Once Bitten, Now Not Shy At All

The NY Times editors felt, with some reason, that they betrayed their readership in 2002/3 by failing to put Bush Administration claims under a microscope in the run-up to the Iraq war.

But  now that Team Obama is taking us Back To Iraq the Times is pushing hard, aided no doubt by the many proper progressive sources throughout this administration who are wondering whatever happened to that nice, historically tinted man they supported in 2008.

Two articles on the effort against ISIS hit the front page, one more troubling than the next:

Arabs Give Tepid Support to U.S. Fight Against ISIS

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Many Arab governments grumbled quietly in 2011 as the United States left Iraq, fearful it might fall deeper into chaos or Iranian influence. Now, the United States is back and getting a less than enthusiastic welcome, with leading allies like Egypt, Jordan and Turkey all finding ways on Thursday to avoid specific commitments to President Obama’s expanded military campaign against Sunni extremists.

As the prospect of the first American strikes inside Syria crackled through the region, the mixed reactions underscored the challenges of a new military intervention in the Middle East, where 13 years of chaos, from Sept. 11 through the Arab Spring revolts, have deepened political and sectarian divisions and increased mistrust of the United States on all sides.

“As a student of terrorism for the last 30 years, I am afraid of that formula of ‘supporting the American effort,’ ” said Diaa Rashwan, a scholar at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a government-funded policy organization in Cairo. “It is very dangerous.”

I want to circle back to this, but let me pick up this Scary Factoid and move on:

Turkey, which Mr. Kerry will visit on Friday, is concerned about attacks across its long border with ISIS-controlled Syria, and also about 49 Turkish government employees captured by the group in Iraq. Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, an official advised not to expect public support for the American effort.

Turkey is a NATO ally and one-time EU applicant that borders ISIS and they won't come out publicly against them? Yikes, and hmmm... More on that here - per McClatchy, the US and Turkey have been at odds over which rebel groups to support.

And in a bit of an I Told You So, let me reprise my thoughts about the appeal of a coalition led by Obama and Kerry:

By next summer, though, Barack and John will be leading the anti-war chanting outside the White House.

On to the second Times blast:

U.S. Pins Hope on Syrian Rebels With Loyalties All Over the Map

BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Obama’s determination to train Syrian rebels to serve as ground troops against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria leaves the United States dependent on a diverse group riven by infighting, with no shared leadership and with hard-line Islamists as its most effective fighters.

After more than three years of civil war, there are hundreds of militias fighting President Bashar al-Assad — and one another. Among them, even the more secular forces have turned to Islamists for support and weapons over the years, and the remaining moderate rebels often fight alongside extremists like the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

“You are not going to find this neat, clean, secular rebel group that respects human rights and that is waiting and ready because they don’t exist,” said Aron Lund, a Syria analyst who edits the Syria in Crisis blog for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It is a very dirty war and you have to deal with what is on offer.”

Analysts who track the rebel movement say that the concept of the Free Syrian Army as a unified force with an effective command structure is a myth.

Worried yet?

“There’s a lot of skepticism about this piece of the president’s strategy,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. “The so-called moderate rebels have often been very immoderate and ineffective.”

And if that doesn't make you nervous, try this:

Current and former American officials acknowledge the government’s lack of deep knowledge about the rebels. “We need to do everything we can to figure out who the non-ISIS opposition is,” said Ryan C. Crocker, a former United States ambassador to Iraq and Syria. “Frankly, we don’t have a clue.”

"We don't have a clue".

 

 

Comments

[JoJo]

The Syrian Christians support Assad and are protected by him. What happens to them when the rebels take him down?

[GMax]

We don't have a clue.

Put that on a banner and hang it from the WH balcony.

[MarkO]

Obama's just not that smart.
And, he's a liar.

[NK]

"We don't have a clue."

that should be on the POTUS seal -- particularly the one on his podium--so long as Obummer is in office.

[jimmyk]

Another SNL comedy routine by Harf:

Harf to Reporter Saying Germany Is Backing Out: "Why Do You Always Focus On What People Say They Won't Do?"

[Ignatz]

If you lived in a neighborhood of violent thugs and gangsters and some Dudley Do-right came riding into town who had already proven time and again he'll poke the bullies in the nose and then ride out of town to let the locals absorb the retribution would you sign up to play on his team?

