CNN covers the reaction to Obama's Nobel Not-Bush Prize at the State Department:
WASHINGTON (CNN) – "Certainly from our standpoint, this gives us a sense of momentum — when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes."
That's the take of Hillary Clinton's State Department on President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, according to her spokesman, Assistant Secretary PJ Crowley.
Crowley was referring to the incident last December when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during his final visit to Iraq of his presidency.
...
Crowley's comments suggested a recognition by the Obama administration that the Nobel Prize was as much an indictment of the Bush administration as it was an effort to praise President Obama's outreach to improve the US image around the world.
She must have found the Nobel decision maddening - Hillary could so have been Not-Bush, too.
To sum up:
If you express satisfaction that an ostensibly uplifting (but actually deeply corrupt) enterprise like the Olympics goes to another country, showing the limits of the President's "Strength through Groveling" World Tour, you're a terrorist.
If you express satisfaction at an attempted physical assault on a President while he's on foreign soil, you're a part of the current administration.
Posted by: bgates | October 10, 2009 at 08:00 AM
If you believe that forcing Honduras into the Castro-Chavez circle of evil, rather than letting them follow their Constitution is right, than "you're a part of of the current administration"
Posted by: Pagar | October 10, 2009 at 08:11 AM
How sad is it that our own State Dept. would make light of an assault on the President of the United States?
The opinions of a few Norwegians, and an Islamic fanatic equals what "the whole world" thinks of us...and our State Dept. is there to listen to, and act on, those opinions.
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 08:32 AM
I think the three comments above mine say it all and better than I could.
Class tells, doesn't it?
Posted by: clarice | October 10, 2009 at 08:44 AM
Thinking back on the rot in the State dept., CIA, etc. during the Bush Admin., and the undermining the admin. endured.....If a conservative is elected President, they will need to be STRONG. And they will need lots of strong people to come on board with them. IMO President Bush was too gracious...not realizing what jackals he inherited in the system.
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 08:46 AM
The real question is, who is giving the accolades and who is throwing the shoes. The NPC is as naked as Crowley on their foundation and largely I have to concur. I do not hesitate to put Barack in the same boat as Carter and Arafat. How many of these teenage Obots even know who else is on that list? Well, more now and still more tomorrow. The burning question for anyone who wants to rake some muck though is, who nominated Barack. Was he aware of his nomination? Had to be, right? Is there a petition involved and if so, what did it say?
Posted by: megapotamus | October 10, 2009 at 08:53 AM
I've been wondering about that myself, meg. I know that Rush Limbaugh was nominated last year, I think by Mark Levin, so there's probably not much involved in the process.
Posted by: Extraneus | October 10, 2009 at 09:12 AM
Our State Department, as always, reveals itself as composed of clueless twits.
Posted by: Mike Myers | October 10, 2009 at 09:20 AM
From nobelprize.org
I think the Mark Levin thing was from his Landmark Legal Foundation. Not sure which of these categories that fell under.Posted by: Extraneus | October 10, 2009 at 09:23 AM
Not even the possibility of genocide was enough to persuade Obama not to advocate abandoning Iraq to al Qaeda and Iran. Conservatives should have their own Peace Prize. The first recipient should go to the man who liberated 28 million Iraqis. But for him, there would be two nations pursuing nuclear weapons in the Middle East, and not just one.
Posted by: Terry Gain | October 10, 2009 at 09:24 AM
According to this, the nominations are kept secret for 50 years.
Posted by: Extraneus | October 10, 2009 at 09:27 AM
Think he'll spend the $1.4 mil on shemale hookers and blow?
Just wondering.
Posted by: Donald | October 10, 2009 at 09:38 AM
Yeah meg - an Islamic fanatic hates you, and that is an embarrassment? More like validation that you are on the right side.
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 09:44 AM
The elephant in the room fro Obama is that now he has got to "earn" that Nobel ... and every negotiating partner now knows that, so they will take him to the cleaners.
Posted by: Neo | October 10, 2009 at 09:45 AM
he right to submit proposals for the Nobel Peace Prize...
"Nominations" mean nothing (I always laugh when someone puts on his or her resume a Nobel Prize nomination). I could actually nominate someone. Anyone have any suggestions? The problem is that the peace prize is more of an indictment now.
Posted by: jimmyk | October 10, 2009 at 09:52 AM
Jimmy,
I think you should nominate our fearless leader, Tom Maguire.
And Clarice.
