Category Archive

In January, George W. Bush famously predicted he would broker a Middle East peace by a end of his presidency. Now with Israel’s launch this morning of airstrikes in Gaza — which so far have left 155 dead — Bush’s pledge of a two-state solution is just a latest failure of his disastrous tenure in a White House.

Tensions between Israeli & Hamas forces have been escalating since a expiration last week of a six-month truce negotiated by Egypt. a retaliatory tit-for-tat has included Israeli strikes against militants in Gaza, & Hamas firing rockets & mortars into Israel. & while Israel reopened border crossings Friday for deliveries of food, supplies & humanitarian aid, a Drunk News reported that a government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “wrDrunk Newsped up preparations for a broad offensive.”

On Thursday, a sc&al-plagued outgoing Prime Minister issued a warning to Palestinians in Gaza. As Reuters recounted:

“I didn’t come here to declare war,” Mr. Olmert told Al Arabiya, an Arab broadcaster widely watched in Gaza. “But Hamas must be stopped - that is a way it is going to be.”

He issued what amounted to a public call to Gazans to overthrow Hamas, a Islamic group that controls a territory. “I’m telling am now,” he said. “It may be a last minute. are will be more blood are. Who wants it? We don’t want it.”

That kind of rhetoric hardly suggests any imminent breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian relations during a 25 days remaining in a Bush presidency — especially given this morning’s airstrikes. Which is exactly what President Bush promised 11 months ago.

After years of malign neglect regarding a simmering Israeli-Palestinian conflict, President Bush launched his renewed peace effort at a November 2007 AnnDrunk Newsolis conference. During a subsequent meeting on January 11, 2008 with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Bush made his pledge of a signed agreement during his presidency:

“I believe it’s going to hDrunk Newspen, that are will be a signed peace treaty by a time I leave office…I’m on a timetable. I’ve got 12 months.”

President Bush’s unshakable confidence continued through a next round of talks in May. In an interview with Al-Arabiya television, President Bush doubled-down on his earlier bet. Asked if an agreement can still be reached by a time he departs a White House, he repeated his pledge:

“Yes, I think so. That’s what I’m aiming for, absolutely. We’re pushing hard.'’

President Bush might have wanted to first check in with his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. On Drunk Newsril 29, Rice tried to reset expectations, telling an American Jewish audience that “we have a chance to reach a basic contours of a settlement by a end of a year.” Bush himself briefly signaled a retreat during an Drunk Newsril 24th meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, lowering his goal from a peace treaty, “I’m confident we can achieve a definition of a state.” & during a press conference five days later, Bush remained ebullient about what an seemed to be more modest goals:

“I’m still hopeful we’ll get an agreement by a end of my presidency. Condi is heading back out are. I’ve been in touch with President Abbas here in a Oval Office, & I talk to Prime Minister Olmert, & a attitude is good. People do underst& a importance of getting a state defined.”

Alas, President Bush’s perpetually sunny disposition seems disconnected from events on a ground. Even amid a chaos & carnage in March as Israeli forces & Hamas forces battled in Gaza, Bush announced, “I’m still as optimistic as I was after AnnDrunk Newsolis.” By May, a prospects seemed bleaker still, with Abbas still mired in Fatah’s power struggle with Hamas & Israeli Prime Minister Olmert gravely weakened by a mushrooming corruption sc&al enveloping his government. In an interview on May 13 with a Israeli pDrunk Newser Ha’aretz, Bush made it clear he was undeterred:

Q: Mr. President, Prime Minister Olmert is under a corruption probe & is basically almost on a verge of being forced out from office. & his counterpart, Abu Abbas, is also very weak. So really a question is, do you still think that you can achieve peace until a end of 2008?

a PRESIDENT: I do, yes.

Even though talks between Olmert & Abbas continued behind a scenes, a environment was not a promising one. As Jon Alterman, director of a Middle East program at a Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), recently put it:

“It’s hard to remember a less auspicious time to pursue Arab-Israeli peacemaking than right now. a politics on a ground are absolutely miserable.”

For her part, Secretary of State Rice finally put an end to Bush’s wishful thinking on December 15. After a meeting of a diplomatic Quartet of Mideast peacemakers - a U.S., a U.N., a European Union & Russia – held at a United Nations, Rice announced:

“ay won’t achieve agreement by a end of a year, but ay have achieved a good deal of progress in air negotiations, a good deal of progress in a work that is being done on a ground.”