[Jane]

Howie Carr is great today:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2014/09/carr_anti_war_crowd_stunningly_silent_now

[narciso]

I ask the floor wax/dessert topping question:

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/09/11/boehner-backs-obama-on-training-syrian-opposition-caucus-needs-to-time-decide-on-rest-of-plan/\

when they are not directly coordinating with Nusra and ISIS, they run away like the Black Knight,

[Threadkiller]

"Take note at what Obama's, passport records scrubber, CIA DirectorJohn Brennan says in the first video provided here;"

http://youtu.be/g_v6zcOSYEQ

[GMax]

How many of the Democrat leadership quite recently thought Assad was the berries? John Kerry and his shrew of a wife had dinner with the Assads and San Fran Nan comes to mind as well. Levin too maybe? I am sure JOM can add to the list.

This is the caucus that is "torn".

[Captain Hate]

Harf ought to just start hitting the comedy clubs.

[Threadkiller]

So true, GMax.

The conventional thinking is that Obama's actions are destroying to Democrat Party when, in fact, they are defining it.

[Captain Hate]

Pelosi might have been there for some cataract work.

[Extraneus]

Obama deserves to be bogged down in Iraq for the remainder of his days in office.

[NK]

TK@11:19-- I certainly hope Obummer succeeds in that. It's been my hope since 2009 that Obummer successfully purges all of the 'moderate' Dems out of the party (they are phonies of course) and makes it a full-on prog party. That would allow the Repubs to be a full on conservative party so voters would have a real choice. That kills the Dem party for at least a generation, or until someone is wiping the oatmeal off my chin, whichever sooner.

[narciso]

Yes, next year when ISIS is besieging Riyadh, Lurch will pretend not to have known the royals,

Now Cameron is doing his best impression of Graham Chapman's upper class twit, winning the future,

[Rick B]

According to the WaPo, the Lackwitz Sisters are buying up all the clues. Charlie Cook describes how to read the clues of a Dem disaster. His description of soft polling support for incumbents fits a number of Senate races as well as the current results for the few House races for which public polls are available.

The Tierney outcome in Massachusetts is a harbinger as is Cuomos performance in New York.

[BumperStickerist]

In other news:

The Islamic State changed its name to "No! Really! We're Islamic in the Sense That We're Adherents to Our Interpretation of Islam Which Necessitates Sharia Law And All That Stuff and We're A State"

President Obama reasserted his claim that they are not, in fact, Islamic.

[Dave (in MA)]

On Facebook someone posted under a picture of Harf,
"I mean, come on. It's war. Sam Elliot or Fred Thompson... not Reese Witherspoon."

[BumperStickerist]

a twitter user came up with the optimal name for Obama's Middle Eastern military strategy:
-
Operation Polling Thunder
_

[narciso]

I dubbed her Elle Woods, at one point,

[Dave (in MA)]

narciso,

Heh (after I looked up Elle Woods).

[GMax]

Contemplate this from Rick's link to Charlie Cook:

As we got to late summer and early fall in 1994, it became clear that a wave was building, a big Republican wave, but it still looked unlikely that the GOP would score the 40-seat net gain needed to win a majority for the first time in 40 years. Giving Republicans every conceivable competitive race, you still couldn't count 40 Democratic losses.

On election night, the GOP picked up a mind-boggling 52 seats, winning districts that had never received a dime from the national party; long shots who had seemed to be jokes were actually winning.

Long shots were winning. Democrats were stuck in the low 40s for soft support...

[Threadkiller]

That would allow the Repubs to be a full on conservative party so voters would have a real choice.

Once again the GOP is beholding to the whims of the Democratic Party.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

"We don't have a clue."

It'll have to be in Latin so it sounds majestic!

[AliceH]

Janet:

Non sum medicus

(per google translate)

[NK]

TK@12:03-- a lot of truth to that. In the times I grew up, the FDR coalition made the dems the clear majority party. They easily controlled the House 1954-1994. The competitive Senate and POTUS elections were fights over the 'middle' (muddle) so there really was 'not a dime's worth of difference.' That has been changing, slowly, since McCovern and quickening since 1994. I see a real chance than perhaps as early as 2016 (if the Dems nominate Fauxchahontas) we could have a Prog and conservative twoparty system that are very different.

[Extraneus]

Posted earlier by OL.

U.S. threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data

The U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user communications — a request the company believed was unconstitutional — according to court documents unsealed Thursday that illuminate how federal officials forced American tech companies to participate in the National Security Agency’s controversial PRISM program.

