The Commentariat -- June 13, 2014
Mark Landler & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The White House, confronted by an unexpected crisis on a battlefield it thought it had left behind, scrambled Thursday to reassure Iraq that it would help its beleaguered army fend off militants who have overrun much of the country and now threaten Baghdad.... President Obama and his aides moved on multiple fronts. A senior official said the president was actively considering American airstrikes against the militant groups. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. telephoned Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to express American support. And Pentagon officials briefed lawmakers about what one senator later described as a 'grave situation.'" ...
... Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "Iraq is splintering, and with it both the original neo-conservative belief that a sectarian dictatorship could be made quickly into a stable democracy and Obama's hands-off approach to the wider region." ...
Fareed Zakaria, in a Washington Post op-ed, blames al-Malaki & the Bush administration -- who placed al-Malaki in power -- for the current situation in Iraq. He explains why. ...
... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "The collapse of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has little to do with the withdrawal of American troops and everything to do with the political failure of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. As the U.S. pullout began under the terms of a treaty signed in 2008 by then-President George W. Bush, Maliki, the leader of a Shiite political party, promised to run a more inclusive government -- to bring more Sunnis into the ministries, to bring more Sunnis from the Sons of Iraq militia into the national army, to settle property disputes in Kirkuk, to negotiate a formula on sharing oil revenue with Sunni districts, and much more. Maliki has since backpedaled on all of these commitments and has pursued policies designed to strengthen Shiites and marginalize Sunnis." ...
... David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Maliki's failure has been increasingly obvious since the elections of 2010, when the Iraqi people in their wisdom elected a broader, less-sectarian coalition. But the Obama administration, bizarrely working in tandem with Iran, brokered a deal that allowed Maliki to continue and has worked with him as an ally against al-Qaeda. Maliki's coalition triumphed in April's elections, but the balloting was boycotted by Sunnis. Given Maliki's sectarian and authoritarian style, a growing number of Iraq experts are questioning why the Obama administration continues to provide him billions in military aid -- and is said to be weighing his plea for lethal Predator drones." ...
... Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker: "Time and again, American commanders have told me, they stepped in front of Maliki to stop him from acting brutally and arbitrarily toward Iraq's Sunni minority. Then the Americans left, removing the last restraints on Maliki's sectarian and authoritarian tendencies.... Maliki's march to authoritarian rule has fueled the reëmergence of the Sunni insurgency directly. With nowhere else to go, Iraq's Sunnis are turning, once again, to the extremists to protect them.... What the Americans left behind was an Iraqi state that was not able to stand on its own. What we built is now coming apart. This is the real legacy of America's war in Iraq." ...
... Right about now, we need the expert advice of Sen. John McCain. Jeremy Herb & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. John McCain said Thursday that President Barack Obama's entire national security team should resign over the resurgence of Islamic militants in Iraq. 'Everybody in his national security team, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ought to be replaced,' the Arizona Republican told reporters ahead of a classified Senate Armed Services Committee briefing on the deteriorating situation in Iraq. 'It's a colossal failure of American security policy.'" ...
... digby: "Listening to McCain babble on about Obama firing his entire staff and replacing them with his True North, the Man Called Petraeus while Huckleberry Graham shrieks 'we've got another Benghazi! in the making' is enough to make me start drinking. And it's not even noon yet here on the west coast. And that's nothing to the legions of morons who are condemning the Obama administration for puling out of Iraq." ...
... Sarah Smith of Politico: Not-President "Mitt Romney slammed President Barack Obama's foreign policy, as well as his former secretary of state, saying the recent turmoil in Iraq was emblematic of the president's 'missteps' across the region." ...
... In a comment made late Thursday, James S. wrote, "[Obama] ought to send Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld over there just to remind those ungrateful wretches about the candy and flowers we are due."
Julie Davis & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl ... left Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Thursday afternoon and will arrive in the United States early Friday to begin treatment at a Texas military medical facility, the Pentagon said." ...