Posted by: Jane | October 10, 2009 at 09:57 AM
So, what do we do now to top the Nobel Prize? How about giving BO his second term without an election? Let's agree on that right now, before he finishes this one. We just can't hold Him to everyone else's rules. He's special, you see? He's such a good motivational speaker! And it will be a first. It will also save us all the election money (and none of it will go to ACORN). What else do we need? It's a win-win. Anyone who doesn't agree just has to be racist.
Posted by: Pocahontas | October 10, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Yes. A journalist members of whose family had been arrested by Saddam, and who covered the plight of widows, orphans, and children in the war was a Islamic fanatic.
I know. I know. Reality has a well known liberal bias.
Posted by: tbogg | October 10, 2009 at 10:08 AM
Heh, tbogg, suppose he'd thrown a shoe at Saddam?
The progressive mind is so dissonant.
==========================
Posted by: Here, quick, dodge this bias. | October 10, 2009 at 10:18 AM
A journalist members of whose family had been arrested by Saddam, and who covered the plight of widows, orphans, and children in the war was a Islamic fanatic.
From you link I'd note he'd been twice detained by the US military, and covering widows and war orphans is a common propaganda meme for our enemies. Dunno if he's an "Islamic fanatic," but he sure ain't on our side. I'm also sure Obama thinks that's all Bush's fault, and will apologize for it . . . the question is, why?
Typical lefty, so busy fighting the evil GOP they try to make allies of our enemies (and enemies of our allies). As with goofball stupidity like the "reset" button, it just highlights our internal fault lines, and serves to make us weaker. This is in perfect congruence with the risible notion weakness engenders respect, which figures prominently in lefty dogma. Luckily for us as a nation, that war is already won. It's the other one our ditherer-in-chief stands to lose for us.Posted by: Cecil Turner | October 10, 2009 at 10:21 AM
The lefties have never gotten over Bush's fast reflexes when the shoe was thrown. They were hoping he'd get hit.
Posted by: Porchlight | October 10, 2009 at 10:22 AM
You tell me if there's anything interesting in this picture of his Baghdad flat:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7787792.stm> src=http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45305000/jpg/_45305751_flat_getty226b.jpg>
Posted by: hit and run | October 10, 2009 at 10:36 AM
IMO President Bush was too gracious...not realizing what jackals he inherited in the system.
Bingo Janet; if it were me I'd completely clean house at the State Dept, which has needed a fumigation for decades. How pathetic is it that Zero values the input of a clueless douche like Holbrooke about Afghanistan more than McChrystal?
Posted by: Captain Hate | October 10, 2009 at 10:38 AM
An Obama supporter?
Posted by: RichatUF | October 10, 2009 at 10:44 AM
You tell me if there's anything interesting in this picture . . .
What, was he an Obama campaign manager?
Posted by: Cecil Turner | October 10, 2009 at 10:44 AM
"Certainly from our standpoint, this gives us a sense of momentum — when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes."
So Crowley's contention is that the Iraqi journalist was throwing his shoes at the United States, not just President Bush, and that the Nobel Committee awarded the United States the Peace Price, not just President Obama.
Hokay. Got it.
Posted by: hit and run | October 10, 2009 at 10:50 AM
"As the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne reminded the president, his supporters voted for him not to win a war but to win a victory on health care and other domestic issues. Obama's priorities lie not in the Hindu Kush but in America: Why squander your presidency on trying to turn an economically moribund feudal backwater into a functioning nation state when you can turn a functioning nation state into an economically moribund feudal backwater?"
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/obama-president-war-2600721-nobel-afghanistan
Posted by: clarice | October 10, 2009 at 10:52 AM
Ooh. Classy.
Posted by: andycanuck | October 10, 2009 at 11:02 AM
This is in perfect congruence with the risible notion weakness engenders respect, which figures prominently in lefty dogma.
... But ... only in the West, prolly because the US is one of the few places where rightys are better armed.
Posted by: boris | October 10, 2009 at 11:08 AM
We just need more understanding ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6274387/Obama-adviser-says-Sharia-Law-is-misunderstood.html>of sharia
Posted by: hit and run | October 10, 2009 at 11:25 AM
OT
Are Turbo's days numbered? This puff piece on Dimon (Blankfein's twin brother), while puke inducing in its idolatry, suggests that there is a fair chance that the commies in the WH realize that Turbo isn't really inspiring much confidence or rehabilitating trust.
So they're thinking of bringing in a champion vampire squid from the house which invented the CDS derivatives that provided the "insurance" on the MBS super-bubble. Gosh, I know I'll feel a lot more confident with a super vampire squid running Treasury rather than a simple tax cheat.
