For doing what the decider says:
“[Maliki’s] learning to be a leader. And one of my jobs as the president and his ally is to help him be that leader without being patronizing. At some point in time, if I come to the conclusion that he can’t be the leader—he’s unwilling to lead or he’s deceptive—then we’ll change course. But I haven’t come to that conclusion. As a matter of fact, his recent actions have inspired me.”
I think the real lesson of the last few years is that what the world really needs is Bush running two countries. Can we start bombing Iran?
demimondian
Fixed.
Cyrus
“Without being patronizing”? Fucking TZ’s yard man Christ, this is the beyond parody moment.
OK, the beyond parody moment of the week.
Faux News
“Mein Fuhrer, I can walk”!
whippoorwill
The wingnut preachers would be positively orgasmic if Bush started bombing Iran. What better way get the Apocalypse on. It’s about 7 years late as is and a body can’t wait for the Rapture forever. I’ve always heard that when the Lord takes the righteous up to heaven they can’t take anything with them.I just hope they realize everyone will be buck naked.
Tayi
I think it’s interesting that Bush thinks that being deceptive may disqualify someone from being ‘the leader.’ Doesn’t that mean he should resign?
capelza
Did he just admit that the “democratically elected goverment of Iraq” is a puppet state?
This is one of those times when the absurdity of the whole situation makes me laugh. I mean it’s either that or go “mad eyed from stating the obvious”. That’s how the lunatics will win, I’m reduced to a disabling laughter.
Zifnab
But Bush has never been dishonest in his entire term in office. Everything he’s said has been spoken with whole-hearted conviction and pure ideologically driven vision. Who are you to say what George Bush did or did not know? There was no underlying crime. And besides, only someone who secretly supported Saddam Hussien’s brutal dictatorship would honestly suggest that it would be better if our President had not lead the mighty American Army to drive out a demonic baby-killer. Of course, you probably support abortion too, so I can see why you like couching your pro-Islamic Murder rhetoric in defensive lingo, attempting to paint President Bush as a liar, when he’s done everything in his power to push back the wave of fundamentalist extremism ready to engulf our nation. I didn’t see you complaining about Clinton when he lied about Whitewater or taking money from Chinese spies or violating the sacred institution of marriage. So it’s pretty clear that even in your ridiculous assumptions, you’re working on a hypocritical double standard. The fact that people like you are allowed to vote simply amazes me. Why don’t you go move to Iran, where you can have the Supreme Ayatollah tell you what is a lie and what isn’t? And you can pray to your heathen God, and laugh with glee over dead American soldiers, and chant on and on about how “Bush Lied” and he invaded to trade “Blood for Oil”.
Seriously, if you’re going to defame our President like that, just get the hell out of our country. You’re either with us or you are with the terrorists. God Bless America.
Punchy
Cappy just beat me to it. Didn’t Bush just announce that we’re actually running Iraq? What happened to Teh Purple Digits?
Uh, I may be (check–I am) an idiot, but this to me seems like it should be a HUGE gaffe. Of course, there’s only about 6 people on this planet who didn’t already believe we ran their state, so I guess my surprise really is 100% feigned.
The Other Steve
When are we rid of the Bush?
The Other Steve
Couldn’t he have just stayed in Iraq as Lord Governor, or something?
cleek
the most-charitable reading is that “changing course” means that we will stop teaching/helping him be a leader, not that we will stop him from being a leader.
of course, there’s no reason to be charitable with anything Bush says about anything, and every reason to assume the worst.
Dave
Prediction: Bush will kick Maliki to the curb, install someone else, proclaim that Freedom is on the march and we are winning, Congress wants us to lose. With that, wingmuttia will parrot what the administration says without giving a second thought as to what just occurred.
myiq2xu
Fixed
Dennis-SGMM
Maliki’s learning to be a leader.
Bush is learning to be a president.
The generals are learning how to fight in Iraq.
On the Job Training is not f**king leadership.
semper fubar
And I’m learning to be stupid. I fgure it’s the only way to survive in Bushmerica.
Jake
Fixed.
