Comments Posted By kreiz
Displaying 71 To 80 Of 127 Comments
MUSINGS ON A LATE SPRING AFTERNOON
"It smells like 1979." What a great line. I was thinking about 1974 too. Brilliant post.
Comment Posted By kreiz On 21.05.2007 @ 05:24
TIME IS NOW THE BIGGEST ENEMY IN IRAQ
Very heady, realistic and reasonable analysis. I prefer to be less pessimistic, but the current morass seems beyond resolution because the major factions (here and there)are strident and uncompromising. If the President has established one thing, it's that he's not a Plan B thinker or leader. He's a hedgehog, and that's not changing. There may be more flexibility in the Dem Congress than one might believe. Biden and Clinton, for example, understand that some kind of stability is vital to avert wholesale genocide that's likely if we leave. But it doesn't matter- the President's hand isn't reaching across the aisle. As you point out, the Sunnis and Shi'ites are just as intransigent If there's a Plan B (or C or D) to be had in Iraq, it's unlikely to be found, given the lack of compromise there. I don't see any of these major elements changing over the next 1.5 years. And that's extremely discouraging for our country and for Iraq.
Comment Posted By kreiz On 28.04.2007 @ 07:35
NEWT'S PECCADILLOS: POLITICAL AND PRIVATE
Well said, Rick. But the Reverend Jackson said it in 25 words or less: he's a tree shaker, not a jelly maker. Shutting down the federal government permitted his agile opponent, Pres. Clinton (and D. Morris), to pivot, turn and capture the debate. Newt never saw it coming.
Comment Posted By kreiz On 9.03.2007 @ 09:19
I liked the tough talking Ms. Kirkpatrick. Back in the mid 80s, I was totally enamored with her theory that communist governments were incapable of change, in contrast to right-wing authoritarians. At the time, there was considerable evidence to support her view. Fast forward to 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell.... so much for that theory. It's quite common to say that communism was tossed into the dustbin of history (thank god). But Jeanne's little theory resides there too. We're all pretty foolish in the face of history.
Comment Posted By kreiz On 10.12.2006 @ 11:46
On second thought, the answer is clear: bring in Jimmah Carter to mediate. Problem solved.
Comment Posted By kreiz On 4.12.2006 @ 09:43
We won't do a damn thing, and Syria, Iran, et al, know it. Rest assured, however, that it will be Bush's fault, no matter what happens.
Comment Posted By kreiz On 4.12.2006 @ 08:02
As for bugging out of Iraq, Dave Schuler puts it very well:
Comment Posted By kreiz On 12.11.2006 @ 21:56
"I think that the Republicans and most Americans would just like Iraq to go away.... Unfortunately, even if our forces currently in Iraq go away, our interests in the region won’t. That brings us full circle to our oil dependence on the region, Iran's nuclear ambitions, and our ally, Israel. Mr. Bush is irrelevant to much of this- our next president will face daunting problems.
Negotiating directly with Iran is a marginal step up from doing nothing, only in a domestic and international PR sense. Simply, we'll look better in the eyes of some f we talk (for support, cf: North Korea). Substantively, talking equals doing nothing, since we have few carrots or sticks with which to negotiate. On the stick side, we're not going to use preemptive military or quasi action (embargo) against Iran. We already boycotted trade; Iran has sufficient trading partners in China, India and the EU. On the carrot side, we have little to offer.
As for Bush blame, our Iraq incursion had one significant consequence in this calculus- we removed Saddam, Iran's foremost regional enemy. Because our occupation has been unsuccessful, Iran's status has grown. But Bush didn't fuel Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iran would've pursued nukes regardless.
Comment Posted By kreiz On 12.11.2006 @ 21:45
Chris at #20- your argument makes sense except it doesn't put Kerry into context. For the past two years, Dems have been telling him that he should've stood up to the Swift Boaters. So here, rather than taking a common sense approach and admitting the mistake and apologizing, he thinks "I'll stand up to the GOP attack machine". As I said at #19, he's got a political tin ear, so this isn't surprising- there's a twisted logic to it.
Comment Posted By kreiz On 1.11.2006 @ 10:17
I'm no Kerry fan, but I buy the joke explanation. The run-up to the comment was about Bush- not the military. He tried in vain to insult the President. But with his political tin ear, he managed to insult everyone in the military. The guy's a transparent grandstander. But he didn't intentionally troop-bash.
Comment Posted By kreiz On 31.10.2006 @ 22:24
