Iraqis actually blocking an inspection or we find a Scud or something along those lines. In many ways it’s even better than that in the sense that I think even [if we found] a Scud the people who oppose war would have just latched on to that and said ‘See, the inspections are working.’ In point of fact we’re already seeing that. They did catch this Iraqi scientist with 3000 pages of documents on how to enrich uranium. That should have been a smoking gun. But instead the reaction from the rest of the world was, ‘Good, this is the inspections working.’
How the French and Germans manage to continue fooling themselves that Iraq is disarming, despite the testimony of the Chief Weapons Inspector, Hans Blix, the presentation by Colin Powell, and Iraq’s refusal to destroy the Al Samoud 2 missile program that they have been told to destroy, is beyond me. The last alone is material breach. The French and the Germans are being so cynical about coddling this tyrant that I am more disgusted than I have ever been with them. They know what Saddam is up to, but they are more interested in their oil contracts and the damning evidence of their complicity with Saddam that will be found after the war and liberation of Iraq.
Perhaps we should remind people one more time what happens when we let the French and the Germans determine the fate of the world.
(I can not verify the picture nor have I tried- I doubt it is real- the message is clear, however.)
*** Update ***
The Rev. Chapin states that the picture is 100% authentic.
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Gerhard Schroeder stands on his reputation- and so can you:
This post is in: Humorous
From the comments section at Ted Barlow’s joint:
I found it metaphysically distressing that, no matter how many Gibbs die, more Gibbs remain.
This post is in: General Stupidity
I only read about a paragraph of this bilge from Regis DeBray in the NY Times yesterday before I quit in disgust.
Now, thanks to James Lileks, you don’t have to read any of it.
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
In case you were curious, George Clooney has an opinion about Iraq.
Normally I would make a sarcastic remark, but I have granted lifetimte immunity to Clooney for his performance in O Brother, Where art Thou?, which I think may be one of the greatest movies ever made.
You, however, are free to flame away.
by John Cole| 6 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
Matt Yglesias quips:
Incidentally, at dinner the other day I remarked to a girl that Al Gore never acually said that he’d invented the internet. She was shocked.
Imagine how shocked she would have been if you told her the truth about Bush 1 and the grocery scanner. Why do I bring this up? Because when it suits Democrats, they will resort to using out and out lies- remember, the Bush1 grocery scanner incident served as the perfect fodder for a campaign running on “It’s the Economy, Stupid.” Funny how I never heard Carville debunking that story…
Incidentally, while Yglesias is dismayed by the treatment Gore got for his stupid and perhaps over-stated (but not deceitful) remarks, he continues to believe Oliver Willis’s hyperbole, rather than the military reports themselves.
Says Oliver:
In 2000, George Bush spit in the face of the military when he said “if called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report …, ‘Not ready for duty, sir.'”
That very same military beat the Taliban, is engaged in the global hunt on terror, deployed in the Phillipines, and will be used to invade Iraq.
But then, George has shown that he’ll say and do anything to be elected.
Matthew characterizes Bush’s remarks as one off his sleazier moments.
Here is the CNN Report on the issue:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Army has rated two of its 10 divisions as unprepared for a major war, a move the Pentagon said reflects the strain of deployments for peacekeeping duties in the Balkans.
A recent classified assessment placed the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, New York — which has a brigade deployed in Bosnia — and the 1st Infantry Division, based in Germany — which has a brigade based in Kosovo — at “C-4,” the lowest level of readiness, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki said.
It marks the first time since the 1970s that any Army division has dropped to the lowest of four possible readiness levels, officials said. A C-4 rating means the units in question need additional manpower, equipment or training.
Shinseki said the problem for these units was mainly a shortage of military personnel. The two divisions each have about half of their troops involved in peacekeeping operations.
Asked whether he was worried about the slip in readiness, Shinseki said, “Sure, anytime a division commander reports C-4, we are concerned. We’ll see what corrections need to be made.”
Bush has a lot of things to explain for since he took office. What is amusing is that the left wants to re-fight the 2000 election, and they still can’t get it right.