22 Comments

1. Doug:

– Life Behind the Irony Curtain –

Mar 8, 2009 - 3:43 am 2. wildernesscalling:

“0″ and his sectary of Goof Ups (state) have promptly marched our self’s (US) back to where we stood on 9-10, every inch GW gained over eight years of GWOT has evaporated like steam. Lights get’n dimmer… It’s not too late! Impeach “0”, Pelosi and Reid, Impeach “0”, Pelosi and Reid, Impeach “0”, Pelosi and Reid. Personally British see the light and are trying to negotiate with Hezbollah Boys before they (Hezbollah) get the idea that it’s open season because the US is now a defacto’ “Paper Tiger”!

Mar 8, 2009 - 3:48 am 3. Al Reasin:

Poor BHO is tired all the time and it is impacting his concentration on foreign affairs. So what is Mrs. Clinton’s excuse. How in the heck did a much older President Bush survive 9-11, Iraq and all the BDS. What a wimp is BHO; and not a leader to boot. And he has surrounded himself with people like him. We are doomed!!!

Mar 8, 2009 - 6:47 am 4. E. Nigma:

The French have had a lot of influence in Lebanon (to the good, frankly). Back in the ’80’s, when the Marine barracks was bombed, a French peacekeepers outpost was bombed simultaneously.
As I recall from some of the things that Michael Totten has written in the last few years during several visits to Lebanon, the French have been somewhat effective at keeping Hezbollah separated from Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon, whom Hezbollah wishes to harass into submission.

The point is, is this some milktoast effort to undermine the French in the Middle East, by undermining the Lebanese government? Because the French and British still don’t really like each other very much, after all these years.

Mar 8, 2009 - 8:33 am 5. hdgreene:

We are now being ruled by Genius Savants.

Genius Savants are intelligent and clever fellows highly skilled at getting a position of power over that one area in which they are idiots. Their talent extends to blaming others for the resulting failures. We are so over run with Genius Savants in government, media and finance that they have now formed a Union and watch each others backsides. One thing: they’ll never go on strike because situation would improve without them.

Mar 8, 2009 - 10:28 am 6. RWE:

On FNC this morning yet another new Obama diplomatic initiative was revealed:

Talking to the Taliban.

It seesm that Obam has decided that the the War in Afghanistan is unwillable as is and we need to cozy up to some “moderate” elements in the Taliban as an alternate strategy.

Mind you, they admitted that there at present do not seem to be any Moderate Taliban, but I am sure that it is because we just have not looked hard enough yet.

Mar 8, 2009 - 11:00 am 7. Gordon:

Taliban and Hizbollah are fascists and there is no point in talking to them, because they will see this as evidence of weakness. The only way is to inflict on them such a crushing defeat that they will crawl under a stone, just as did the surviving nazis in 1945.

Mar 8, 2009 - 11:34 am 8. Marie Claude:

E. Nigma,

I appreciate that you don’t spit on us

France has a long tradition in theses aeras, she supported Christians since François 1er, king of France that was dubbed by the pope :

What I wrote elsewhere :

“However, the capitulations signed between Francois I and his successors and the “Sublime Porte” (Istanbul) made the king of France the official protector of Christians in East and allow religious missions to develop. Congregations (Jesuits, Capuchins, Lazaristes the Holy Family, the Christian Brothers, the Marist, the Daughters of Charity) based schools that will allow the introduction of French in Lebanon during the Ottoman period”

http://www.clio.fr/BIBLIOTHEQUE/le_proche-orient_sous_mandats_francais_et_britannique.asp

There have always been inter-tribes conflicts, even during the ottoman empire, though none care in the western world, except that we still look at the christians, regularely a french expedition and or a diplomatic negociation were launched there or to Istanbul. How can you explain that the christians survived in a muslim world ? cuz they were supported !!! It was so that they got a certain autonomy on Lebanon mont during Napoleon IIIth regime, France was helping Turkey to preserve her territories against Russia, Crimea war anyone ? The borders were moving along the tribes conflicts and were not defined on a map

Mar 8, 2009 - 12:28 pm 9. exhelodrvr:

As long as the talking is accompanied by continuing military action/sanctions, it is smart to do.

Mar 8, 2009 - 12:30 pm 10. Marie Claude:

Also, I wouldn’t discuss with HBZ, but with Lebanon , the British are giving too much credit to a “third” party of Lebanon, while they should support integrity of Lebanon

I think that the british government doesn’t know anymore where to make its marks, seems that they have a frustration sentiment of not being the planet with Big Ben time anymore

Mar 8, 2009 - 12:34 pm 11. Eggplant:

RWE said:

“It seems that Obam has decided that … we need to cozy up to some “moderate” elements in the Taliban as an alternate strategy. Mind you, they admitted that there at present do not seem to be any Moderate Taliban…”

I was thinking the same thing: Is there actually a “moderate” Taliban? That’s an oxymoron like an honest criminal, nonviolent mass murderer or a pragmatic moonbat. It is consistent that Obama would base his Afghanistan strategy on something that doesn’t exist.

Mar 8, 2009 - 12:45 pm 12. Wadeusaf:

Its like an Onion, peeling the Hezbollah from the Syrians and the Syrians in turn from the Iranians and hoping the Russians will support the effort because they have been usurped as a hegemonic power of sorts by whose interests?

Lets see now, those are Russian radar in Syria, are they not? Those are Russian rockets in Iran, are they not? That’s a Russian Nuclear Plant in Iran, is it not? That is a Russian initiative to undo the ballistic missile defenses of Ukraine and eastern Europe, is it not? You know the one that proposes to protect folks from Iranian missiles?

