Comments Posted By Rick Moran
Displaying 681 To 690 Of 1317 Comments
Ed:
I'll try and start posting a podcast link. The shows are already being recorded I just have to get the necessary plug-in in order to post it.
As for me replacing Jonah, you are absolutely right. I'm much better looking. Please write to NRO and beg them to take me. I work relatively cheap and am available.
And thanks for the compliment -
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 22.08.2006 @ 11:32
Irony usually escapes the dull witted.
"Moran" is used by the LEFT to call people morons. It also happens to be my last name. Using the left's own term to describe them with the juxtaposition of having the term as my last name is too delicious for words.
Something you Paul, my dimwitted friend, missed.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 22.08.2006 @ 06:46
I am of two minds regarding regime change in Iran. Clearly this option is far preferable to any military solution. We managed to help Poland in the 80's without angering the Soviets too much. The real help was given by the AFL-CIO and USAID - both overtly through cultural exchanges and the like.
That obviously has its limitations in Iran but it's something we should be trying to do anyway. Overthrowing the regime by military force is more likely to hurt us more than it could ever help us. For that reason, even bombing the nuke sites must be seen as an absolute last resort. This is why even though I'm extraordinarily skeptical, we at least have to try the diplomatic route until all options are exhausted.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 22.08.2006 @ 11:26
Andy:
Sorry, I don't buy the Rafsanjani/Khatami being moderates bit. It was a useful sell to the western media but the fact is both men are by any standard measure, extremely conservative Islamist politicians who helped fund terrorism around the world and whose Rev Guard bully boys beat women to death in the streets for showing too much.
Add to that, it was Rafsanjani who created the Iranian nuke program with the help of A.Q. Khan and Khatami eagerly continued it. Not to mention the fact that every reform ever proposed by either of those men has been shot down either in Parliament or in the Guardian Council which reviews all laws for their adherence to Islamic principles.
No - the only "reform" is the overthrow of the mullahs. And that will get very bloody indeed.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 22.08.2006 @ 10:51
Tall Dave:
There is nothing stable about the Iraqi government - not when there are important elements who are exhibiting dual loyalties to both Iraq and Iran.
I'm talking about an Interior Ministry rife with traitors who have created their own death squads as well as see that members of both the Mehdi and Badr militias are well represented in the police force.
There is nothing stable about a government where huge swaths of territory is not under its control - as we find in the south where entire town and village governments do not answer to Baghdad but have carved out their own Shia enclave and are actually starting to agitate for seperation.
You are correct that the problems in Iraq are solvable. And forgive my generalizing but you seem to dismiss "civil disorder" as something trivial. If not trivial, perhaps something that looks worse than it is.
To a certain extent I agree with you. But what the sectarian violence has done more than anything is sap the will and kill the hope of the Iraqi people for the future. The Mehdi inspired death squads are only the tip of a very large problem - extreme anger against the Sunnis by the Shias. This manifests itself in any number of ways, most notably in the grudging manner in which the Shias were forced to share power. And our protection of the Sunnis is now causing a Shia backlash which makes policing the country that much more difficult.
I think your analysis while well thought out is flawed. Using both independent sources as well as our own Pentagon whose judgement on the Iraqi troops combat effectiveness is very pessimistic - their loyalty to the government is quite another issue - I think it is safe to say that we aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Neither are we making any progress in re-establishing civil order in Baghdad and the surrounding provinces which is where most of the people live.
Until we can drastically reduce the flow of blood, the government will not have legitimacy in the eyes of the people. And that's from the Prime Ministers statement in June when he initiated his failed security program for Baghdad.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 21.08.2006 @ 14:34
Jazz:
The "fantasy" is in your own mind. Not one single commenter here has said one single word about converting Muslims to Christianity. You just made that sh*t up out of whole cloth.
Neither has anyone said a war with Iran and Syria would solve all of our problems. More made up sh*t by you.
You're a serial exaggerator and an ignoramous to boot.
Try again...
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 21.08.2006 @ 06:35
Richard:
I have given what I believe a realistic assessment of the situation.
You, on the other hand, are exaggerating grossly.
The majority - the vast majority of Iraqis - do not support al-Sadr and his radical theocrats. If they did, the theocratic parties would have won overwhelmingly.
The major Islamic party, the SCIRI is NOT in favor of establishing Sharia law nor in having the mullahs run the country. They are, if you had been paying attention, the first Islamic DEMOCRATIC party in the world. The Iraqi constitution, ripped by liberals because it wasn't written by James Madison, is the first of its kind in the world. It does not use the Koran as basic law but rather is inspired by the Koran - a huge difference.
The weakness of the government leads to independent death squads (those connected to the Interior Ministry are inspired by a foreign country - Iran) as well as crackdowns in the street by thuggish mullahs on gays. As for "curtailing women's rights" give me a break. Most nations in the 3rd world "curtail" women's rights.
As for the rest, perhaps you should step back and see where we'll be when you get your wish and we cut and run. And by that I mean ANY TIMETABLE NOT GEARED TO WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE GROUND IS CUTTING AND RUNNING. Any arbitrary timetable period.
A timetable is immoral. It is asking men to fight and die even after the war is lost. At the moment, there is a chance the situation can be retrieved to the point where the Iraqi government will be able to handle the insurgency. But first, those who are not loyal to it (al-Sadr and the militias) as well as foreign meddlers must be dealt with.
And your take on the American people's position is also exaggerated. People disagree violently with the way the war is being conducted. They hate Bush. But if you ask the question should we leave Iraq to chaos there has been a consistent majority that says no.
So there are polls...and there are polls.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 20.08.2006 @ 19:25
AN UNSCHOLARLY, NON-LAWYERLY OPINION ON THE NSA DECISION
You don't need a bridge to sell. All you need is one iota of proof that these programs have been used injudiciously. That they've been used to spy on political opponents or anti war people.
Not. One. Iota. Just whatever paranoid fantasies you can make up out of whole cloth.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 23.08.2006 @ 02:54
Kreiz:
You make an excellent point and the way I'd answer it is that the reasons for a "warrantless" look at the communications of a terrorist here who is talking to another terrorist overseas and why even with the delayed FISA notification the Administration may have felt it unecessary to get a warrant cannot truly be known because so many of the technical details of this program are hidden from us.
This is no small thing. It absolutely floors me that so many have declared this program "unconstitutional" based on incomplete and perhaps even faulty information. After all, the NSA has NEVER confirmed the details that have been published about the program. And it is unclear whether people quoted in news reports had the full picture either.
This goes to Jeff Goldstein's summation; that in order to prove a secret program constitutional we have to destroy it.
It's nuts.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 20.08.2006 @ 08:02
CP:
1. January 20, 2001.
2. I have no clue. And neither do they.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 19.08.2006 @ 11:41
