Old Johann S. Bach got it right when he wrote the chorale, Alle Menschen Müssen Sterben and so in that sense, yes, your boss (the idiot bastard son) is right. Regime change is inevitable. But there are a lot of questions surrounding that reality.
The questions are:
What will replace it? (If you think a liberal democracy will replace it, you are as delusional as your boss is.)
When will the replacement occur? (And in particular, what, if anything, are you doing to hasten the day?)
There are a truckload of subsidiary questions, too. Stuff like, “What was that wargasm your idiot bastard boss had on Friday night really about?” Or, “Exactly how much warning and through what mechanism did your idiot bastard boss notify the Russians that the Tomahawks were coming?”
I watched as this stupid woman held up pictures of babies…this is how we got involved in the ME wars…pictures of babies…remember the woman who used pictures of a KUWAIT babies to get the US into the first GULF WAR…which turned out to be ‘fake’ picutres…don’t these stupid people know anyone can get pictures of whatever
Exactly, and I dearly hope that’s not what they’re thinking myself.
Some of the complexities of the possible solution making are the meat of an interview with King Adbullah in the Washington Post. You may have already seen it, but I pass it on in case you haven’t. I was impressed with his ability to express the ins and outs of his region’s conflicts in absolutely simple terms. Note: the headline is something of a teaser. He does suggest compromise, but the discussion is not centered on that at all and he doesn’t delineate or recommend terms, other than to say that a trade-off of some kind might be something to consider.
If you hate him, and I’m aware some people do, sorry. Just ignore the article if that’s the case.
“Well, Syrian children have to come with Syrian adults,” Haley replied. “And you don’t know, it’s hard to know based on the vetting process. And that’s unfortunate that we can’t find that out.”
“At the end of the day we need to remember that Syrians don’t want to live somewhere else. They want to be home. They want to be with their family. They want to be with their loved ones. And that’s the focus of why the airstrike happened this week.”
I must admit I got a good first impression of King Abdullah. He appears pretty well-educated and grounded.
He was standing next to Trump, though, that may have skewed my impression, the contrast was pretty stark…
Ritter’s take, that the administration seriously erred by not waiting for full intelligence, is something I have felt from the beginning. When it comes to Syria, I don’t believe the truth is ever clear cut.
But why Ritter isn’t more widely appreciated is something that concerns me. His commentary is always well reasoned and well stated – not to mention well supported with facts. Yet he’s largely ignored. So while I wish I could point to him and say absolutely yes, yes, this is the real story, I hesitate.
Is he a lone voice of truth crying out in the wilderness? I wish I knew. All I can say is that he always seems judicious to me.
Let’s hope some historical and military perspective is provided by Generals McMaster and Mattis, understood by the Trumpsters, and given some weight in what we can hope results in a plan rather than random reactionary decision-making. But, it sure sounds like a number of Republicans in Congress are beating the war drums already (war gives great cover for all the other crap they have planned).
I had no idea. I’ve only read his published pieces, like the one you linked to. But just why you quote me to make make it seem as if I’m concerned that, as a political commentator, he doesn’t have a big reputation is unclear to me. Is that a cheap shot or was it unintentional?
In any event, what I actually said is that his lack of a reputation makes me hesitant to jump on what he says as the true story.
And I have nothing to say in his defense as a sexual predator. But I don’t think the fact that he is on precludes his being a patriot. We’d have pretty few male patriots if that were the case. Consider the problem of rape in the armed services.
But this is a wow. Did he write the article you linked to from jail?
The folks in the UN remember. Someone held up a picture taken of Colin Powell as he testified before the UN about the WMDs in Iraq. It is our fellow countrymen who keep getting manipulated like this.
I looked up the Kuwait story a few days ago - reminded of the similar onset to that story when the Ambassador to Iraq indicated that the IU was viewing the Kuwait ‘raiding’ of Iraqi oil as a conflict between Iraq and Kuwait which was taken to mean that we wouldn’t act if Iraq took action on Kuwait. Eerily reminiscent statements made by Tillerson (and others) that seemed to serve as a Green light for al Assad.