What a shrewd move.
Posted by: Rick Ballard | October 10, 2009 at 11:31 AM
You want to know why the Obama admin and Congressional Democrats wanted to block Jim DeMint from going to Honduras?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574459762462353766.html>Let him tell you:
What's a Nobel Laureate to do in such a circumstance?
If a Honduran journalist threw his shoes at President Obama, would lefties laugh?
Posted by: hit and run | October 10, 2009 at 11:36 AM
volokh has a suggestion that we demand to see the DoS memo which contrary to the Hondurans and the Library of Congress analysis says that Zelaya was removed in an illegal coup. As far as any fair observer can tell it is dead wrong, and it's time DoS admitted it, instead of hiding the memo and proveeding as if it were accurate.
(Did Lanny Davis Zelaya's lobbyist provide the shrewd legal analysis DoS relied on? Inquiring minds want to know.)
Posted by: clarice | October 10, 2009 at 11:40 AM
The thing is...the other shoe hasn't dropped for Obama yet but it will. There is no way He, as a mere man, can pull off what He has promised. When he doesn't, the scorn will be heaped upon his head and His fragile personality won't be able to take it. His Nobel peace prize will be of little comfort then and all of those crowing his Name now will turn to someone else...human nature being what it is.
Posted by: Lonni | October 10, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I don't get this guy, Llorens, he's an exile, wrote this essay back in 1998, in the LUN, which puts the state of pre Castro
Cuba in perspective how does he come to this conclusion.
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Okay just for a little change of pace, rumors I saw on Obama being Cuban. And don't read this post if you don't want to see complete speculation, lol.
Apparently, it was an email written in. And yes I know, there is no proof to this whatsoever. But... kind of interesting. Especially as they give names. It would kind of make sense that a young Stanley Ann would want to do something cool and radical after highschool and take some time off and do a gap year someplace communist before she started at Washington university. And there is the name being wrong, but I don't know if that makes it more or less believable, a faker might take the time to get the name right.
http://www.babalublog.com/archives/010416.html
"Ann Durken, mother of Obama, at age 18 visited Cuba , with a group to give support to the Castro government. During her stay in Cuba in 1960, she was involved with voluntary work living in a commune in the central zone of Cuba, where she met a young Cuban Francisco Cundo from the town of Sagua la Grande....When Ann left Cuba in Dec 1960, she was 2 months pregnant. When she went back to Hawaii where her parents lived, she continued her studies at the University of Hawaii in Manoa where she met Barack Obama Sr., with whom she married in Feb. 1961. In his book "The Audacity of Hope", Obama says that his mother was 4 months pregnant when she married his father."
Posted by: sylvia | October 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
No, Sylvia, I know Cubans, we are rarely that dour in disposition. I'm kind of surprised that Babalu, an otherwisereputable
site, would traffic in such a rumor,
specially with such an obvious error.
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 12:07 PM
What exactly is this "our standpoint" crap.
This Nobel is for Obama, not the State Department.
How dare they usurp the adulation that rightly belong to "The Won".
Posted by: Neo | October 10, 2009 at 12:07 PM
sylvia, there is no proof that I know of that what you speculate about here is wrong. I'd like to see better proof of her travel to Cuba, though.
I've previously suggested that Obama himself does not know the truth of his origins. I've little doubt that there was bigtime lying and denial going on in his family. I'd like to get Obama interested enough in his own paternity to undergo DNA testing. It's a wise man who....oh, forget it.
==================================
Posted by: Show me the birth certificate. Actually, that would likely not help in this case.. | October 10, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Sylvia is back! Threadjacker par excellence!
Posted by: Buford Gooch | October 10, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Rick-
If Turbo goes, Summers and Romer won't be far behind. Good link, I had heard that Dimon was a Citi alum but didn't realize there was bad blood and that he was fired in '98. From your article, this was a keeper:
Yea, cause it is only "free thinking" that keeps someone a Democrat. I mean who'd of thought that the engine of economic prosperity was higher taxes and welfare spending, since it's been tried and failed so many times before. (And please trolls don't bother telling me about Norway. They export almost 3 million bbl/day and have a sovereign wealth fund of nearly $400 billion with a population of less than 5 million.)
Dimon ought to fit right in with the rest of the Obama Court and he wouldn't have to worry running Treasury all that much, since Obama has his unconfirmable "czars" for most of its portfolio.
