Obama, McCain, and the Wars

Post by **solicitr** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:37 pm

This is a really fascinating essay, and I think has just added to my (to-long) reading list:

Iraq: The Army Knew Better

Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:44 pm

Thanks for posting that, soli. I heard an interview with one of the authors of On Point II on NPR a few weeks ago, and I was quite impressed with the honest insights about what had gone wrong.

Post by **solicitr** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:49 pm

In general (NPI), military officers are eyes-open realists- they have to be- unless they allow themselves to get sucked in by the Bulls**t Bubbles that surround places like the Pentagon and the Emerald City.

Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:06 pm

soli, we've had a suggestion that the title of this thread be changed to "Obama, McCain and the Wars". It does seem to make sense, since both candidates are being discussed. Any objection?

Post by **solicitr** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:55 pm

Post by **solicitr** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 5:50 pm

Incidentally, with a big FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH sign attached, the conservative blogosphere lit up today with a report that the former direcdtor of prisons in Iraq, Don Bordenkircher, claims that many former Saddam-regime officials told him -boasted to him - that they had smuggled WMD stockpiles into Syria in the months leading up to the invasion.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:02 pm

Gosh—shouldn't he have told the president? Years ago?

Post by **solicitr** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:08 pm

Actually he did tell DIA and MNF-I G-2, years ago.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:18 pm

Sorry, soli, I don't understand your jargon.

Post by **solicitr** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:23 pm

Defense Intelligence Agency, and the chief of intelligence staff Multinational Force Iraq.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:25 pm

Thanks.

Post by **sauronsfinger** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:55 pm

So from this so called report we are suppose to infer that there really actually truly were these weapons of mass destruction that Saddam had but he just got them out of there before he got caught.

If anyone buys that line of malarkey on the word of right wing apologists, then I would like to offer them some very prime real estate for sale at an excellent price. Right now, its a bit under water, and was once the site of a hazardous waste dumping ground - but its potential as a five star resort site is unrivaled. The opportunities are endless. I cannot seem to find the official title papers and bank estimate and survey of the tremendous worth of that property but I am sure they will pop up eventually. Maybe I just misplaced them but they do exist --- really truly actually - they do exist.

Post by **halplm** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:45 pm

I thought we weren't doing posts like that any more?

Post by **sauronsfinger** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:51 pm

Hal - I did not make my post aimed at anyone here. No posters were hurt or killed in the writing of it.

In the past, within the last week in fact, I have seen other people here refer to selling a bridge if you bought some particular line of reasoning.

And if you notice, the construction of my offer matches the features of the so-called WMD story. That was the point of it.

unseen WMD's ..... my unseen property
missing WMD's .... my missing legal papers

Post by **halplm** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:57 pm

I'll let the mods handle it, just disappointed is all

Post by **sauronsfinger** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:38 pm

Hal
serious question

do you want any trace of humor or style to be removed from all posts here?

Post by **solicitr** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:30 pm

From the BBC:

Tehran, 1 August: The official Iranian news agency (IRNA) quotes Expediency Council chief, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani as saying, "We have started the first activities of nuclear fusion."

Rafsanjani made the remarks today during a speech delivered to a gathering of students at Tehran's Jamaran Hoseynieh.

Fusion, not fission.

Post by **ToshoftheWuffingas** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:43 pm

Well perhaps it is a useful blind alley for them to waste their time in.

Post by **solicitr** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:57 pm

Well, fusion is a blind alley if you're trying to build a reactor. It's not a blind alley at all if you're trying to build an H-bomb.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:12 pm

But you can't get fusion at all except in a bomb, and then only when it goes off.

Anyway, you have to build a fission bomb first, don't you? I'd understood an H-bomb works by setting off a fission explosion first.

I suspect a mistranslation, or ignorance on Rafsanjani's part.