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Me#1You#10
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 Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:16 pm Post subject: Jackson Diehl: "Another John Kerry 'flip-flop'?" |
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Yikes! And from a WaPo op-ed contributor. An analysis of Jean Fraud's loathesome posturing in his newly ordained status of pseudo-Sec'y of State and Obama foreign policy lapdog...(emphasis mine)
| Quote: | "Sending troops in dribs and drabs won't change that reality -- and it may condemn the soldiers already there to fighting and dying without the chance of winning."
Another John Kerry 'flip-flop'?
By Jackson Diehl
The Washington Post
October 27, 2009
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) seems to have confused the Washington press corps. Fresh from Afghanistan, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman delivered a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations Monday that caused The Post to report that he “opposes sending more troops to Afghanistan” and the Los Angeles Times to conclude that “he would support a decision by President Obama to send some additional troops.”
Was Kerry for the troop increase before he was against it -- all in the same speech? Not exactly. Instead the Massachusetts Democrat's complicated position sounded like an attempt to fudge the difference between supporters and opponents of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's request for 40,000 reinforcements. In that respect, Kerry -- who served as a de facto White House representative in talks last week with Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- may have been offering a hint of where Obama, who also seems to be searching for a middle ground, may end up.
<snip>
I suspect some of Obama's advisors are thinking along the same lines as Kerry. Afghanistan would get more troops, but only slowly, and only in tandem with improvements with its government and army. This has a sensible, pay-as-you-go ring to it; it also might diffuse the political problem of asking Congress to fund 40,000 more troops -- at about $40 billion -- all at once.
The problem with Kerry's thinking is that it sidesteps one of the central points made by McChrystal: The Taliban is currently winning the war, and unless its momentum is reversed in the next year, it may prove impossible to implement the larger strategy. As Kerry himself acknowledged, many Afghans are choosing sides in the war based on which side they believe has the upper hand, and right now they are betting on the Taliban. Sending troops in dribs and drabs won't change that reality -- and it may condemn the soldiers already there to fighting and dying without the chance of winning.
On Sunday's Opinion page I quoted Kerry, famously a Vietnam Veteran, as saying that, “One of the lessons of Vietnam is if you are going to send American forces into harm's way, you don't do it in a limited way. You don't do it tying hands behind your back ahead of time. You don't ask people to give their lives for something less than the prospect of success.” He said that in 1999, during a debate about the U.S. intervention in Kosovo. But it's a lesson that applies equally to the way the Afghan war has been conducted so far -- and how it might continue, if Kerry has his way.
Washington Post - cont'd |
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Leeman
PO3
Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 265
Location: Connecticut
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| Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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It is very difficult for kerry or any other liberal to make a decision on troops , since thier view of an Army is to be a habitat for humanity, to build roads and houses for the poor. Not to fight. If you have read or can read Buzz Paterson's book "Deriliction of Duty" He had a first hand insight to the liberals thinking while serving under Clinton.
As bad as clinton was, I believe Obama is a worst Commander in Chief.
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Leeman
"We are all Ghost now"
"But once we were men"
from an unsigned diary recovered from Cabanatuan Camp |
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Me#1You#10
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| Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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...and Limbaugh weighs in as well. Probably worth the trip just for the photoshop...
| Quote: | The Return of John "Swifty" Kerry
Rush Limbaugh
October 27, 2009
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: It is apparent, ladies and gentlemen, that General John "Swifty" Kerry has taken over Obama foreign policy. You people who thought you were voting for Obama to change foreign policy were wrong. You know, I still can't get over that last sound bite. President Obama, there aren't Bush troops, and there aren't Obama troops. Those are American soldiers, and you've abandoned them, while claiming to these naval people in Jacksonville yesterday you never -- he's embarrassing. Worse than that, it's dangerous. We got John "Swifty" Kerry, who served in Vietnam, by the way, yesterday afternoon at the Council on Foreign Relations, said...
KERRY: In 1971 I asked the Foreign Relations Committee: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Thirty-eight years later, chairing the committee, I keep that question very much in mind.
RUSH: Do you guys realize that George Bush is gone? They cannot stop talking about Bush. It didn't help 'em in Virginia with Creigh Deeds, did it? It's not helping them in New Jersey with Corzine, is it? John Kerry, "Swifty" Kerry, said more.
KERRY: After eight years of neglecting Afghanistan as vice president, Dick Cheney has now come out of retirement to criticize President Obama for taking time to examine assumptions before sending troops into war. Make no mistake, because of the gross mishandling of this war by past civilian leadership there are no great options for its handling today. One American officer captured well our lack of a strategy when he said, "We haven't been fighting in Afghanistan for eight years, we've been fighting in Afghanistan for one year, eight times in a row." That is our inheritance.
