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2004-06-22 Iraq-Jordan
Hersh’s Article About Collaboration Between Israel and Kurdistan
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Posted by Mike Sylwester 2004-06-22 8:28:54 AM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 It's so fun watching Seymour flirt with the truth but be unable to get there because all things must lead to "Bush is stupid".

What a waste of talent.
Posted by B 2004-06-22 8:46:15 AM||   2004-06-22 8:46:15 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 It's so fun watching Seymour flirt with the truth but be unable to get there because all things must lead to "Bush is stupid".

What a waste of talent.
Posted by B 2004-06-22 8:46:42 AM||   2004-06-22 8:46:42 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 I guess two virus attempts results in a double post?
Posted by B 2004-06-22 8:49:17 AM||   2004-06-22 8:49:17 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Didn't we cover this yesterday?
Posted by Mike  2004-06-22 9:16:41 AM||   2004-06-22 9:16:41 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 It was covered two days ago too. So what?
Posted by Mike Sylwester 2004-06-22 9:27:02 AM||   2004-06-22 9:27:02 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 Oh, Christ, Mike. You actually believe Hersh? The guy never found a lie he wouldn't make his own.
Posted by Robert Crawford  2004-06-22 9:58:38 AM|| [http://www.kloognome.com]  2004-06-22 9:58:38 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 What a load of horsesh*t (speaking particularly of the last few paras). Is this trend for "former officials" to cheap-shot policy from a lofty and solomonic height new, or did I just not notice it virtually filling such articles in eras past?

Barak sounds like an idiot here -- of course, given his record, there's some basis for this, but I think he's smarter than this. We've already "lost"? You can't "win" an occupation -- i.e. you can't achieve your objectives if it involves occupation, even if temporary? Huh? This is the sort of silliness one usually sees in, uh, clueless American journalists and think-tank hacks.

But the howler is the "damage" to "Israel's strategic position". What? Eliminating the richest, most able, most implacably hostile Arab regime constitutes "damage" to "Israel's strategic position"? I guess Hersh is just much smarter than I, since he can make any sense of such an idea. Or, maybe ....
Posted by Verlaine 2004-06-22 10:44:24 AM||   2004-06-22 10:44:24 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 Is this trend for "former officials" to cheap-shot policy from a lofty and solomonic height new, or did I just not notice it virtually filling such articles in eras past?

I don't recall it from high officials in the Clinton administration. After all who'd want to be found dead in Fort Marcy Park?
Posted by eLarson 2004-06-22 12:02:18 PM||   2004-06-22 12:02:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 The border stayed open, however. “The Administration wasn’t ignoring the Israeli intelligence about Iran,” Patrick Clawson, who is the deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and has close ties to the White House, explained. “There’s no question that we took no steps last summer to close the border, but our attitude was that it was more useful for Iraqis to have contacts with ordinary Iranians coming across the border, and thousands were coming across every day—for instance, to make pilgrimages.” He added, “The questions we confronted were ‘Is the trade-off worth it? Do we want to isolate the Iraqis?’ Our answer was that as long as the Iranians were not picking up guns and shooting at us, it was worth the price.”

Assuming that this is true, this is so stupid. First off, how do they know that there aren't going to be Iranian agents mixed in with those making pilgrimages? This is another irritating example of political correctness at its worst. We're trying to stabilize and rebuild a country here, folks. It's bad enough that Iraq already has some internal problems that need fixing, and now an EXTERNAL problem in the form of unscreened Iranians crossing an unpoliced border is introduced? This is, quite frankly, just nuts.

Secondly, what makes these guys think that it's only the wielding of a weapon by Iranians that would do damage? Ever heard of incitement? How about fomenting unrest? Iran is a known supporter of terrorism, so how could chumps like Clawson not assume that Iran would try to work its "magic" in Iraq when presented with the opportunity? The fact that the Israelis gave us sound advice only to see it dumped in the seeming interest of being PC is simply mind-boggling.
Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2004-06-22 12:23:47 PM||   2004-06-22 12:23:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Hersch is an amalgam of Jason Blair and Michael Moore with a dash of Jesse Jackson for panache and relevance. He's nearing the ranks of the self-parodies like Klugman, Fiske, and Dowd.
Posted by RWV 2004-06-22 12:50:27 PM||   2004-06-22 12:50:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Let's repost it again on Friday.
Posted by Shipman 2004-06-22 3:14:22 PM||   2004-06-22 3:14:22 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Sure, why not. That is, unless Mr. Sylwester can find something else to advance his agenda.
Posted by Pappy 2004-06-22 8:22:42 PM||   2004-06-22 8:22:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Am I missing something? I'm glad that the Israelis are allying themselves with the Kurds. What's wrong with both parties covering their bets? Both Israelis and Kurds have been the focus of Muslim hatred and both are smart enough not to put all their faith in America succeeding in the noble [ but misguided IMO]hope of using democracy to vanquish Islamic terrorism in the ME.

The fact that Israel and the Kurds not mindlessly in lockstep with the WH might upset the idealistic sensibilities of some of you, who are safely esconced in a stuffed armchair in the USA, but Israel and the Iraqi Kurds do not enjoy the luxury of dreamers who live 6000 miles from the fomenting Sunni/Shiite inferno in Iraq. Get off your idealistic high horses and put yourselves in the shoes of Israelis and Kurds before automatically dismissing the content of this article.
Posted by rex 2004-06-22 11:52:42 PM||   2004-06-22 11:52:42 PM|| Front Page Top

13:17 Zenster
13:17 Zenster
03:39 Zenster
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03:39 Zenster
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19:04 Anonymous5329
19:04 Anonymous5329
18:08 Zenster
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16:42 Zenster
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12:32 Aris Katsaris
11:53 TheAZCowBoy
18:11 Free Will
08:00 Tim Blake
20:26 If not holier - smarter than thou
11:51 Lucky
09:11 Robert Crawford
02:51 rex









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