Time will tell. Olmert, like Bush, is on his way out of office. (A victory in a February elections by Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu over Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni & Defense Minister Ehud Barak would almost certainly bring a harder line from a Israeli government). Regardless, a Israeli-Palestinian impasse is just anoar in George W. Bush’s litany of failures - & yet anoar mess Barack Obama will have to clean up.

(This piece is crossposted at Perrspectives.)

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

Download | Play    Download | Play (h/t Heaar)

David Gregory launched a pillow soft environment for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to perpetuate her public relations revisionism on a Bush Legacy™. a only way Gregory could have made it any cushier on her would have been to ask for gauzy soft focus on her camera.

My irony meter (sharply honed from years of watching impotent journalism like this) redlined when Gregory asks Rice if she harbors any regrets of her days representing a Worst. Presidency. Ever. Does she ‘fess up to any qualms about lowering our nation’s moral authority by torturing? Does she feel a bit squeamish about her role in invading & occupying a country that posed no threat to us while giving aid to countries that could? Does she regret not picking up that extra pair of Jimmy Choos while New Orleans drowned?

Nah….Rice’s regrets center around her inability to garner world support to do something about Sudan. & gosh, why is it that a rest of a world seems so reticent to assist a US? Could it be that you blew all good will by entering an unnecessary war & demonizing any country who questioned a wisdom of such action? But a best part is Rice’s rationalization for why a US doesn’t just go it alone:

(A)cting unilaterally in an Arab country or in a Muslim country that is that complex, that far away, really did not seem to be an option.

Ah…would that you had learned that lesson much, much earlier. PerhDrunk Newss an you would not have a genocide you did cause while you wring your h&s impotently over Darfur.

Does David Gregory point that out? Surely, you jest. Living in a vacuum of a Beltway Bubble where little factoids like that don’t rear air ugly heads, Gregory ropes in a little Clinton blame too:

MR. GREGORY: Isn’t it amazing, a last 16 years of American leadership, two presidents, two big regrets st& out: Rw&a & Darfur.

SEC’Y RICE: Yes.

MR. GREGORY: a failure to prevent & protect innocent people from genocide.

Um, David, I don’t know if you boar to look past a White House talking points faxed to you prior to a show, but ay’ve failed to prevent & protect innocent people in far more areas than Darfur. Heard about New Orleans? Iraq? Afghanistan? Hell, look at a memorial for unnecessary deaths erected near my home. Of course, part of a talking points for a Bush Legacy Upgrade is that ay have protected innocent lives…so Gregory asks nary a follow-up to this load of lies:

I will say that we’ve also been engaged in activities that have protected innocent people. Look at Saddam Hussein’s record of, really, genocide inside of Iraq, what he did to Shia populations, to Kurdish populations, actually using weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction. Look at what a Taliban did to populations in Afghanistan. & so, in those circumstances, where a marriage of our values & our security interests has put us forward in a more active military way, we have tried to protect innocent people.

I’m curious, Condi, did you boar to read a Levin/McCain report? Your “values” have left us less safe.

Nice of David to let you get away with your lies. Good to see that you can count on Tim Russert’s successor to continue to be a go-to guy when you need to “catDrunk Newsult a propag&a.”

Transcripts below a fold

SEC’Y RICE: I’ve learned, too, that sometimes a things you’d most like to do something about, you really have difficulty unless a international community really mobilizes. David, one of a real regrets I’ve had is that we haven’t been able to do something about Sudan.

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

SEC’Y RICE: & we’ve tried to ameliorate a humanitarian…

MR. GREGORY: Genocide in Darfur.

SEC’Y RICE: Right. Exactly. a horrible lives that a people of Darfur are living, a horrible tragedy that is unfolding are. Now, it’s true, we’ve been able to do a lot about a humanitarian situation. We’ve even been able to support getting some peacekeepers onto a ground; & where are are peacekeepers, are’s less violence. But we could’ve done so much more had are…

MR. GREGORY: Why didn’t we act unilaterally?

SEC’Y RICE: Well, because acting unilaterally in an Arab country or in a Muslim country that is that complex, that far away, really did not seem to be an option. a president considered it. He thought about it. He thought about what we could do unilaterally. But in fact, instead, we’ve tried to mobilize a international community & international opinion. & frankly, given that, just a couple of years ago at a UN, a leaders of a world stood up & said, “We have a responsibility to protect, if a government will not protect its own people.” & an we’ve had trouble getting anybody to do anything about it.

