२४ मे, २०१५

"Pentagon report predicted West’s support for Islamist rebels would create ISIS."

"Anti-ISIS coalition knowingly sponsored violent extremists to 'isolate’' Assad, rollback 'Shia expansion.'"

५१ टिप्पण्या:

Michael K म्हणाले...

saw that the other day. You might also look at the retired CincPAC comments.

Achilles म्हणाले...

They aren't anti-war, they are on the other side. They want Iran ascendant. They want ISIS ascendant. They want the world to be less like the United States was.

They are the statists who want their serfs back and the people who want to be serfs.

Obama went to the Coast Guard commencement and told them that they had to help deal with climate change. For an hour. The great lakes are still ice locked on memorial day weekend and had historical levels of ice the last two years. The Antarctic has historically high amounts of ice pack. And he give a speech to the USCG about the need for more bureaucracy and government control over the source of our escape from poverty which is hydrocarbon based energy.

These people are enemies of freedom.

Hagar म्हणाले...

And then they sent Biden to some military school to give the same message to the graduating class there.

Do they intend to turn the US military into some kind of WPA agency to "fight climate change"?

Things goin as they are, this is very strange even for the Obama administration.

Hagar म्हणाले...

"Benghazi" caused full panic at the State Department at the time and solid stonewalling from the whole administration ever since.
They obviously were doing something - whatever it was - that the administration cannot afford to come into daylight.
It really makes me wonder who or what they are afraid of, since it can hardly be themselves.

YoungHegelian म्हणाले...

If true, this is going to put a bit of a crimp in the "Bush's policies in Iraq created ISIS" meme, isn't it?

Matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised that the "Bush created ISIS" meme is being pushed by the Left (e.g. Podesta's CAP & Brock's Media Matters) because they knew that this report was going to come out & create problems for the Obama administration &, by extension, Hillary.

Achilles म्हणाले...

YoungHegelian said...

"...they knew that this report was going to come out & create problems for the Obama administration &, by extension, Hillary."

The real problem for Obama/Hillary/Progressives is the internet. They do have their fever swamps on it but it allows all of the information at the source levels to be available. 20 years ago they would have been able to rewrite history where Bush was losing to ISIS like they rewrote history to the US losing militarily in Vietnam.

But now everyone knows that like Vietnam Obama chose to lose Iraq. We can even bring up Obama's and all of the lefty victory speeches from 2011/2012 when they bragged about how awesome Iraq was when he left. Now it is a shit hole because the left wanted it that way and it is stuck to them.

George M. Spencer म्हणाले...

Michael K., et al..

More from four-star Adm. James Lyons here.

Hagar म्हणाले...

What they were up to has to have been big, and it cannot have been about some mere public opinion and future U.S. election campaigns.

Hagar म्हणाले...

Just 4 dead in a faraway country does not explain the full panic and across the board stonewalling from the entire administration.
It has to be bigger than that.

अनामित म्हणाले...

Achilles, I wasn't sure you saw this late response last week...

said...
And here I thought based off your handle you worked for a living..

- Enlisted 69
- Applied for OCS, made the wait list, went to Nam (reapply when you get back they said)
- Nam 70-71, E3-E5, Mostly Signal Intel, but did some Infantry stuff till my clearance arrived. 101 ABn. Standing in paddies watching M-48's go by, I decided that was civilized
71, back from Nam, volunteered as a Drill SGT
- Top Grad at DS school, offered E-6, passed and got out
- went back to college and joined ROTC.
- 74 Commissioned Regular Army Armor, with a top 5% fellowship to grad school

so I worked for a living for a while

David म्हणाले...

So you really were a drill sgt. Good going.

Michael K म्हणाले...

"More from four-star Adm. James Lyons here."

There was also a succinct video of him saying this in fewer words but I can't find it. He is controversial but most brass turn in their balls when they get the first star. If they don;t, in this admin, they last until the next crisis, like Carter Ham.

I just hope these guys stay alive until the next president needs them. Ernest J King said, when FDR called him back to active duty after Pearl Harbor, "When the going gets tough, they send for the sons of bitches."

Eisenhower and Marshall used to terrorize Churchill with King whenever the Brits started backtracking on Normandy.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

Can I ask one question?

Why do we care?

These guys are the best open advertisement yet for how horrible they and their ideas are. Sure, they recruit some nutters who want to roam the desert with AKs and whip people who don't cloak themselves from head-to-toe in black in the desert sun. I, for one, am very grateful to have them over in that backwater than in any of the Western countries they cam from.

They are the best anti-recruitment tool that radical Islam has conceived. For every nutter that makes their way down there, I bet you that five or more young Muslims feels a retching sense of embarrassment for how ridiculous and backward these Syrian extended vacationers showcase themselves to be.