Posted by: RichatUF | October 10, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Well I agree Show Me, there is no proof that that rumor is wrong. And don't get too excited Buford, just a quick pit stop. Don't want to get sucked into the blogging blackhole vortex today.
Posted by: sylvia | October 10, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Extraneus:
Apparently, the folks who wrote the Peace Prize statutes didn't think that scientists knew enough about peace to opine on the worthiness of candidates -- and yet somehow, they found their way onto the list of recipients.
The FAQ page says that the Committee sends out thousands of letters soliciting the names of nominees (wonder where those missives go). Could it be a measure of the esteem in which the Prize is now held, that they only ended up with 205 to choose from?
Posted by: JM Hanes | October 10, 2009 at 12:22 PM
The point, and I think Machiavelli figured this out, five centuries ago, in his advice
to the Medici's it is better to be loved than hated, but it is better to feared than loved. Now this administration seems to treading not only in the Cater idiocy, but
the once in a century tomfoolery of Briand
and Streseman, who really thought they could
abolish war. Along with the Washington Convention on Naval Power. The Iranians aren't going to give up their Saajils or silkworms, the Taliban their RPG's and stingers. Chavez isn't going to give up the MIGS he got from Russia, in a Big Lot's going out of business sale. Any other examples clearly suffice.
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 12:25 PM
Dimon to Treasury? It could be worse. For example I note that on the recent structured sale of the Corus Bank assets in which 4.5B of loans were sold for about 2.7B, the FDIC hired as their advisor on the transaction Barclays. Why is that a problem you ask?
Remember who bought the brokerage operations of Lehman Bros? Yup. Barclays who had little operations in the US previously. So the guys who managed to run Lehman off the cliff, are now advising the FDIC on getting a pittance on the assets they are peddling. What could possibly go wrong there?
Posted by: Gmax | October 10, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Rick-
One more thing: Isn't JPM the biggest game in town with gold? I'll need to look it up. However if they are, might the answer to this question be, it was an audition?
Posted by: RichatUF | October 10, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Well Roosevelt put Joe Kennedy, a 'financial
innovator,' much in the same vein as Kirk in the Kobyashi Maru simulation, in for SEC chair, who then rose to his level of imcompetence as Ambassador to the Court of St. James, and Forrestal from Dillon & Read's dodgy foreign acquisitions division into the administration. I think Cassani is out, but you never can tell with the czars
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 12:37 PM
As I mentioned before, it occurs to me that I am a truly great man. I let my baritone bellow out in solemn oratory about peace on earth, this morning in the john in front of the mirror. I think a lot of people recognize my leadership and greatness and I've decided to run for office. I'll start out lowballing it: state legislature. I see myself as statesmanesque and I know others do, as well.
Last night as I was re-reading Paul Wellstone's book, I reflected on some of the great men of history. Leonidas. Roland. Julius Caesar. Obama. Augustine. Clinton. And myself.
I also have the taste to recognize great film, even romantic comedies such as this one.
Posted by: Jim Ryan | October 10, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Pinga Dura, Palo Cagao, o Sagua la Grande? Choices, choices.
===================================
Posted by: Are you my Daddy? | October 10, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Watch it there, Kim, do you wish that to be translated into English, it would get very NC-17 here real quick.
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Clarice, that babalu blog has an interesting piece about Lanny Davis's Hondura's missive. Is Hillary plotting?
===============================
Posted by: And a nice picture of Zelaya as a young drug runner. | October 10, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Heh, I've been p3wnd, eh?
================
Posted by: Hablo poquito, pero no mucho. | October 10, 2009 at 12:45 PM
Just about anybody can be nominated, but the award itself is decided by a committee of five Norwegians, at least three of whom have impeccable hard-left credentials. No serious person can doubt that this once-prestigious award has lately been hijacked as a means of influencing policy, and in particular American policy. Perhaps an enterprising JOMer can tell us why the Peace Prize uniquely is chosen by this small group of Norwegians, whereas all the other Nobel awards are selected by Swedes. (Perhaps someone already has; I've been a bit out of touch lately.)
I note that the Ras index is now down to minus three. Have these Scandinavian trash influenced our very own yokels?
Posted by: Danube of Thought | October 10, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Yes the last is a real place, the others, are not. BTW someone said something about
fear over love, in the LUN
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 12:47 PM
University rectors; professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology
This truly is bizzaro world when a distinguished professor of law can nominate someone for the Nobel Peace Prize, after killing a policeman by making, planting and detonating a bomb placed on the window ledge of a police station.
