Risky Game of Risk: MAUREEN DOWD - 'I feel good about the new war with Iran' +

OP-ED COLUMNIST

A Risky Game of Risk
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: January 13, 2007

I feel good about the new war with Iran.


How can you not have confidence in the crackerjack team that brought you Operation Iraqi Freedom, which foundered and led to Operation Together Forward, which stumbled and led to Operation Together Forward II, which collapsed and was replaced by The New Way Forward, the Surge now being launched even though nobody’s together and everything’s going backward?

I say, bring it on. If a pre-emptive war in Iraq doesn’t work, why not try a pre-emptive war on Iran in Iraq?

Although Tony Snow dismissed the idea of war with Iran as an “urban legend” yesterday, Condi Rice revealed to New York Times reporters that President Bush acted months ago to parry Iran’s ambitions, issuing orders for a military campaign against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces sneaking into Iraq. Using diplomatic passports, the agents have been smuggling in sophisticated bomb-making components and infrared trigger devices, which could be used to blow up American soldiers.

The move against Iran allows the president and Dick Cheney — who was, natch, militating for the Surge — to blow off, once more, the Iraq Study Group and Congress, to push back rather than make up.

--MORE--
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/01/risky-game-of-risk-maureen-dowd-i-feel.html

Labels: 'surge', Bush, Cheney, Congress, Dowd, escalation, Iran, Iraq Study Group, Iraq War, Maureen Dowd, News, Politics, preemption, The New York Times



Pentagon Sees Covert Move in Somalia as Blueprint
Military operations in Somalia by American commandos, and the use of the Ethiopian Army as a surrogate force to root out operatives for Al Qaeda in the country, are a blueprint that Pentagon strategists say they hope to use more frequently in counterterrorism missions around the globe.
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/01/pentagon-sees-covert-move-in-somalia-as.html



Blair advocates warlike foreign policy

International Herald Tribune

By Alan Cowell

Friday, January 12, 2007
LONDON
As he seeks to define his legacy and stamp his imprint on the future, Prime Minister Tony Blair urged his successors today to maintain the warlike foreign policy that he promoted, sending troops into battle in Africa and the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.

To retreat in the face of global terrorism, he said, would be "a catastrophe."

Mr. Blair, who has said he will leave office this year, made his appeal in the sixth of a series of lectures ranging over social, political and now defense issues, offering a valedictory resume of his almost 10 years in power.

--MORE--
http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/2007/01/blair-advocates-warlike-foreign-policy.html



US sends warplanes to Turkey''s Incirlik military base: Iran attack?
Saturday, January 13, 2007

This is the base "Shock and Awe" was launched from.
---
US sends warplanes to Turkey''s Incirlik military base

MIL-TURKEY-US-INCIRLIK
US sends warplanes to Turkey's Incirlik military base

ANKARA, Jan 11 (KUNA) -- U.S. F-16 jet-fighters arrived Thursday in Incirlik Air base in southern Turkish city of Adana after, the first time in three years.

According to Local Cihan News Agency, at least 16 F-16 jets joined by early warning system AWACS airplane, as well as tanker airplanes landed here at Incirlik coming from an American base in Germany.
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/01/us-sends-warplanes-to-turkeys-incirlik.html



The Kagan-Keane doctrine:President grasps at duo's promise of victory in Iraq
These neocons' concept of victory is not what you may think.
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/01/kagan-keane-doctrinepresident-grasps-at.html



Bush Authorized Raids On Iranians
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/01/bush-authorized-raids-on-iranians.html



U.S. Forces Fighting Iranians In Iraq
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/01/us-forces-fighting-iranians-in-iraq.html



The "attack Iran" meme may be a decoy for a strike on Syria:

IDF girds for possibility of war with Syria, Hezbollah in 2007 ... http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/784053.html



The U.S.-Iran-Iraq-Israeli-Syrian War
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/01/us-iran-iraq-israeli-syrian-war.html



And More
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/ New website
http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/ Alternate website with unique articles


CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS

MARC PARENT
mparent7777
mparent
CCNWON

Love Among the Ruins: MAUREEN DOWD - Deadly Embrace

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
The New York Times

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Love Among the Ruins
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: January 10, 2007


The search goes on for the right relationship metaphor to describe our deadly embrace of Iraq.

It isn’t really a romance turned sour, because it was never sweet.

The American military’s cocky heroes were supposed to sweep in and carry off a poor, grateful Iraq to security and bliss, like Richard Gere did Debra Winger in the finale of “An Officer and a Gentleman.” The strategy was: Love lift us up where we belong/Where the eagles cry/On a mountain high.