... Kimberly Dozier of the Daily Beast: "Writing from a Taliban 'prison,' Bowe Bergdahl urged his family and his government to wait until they had all the facts before judging him for leaving his base. Then Bergdahl explained, at least in part, why he left his fellow troops in 2009. 'Leadership was lacking, if not non-existent. The conditions were bad and looked to be getting worse for the men that where actuly (sic) the ones risking thier (sic) lives from attack, he writes in a letter dated March 23, 2013 and obtained by The Daily Beast."
Paul Krugman: "... what I and others mean by 'movement conservatism' ... is ... an interlocking set of institutions and alliances that won elections by stoking cultural and racial anxiety but used these victories mainly to push an elitist economic agenda, meanwhile providing a support network for political and ideological loyalists. By rejecting Mr. Cantor, the Republican base showed that it has gotten wise to the electoral bait and switch, and, by his fall, Mr. Cantor showed that the support network can no longer guarantee job security. For around three decades, the conservative fix was in; but no more."
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) has dropped out of the race for House majority leader, leaving current Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the only candidate in the race.... Earlier Thursday, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) also dropped out of the running for majority leader." CW: In other words, business as usual. What a disappointment for the Tea Party caucus. ...
... Jake Sherman, et al., of Politico: "The race for the third most powerful position in the House -- majority whip -- is wide open. With less than a week until Republicans vote on the most significant changes to their leadership in nearly a decade, Peter Roskam of Illinois, Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Marlin Stutzman of Indiana are circling the 233-member House Republican Conference in a furious search for support."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "It’s not nice to fool Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. The justice said during oral arguments in April that he found the labeling of a Coca-Cola product called Pomegranate Blueberry Flavored Blend of Five Juices misleading, and Thursday he wrote for a unanimous Supreme Court that the company can be sued for it."
Joe Coscarelli of New York: "Lots of tense, awkward laughter on NPR today! Hillary Clinton's book tour took her to 'Fresh Air' with Terry Gross this afternoon, where the two got into it a bit over if and when Clinton 'evolved,' as they say, on the issue of gay marriage, or whether she held her personal opinions in favor of equality until they were politically viable. The answer is: Clinton is not telling. But it wasn't for Gross's lack of trying. "
Michael Paulson of the New York Times: "Fifteen months into the pontificate of Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States find themselves unsettled in ways large and small, revisiting both how they live and what they talk about in light of the new pope's emphasis on personal humility and economic justice."
News Ledes
New York Times: "The State Department said Friday that Russia had sent tanks and other heavy weapons to separatists in Ukraine, supporting accusations Thursday by the Ukrainian government."
Guardian: "An independent autopsy conducted on the Oklahoma prisoner [Clayton Locket] whose execution lasted 43 minutes while he writhed and groaned appears to show the intravenous needles that were supposed to deliver lethal fluids were never correctly inserted."
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Reader Comments (17)
@Re: McCain. Just what we need, more sage advice about how we should stay in Iraq forever. As Chris Matthews pointed out last night, no matter what, we would leave eventually anyway. Then there's the fact that the Iraqis don't want us there and Shrub signed off on it. What are we supposed to do? Stay by force? An admiral's son who got where he did by who his father was. He was never a good pilot. He decided to make an unnecessary pass over the target and got his ass shot down. Obama should take advice from McCain who has a history of bad military and political (Palin) decisions?
I forgot one other member of the Rogues Gallery that got into this mess: L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer who thought it would be a great idea to disband the Iraqi Army and turn thousands of disgruntled former soldiers loose WITH their weapons. Not only that, he didn't secure the ammo dumps. I wonder how many lives he cost.