Posted by: Rocco | October 10, 2009 at 12:49 PM
That right wing gossip monger rag the BBC tries to gently move off the Global Warmist train with this posting today:
What happened to global warming?
By Paul Hudson
Climate correspondent, BBC News
Planet Earth (Nasa)
Average temperatures have not increased for over a decade
This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.
But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.
And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.
So what on Earth is going on?
Climate change sceptics, who passionately and consistently argue that man's influence on our climate is overstated, say they saw it coming.
They argue that there are natural cycles, over which we have no control, that dictate how warm the planet is.
Posted by: Gmax | October 10, 2009 at 12:51 PM
I was a philosophy professor and I can assure you that philosophy professors have no business nominating anyone for diddly squat other than, maybe, best philosophy article writer, and I doubt even that.
I trust the first ten people in the phone book to make moral decisions before I trust any philosophy department.
Posted by: Jim Ryan | October 10, 2009 at 12:54 PM
((If a Honduran journalist threw his shoes at President Obama, would lefties laugh?))
Great point hit! Our media could show the footage over and over while the useful idiots could pull their hair out wondering what we could do to make this poor grieved person like us again.
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Gmax, that the BBC, badly in the tank for the IPCC, would publish that is astounding. The dam is breaking, the Yamal business is slowly percolating through academe, and the wonder and madness of Copenhagen continues on Mulberry Street.
======================
Posted by: It's turning into a shakedown of the developed nations over 'Carbon Guilt'. Just as I expected.. | October 10, 2009 at 01:00 PM
Sorry wrong LUN, an illustration of fear over love, in practical terms
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 01:01 PM
In other news, in how to 'demotivate your base' because hell, there isn't enough of
that nowadays
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 01:07 PM
When the audience applauds and throws bouquets,it is a sign that you are giving them what they want.
Is pandering to foreign countries what you pay Obama for?
Posted by: PeterUK | October 10, 2009 at 01:15 PM
Today would have been Danny Pearl's 46th birthday.
Had he had it, it wouldn't have meant anything. Instead it's a goddamned tragedy.
Posted by: Donald | October 10, 2009 at 01:22 PM
It is Donald, that's why when they caterwall
over the fate of KSM, Zubeydah,Al Quahtani,
our very own Abdullah Muhajir "the foreigner's servant" Jose Padilla, I;m fairly deaf to their pleas.
On another note, is Peters just getting unbearable in the LUN
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 01:27 PM
narciso - Who is Stapleton, and why is she talking to the WaPo? The WaPo is doing everything in their power to undermine McDonnell....so I listen to NOTHING they say. There were bumperstickers printed up that read "Drive the Washington Post Crazy - Vote McDonnell".
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 01:28 PM
DoT:
"I note that the Ras index is now down to minus three. Have these Scandinavian trash influenced our very own yokels?"
I think it could well be the opposite. Healthcare, proposed spending/debt, and legislative corruption, which have been out of the news, hit people where they live. International doings, not so much.
Obama's personal numbers have always been better than his policy numbers, and most people won't see the Nobel as an outright negative. It doesn't look like his strong approval numbers jumped as much as the active disapproval slacked off. I suspect we'll be wobbling back and forth in the 30's most of the time.
Posted by: JM Hanes | October 10, 2009 at 01:33 PM
She's the governor's spokesperson, and head of her PAC so I assume that message came from the top,
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 01:34 PM
Now the parallel is inexact, that is more like an attack on that army base outside
Washington, that was bombed by an FMLN front group in the 80s, but it's a little close for comfort
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 01:42 PM
Rich,
I caught the "he's a Dem" bit but I thought this:
was more telling. The writer is trying to evoke memories of the JPM who risked his own capital in a successful effort to quell the Panic of 1907. Dimon was pissing away his stockholders money in a futile effort to keep the music going. His appointment would be very similiar to FDR's "set a thief" appointment of Kennedy, as Narciso noted. The teeny tiny problem is that there is no one whom the commie in the WH could appoint who would be capable of accelerating the restoration of trust and confidence necessary to end the Great Democrat Recession. I'm beginning to think the NBER unintentionally did the Republicans a favor in dating the beginning of the recession at seven months from the Democrats taking control of the legislature.Posted by: Rick Ballard | October 10, 2009 at 01:43 PM
Well, I'm sure Palin and McDonnell are fine. The WaPo is working overtime to find something/anything to undo McDonnell.