So when they peel the Hez from the fez, what part of Lebanon will they cede to whose hegemony?

If it is overcharge, who is paying? If it is reset, who is paying?

Mar 8, 2009 - 2:00 pm 13. voyeur:

The UK has a large active islamist population to appease, and appears to to be keen to get on with the job. Why should the US or anyone else give two hoots about the UK – its a small bankrupt island with a leader who wasnt elected.

Mar 8, 2009 - 2:14 pm 14. RWE:

Eggplant: I think that “peeling away elements of the Taliban” is another way of saying finding some lower level leaders to talk nice about and make concessions to while carefully ignoring inconvenient truths like beheadings and bombings.

The Surge in Afghanistan is being used as a justification for this approach, the idea being to replicate the Sunni Awakening of Iraq among at least some of the tribes that are under Taliban control. The gigantic flaw here is that the Sunni Awakening only occurred after the security situation had improved enough that Sunni leaders saw a viable option. The Awakening occurred after the “reduction” of Fallujha in very nearly the old medieval sense. As they said in Vietnam, get them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow.

Think Clinton making nice with Fatah in Gaza as an example of “peeling away” part of the Taliban, not Bush cleaning the terrorists’ clocks so that the Anbar Awakening could occur.

Mar 8, 2009 - 2:27 pm 15. Lifeofthemind:

@Wadeusaf,
Personally I would rather be governed by the editorial board of The Onion.

Mar 8, 2009 - 3:35 pm 16. Wadeusaf:

I think the Onion wuld do us proud, too.

But the the Taliban needs to be peeled away from the people, not the other way around, and that has to occur not just in Afghanistan but the NWFP of Pakistan as well. but to do so requires a constant security presence that share a common goal against a common foe. Some tribal leaders in addition to the elders have sided with the Taliban because of intimidation, or because they were bought with promises which could have been as little as we’ll let you live or as great as a position in a new caliphate. Probably included land goats and a greater percentage of the drug profits or control of the payola in a particular area, who knows.

That is the difference between being a “moderate” Taliban and just a poor tribesman. Payola does wonders for religious fervor, just ask bin laden, or President Obama.

Mar 8, 2009 - 3:54 pm 17. blert:

Quite simply the Taliban are Pakistani and other aliens romping around Afghanistan. The stand out by their dress and by their accents.

They stick out like a sore thumb to the locals.

The Taliban are NOT comparable to the Sunnis operating in civil garb bombing the road net nearby their homes and fields in Al Anbar.

One must stop conflating the two phenomena.

We have got to stop playing helicopter warfare in Afghanistan. It’s brutally expensive.

The essential focus for the Afghanistan must be cost control so as to permit endurance. Cost control is best had by zeroing out NATO and getting Afghans and Indians to pound the Kush on foot. That’s what the Taliban are doing. There are no panzer corps or anything like advanced technical warfare. You just need boots on the ground.

The Afghan Army needs to be expanded and greatly focused on engineering and scouting functions.

Mar 8, 2009 - 4:22 pm 18. E. Nigma:

Marie Claude,
I work for a very large French company (that you would recognize if I named it), travel to France at least once a year, and have friends in France. Nevertheless, their business acumen (or lack thereof) drives me to distraction.;)
Having said that, I hold no resentment towards the French, but your comment #10 does prove my point that the French and the British still do not care much for each other.

There is also a deep Arabist mind set inside the British Foreign Service, and a tendency to think they are very clever and can play various Arab factions against each other to achieve their foreign policy ends. They (the British) thought that they were too clever by half in their “enlightened” administration of Basra, yet the truth was they were too weak to confront the militant Shia parties, which should not reflect badly on the British soldier on the ground, whom their government had put in an untenable situation.
To wit, you are correct that they should be dealing with the Lebanese government, and not Hezbollah.

Mar 8, 2009 - 7:20 pm 19. njcommuter:

We should talk to Hezbollah. And this is what we should tell them: “If you don’t stop trying to run other people’s lives and killing them for blood sport, we will kill you. If you don’t stop teaching your children to hate your neighbors and your betters, we will kill you.” And then, when they don’t take us seriously, we should do just what we said we would do.

That is how you “talk to” people like Hezbollah.

Mar 9, 2009 - 12:13 am 20. Alexis:

One of the problems that the British government faces is protocol. Islamists try to use protocol in their favor, using the Treaty of Hodobayah as a template. If the British government is truly desperate to talk with the so-called “Hezbollah”, it may wish to send MP’s from the Labor Party to talk in their capacity of party functionaries. In contrast, sending diplomats to talk with Hezbollah would lend far too much British legitimacy to that horrid organization.

Mar 9, 2009 - 10:03 am 21. Sam:

Saw the video: What a jerk!

Unless there’s some underlying jocular/sardonic interplay at work between the two, it seems like they’re just trying to diss us.

So there was a mistake, was it really the proper time and place to bring that up?

Given that, it was a stupid stunt by Mrs. Cliton in any case.

Mar 9, 2009 - 11:59 am 22. lc:

Language is fun, unless you do what Clinton did (or worse, like Carter, whose expression, when he was a visiting president, of deep love for the Polish people did not come across quite like he intended).

Here is a limerick, twisting the literal meaning of a commonly used phrase, Russian vs. English.

For Hil it’s one word for another,
As for Obama, or Bill or her brother.
I know that it’s true
What they’d do to you,
The Russians would do to your mother.

Mar 9, 2009 - 4:10 pm

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