Need a morning laugh?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/12/jimmy-fallon-chris-christie-evolution-of-dad-dancing_n_5490583.html
@Barbarossa; Always nice to read the reality on RC. Thanks
"When they [the Iraq military trainees that we have spent billions training] stand up, we'll stand down," said Bush over and over and over. Yup––what a crock! And who was it that said along with other best and brightest, "We have no reason to believe there will be serious problems between the Sunni's and Shiite's"–––look no further than our man who never became president, John McCain, who has been dead wrong on so many things it makes your head swim how he can still spout this nonsense and think he can be taken seriously. And such short memories: two years after we pulled out of Vietnam their civil war escalated to the point that the iconic picture of the helicopter on top of the American embassy taking people out of that country as quickly as possible should be etched in our memories reminding us of the futility of that war–––all those deaths, all that money, all that carnage for absolutely nothing. I say, all those fuckers who were singing in the "Bagdad Blues Band" promoting a "New Middle East" ought to be rounded up, given some uniforms to don, given some guns and ammunition and dumped into the heart of the fighting. Fun to be had by all, I'm certain.
Re: Hillary's evasiveness: Actually I had wished she had said to Gross, "What difference does it make now?" in a loud voice just like she did in the Benghazi hearings. I thought Gross's pressure to ferret out how Hillary evolved was silly and pointless.
Overheard from Bremer: "I thought you said RUIN Iraq not RUN it!
Bremer was reported [by Bob Woodward] as saying: "The plans have changed. The thought is we don't want the residuals of the old army. We want a new and fresh army." To this, Garner [former General and Bremer's predecesssor] replied: "Jerry, you can get rid of an army in a day, but it takes years to build one."
As I asked yesterday:
Which Iraq do you want to thump, John? (I saw that NBC correspondent, Richard Engel, repeated that question on the Toob last night) To what purpose, Mr. McCain, this tizzy fit you would mount with really big weapons attached? Has it anything at all to do with the world outside of your head? The world that has other people in it? Or is it all about your failure to become our President, losing decisively to a young black man who by your standards had never done anything, who hadn't suffered as you had at the hands of your eminently successful father, not to mention the Vietnamese, and who certainly didn't deserve the position or the honor that goes with it.
Lord knows the last twenty four hours couldn't have provided more compelling evidence of how fortunate the nation is that it did not elect that angry boob to be President. The feckless Texan who preceded Obama did damage enough, but if one keeps oil and Darth Cheney's influence in mind, Bush II's Iraq disaster made some kind of awful sense.
McCain's geopolitics, on the other hand, exist entirely between his ears.
On another subject this rainy morning. My comment on Krugman's take on movement conservatism, which I sent in last night but has not yet appeared. In sum, Krugman was more optimistic than I about what he calls movement conservatism's death. The announcement is premature..
"Don't think so, Dr. Krugman.
It would be a kind of poetic justice IF...a large portion of those on the Right who style themselves conservative populists, a.k. a., Tea Baggers, did wake up one morning to discover they have blindly been doing the bidding of an economic elite that doesn't care a whit about them once they have cast their uninformed vote. But I don't believe that's what happened here
And it isn't likely to happen for two reasons. First the anxiety, fear and resentment the elites stoke in their lackeys are too powerful for those prone to attacks of the fantods (thanks, Mark Twain) to ignore. For them it's about the way they feel. They're skeered. Thought comes later to them, if ever.
Because thinking is a rarity in their ranks, the Right's base will never notice how our economy really works and how the government policies they decry (higher taxes on the wealthy, for instance) are their only hope of making the economy work in their favor instead of against them as it has done since Reagan, their hero, told them how superior they were to all the undeserving riffraff, stroking their egos while initiating forty years of picking their pockets.
Yes, the dull Mr. Cantor was rejected, but he is replaced by someone else silly enough to have swallowed Ayn Rand whole as a youth and then never grown up.
And it is in Randian simplicity that the interests of the economic elite and their unwitting Tea Bagger victims are ultimately and ironically joined."