The documents, roughly 1,500 pages worth, outline a secret and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle by Yahoo to resist the government’s demands. The company’s loss required Yahoo to become one of the first to begin providing information to PRISM, a program that gave the NSA extensive access to records of online com­munications by users of Yahoo and other U.S.-based technology firms.

The ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review became a key moment in the development of PRISM, helping government officials to convince other Silicon Valley companies that unprecedented data demands had been tested in the courts and found constitutionally sound.

Seems like a strange way to characterize what some black-robed political operatives approved.

[GMax]

Siena released to NY congressional poll yesterday. I think someone posted the results of 21 but taken in tandem they make a better point. These are districts which are rated competitive by Cook in in PVI at D + 1 and EVEN. Now look at the results:

NY 21
Sefanik (R) 46 / Woolf (D) 33

NY 19
Gibson (R-Inc) 57 / Eldridge 33

Just to put these into context, RCP has NY_19 Lean R, as does Cook and Sabato, and Rothenberg has it a TOSSUP.

NY_21, the ALL have it a tossup.

Think about that R + 18 that was ferreted out yesterday in context of these two races and the measured results. These are upstate NY, not Alabama...

[Rick B]

Senate Progressives Fascists with soft polling:

Hagan 44.6
Landrieu 44.7
Pryor 42.2
Udall 46
Begich 42.7
Shaheen 47.7

[NK]

RickB-- there are 3 open Dem seats, correct? So these 6 soft dems, makes a possible 9 seat turnaround? is that correct?

[Rick B]

NK,

There are five open Fascist seats, West Virginia, Monatana, South Dakota, Iowa and Michigan. Michigan is the only disappointment with Land running a peculiarly dysfunctional campaign to date. Three are already solid pickups and Ernst is doing well in Iowa so a ten seat swing is very possible.

[Beasts of England]

Non habeant ideam.

(per Latin classes, subject to review by Elliott)

[NK]

RickB-- as usual, many thanks for the scorecard. I am dissapointed with Michigan, that would seem to be a easier pick up than NH. Who knows, maybe the gals in NH like Scottie Centerfolds' features.

[Strawman Cometh]

not Reese Witherspoon.

Reese has more gravitas than Harf

[Jim Eagle]

BoE,

There is no exact word for word translation for "clue" in Latin.

Your translation is "We haven't any idea".

AliceH is closer to "We don't have a clue".

But Latin is a dead language,
As dead as it can be,
First it killed the Romans,
And now its killing me:)

4 years HS and pre-Vatican Council II altar boy:)

[Cecil Turner]

The NY Times editors felt, with some reason, that they betrayed their readership in 2002/3 by failing to put Bush Administration claims under a microscope in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Funny that the best examples of supposed postwar revelations are in themselves lies. For example: "lied into war"; "no WMD"; or the sixteen words. Meanwhile, the most ridiculous formulations of this presidency (e.g., "if you like your health care . . . " or "kinetic military action") are treated as plausible or starved of ink. And yet, we pretend the revealed wisdom of the Times' consensus reality is somehow legitimate.

“Frankly, we don’t have a clue.”

Well, that about sums it up. And, unfortunately, it's obvious.

But I think the larger point here is that the polls we've been using to fashion our foreign policy are largely dependent on the fourth estate. And, apparently, they're only on board when we're doing something stupid. Which is more than a bit scary.

[Ignatz]

--Reese has more gravitas than Harf...--

A neutrino has more gravitas than Harf.

--But I think the larger point here is that the polls we've been using to fashion our foreign policy are largely dependent on the fourth estate.--

Cecil, the JOM usage and style manual generally indicates "fifth column" rather than "fourth estate."

[Tom Maguire]

Name that non-war!

a twitter user came up with the optimal name for Obama's Middle Eastern military strategy: - Operation Polling Thunder

Pretty good. I like "Operation Sand Trap".

[Threadkiller]

Operation: The Wacky President's Game.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Operation Line in the Sandtrap.

[Cecil Turner]

Desert Sham, Enduring Farce

[srp]

Uncertain Trumpet

[Comanche Voter]

Ah in the Middle East who is going to sign on to Nancy Boy's team? They like strong horses and Obama is no more than a broken down Shetland pony--if that.

As for the two State Department Spokeholes, "Heifer" Harf, and Jan Sack of something, don't knock 'em. They are at least as smart as Lurch--which isn't saying much.