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You are here: Home / Politics / War on Terror / War on Terror aka GSAVE® / Dumb As a Sack of Hammers

Dumb As a Sack of Hammers

by John Cole|  March 28, 20088:45 am| 18 Comments

This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®, Assholes, General Stupidity

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Spencer Ackerman discussing Dean Barnett:

Just laughably stupid. What Barnett evidently doesn’t realize is that Sarah Sewall helped write the fucking Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual. Is FM 3-24 filled with “dovish idealism”? Remember what this dude wrote the next time anyone from the Weekly Standard tries to take Petraeus or Odierno into their tender mouths.

But you knew that already, didn’t you?

I like what Spencer has done here. Not only do these morons need to be pointed out as stupid, but they need to be insulted and derided and ridiculed in the process. In that vein, Glenzilla:

To commence the discussion to show us all “The Way Ahead” in Iraq, here is the very first thing that Fred Kagan said:

The first thing I want to say is that: The Civil War in Iraq is over. And until the American domestic political debate catches up with that fact, we are going to have a very hard time discussing Iraq on the basis of reality.

One has to watch the video to fully appreciate how pompously he sits there on his war throne issuing his decree about “reality” in Iraq.

Less than 24 hours after Kagan decreed the Civil War in Iraq over — and lectured Americans that we must accept this if we are to understand reality in Iraq — McClatchy News Service reported:

With Iraq’s top leaders directing the battle, Iraq’s army and national police pressed a major operation Tuesday to wrest control of the southern port city of Basra from the Shiite Mahdi Army militia. Fighting between government forces and the militia quickly spread through Iraq’s south and into Baghdad.

That is impressively wrong, even for Kagan, who, as Glenn notes, has made a lucrative career out of being catastrophically wrong, but very serious.

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Reader Interactions

18Comments

  1. 1.

    Crusty Dem

    March 28, 2008 at 9:00 am

    Kagan is truly amazing, I’ve never heard of someone being so exactly, perfectly wrong. Dude, this is exactly the start of the civil war in Iraq. I’d like to take him to las vegas, stake with $1 chips at the roulette table and force him to pick red or black. There’s no way he could be as wrong as he is about, hell, everything else. But if he were, I could use him to break the bank.

    But seriously, there’s got to be an award for people this stupid. Fred Kagan, winner of the first annual STFU award. We could have a banquet and everything (he wouldn’t miss a free banquet, would he?).

  2. 2.

    joe

    March 28, 2008 at 9:07 am

    I’m just glad we’ve finally got a candidate who will go toe to toe with the hawks on foreign and military policy, and argue for an actual competing vision, rather than trying to change the subject (Daschle-style) or accepting their premises but critiquing their execution (Kerry-style).

    Because they’re wrong, and they’re dumb, and the only reason anyone believes differently is because they’ve never been directly challenged. Fat, bloated, intellectually lazy hacks who’ve spent too long existing in a mutual-admiration society, and actually think their rhetorical flourishes are an expression of meaningful ideas.

    These idiots actually think that “Listening to Osama bin Laden won’t end terrorism” is a controversial idea. They actually think that is what their opponents believe. Obama is going to eat them alive.

  3. 3.

    Zifnab

    March 28, 2008 at 9:08 am

    The first thing I want to say is that: The Civil War in Iraq is over. And until the American domestic political debate catches up with that fact, we are going to have a very hard time discussing Iraq on the basis of reality.

    Woo! Reality based community! I kan haz some off et?

  4. 4.

    Grand Moff Texan

    March 28, 2008 at 9:24 am

    What do you expect? The only people left who support this war are dumb, dishonest, or both.
    .

  5. 5.

    Wilfred

    March 28, 2008 at 9:29 am

    The Arab bloggers who lived through the Lebanese civil war were saying months ago that the lull in action was typical of what they experienced. The warring parties need time to re-arm, and recruit. The glaring lack of political reconciliation, highlighted over and over and over again as the most important objective of the surge, was always the only thing that could put a stop to factionalism. Kagan is the worst of the remaining pigs – common sense and facts are useless with Zionist, neo-con ideologues. They lied about Iraq from the beginning, they’re not likely to start telling the truth now.

  6. 6.

    Gus

    March 28, 2008 at 10:04 am

    They get away with it because no one calls them on it. It doesn’t matter if it’s true. Once it’s out there, people will cite it as fact. There’s too much information for the average person to keep track of, so if Joe Sixpack sees an “expert” say it on Faux, it becomes truth in his mind. Who has time to keep up with 4 all news networks, dozens of newspapers and news services and innumerable blogs? Dean Barnett isn’t saying that shit because he’s stupid (though he probably is), he’s saying it in service of his ideology. I’m sure he knows it’s not true, he just doesn’t care.