ANOTHER MOMENT IN GOD SERIES:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/11/1306246/-Prominent-pastor-radio-host-offers-chilling-advice-to-parents-with-adult-kids-who-are-gay?detail=email#
Digby is rightfully and righteously indignant over the caviling calumny that has become John McCain's raison d'être for the last, oh, decade or so.
Anyone who was ready to foist "I can see Russia from my front porch" on the world has forfeited for all time (retroactively as well) any right to bloviate on foreign policy issues. Had Senator Surly been elected, Princess Dumbass would have been one irregularly shaped mole (as some wag once put it) from access to the country's nuclear codes. I have no idea what the fuck Lindsay Graham is on about but likely neither does he. He needs some Ex-Lax and a three week nap.
But the most excruciating commentary on the problems in Iraq, ALL courtesy of the last Republican president, come from a squealing little Richie Rich rodent who wanted to be the current Republican president, Mittens (the Rat) Romney. The Romney Mechanism went full bore systems failure in an interview in which he blamed Obama for every foreign policy dilemma in the world, including, I'm guessing, the protests at the World Cup games in Brazil, which are no end of inconvenience to the high roller touristas.
This captious fool, don't forget, is the wannabe leader of the free world who repeated time and again that Syria is Iran's "route to the sea", in painful ignorance of the fact that Iran, (A) does not border Syria, and (B) has its own sea routes in the north and the south. Geography, Mitt; it's highly useful to anyone claiming knowledge of the world beyond the US and the Caymans.
This is the history expert who declared Russia to be the US's biggest global threat. 20 years after the Cold War ended. And leave us not forget his foreign triumphs in Europe when he querulously demanded to know if London was "ready" for the Olympics. Even Murdoch's uber conservative papers dubbed him "Mitt the Twit".
His European gaffe-a-thon prompted even wingnut zealots like Charles Krauthammer to question his foreign policy chops. Krauthammer declared that Romney's bumbling performance was “...unbelievable...beyond human understanding...It’s like a guy in the hundred meter dash. All he has to do is finish, he doesn’t have to win. And instead he tackles the guy in the next lane and gets disqualified."
But now, this world expert on issues outside our borders is sniffing that the president has mucked it all up. Hmmm....wonder how he could develop such a perverse opinion regarding events in Iraq, a debacle begun and carefully nurtured by Chimp in Charge Bush and his capricious band of war criminals.
Would you believe it has something to do with the gamy collection of Bush neocons he picked as his foreign policy advisors in his race to ignominy? 17 of 24 foreign policy consultants were all Bush neocons, including the infamous Cofer Black, described as "Romney's envoy to the dark side" by the Daily Beast, a snarling, vicious incompetent who was head of the CIA counterterrorism unit when the towers fell. He attempted to cover up his huge miss on that count with a love for rendition, black sites, torture, and off the books operations designed to cloak his complete lack of ability where and when it really counted. The rest of Romney's group, including Reagan era John Lehman, are a feculent who's who of American Exceptionalism.
But I can't blame Romney's foreign policy solecisms completely on his buddying up to a group of the biggest maladroit solipsists in US history. He was an oaf before he met any of them.
And he still is, the rat. Whatever you think of Obama, his candidacies helped us dodge two very big bullets. Just imagine either a McCain or a Romney in the White House.
Adventurism and ignorance, deluxe.
Barbarossa,
Hear, hear. I'm with JJG on this. Great comment, especially good to remember the Bremer disaster, the Green Zone bullshit, the 20 year old Christian fundamentalists and sycophantic fundraisers sent by Bush to "fix" Iraq in place of people who actually knew something.
It would all be the stuff of wild-ass surrealist fiction if hadn't actually happened.
PD,
" I say, all those fuckers who were singing in the "Bagdad Blues Band" promoting a "New Middle East" ought to be rounded up, given some uniforms to don, given some guns and ammunition and dumped into the heart of the fighting."