They print articles about how he is too far right(to motivate Dems.), and when the numbers don't move, they print articles about how he is abandoning his far right positions (to demotivate the base). The WaPo is flailing.
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 01:44 PM
....they are just in the demotivate the base cycle!
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 01:47 PM
Jim Ryan, I wanted to thank you for steering me to that bargain Coltrane boxed set at Best Buy. I am enjoying Side Steps.
Posted by: peter | October 10, 2009 at 01:48 PM
Dimon is not a Morgan, if not careful he may end up a Lee Higginson, the Lehman Bros
of the 20s, This proves that Bush was right
not to pick a financier for his first two
Treasury picks, but an industrialist, even though the first was kind of a dodgy choice.
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 01:51 PM
LUN - "al Qaeda and Taliban being helped by global warming" via Newsbusters
Idiots.
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 01:56 PM
narciso-
Yep. Working link LUN.
The McChrsytal Plan: Surge 40,000 more US troops from a weary Army to renew the failing effort to apply our counter-productive counterinsurgency theory -- which attempts to cure cancer with herbal tea.
The Biden Strategy: Focus ruthlessly on the destruction of al Qaeda and its auxiliaries across the border in Pakistan or wherever they may appear in Afghanistan. This is the counter-terror practice that's worked for 3,000 years.
WTF?
McChrystal's a mighty tactician and a fierce operator. But, elevated to strategic command, he couldn't think beyond the Army's minimum-violence/maximum-aid counterinsurgency doctrine -- which just doesn't work. His solution to failure? Try harder. Send more troops. He's a hero out of his depth.
Let's ask abu Musab al Zarqawi.
Gen. McChrystal was handpicked by President Obama to turn Afghanistan around and to redirect the military focus to Obama's self-imposed central front. Gen. McChrystal has, and as ordered produced, the report that puts a price on Obama's rhetoric. Now Obama doesn't like the cost-maybe he shouldn't have opened up his big fat yapper loudly proclaiming to every terrorist and terror sponsoring state in the world that he was going to get the US and NATO bogged down there.
Posted by: RichatUF | October 10, 2009 at 02:00 PM
Anyone else watching the President's Cup on NBC?
They did a promo spot for 30 Rock featuring, of course, Tina Fey, and Johnny Miller says, "thought that was Sarah Palin there for a moment".
Haha.
Posted by: hit and run | October 10, 2009 at 02:03 PM
Me:
Anyone else watching the President's Cup on NBC?
Before Elliott or someone else tries to correct me.
No, that's not a typo.
Sure, you may think it's "Presidents Cup", no apostrophe, and traditionally you would be right.
But they gave it to Obama, so the singular possessive form is correct now.
Posted by: hit and run | October 10, 2009 at 02:07 PM
We could but "Misteer Zarquawi" much like Mr. Kurtz is dead. And Machrystal had as big a role in that, as Marius had with Jugurtha. Unless we want to go through Maiwand time and again, I think we owe him
a chance. Now what Peters leaves out is that Obama is likely to go for option 3,
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 02:14 PM
Are there posters on JOM that monitor apostrophes? I'm in big trouble!
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 02:16 PM
Like CNN, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/oct/05/saturday-night-live-obama-campaign-promises/>Politifact fact-checked Fred Armisen's SNL skit.
However, unlike CNN, it wasn't to help Michelle's kids:
I'm not saying I'm expecting that much from SNL on the Obama-mocking department tongight, but, I'll hand it to them -- they've got me interested enough to maybe think about considering whether I should make a mental note to try and remember tonight to perhaps fight the urge not to turn on SNL.
And that's a big step forward.
Posted by: hit and run | October 10, 2009 at 02:21 PM
If I understand Peters on Afghanistan correctly, he has for a while now been of the position that we should aggressively focus on destroying al-Qaeda, because it was they who attacked us, and forget about pursuing the Taliban, because they didn't.
But are the Taliban really so irrelevant to our interests there?
Posted by: PD | October 10, 2009 at 02:36 PM
Rich-
Thanks for the link on gold.
I don't think the Arabs, Russians and Chinese are going to bail on the dollar--yet.
I think they're just waiting to see how much Zero destroys the US consumer and our economy first. Then jump ship.
ISTM that the only rationale being still standing in this administration is Bernanke. Summers, Turbo and Volker have been marginalized and have read that Rahm is running monetary policy nowadays.
So Bernanke is the only thing--to my inkling of understanding--standing between us and economic chaos.