RUSH: These people are absolutely shameless. They have no guts, nor do they have souls. The Bush-Cheney administration left them with a plan. Robert Gibbs was forced to admit they got the plan and implemented it, in March. You inherited a successful strategy, Senator Kerry, that this man-child president imposed. He implemented it. The gross mishandling of this war by past civilian leadership? There are no great options for its handling? Whatever happened to the concept of winning? There are no great options today? So you are dithering on troops because of Bush and Cheney? This is a party that's lost. This is a party that is dangerous to this country's future and security. These are people who are in a permanent campaign mode, and right now that campaign mode is anti-Bush, and for the simple reason they think that's what will get their irons out of the fire. They get into trouble and they think all they gotta do is mention Bush. And it isn't going to be long before a whole lot of people are saying, "Gosh, I wish Bush was running this."
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ah, isn't it wonderful how history repeats itself, ladies and gentlemen. The North Vietnamese and the Vietcong's favorite Senator, John Kerry, back to undermine another war. He undermined Vietnam; he undermined Iraq, and now he's undermining Afghanistan. So now he's Al-Qaeda's favorite senator, and the Taliban's favorite senator along with the North Vietnamese and Vietcong's favorite senator, and probably the favorite senator of the Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot. He trashed General McChrystal while at the Council on Foreign Relations as well.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I have a question. Here we have General McChrystal urging the president to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan to save the operation. We have NATO signing on. We have Anthony Zinni signing on. We have all kinds of people signing on, but General John "Swifty" Kerry has assumed operational control of the mission. And this is what he had to say about General McChrystal.
KERRY: His current plan reaches too far, too fast. We do not yet have the critical guarantees of governance and end of development capacity, the other two legs of counterinsurgency. And I have serious concerns about the ability to produce effective Afghan forces to partner with at the rate that we need to so that we can ensure that when our troops make heroic sacrifices, the benefits to the Afghans are actually clear and sustainable.
RUSH: Were we concerned who would run Germany after Hitler? Did we decide to wait till we figured out what the Germans would do if we get rid of Hitler? My question is this: Where is General Colin Powell on this? General Powell, of course, the ideal Republican who endorses and votes for the Democrat presidential nominee.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I just had the sound bites of John Kerry talking about Afghanistan and McChrystal. John Kerry, 2003, in December to the Council on Foreign Relations again: "In fact, I fear that in the run-up to the 2004 election, the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy. Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal dates, without adequate stability, is an invitation to failure. The hard work of rebuilding Iraq must not be dictated by the schedule of the next American election. ... Nowhere is the need for collective endeavor greater than in Afghanistan. We must end the Bush administration's delay in expanding NATO forces and deploying them outside of Kabul. We must accelerate the training for the Afghan army and police. The disarmament of the warlord militias and their reintegration into society must be transformed from a pilot program into a mainstream strategy." So here's John Kerry in 2003 accusing the Bush administration of thinking about cutting-and-running from Iraq and Afghanistan before the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations while we are in the midst of cutting-and-running from Afghanistan under the leadership of President Obama.
END TRANSCRIPT
Rush Limbaugh |
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LewWaters
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Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:07 am Post subject: |
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Digging back in my files, I found quotes from Kerry on Afghanistan over the years and compared them to today.
Amazing how he can keep his head on his shoulders he spins so fast.
John Kerry Undermines American Troops In War…. Again
I also wonder if that is one of the dreaded and demonized Blackwater guards accompanying him?
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Me#1You#10
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| Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:16 am Post subject: |
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Lew, Rush could take a lesson from you.
Excellent commentary...and hopefully a primer for what history has in store for this odious scoundrel. |
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LewWaters
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Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:15 am Post subject: |
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Thanks, #1.
Like I said there, let's hope the voters in the once great state of Massachusetts wake up to the fraud they have elected for so long now.
I have little faith they will, though, considering Ted Kennedy received a lifetime appointment.
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Schadow
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Joined: 30 Sep 2004
Posts: 936
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
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| Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:25 am Post subject: |
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Another oldie but goodie:
Schadow
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Navy_Navy_Navy
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Joined: 07 May 2004
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| Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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That's an excellent blog post, Lew!
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Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother |
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LewWaters
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Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks, N3.
I'm still amazed at how Kerry spins so easily, ignoring everything stored on his own web site from speeches made not all that long ago.
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