Ah, but on that wonderful day God will do two body snatches. First He’ll take the bodies of the elect. Then He’ll take the bodies of various sinners. Then He’ll swap them. As an added bonus they’ll get to look down and watch as various models, actors and porn stars wail and gnash their teeth because they’re suddenly stuck in flabby sacks of lard. Allelujia!
Bubblegum Tate
Awesome post, Zifnab. Sounds directly cribbed from B4B.
Dreggas
Not to got too O/T or anything but everyone does realize that a B-52 armed with nukes went from Minot down to LA recently and everyone realizes the potential implicationshere right?
Zifnab
:-p Psycheout is an ever present inspiration.
When Bill O’Reily suggested someone nuke San Fran, Dick Cheney was watching?
qwerty42
I saw Larry’s post at TPM and hope this is not true. JFC, it’s like a weird replay of Dr Strangelove. This morning Glenn Greenwald mentioned the Fred Hiatt editorial with its low level “bomb Iran” message. I want this to be groundless paranoia on my part. really.
Dreggas
I’m hoping it’s not true as well but reading Larry’s site and the comments about this he’s right. Nukes do not “accidentally” move. My instructor for Criminal Justice/Security when I was a senior in HS was former AF security police at Minot, he would relate just how tight protocol was on guarding these things.
Pooh
So, even as an agnostic Jew, I saw that headline (before even reading Larry Johnson’s piece) and my first thought was “Oh Jesus, we’re [i]accidentally[/i] going to scramble nuclear armed bombers against Iran.” Are we just normal fucked, or really, really, really fucked?
Cain
Oh man. I hope it’s not true that they are going to hit Iran with a nuke. We would be so over. It would be hard to be proud of being an American. More of a badge of shame.
I hope that conscientious military folks put a stop to this. The CinC is really insane…
cain
jake
Hey, it’s Saddam’s WMD! That crafty bugger hid his nukes in Minot just like he hid his chemical weapons in the UN.
Yeah, I hope you’re going OT. I saw that this morning and got a headache trying to absorb with the concept of “accidentally” moving nukes a few inches, never mind onto a damn plane and half-way across country. What can the “responsible” parties say? “Uh, the stickers peeled off! We thought they were big … containers of … gravy!”
By show of hands: Who thinks that if that sucker had crashed in Texas, and there was a sudden spike in radiation, this Administration would have responded in a sane and honest manner?
Davis X. Machina
Who thinks that if that sucker had crashed in Texas, and there was a sudden spike in radiation, this Administration would have responded in a sane and honest manner?
I am of two minds. Either a.) they’d level with us, because not even that monumental a cock-up would deliver Texas’ electoral votes to a Democrat, or b.) they’d cover it up, because in Texas they’d have a lot of help from local authorities towards that end, and that would be their first impulse. (Poor impulse control seems to be a theme with the ruling junta.)
whippoorwill
I was watching CBS news tonight with Katy’s ‘things are improving’ drivel and then she showed a segment on a new weapon the insurgents are using. Hand grenades that look like an oversize Potato Masher the Krauts use to use in WW2. But this one has a little parachute that pops out to direct an armor piercing round, fucking armor piercing downward to a Humvee, or whatever. They ran some Al Quaida promo tapes of attacks on US GI’s and they are some kinda nasty little fuckers. Apparently, they’ve been in use awhile and the Army has kept in under wraps. If you saw the tapes you’d know why. And there very little that can be done to counter them except stay on base. A terrorists wet dream if there ever was one and guess who makes them, the Russkies. Guess it’s payback for our stingers in Afghanistan.
JWW
Do you all believe everything you read or do you read only what you want to believe. Maybe all in our world is not well, but identify anytime in written history that it has been. Place blame where you may, but it will not erase the dead of those killed on US soil, Asian soil, African soil, or European soil prior to the current war. You as a citizen, family member, and parent in the US would defend, protect and attack any enemy that had committed such acts on your home, property or neighborhood. How do you seek to justify a nation not doing the same.