Posted by: glasater | October 10, 2009 at 02:36 PM
In this context, Time's altogether too hagiographic profile of Najibullah ZAzi, which leaves out the fact that his name coincides with that of an Afghan strongman,
features an interview with Bob Grenier, who backstabbed Libby during his trial, now at Kroll, but was upset over the revelation of the 'secret prisons' saying the Taliban has
become this group with global reach. So yes
they are the same flavor of Deobandi Wahhanism
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 02:42 PM
I have seen some pretty nasty comments from liberals on Obamas Nodel affirmation action prize.
Do these liberals not like black people?
Posted by: Pops | October 10, 2009 at 02:43 PM
Richard Haas, also known as Couric's proctor
for the now notorious interviews, really needs to be asked, 'what does he read' in the LUN
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 02:56 PM
narciso:
Peters was already beginning to agitate for the Biden approach before it was the Biden approach, and I was surprised at what seemed like a turn in the road for him too. My best guess is that he is torn up about what's happening to our guys in the field, very worried about the effects of overstretching, and thinks that COIN ops Iraqi style are not going to work in Afghanistan. I do think he is far more focused on troops and events on the ground, and doesn't devote a lot of attention to our geopolitical strategic interests. He's obviously fed up with the politics, although I think he does the right an injustice when he tars them for just taking cheap shots at Obama. For the most part, I think they take the current state of affairs very seriously.
He's always worth listening to though. I haven't read the McChrystal report myself, but it sounds like it's possible that the decision to go with COIN ops was made in DC, before McChrystal was dispatched. He, himself, may not have completely rejected the counter-terrorism approach per se, but was assessing how a counterinsurgency would have to be conducted, and how many troops would have to be deployed to do so successfully, in support of the goals Obama laid out in March.
It's my impression that there is a real case to be made that attempting to bolster a strong central government in Kabul ignores major structural differences between Iraq and Afghanistan, in both tribal and terrain based dynamics. Notwithstanding Sunni/Shia/Kurdish conflict, Saddam's government was also largely secular, where the home of the full burkha is not, or hasn't been for a long time. That makes Karzai's problematic governance even harder to sell, and I don't see any unifying religious leader like an Afghan al Sistani -- or a Khamenei, for that matter -- emerging. That void has been filled by the Taliban, but their fundamental objectives are dramatically different. Despite the al Qaeda presence in Iraq, the enemy is very different in Afghanistan, and its support is native grown. Afghanistan's borders are considerably more porous, with powerful sympathizers in country, so the dual problem with Iran and Pakistan is far more dangerous than it was with Iran and Syria, to start with -- before the two-fold nuclear equation even enters the picture.
There really are huge, complex strategic issues in play here. I'm not disgusted with Obama because he hasn't adopted "the McChrystal plan." While characterizing Afghanistan as the good war was clearly a politically based talking point, I think Obama really believed that it was also a simpler war that Bush had just neglected. Unfortunately, he hasn't managed to surround himself with people who could disabuse him of that notion, and he has always been most concerned with the optics of a being the CiC strategist giving his military tacticians their marching orders. That remains a central problem now, IMO, and the fact that he has apparently called in Colin Powell as an informal military mentor, instead of dealing directly with his own Generals, is really scary.
Posted by: JM Hanes | October 10, 2009 at 03:04 PM
One more point. The strategy that Gen. McChrystal employed in Iraq needed the breathing space that Gen. Petraeus' strategy provided. Biden won't get a chance at wack-a-terrorist with Predators and SOC (ie "going hollywood") if the rest of the country turns more to shit. Where would they like to launch-off the coast in the Arabian Sea where every time we want to bomb something we'd have to give the Pakis (and Taliban) a warning or send drones from Diego Garcia?
Posted by: RichatUF | October 10, 2009 at 03:07 PM
I was a philosophy professor
...but you're feeling much better now.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | October 10, 2009 at 03:10 PM
But are the Taliban really so irrelevant to our interests there?
Honestly, this whole argument strikes me like saying "The SS is the enemy, not the Nazi Party."
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | October 10, 2009 at 03:14 PM
You make the case much more clearly then Peters does himself. Then again, it has been a long time since there was a dispatch out of Fallujah or Ramadi, between the times
of Bagot Glubb and the US interventionwhere Major Mirabile's unit operated, and they kept losing although not a single fatality
on their watch. Both Trofimov and Logan, the last who dissabused some of the strawmen
the President has set forth, covered that area, as well as the press officer, Jason Stanwyck, who blogs more infrequently at CounterColumn. The lack of reinforcements along with any significant strategy, made
progress there in Fallujah, Tell A Far, where MacMaster held sway that much harder
Posted by: narciso | October 10, 2009 at 03:14 PM
I do not see much value in the Taliban/AQ dichotomy. To my way of thinking the danger in Iraq was the possible (I think, actual) relationship between hostile states and Islamist terrorists. That is, if the state allowed its intel agencies to assist them and passed on to them wmds in a false flag op , we would be subject to intolerable damage here and abroad.