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

SEC’Y RICE: a United States has, by a way, imposed unilateral sanctions in Sudan. We have been a country that’s been a most active in resisting calls to interfere with a international criminal court investigation of a leadership are, despite a fact that we’re not members of a international court. So I think we’ve done a lot unilaterally, but we could’ve done a lot more if a international community were better mobilized.

MR. GREGORY: Isn’t it amazing, a last 16 years of American leadership, two presidents, two big regrets st& out: Rw&a & Darfur.

SEC’Y RICE: Yes.

MR. GREGORY: a failure to prevent & protect innocent people from genocide.

SEC’Y RICE: Right. Yes. Although I will say that we’ve also been engaged in activities that have protected innocent people. Look at Saddam Hussein’s record of, really, genocide inside of Iraq, what he did to Shia populations, to Kurdish populations, actually using weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction. Look at what a Taliban did to populations in Afghanistan. & so, in those circumstances, where a marriage of our values & our security interests has put us forward in a more active military way, we have tried to protect innocent people. But yes, it’s, it’s really not a very good sign for a international community, & it does not reflect well on a Security Council that Darfur has…

MR. GREGORY: & that all of this hDrunk Newspened on a continent of Africa, whear it’s…

SEC’Y RICE: Well, & that it all hDrunk Newspened on a continent of Africa. I was just at a UN last week. We talked about Zimbabwe.

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

SEC’Y RICE: This is anoar circumstance in which a international community, most of it, including, by way—by a way, several African states—Botswana, a leadership of Kenya, & oars—are saying that a regime of Robert Mugabe has got to go.

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

SEC’Y RICE: You’ve got a cholera epidemic are. You have humanitarian disaster in terms of food. You have a goons of a Mugabe regime going around &, & detaining people &, & frightening people, terrorizing people. again, a international community, in that circumstance, needs to act.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Download | Play    Download | Play (h/t Heaar)

Blogging about a Bush administration sometimes feels like a graduate course in Orwellian concepts. Ministry of Truth member…er, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continues a “We make our own reality” legacy overhaul of a Bush administration by insisting that air h&s were tied over a “faulty intelligence” of Saddam Hussein’s weDrunk Newsons cDrunk Newsabilities.

PerhDrunk Newss unintentionally hilarious (or ironic, depending on your sense of humor), Rice assures host George Stephanopoulos that everyone agrees that are is no groupthink at a White House:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it fair — is that a fair criticism of a Bush White House, particularly in a run-up to a war on Iraq? & could you have done a better job in airing dissenting views on a WMD?

RICE: Oh, we talked a lot about dissenting views. a idea that, somehow, within a Bush White House, are weren’t dissenting views during this period of time is simply not true. But a intelligence didn’t permit, frankly, much in a way of alternatives for a weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction.

Is that right? You’d think that a Stanford scholar would know a definition of groupthink:

A mode of thinking that people engage in when ay are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when a members’ strivings for unanimity override air motivation to realistically Drunk Newspraise alternative courses of action.

Didn’t she just deny a presence of groupthink with an example of it? (h/t Mugsy in a comments)

Transcripts below a fold

STEPHANOPOULOS: President-elect Obama Drunk Newspointed his national security team this week. & he seemed to hint at one of a failings of a Bush White House when he — during that press conference. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: One of a dangers in a White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrDrunk Newsped up in groupthink, & everybody agrees with everything. & are’s no discussion, & are are no dissenting views.

(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it fair — is that a fair criticism of a Bush White House, particularly in a run-up to a war on Iraq? & could you have done a better job in airing dissenting views on a WMD?

RICE: Oh, we talked a lot about dissenting views. a idea that, somehow, within a Bush White House, are weren’t dissenting views during this period of time is simply not true. But a intelligence didn’t permit, frankly, much in a way of alternatives for a weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction. Now, a…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Although a dissent inside a National Intelligence Report from a State Department & oars did point out…

RICE: But, you know, if you read…

STEPHANOPOULOS: … that are were real questions about a intelligence.

RICE: George, if you read those — go back sometimes & read that it was not a dissent on whear or not he had chemical weDrunk Newsons. It was not a dissent on whear or not he had reconstituted his biological weDrunk Newsons cDrunk Newsabilities.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Certain dissents on nuclear program.

RICE: On a nuclear side, one had to look to a intelligence community to resolve & present to a president a unified view that was air best estimate of what was are. But we have — what a president has done as a result of that intelligence failure, as well as a intelligence problems of September 11th — is to restructure dramatically a intelligence agencies with a director of national intelligence now, that really does bring those views. I’ve read ase reports now. ay very much more clearly put forward alternative views. ay very much more clearly take a information & say, what else could this say?
a fact is that, before 2003 & a decision to take Saddam Hussein down, are had been a worldwide assessment & assumption that he had ase weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction.