Leave them alone. Watch them. Contain them. Use them as a reason to bolster Kurdistan and promote its independence. But allowing them to have their mini-Caliphate is more disillusioning to "radical" Islam than allowing the Soviet Union to exist and destroy itself was to communism.

Some things you just got to let happen. Getting in the way of your enemy's self-destruction is something so stupid that only American neoconservative foreign policy activists would dream it up.

Etienne म्हणाले...

"If you want a tour guide to the apocalypse, Nafeez Ahmed is your guy."

I don't worry much, because I know the USA has 2400 thermo-nuclear weapons on alert tonight.

Dr Weevil म्हणाले...

Rhythm and Balls' comment needs a few more sentences to complete it:

If irreplaceable relics of our (=Greek and Roman) civilization are dynamited, shouldn't we be ashamed to care more about material goods than human lives? If tens of thousands of innocent women are raped and tens of thousands more sold as sex-slaves (not that there's a big difference), don't worry: they're all Nigerians and Yazidis and Kurds and other sorts of foreigners - nobody we know. If tens of thousands of men are decapitated, or machine-gunned, or set on fire in cages, or thrown off buildings, don't worry - again, it's nobody we know, and there's no reason to care about other people's lives any more than we care about ancient ruins.

Is that a fair extrapolation of what you're thinking, R&B? Because it looks utterly contemptible to me.

Chris N म्हणाले...

People have been saying similar things for years. Smart and experienced people.

The current cohort doesn't much listen.

Etienne म्हणाले...

Vietnam was lost in 1945. Anyone who tells you different hasn't read The Pentagon Papers.

Etienne म्हणाले...

Why do we care?

Exactly. This is an Islamic war, and Muslims are killing Muslims.

It's a win-win. When the victor comes forward, just like Ibn Saud did, we can recognize him, and send in British Petroleum.

Case closed.

Where's the popcorn?

TA म्हणाले...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Read the rest of the stuff on this guy's website, before you sign onto him as a source of the true scoop.

khesanh0802 म्हणाले...

A Seymour Hersh-like expose. Low on clarity and sources. The memo probably exists, but I find the author's review unconvincing. Sloppy work.

themightypuck म्हणाले...

Didn't everyone already know this? The weird thing about ISIS is how crazy we get about it. You either support the shitty dictator, occupy the country, or let the chips fall. Taliban style. I really don't think any professional was shocked by how things played out.

Joe म्हणाले...

Backing the wrong horse for dipshit reasons has resulted in a whole lot of problems. See Vietnam, Iran and Cuba for starts.

Crimso म्हणाले...

"Just 4 dead in a faraway country does not explain the full panic and across the board stonewalling from the entire administration.
It has to be bigger than that."

I'm guessing they're using Iran-Contra as a frame of reference, and have concluded that whatever it was they were doing is about an order of magnitude worse and therefore requires extraordinary measures to keep it from us.

Unknown म्हणाले...

Supporting rebels in Syria was just as dumb as supporting afghan opposition during soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Ambrose म्हणाले...

Yeah, Pentagon also had its money on American Pharoah - like they would ever leak a report about them getting something wrong. I am with the other commenters who suggest we should let the Islamists kill each other.

Be म्हणाले...

To tie things up for today:

(If Looks Could Kill, They Probably Will...)

https://youtu.be/LKb9XQ39-zc

narciso म्हणाले...

IS is the old Zarquawi network, built by old line Baathists, like the late Hafr Bakr, but working with Salafi elements in Europe and elsewhere,

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

Hey Weevil - you're more than welcome to slip across that border and do all the antiquity-protectin' and white-knight duty you feel you can accomplish before your inevitable beheading. No one's stopping you. If jihadis can get in at will, then certainly you can, also. In fact, I highly encourage you to carry out the courage of your convictions, rather than do the contemptibly predictable armchair wargaming and moralizing.

But what's really contemptible is you pretending it's in the interests of the U.S. national cost-benefit analysis to do so. I didn't realize saving Mid-East antiquities from destruction was written into the Constitution, let alone in the vital strategic interests of the U.S. to do so. Obama sent in air cover to protect the minorities that the Kurds can take-over for now. But again, if you want to feign moral dismay and neocon partisan outrage about not committing to a greater quagmire, go get yourself in there. Pack your bags and get in the game, man! Your total credibility's on the line, and right now your refusal to be like Nick Berg et al and go be the Mid-East Dudley Do-Right you claim to be, is pushing you into the "loudmouth dipshit" category.

And you don't want that.

Get to Iraq, Weevil. Do it soon. Do it before anyone can ask you why you lacked the courage to do what you asked others to do in your place.

Go on.

Michael K म्हणाले...

"Getting in the way of your enemy's self-destruction is something so stupid that only American neoconservative foreign policy activists would dream it up."