With respect to Afghanistan, we went in to deny AQ a state from which to operate. If Afghanistan becomes a failed state once again with no control whatsoever over its borders and Islamist terrorists overrunning it Iran can use it in the same way we feared (and I believe)Iraq used AQ.
Posted by: clarice | October 10, 2009 at 03:25 PM
I already said at my usual enormous length on another thread here why State's reaction, since it can't be combatted, deserves a hearty laugh. I stick with this.
Posted by: Gregory Koster | October 10, 2009 at 03:28 PM
Honestly, this whole argument strikes me like saying "The SS is the enemy, not the Nazi Party."
In that analogy, who are the Taliban, and who are the Republicans?
Posted by: bgates | October 10, 2009 at 03:29 PM
"Carter, and Gore, and Obama - that's like the Mt. Rushmore of shut-the-hell-up!"
From Red State Update via Instapundit. Too funny!
Posted by: Janet | October 10, 2009 at 03:38 PM
Danube, the requirements for selecting the Peace Prize come from Nobel's will In those days Norway was still part of Sweden, but had considerable autonomy, in the manner of Ireland 1922-37. I remember reading that Nobel picked the Norwegian Storting because is was supposedly less provincial than the Swedish parliament, but was still in Sweden. The problem with the Prizes isn't Nobel's will; it's what's happened to the Storting recently. For all the jeering at the Prize (with me prominently bawling) they've made good choices e.g. George Marshall, Martin Luther King, Norman Borlaug---all of whom are more than thirty years ago.
The lesson? If you are going to set up a foundation to create a faux immortality for yourself, have it go out of business in thirty years, assets to be sent to the Burean of the Public Debt. Try to imagine Henry Ford or John D. Rockefeller if they came back and saw what their Foundations are doing today.
Posted by: Gregory Koster | October 10, 2009 at 03:47 PM
glasater-
The Fisk article was pretty odd and the reaction was even more strange, seeing as how for the last decade the usual cast of characters have been talking about doing away with dollar hegemony*. I was being cheeky that it was JPM trying to rattle the markets or an "interview" for Treasury. The current OCC report shows the size of JPM's position in gold on table 9 (p.30) so I might be able to talk myself into a good conspiracy theory though.
*I find it odd that the next "global leaders" are the BRIC countries because: Brazil needed a $30 billion bailout in 2003, and iirc, they have never paid a 30 year bond without some sort of event. Russia had an economic crisis and bond default in 1998 (and I still think they are fighting over it?) and were hurt badly in this last financial crisis (they had to close their markets multiple times for days at a time). China is an authoritian government with party functionaries incentivized to fudge the numbers here-and-there. India seems to be getting things right but they have a long history of socalism and deeply fractured political culture. I'm pretty sure they'll get right on making a global currency regime that's noncorrupt, punishes counterfeiters, and is highly tradable. That Japan, the Gulf oil kingdoms, and gold would be also be part of this "new regime" discussion is laughable.
Posted by: RichatUF | October 10, 2009 at 04:00 PM
But they gave it to Obama
Nah, I think he's merely the honorary chairman this year.
Posted by: Elliott | October 10, 2009 at 04:01 PM
Q: Why didn't Obama get the Nobel Prize for Literature?
A: Having written two books, he was overqualified.
Posted by: Neo | October 10, 2009 at 04:04 PM
"Instead it took me four months to pick out a dog."
Actually, it's amazing it took that long for Pres. Peace-be-upon-us to be talked into a (Ted Kennedy financed?) "rescue" purebred instead of the mutt he talked about before the election.
OT- while driving through northern CA, OR and WA, it was all I could do to refrain from throwing a shoe at the shiny signs from the Zero administration boasting the stimulus funds used for any and all minor repairs. Is it too soon to use them for *real* target practice?
Posted by: Frau Jagdhund | October 10, 2009 at 04:22 PM
In time they'll be historic objects, Frau.
Maybe PUK and I will add them to our collection of O-Reliquaries.
Posted by: clarice | October 10, 2009 at 04:32 PM