PS Nobody is a born leader, you are trained, mentored and gain experience. There are no shortcuts
whippoorwill
Is that your Morpheous?
cleek
every body here realizes it’s a war, right? and we’re using technology the insurgents can only dream of. so they’ve got a round on a parachute… we control the sky; we’re attacking them from armored vehicles while they drive around in light pickup trucks; we can listen to their cell phones; we can listen to their voice conversations from hundreds of yards away; we can see at night; we can see through walls at night; we can obliterate an acre of city with a single bomb dropped silently from miles above; we have relatively unlimited amounts of money and weaponry at our disposal. they are completely outgunned.
while i’m not trying to say “it’s only fair” or “this evens it up a bit”, i am saying: this is what war is – people on each side trying to kill the other side with whatever they can muster while defending themselves with whatever else they have. it’s not a fencing match; there’s no referee to call a foul.
absolutely, the idea of dead US soldiers is appalling, especially for this dumb-ass war. and the best way to stop it from happening again is to get the fuck out of there.
cleek
[whippoorwill, that least one wasn’t really directed at you… just venting]
whippoorwill
Couldn’t agree more!
TenguPhule
Corrected.
Terrorists don’t need armor piercing unless they go for political leaders.
Guerillas vs soldiers do.
TenguPhule
Corrected.
Terrorists don’t need armor piercing unless they go for political leaders.
Guerillas vs soldiers do.
jenniebee
All things considered, the eighteenth century was really pretty nice.
Tuchman said it pretty neatly in, IIRC, A Distant Mirror. In terms of the bloodiness of the warfare and the ravages of disease, the twentieth and fourteenth centuries stand out as the nastiest on record.
Krista
I bet there’d be some Scots and some Acadians who’d disagree with you there. (Or their descendants would, anyway.)
Dreggas
All things considered the 90’s were a damn good decade, there was relative peace, prosperity was up. About the only real downside is music started to suck ass thanks to boy bands and metal went down hill.
JWW
First to Ten-Ju-Fool,
If you had even common knoledge of ballistics, you would beg that you may be hit by an armor piercing round vs a full metal jacket round. You are a Fool playing out of your league.
Then to Drag-ass,
The 90’s were not cool, we just died and didn’t do or say much about it.
United States
December 14, 1999
United States
Algerian Ahmed Ressam arrested entering from Canada with bomb-making materials; indicted 12/22 on explosives counts.
October 15, 1999
United States
Siddig Ali gets 11 years for role in plot to blow up UN, landmarks in New York.
October 8, 1999
United States
Khalfan khamis Mohamed arrested in South Africa, flown to New York and charged in Tanzania bombing. See 8/7/99.
June 7, 1999
United States
FBI adds Bin Ladin to “10 Most Wanted” list.
May 19, 1999
United States
Ali Mohamed charged with plotting with bin Ladin group in global conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens abroad.
March 1, 1999
United States
Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer sentenced to life for 1997 New York subway suicide-bomb plot.
November 4, 1998
United States
Usama Bin Ladin indicted for bombings of United States Embassies in Africa. See 8/7.
October 7, 1998
United States
Four members of Bin Ladin’s al Qaida (al Qaeda) group indicted in conspiracy to kill Americans. See 8/7/98.
September 17, 1998
United States
Two suspects in Nairobi Embassy bombing, Haroun, Fazil, Wadih el Hage, indicted. See 8/7/98.
April 3, 1998
United States
Palestinian driver in World Trade Center blast sentenced to 240 years. See 2/26/93.
January 23, 1998
United States
Mir Aimal Kasi sentenced to death for shooting rampage outside of CIA. See 1/25/93.
January 8, 1998
United States
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life plus 240 years for World Trade Center bombing. See 2/26/93, 11/13/97.
February 23, 1997
United States
Empire State Building Shooting. A Palestinian gunman opened fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State Building in New York City, killing a Danish national and wounding visitors from the United States, Argentina, Switzerland, and France before turning the gun on himself. A handwritten note carried by the gunman claimed this was a punishment attack against the “enemies of Palestine.”
October 1, 1995
United States
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman convicted in plot to blow up UN, other landmarks in New York.
April 30, 1995
United States
President Clinton announces a halt to all U.S. trade and investment with Iran.