Yup. Those guys with US passports are going to leave you alone because they can recognize a dope when they see him.

I don't really have a problem with Muslims killing each other. I do worry a bit about our open borders and the incentives to contribute to the LGBT debate, like killing all the gays. On the other hand, I might be passing by one day when the shots fly.

You are very certain that all this will pass us by. I wish I was as certain.

Dr Weevil म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

Pass by is a euphemism for being too trigger-happy to try containment, which is a totally viable strategy. It's worked for situations in the past and should easily work now.

What "radical" Islam needs more than anything else is a poster child for how dysfunctional it is as a governing ideology. I'd rather that take place in a poorly populated desert sandbox than anywhere else. And if the other governments in the region are so hell-bent on proclaiming how much more superior and civilized they are, let them prove it.

I'm sick of Arabs telling us that it's our job to root out their crazies. We've been performing terrorism patrol for 50 years and it's gotten us nowhere and gotten them nowhere. Time to cut off the foreign warfare-welfare check.

Dr Weevil म्हणाले...

Thanks to R&B for demonstrating that my choice of adjective was hardly adequate. What's more contemptible than contemptible? Someone who can't even be bothered to pretend to regret genocide, mass-rape, and cultural erasure, but finds it all just dandy, seems to qualify. As I said, nobody he knows is dying or being raped or tortured, so he doesn't care.

Of course, his 'chickenhawk' argument is double-edged. If he thinks it's so great that Muslims are killing each other over there, why doesn't he speed up the process by going over there himself and helping out? He could pick whichever side seems to be losing at the moment, switch sides when it begins to look as if they will win (surely inevitable with his help), and keep on switching as needed.

Or he could just refrain from saying stupid and dishonest things about others. Then again, Althouse regulars have seen enough of 'Rhythm and Balls' to know that he's always been a damned liar and "loudmouth dipshit" (nice case of projectile commenting!), and will continue to be one as long as the checks don't bounce.

Of course, men who put 'balls' in their online pseudonyms are the least likely to actually have any.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

ISIS/Da'esh is buffered by Israel, Kurdistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Containment is totally possible.

It helps us achieve another vital interest in bolstering the self-sufficiency and national aspirations of a more independent Kurdistan, which will be second in the region only to Israel in promoting a Western outlook.

Containment is the right strategy.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

Of course, I could be wrong on that, but at least, unlike certain insects (a "weevil" among them) I'm not arguing against the national interest and to barter American lives and treasure that he's unwilling to commit on his own for the sake of making Arabs needlessly dependent upon American "security" for yet another fucking generation.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

Of course, his 'chickenhawk' argument is double-edged. If he thinks it's so great that Muslims are killing each other over there, why doesn't he speed up the process by going over there himself and helping out?

I never said it's great that they're killing each other. I said that there are more important things for me to care about. You're the one who's being a moralist about it, so you go set the example and go on over there. Others are doing it. You know it's possible. But then, you might actually have to believe in the things you say you believe in, and that would defeat your purpose.

Of course, men who put 'balls' in their online pseudonyms are the least likely to actually have any.

Go to Iraq and show us where your balls are.

But perhaps insects/weevils don't have balls.

Dr Weevil म्हणाले...

Either containment means 'ignore the problem and hope it goes away', which is hardly in the national interest, or containing ISIS will involve bold men and women taking risks to (e.g.) make sure the Kurds have the equipment and supplies they need. Is 'Rhythm and Balls' going to be helping deliver them himself, or is he too fucking stupid to realize that his own 'chickenhawk' argument applies equally well to his own gutless, ballless, heartless, soulless, brainless self?

narciso म्हणाले...

'forget it, Doc' it's Chinatown, Islamic State has supplanted practically all Islamist networks from Bangor to Banda Aceh, in part because of it's success in conquering territory,

narciso म्हणाले...

the only parties that have been affirmatively against IS are Israel and Kurdistan, the other factions are not disposed toward Kurds or Jews.

Dr Weevil म्हणाले...

"I never said it's great that they're killing each other." Really? So calling what they're doing a "best open advertisement" that they're wrong, and a "best anti-recruitment tool", saying that you are "very grateful to have them" killing each other over there, and that it would be really "stupid" for us to get in the way of them doing so (all in the 6:46 comment) is not saying it's "great"? Someone's trying to evade the clear meaning of his words and get off on a technicality. Again, contemptible behavior from a contemptible barely-human being.

P.S. Keep making insect jokes: it really makes my point for me.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

Containment means nothing of the sort.

You don't know anything that you're talking about and simply have a partisan bone to pick, no real outlet (or courage) for your haphazard aggression, and a need to make yourself seem important with a pseudonym on a Blogger site.

People who don't argue for unwarranted aggression aren't chicken hawks. It's assholes like you, who do, that are.