Didn’t happen. Yet the search goes on, in this country obsessed with hookups and breakups, for the right relationship metaphor to describe our deadly embrace of Iraq.

My colleague Tom Friedman wrote last week: “Whenever I hear this surge idea, I think of a couple who recently got married but the marriage was never very solid. Then one day they say to each other, ‘Hey, let’s have a baby, that will bring us together.’ It never works. If the underlying union is not there, adding a baby won’t help.”

Juan Williams repeated Tom’s metaphor on Fox News, agreeing that “a bad relationship” cannot afford the “pressure” of a newborn.

One reporter who writes about the war told me he thinks of the American entrenchment in Iraq more like a marriage that’s run out of gas, but you decide to stay together because of the kids.

Bill Maher used a bawdier metaphor of a man who promises his date a glorious romp, doesn’t deliver, and then just refuses to admit it and get out.

--MORE--

Flunking Our Future: MAUREEN DOWD - The Basics in Iraq

CORRECTED LINK
THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

The New York Times

Flunking Our Future
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 20, 2006

Once our leaders get a grasp of the basics in Iraq, we can hit them with a truly hard question: What on earth do we do now?

The only sects that may be more savage than Shiites and Sunnis are the Democratic feminist lawmakers representing Northern and Southern California.

After Nancy Pelosi and Jane Harman had their final catfight about who would lead the House Intelligence Committee, aptly enough at the Four Seasons’ hair salon in Georgetown, the new speaker passed over the knowledgeable and camera-eager Ms. Harman and mystifyingly gave the consequential job to Sylvestre Reyes of Texas.

Mr. Reyes promptly tripped over the most critical theme in the field of intelligence. Jeff Stein, interviewing the incoming chairman for Congressional Quarterly, asked him whether Al Qaeda was Sunni or Shiite.

“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” the lawmaker guessed.

As Mr. Stein corrected him in the article: “Al Qaeda is profoundly Sunni. If a Shiite showed up at an Al Qaeda clubhouse, they’d slice off his head and use it for a soccer ball.”

--MORE-

Flunking Our Future: MAUREEN DOWD - The Basics in Iraq

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
The New York Times

Flunking Our Future
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 20, 2006

Once our leaders get a grasp of the basics in Iraq, we can hit them with a truly hard question: What on earth do we do now?

The only sects that may be more savage than Shiites and Sunnis are the Democratic feminist lawmakers representing Northern and Southern California.

After Nancy Pelosi and Jane Harman had their final catfight about who would lead the House Intelligence Committee, aptly enough at the Four Seasons’ hair salon in Georgetown, the new speaker passed over the knowledgeable and camera-eager Ms. Harman and mystifyingly gave the consequential job to Sylvestre Reyes of Texas.

Mr. Reyes promptly tripped over the most critical theme in the field of intelligence. Jeff Stein, interviewing the incoming chairman for Congressional Quarterly, asked him whether Al Qaeda was Sunni or Shiite.

“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” the lawmaker guessed.

As Mr. Stein corrected him in the article: “Al Qaeda is profoundly Sunni. If a Shiite showed up at an Al Qaeda clubhouse, they’d slice off his head and use it for a soccer ball.”

--MORE-

Farewell, Dense Prince: MAUREEN DOWD

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
The New York Times

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Farewell, Dense Prince
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 16, 2006

The defense czar who rivals Robert McNamara for deadly incompetence has been on a victory lap in Baghdad, Mosul and Washington.

--MORE--

Money quote:

"James Baker ran after W. with a butterfly net for a while, but it is now clear that the inmates are still running the asylum."

REPOSTED

Farewell, Dense Prince: MAUREEN DOWD

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
The New York Times

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Farewell, Dense Prince
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 16, 2006

The defense czar who rivals Robert McNamara for deadly incompetence has been on a victory lap in Baghdad, Mosul and Washington.

--MORE--

Money quote:

"James Baker ran after W. with a butterfly net for a while, but it is now clear that the inmates are still running the asylum."

REPOSTED FROM MY OTHER BLOG

Will Hillzilla Crush Obambi? : MAUREEN DOWD

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
The New York Times

Will Hillzilla Crush Obambi?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 13, 2006

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama both straddle two worlds, trying to profit from both.


MANCHESTER, N.H.

So the question of the moment is: Which would be a greater handicap in a presidential bid, gender or race?