Wishful thinking of the highest order, my dear. Nearly all of the architects of the Iraq disaster were cowardly chicken hawks who ran when it was their turn to put on a uniform and fight. Cheney had "other priorities" (yeah, keeping his fat ass out of danger). Bush just deserted.
They were like fat, rich scions of wealthy Roman families who would sit up in the boxes at the Colosseum with clean white togas and laurel wreaths wrapped around their perfumed curls, giving thumbs up or down to the sweating gladiators fighting in the dust for their amusement.
Our old friend Dante knows where they belong.
Hey, Ak., I can dream can't I?
Here is a nifty wrap up of Brat's wrap-up over Cantor exposing in a clarifying way the Tea Party-Wall Street alliance.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118134/brats-populis-upset-cantor-exposed-wall-street-tea-party-bond
The president, at this moment, is addressing the nation on the Iraq Problem.
The whole thing is so outrageously absurd. Ionesco would be in awe.
It's like an architectural firm run by guys who have never studied architecture, because knowledge, facts, and experience are for schmoes, right? And these are the kool kids. So they have this great idea. They decide to build this giant, humunga, mega-big structure with no foundation and no supports--on a swamp! The idea is that all they need to do is believe really wicked hard and it will stay up. They might have to get everyone to clap all together every week or so, like they did for Tinkerbell on that TV show with Mary Martin they used to watch when they were kids.
But the really cool thing is...they build it upside down! How crafty is that? Clev-errr. No one's ever done that before, by jing! Then, they remove all the safety features and put in one elevator for 20,000 people. There are no alarms, no phone system, no sprinkler systems, no fire doors, no stairs, and, best of all, no windows.
Then they put a helicopter landing pad on the top of the building, 'cause that would be cool, right? But there are no lights, no wind sock, and no landing zone indicators.
Oh, and the building has electricity powered only by three nine volt batteries, to save money, ya know? But that's okay because one of the architects has an in with a company that sells gas. The only thing is, the gas is $175,000 a quart. But what can you do? So much for saving money. Capitalism, right? Finally, because they're really short on money now, they hire this drunk guy they find sleeping in the doorway as the building superintendent, and he in turn, hires all his drunk buddies to come work for him. Great idea! Anyway, they figured people would show up with flowers,donuts, and Zagnut bars for all of them 'cause they'd be so freakin' amazed.
Then they hand it off to the next guy and when the building collapses, everyone is stunned! Holeeee shit, it must be the new guy's fault.
Congressional investigation! IMPEACH!
This, really, is not at all very far from what's happening right now. And most of the guys doing the screaming were in on the planning of the upside down no-support, no-safety systems, no windows building that is now a heap of rubble.
But the MSM, dutifully, like dogs, are there to demand that the new guy fix everything. AT ONCE. Or they'll, by god, know why.
Un-fucking-believable.
A brief fan letter to Akhilleus: Your post on the almost inexpressible absurdity of it all is wonderful. Almost, but you did did, perfectly. Thanks.
Paul Whitefield on Iraq in the LA Times: “Send Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney over there and let them try to negotiate a solution. And tell them they can’t come home until they’re successful. After all, they’re the ones who created this mess in the first place.”
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-iraq-islamist-insurgents-isis-obama-20140612-story.html
Have the Congress, Military honchos, Obama and MSM forgotten the lessons of Vietnam? Remember when the war was over for us, and Ho Chi Minh was hurrying into Saigon? President Ford wanted to send billions in MILITARY aid to "help?" Help what, I have always wondered. That marvelous old Jacob Javits said he would not pay a nickel for military support, but would gladly fund the evacuation of remaining American embassy staff--all of them! And Javits was a Republican!
Sad to say, when it comes to war, oil, and high finance, our power elite thinks it is Ground Hog Day.
Ken,
Thanks. It's hard to keep up with the illogicality of it all. Still looking for laudanum to tide me over.