  7. 7.

    Evinfuilt

    March 28, 2008 at 10:30 am

    That is impressively wrong, even for Kagan, who, as Glenn notes, has made a lucrative career out of being catastrophically wrong, but very serious.

    So you’re saying his Bill Kristol wrong?

  8. 8.

    Bernie

    March 28, 2008 at 10:40 am

    “Not only do these morons need to be pointed out as stupid, but they need to be insulted and derided and ridiculed in the process.”

    I would go even further. These people need to be crushed and humilated. They need to be sent back to their think-tank cubicles crying like a 7 year old who just got his ass kicked by a 5 year old girl on the playground. It is the only way to ensure that they will never, ever, be put in a position of any kind of power ever again.

  9. 9.

    The Commander Guy

    March 28, 2008 at 10:53 am

    the very first thing that Fred Kagan said:

    The first thing I want to say is that: The Civil War in Iraq is over

    He didn’t say which Civil War war was over.

  10. 10.

    The Commander Guy

    March 28, 2008 at 10:58 am

    So you’re saying his Bill Kristol wrong?

    Kristol does not care if what he says is right or wrong.

    If he can muddy up the waters with enough B.S. to prevent people from getting a clue about out what is really going on, he’s quite happy.

  11. 11.

    binzinerator

    March 28, 2008 at 11:02 am

    Dean Barnett:

    Just laughably stupid. What Barnett evidently doesn’t realize is that Sarah Sewall helped write the fucking Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual. Is FM 3-24 filled with “dovish idealism”? Remember what this dude wrote the next time anyone from the Weekly Standard tries to take Petraeus or Odierno into their tender mouths.

    You mean Spencer Ackerman said that, not Dean Barnet, right?

    Nitpicky, but the attribution makes it look like Barnett is tooling on his own stupidity.

  12. 12.

    Scott H

    March 28, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Not only do these morons need to be pointed out as stupid, but they need to be insulted and derided and ridiculed in the process.

    My program for these people is Ridicule, Humiliate, Disgrace.

    All verbs.

  13. 13.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    March 28, 2008 at 1:55 pm

    Scott H Says:
    Not only do these morons need to be pointed out as stupid, but they need to be insulted and derided and ridiculed in the process.

    My program for these people is Ridicule, Humiliate, Disgrace.

    All verbs.

    “Jail” can also be a verb, at least for some of these motherfuckers.

  14. 14.

    Andrew J. Lazarus

    March 29, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    Sarah Sewall is a girl.

    Fred Kagan, on the other hand, is a specimen of American manhood par excellence.

  15. 15.

    fishbane

    March 29, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    John, I’m sorry, but I have to defend the honor of hammers. At least they’re good for something.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Meet the Dovish Doctrinaire Idealists at politburo diktat 2.0 says:
    March 28, 2008 at 11:06 am

    […] h/t: John Cole. […]

  2. American Street » Blog Archive » The Surge Has Failed says:
    March 29, 2008 at 10:47 pm

    […] Far be it from me to throw a wet blanket on the well deserved flames Fred Kagan is getting for pronouncing The Civil War in Iraq is over — a war the neocons never wanted to admit existed (kinda like not admitting we’re in a recession until the recovery starts). However, a civil war implies two different sides, at the most maybe three. We’ve got at least six separate entities lobbing bombs at each other — almost all of whom have no qualms about putting our troops in the crossfire (or deliberately in the cross-hairs). This is armed chaos, gangland style anarchy.Some very big brains are still making the same old arguments why we should get out against the same old arguments why we should stay. I think one look at the current situation tells the story in a brand new light. It doesn’t matter if we stay or go. […]

  3. American Street » Blog Archive » The Surge Has Failed says:
    March 29, 2008 at 10:47 pm

    […] Far be it from me to throw a wet blanket on the well deserved flames Fred Kagan is getting for pronouncing The Civil War in Iraq is over — a war the neocons never wanted to admit existed (kinda like not admitting we’re in a recession until the recovery starts). However, a civil war implies two different sides, at the most maybe three. We’ve got at least six separate entities lobbing bombs at each other — almost all of whom have no qualms about putting our troops in the crossfire (or deliberately in the cross-hairs). This is armed chaos, gangland style anarchy.Some very big brains are still making the same old arguments why we should get out against the same old arguments why we should stay. I think one look at the current situation tells the story in a brand new light. It doesn’t matter if we stay or go. […]

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