The answer will depend, of course, on how manly the woman, and how white the black.

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama both straddle two worlds, trying to profit from both.

Despite her desire to seem far more experienced than her rival, Hillary’s role in high-level politics has been mostly that of a spouse — a first lady who felt that she got elected too. The Yale-trained lawyer had one pump in the “The West Wing” and one in “Desperate Housewives,” one foot in the world of hotshot alphas ruling the globe and one in the world of middle-age women humiliated by their husbands’ dallying with office cupcakes.

She won her Senate seat only after becoming sympathetic as a victim. And she still struggles with the balance between her Mars and Venus sides, sometimes showing her political steel and other times fetching coffee for male colleagues.

Senator Obama glides between the black and white political worlds. In New Hampshire on Sunday, speaking to nearly all-white audiences, the Harvard-educated lawyer looked utterly at home, dressing like a Wall Street banker on casual Friday and sounding as white as Lou Dobbs.

He quoted Martin Luther King Jr. and Louis Brandeis with equal aplomb and wryly noted that when he worked rebuilding a black community on Chicago’s South Side, people there couldn’t pronounce his name and called him “Yo Momma.”

--More--

The Oval Intervention: MAUREEN DOWD

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
The New York Times

The Oval Intervention
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 9, 2006

The Council of Elders tries to deprogram the defiant decider.

t is not a happy mood in the Oval Office.

Poppy is sobbing, his face in his hands, slumped in one of the yellow-and-blue striped chairs. Laura is screaming the words “Oscar de la Renta” and “rendition” into her cellphone, still seeing red after showing up at a White House gala in the same $8,400 red gown as three other women who did not happen to be first lady.

Bob Gates is grim-faced, but not as grim-faced as Barbara, whose look could freeze not only the Potomac but the Tigris and the Euphrates. Scowcroft is over on the couch, trying to nap while Kissinger drones softly in his ear.

And, of course, there is the Deprogrammer for the Decider, James Baker, perfectly suited in bright green tie and suited perfectly for his spot behind the president’s desk.

--MORE--

Goodness Gracious! The Truth! : MAUREEN DOWD - Gates Confirmation

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

The New York Times

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Goodness Gracious! The Truth!
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 6, 2006

In Iraq, the Bush administration has gone from democracy promotion to conflagration avoidance.

First Junior took over the house with grandiose plans to remodel it and make it the envy of the neighborhood. But then he played with matches and set the house on fire. So now he’s frantically trying to stop the flames from torching the whole block.

The Bush administration has gone from a breathless plan to change the Middle East to a breathless plan to preserve it, from democracy promotion to conflagration avoidance.

That was the cold shower offered yesterday by Robert Gates, the former C.I.A. chief, on his way to being unanimously endorsed as the new defense secretary by a Senate panel craving a cold shower.

He told the Armed Services Committee, peppered with wannabe future presidents, that the American occupation could lead to a Baghdad as hostile as Tehran, and set off “a regional conflagration” if Iraq is not deftly handled in the next couple of years.
--MORE--

REPOSTED

What’s in a Name, Barry? : MAUREEN DOWD

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
The New York Times

OP-ED COLUMNIST
What’s in a Name, Barry?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 2, 2006

If you call Barack Obama’s office to check the spelling of his middle name, the reply comes back: “Like the dictator.”

WASHINGTON: If you call Barack Obama’s office to check the spelling of his middle name, the reply comes back: “Like the dictator.”

In the first rush of our blind date with the young senator from Illinois, we are still discovering things that are going to take some getting used to. Like his middle name: Hussein.

--MORE--

No One to Lose To: MAUREEN DOWD - A Civil War?

Saturday, November 25, 2006
THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
The New York Times

OP-ED COLUMNIST
No One to Lose To
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: November 25, 2006

In Iraq, the only question is, who can we turn the country over to?

After the Thanksgiving Day Massacre of Shiites by Sunnis, President Bush should go on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and give an interview headlined: “If I did it, here’s how the civil war in Iraq happened.”

MORE
http://tinyurl.com/y9yp5v
Reposted

No One to Lose To: MAUREEN DOWD - A Civil War?

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

The New York Times

OP-ED COLUMNIST
No One to Lose To
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: November 25, 2006


In Iraq, the only question is, who can we turn the country over to?

After the Thanksgiving Day Massacre of Shiites by Sunnis, President Bush should go on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and give an interview headlined: “If I did it, here’s how the civil war in Iraq happened.”

MORE
http://tinyurl.com/y9yp5v