<p>InterestedDad, you asked how long Barry McCaffery thinks it will take to stabilize Iraq. In the report sjmom quoted, he says that the insurgency will continue in some form for at least 10 years, period.</p>
<p>It seems to be one of the reasons he considers it the “primary winning strategy” to get a political and economic solution. He wants to get Iraq as stable as we can before we have to withdraw the military to keep it from reaching the breaking point.</p>
<p>Con man</p>
<p>Why are you still fighting the War between the States?</p>
<p>Fox is great.</p>
<p>To follow up on the opinion that Fox is great I’d like to add that it’s disappointing that there are so few conservatives on NBC/CBS/NYTimes etc…I would argue that there are more liberals on Fox than there are conservatives on all of the other networks, MSM media combined.</p>
<p>What do you think con man?</p>
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<p>And, therein lies the rub. There’s no political solution because it’s a “winner take all” scenario where the Iraqi Sunnis and Iraqi Shi’a have no incentive to compromise. There can’t be a political solution until the Iraqis are finished killing each other.</p>
<p>There can’t be an economic solution without a political solution. Iraq is generating approximately $10 billion a year in oil revenues. It’s just sitting in banks because it is not possible, at this time, to spend it on economic development and infrastructure repair.</p>
<p>The only solutions I’ve seen require two preconditions: </p>
<p>a) Violence running its course in Iraq to the point where there is simply no more energy for continued killing. The Iraqis have to decide that there is more to be gained by not continuing to kill each other. You can’t force them to stop because they have legitimate self-interest in killing each other. Stop the killing and the Sunnis are shut out of power in a country they ruled for 80 years. Why would they stop killing? The Sunnis aren’t going to stop killing until they can get go to a market without getting blown up by a suicide bomber.</p>
<p>b) The neighboring states deciding that stability in the region is in their best interest. Kissinger sees the recent conference of Middle Eastern states in Iraq as the first positive step. Even though it failed and even though the next dozen attempts will fail, Kissinger sees that process as ultimately…many years down the road…being the kind of regional approach that will stabilize Iraq.</p>
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<p>What on earth are you talking about? The kid brought up the enslavement of Africans in the US, made some factual errors and I corrected them. </p>
<p>If someone makes a mistake about WWII, and you correct it, does that mean you’re bombing Pearl Harbor all over again? </p>
<p>Try to get at least some grip on reality.</p>
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<p>No doubt you would indeed argue such a thing. You’ve never let facts stand in the way of arguing ridiculous statements before, oh Voice of Utter Bigoted Lunacy who Thinks he’s God.</p>
<p>OK, Fox is great.</p>
<p>That being said you seem to have a hostility towards the North. </p>
<p>Why is that?</p>
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<p>And what are you basing that on, other than your own bigotry against my being from Louisiana?</p>
<p>Fox…fox…fox</p>
<p>What’s Fox got to do with the North?</p>
<p>ETA: Google informs me that they’re headquartered in NYC, but I’m sure a lot of other media outlets are too. Isn’t NBC in NYC? </p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t see any logical connection between regional bias and a desire for objectivity and accuracy in reporting.</p>
<p>I don’t know about liberals and conservatives, but I sure wish that Judith Miller hadn’t sold me a bill of goods about WMD in Iraq in the year leading up to the war. I had no idea, at the time, that the NY Times was the neocons PR agency.</p>
<p>You Hate Yanks… And Love The Young Rebel Boys</p>
<p>I think you need to get your meds adjusted. Your “beautiful mind” has clearly become unhinged.</p>
<p>I love unhinged. Meds are just right. W is our PRESIDENT. Glory be.</p>
<p>Was there a point to this, other than the obligatory Republican personal attack/smear job to distract everyone from the facts?</p>
<p>I just deleted everything that I wanted to say.</p>
<p>Good night…and I actually mean it.</p>
<p>“I don’t know about liberals and conservatives, but I sure wish that Judith Miller hadn’t sold me a bill of goods about WMD in Iraq in the year leading up to the war. I had no idea, at the time, that the NY Times was the neocons PR agency.”</p>
<p>That bill of goods had already been sold to the Democratic leadership in February 1998. Just read the speeches: of Kerry, Gore, Levin, Lieberman, Biden - all the same: Saddam Hussein has WMD, he is developing more, he is developing delivery systems, and he will use them against the U.S. No ifs, whats, buts, we don’t have intelligence, etc. Complete certitude. The fact that there wasn’t a shred of evidence to support the Clinton/Tenet hoax was never even hinted at (and there had been inspectors throughout Iraq for most of the period - and they all came back with the same conclusion: nothing there.</p>
<p>Mini:</p>
<p>Judith Miller sold a very specific bill of goods, namely Niger yellowcake, aluminum tubes, and meetings between Sadaam’s intelligence agents and Al Queda in European capitals – all of which postdates 1998. </p>
<p>It is clear that the NYTimes served a Bush administration PR rag in the year leading up to the invasion of Iraq. We aren’t talking about the Clinton administration. Bill Clinton did not invade Iraq [Yes, I know. He murdered half a million Iraqi babies…]</p>
<p>No one would have believed Judith Miller (who, I agree, was some piece of work) had the groundwork not already have been laid, and already embraced by the Dems who would not dared to repudiate it.</p>
<p>And, yes, the NY Times was, and is, a VERY conservative newspaper. So-called “free traders”, publishing Thomas Friedman claptrap, supporting the export of global capital, global pollution, and global warming abroad, proclaiming that “there is a great big, beautiful tomorrow/Shining at the end of every road.” The problem was/is, at least in the Judith Miller business, that their slip began to show.</p>