April 19, 1995
United States
An explosion at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City killed 168 people and injured hundreds of others.
March 1, 1994
United States
Terrorist shooting in New York. An assailant fired repeatedly from his vehicle into a van on the Brooklyn Bridge in which 16-year-old Ari Halberstam and several other Hasidic youths were riding. The attack left Halberstam dead and three other young men injured. On November 30, 1994, Rashid Najib Baz was found guilty of murder, attempted murder, and criminal use of a firearm and sentenced, on January 18, 1995, to more than 140 years in prison.
September 13, 1993
United States
Israel and PLO sign peace agreement.
July 2, 1993
United States
Sheikh Omar Abdurrahman, the radical Egyptian cleric, surrendered to U.S. Justice Department officials in Brooklyn, New York.
February 26, 1993
United States
World Trade Center bombing in New York kills 6, wounds 1,000. See 1/8/98.
I guess there is not enough death too inspire interest. Well look at the incidents, names, and places. You being from Buttwater, Kansas. I wouldn’t be caring either. That is just a partial list.
JWW
Oh,
It just slipped my mind, but I don’t know if it counts in your history book. Bosnia, Khobar Towers, USS Cole, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi,Mogadishu. Yeah it was quite peaceful. He was such a good man, when it came to defending our country, people, and pride. But then again, I cringe when a soldier dies. You seem to want it both ways. When they die? You write your own reason to justify it. I won’t give you the pleasure!!!
Bruce Moomaw
At the risk of inducing cardiac arrest, I think Cole is being seriously unfair to Bush. I think the latter was just falling into some more of his notoriously sloppy language, and that he really meant to say was just “If I come to the conclusion that he’s not capable of being the country’s leader” we’ll have to consider pulling out — not that Bush was saying that in that case he’d have Maliki replaced. (At least, I THINK that’s what he’s saying, because that’s the only possible interpretation of that statement coming out of the lips of any sane person. But that in itself, of course, requires some caveat where this administration is concerned.)
By the way, I think it will be a long, long time before Bush allows any more reporters to have extensive interviews with him. Iago — or Vladimir Putin — couldn’t have done as good a job on him as Draper has:
” Bush, as always, bridled at the request to navel-gaze. ‘You’re the observer,’ he said as he worked the cheese in his mouth. ‘I’m not. I really do not feel comfortable in the role of analyzing myself. I’ll try….
” ‘You’ve gotta think, think BIG. The Iranian issue,’ he said as bread crumbs tumbled out of his mouth and onto his chin, ‘is the strategic threat right now facing a generation of Americans, because Iran is promoting an extreme form of religion that is competing with another extreme form of religion. Iran’s a destabilizing force. And instability in that part of the world has deeply adverse consequences, like energy falling in the hands of extremist people that would use it to blackmail the West. And to couple all of that with a nuclear weapon, then you’ve got a dangerous situation. … That’s what I mean by strategic thought. I don’t know how you learn that. I don’t think there’s a moment where that happened to me. I really don’t. I know you’re searching for it. I know it’s difficult. I do know — y’know, how do you decide, how do you learn to decide things? When you make up your mind, and you stick by it — I don’t know that there’s a moment, Robert. I really — You either know how to do it or you don’t. I think part of this is it: I ran for reasons. Principled reasons. There were principles by which I will stand on. And when I leave this office I’ll stand on them. And therefore you can’t get driven by polls. Polls aren’t driven by principles. They’re driven by the moment. By the nanosecond.’ ”
Now — even aside from the bread crumbs — does this not bear an eerie resemblance to the conversation of one of the morons in a C.M. Kornbluth science fiction story?
Dreggas
First off Hey John about those personal insults?
Second to JWW:
Gee remember a lot of republicans trying to stop the admin of the 90’s everytime he turned around. As for all of the shit that you mentioned. Since then we had 3000 people killed on 9/11 BUSH’s FAULT. The fucker that did it is still on the loose and we’re fighting a pointless war with ever shifting goal posts while he laughs.
Sorry, your examples are BS and you know it. But keep sucking down that kool-aid.