And you probably know all this. But with faceless pseudonym as indistinct as yours, with no noticeable convictions or interesting things to say, making partisan verbal explosive diarrhea is the only way you have of making yourself feel important.

Anyone who would compel others to the task that they wouldn't take on themselves is a phony, partisan hack and a person not worth engaging at all.

The Kurds are doing fine, BTW, and no one says containing your reason-for-existence (ISIS) involves keeping Kurds from being armed. What a despotic idiot you are. Just completely incapable of believing you've made a point without being an idiotic liar. But then, making your point and being an idiotic liar are the same thing to a guy like you ("Weevil").

Blow me.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

"I never said it's great that they're killing each other." Really? So calling what they're doing a "best open advertisement" that they're wrong, and a "best anti-recruitment tool",

Whether they kill people or not, they're still a great ad for what they believe is all about.

saying that you are "very grateful to have them" killing each other over there,

Yup. Notice the words, "over there". They refer to location preference, not activity preference.

You really are as dumb as a stump.

and that it would be really "stupid" for us to get in the way of them doing so (all in the 6:46 comment)

It would be stupid to get involved. End. Take the point.

is not saying it's "great"? Someone's trying to evade the clear meaning of his words and get off on a technicality.

Words that you don't read are not "technicalities". They're crucial thoughts that your brain is too chaotic to process.

Again, contemptible behavior from a contemptible barely-human being.

Just because an ISIS fighter came out of your mother's vagina last night doesn't mean you have to take out your hurt feelings on me.

Just go away. You really are too stupid to breathe, let alone type.

narciso म्हणाले...

he's gone 'full Otto' what the DIA cables point out, is we leave to proxies from Riyadh and Doha, their
stamp will be on the subsequent regimes.

Dr Weevil म्हणाले...

So now I'm accused of "using a pseudonym on a Blogger site" by an equally pseudonymous commenter on the same Blogger site. More projectile commenting!

It's very convenient that R&B assumes the Kurds don't need his help. I have the impression that they are quite hard-pressed. He seems to have forgotten that a strategy of containment means less (if any) direct military intervention, which therefore makes volunteers like a hypothetical 'Rhythm and Balls' with actual balls all the more necessary.

But perhaps it's best that R&B stay home. The Kurds are quite liberal for Muslims, but they still might look askance at a recruit who's always shouting "Blow me" at people who don't happen to swing that way.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

He seems to have forgotten that a strategy of containment means less (if any) direct military intervention…

You are simply the biggest tool known to mankind (or at least to the cause of subsidizing Arabian security, which is what you stand for in this thread).

Containment of the Soviet Union involved a number of what are known as "proxy wars" (look them up). Those are military interventions.

Kurds fighting bandits to their west instead of U.S. fighting the bandits to their west would, assuming continued support, be a proxy war for us. Still contained.

Every time you type, you reveal how much you don't know. And how much of what you think you know is bullshit.

Rusty म्हणाले...

That "check engine" light?
Ignore it.

Paul म्हणाले...

ISIS will jump any 'containment' wall you put up.

Why?

It's an ideology.

As for Israel, the big secret the don't want Obama to spill is.... They have no nukes. Think of the implications.

Dr Weevil म्हणाले...

Yes, of course a proxy war is a military intervention. It's just not a direct military intervention. 'Direct' and 'proxy' are antonyms in this context. Poor R&B continues to abuse me for writing things I did not write, and then claims I'm a "tool" for thinking what I do not think. Again, nothing but pathetic projection.

And he still hasn't figured out that what Obama is doing is far less than containment, is in fact just sitting back and waiting while thousands are slaughtered or raped or tortured, occasionally dropping a few pallets of water bottles on a mountain where most of the surrounded refugees have already died of thirst to impress the press. Too little, too late, and all for the cameras, none for actual victory, is this administration's only apparent strategy. Does R&B approve?

machine म्हणाले...

judicial watch?!?!

there ya go again.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together म्हणाले...

Indulge me. Tell us what you would do, Commander Weevil.

Rusty म्हणाले...

Rhythm and Balls said...
Can I ask one question?

Why do we care?

I don't know.
They're not like the rest of us so why should anyone give a shit.

grackle म्हणाले...

20 years ago they would have been able to rewrite history where Bush was losing to ISIS like they rewrote history to the US losing militarily in Vietnam.

It's nice that we can now access the truth on the internet if we care enough to bother. Treasure these days because they will not last – Internet "neutrality" is on the way.

… containment, which is a totally viable strategy. It's worked for situations in the past and should easily work now.

The commentor must have some examples of successful "containment" in mind but alas does not see fit to list them.

I'm sick of Arabs telling us that it's our job to root out their crazies.

Actually I think the "Arabs" are probably a little sick of the USA insisting that the "Arabs" fight a proxy war for the benefit of the USA without much help from the USA.