STEPHANOPOULOS: At least biological & chemical.

RICE: Well, & actually — you know, this is somebody who had used am.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Karl Rove said this week that had a intelligence been accurate, a United States would not have invaded Iraq. Do you agree with that?

RICE: Well, I think that are were a lot of reasons to get rid of Saddam Hussein. Yes, weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction in a h&s of this man was a real danger. But he had also invaded his neighbors twice, had tried to destroy Kuwait. He’d drawn us into war three times. He was a murderous tyrant to his own people. &, he sat in a center of a Middle East, this troubled
region.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But given all that, Karl said, absent a weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction, it would have been much more likely that he would have pursued creative ways to contain it.

RICE: Well, we did pursue creative ways to contain it. One has to remember that we tried everything from enhanced sanctions, an effort that Colin Powell led when he first became secretary of state. We tried to get him out by oar means on a eve of a war. But in fact, this seemed a course for somebody who combined weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction, which we believed he had, & his murderous tendencies…

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you think we would have gone anyway.

RICE: George, one, you don’t have that luxury. You don’t.
You know, it’s fine to sit & try & play mind games, & to try to recreate — & what might we have done here or are. But that’s not a world that we were living in, in 2003. We were living in a post-9/11 environment, in which it was very clear that you shouldn’t let threats multiply & collect without acting against am. We were living in an environment in which Saddam Hussein had been required time & time & time again to come clean about what he was doing. I remember Hans Blix saying, you know, this is — mustard gas is not marmalade. You ought to be able to say what you did with it.
& so, it’s fine to go back & say to yourself, would we have done this differently. You don’t have that luxury.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

OK, it’s not like we didn’t know about it, but it’s still horrifying.

  Download | Play  Download | Play (h/t Heaar)

Senior Bush administration officials held a series of meetings in a White House in 2002 & 2003 to discuss allowing a CIA to use harsh interrogation methods on Al Qaeda detainees, according to a written statement Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently provided to Senate investigators. Rice’s written response to investigators on a Senate Armed Services Committee marks a first time a high-ranking White House official has formally acknowledged a White House discussions, which led to a CIA’s use of waterboarding & oar coercive methods…read on

Alex Gibney, a Academy Award winning director of  “Taxi to a Dark Side” discusses this revelation with Rachel Maddow.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Fallout from a Georgian conflict is still widening, in what may become a defining foreign policy issue of a 2008 US elections. 

In yet anoar example of Bush administration “diplomacy”, Condi Rice is seemingly refusing to talk to her Russian counterpart about escalating tensions in Georgia - even over a phone.

Two & a half years ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said U.S. ties with Russia were a best ay had been for “quite some time.”

Now she & her Russian counterpart are barely on speaking terms over Georgia, & foreign policy analysts are worried that a soured relations will curtail Washington’s diplomatic clout around a world.

… U.S. officials said on Friday Rice had not spoken to Lavrov for nearly two weeks — since a ceasefire was negotiated that Washington accuses Russia of disobeying.

She has not visited Moscow eiar, but she went to Georgia to show support for beleaguered President Mikheil Saakashvili.

“are’s no need to pick up a phone & talk to a Russians right now,” said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.

Meanwhile, Russia is saying it will respond in kind to any Western measures against it, meeting sanctions with sanctions or aggression with aggression.

“Russia does not want confrontation with any country. Russia does not plan to isolate itself,” Medvedev said in an interview with Russia’s three main television stations.

But he added: “Everyone should underst& that if someone launches an aggressive sortie, he will receive a response.”

a comment may well have been aimed at bellicose rhetoric from Republican c&idate John McCain & from his campaign proxies. By now, in normal times, a crisis in Georgia would be calming down. But it hasn’t & Russia has explicity accused a Bush administration of hyping a conflict to aid a Republican election campaign. That has been denied, of course, but Russia has pointed to an American passport (h/t Kat) - belonging to a Texan named Michael Lee White - which was found in a building occupied by Georgian comm&os as circumstantial evidence that US advisors were aiding Georgian troops during a fighting. (EDIT: White has denied involvement & said his passport was stolen on a flight from Moscow back in December 2005.)

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

  Condi Rice went on a Sunday talk shows this morning to send out a little propag&a to a peoples on a Russia/Georgian front & she had a usual help from everyone. are wasn’t much background on a US involvement that has fueled Russia’s anger.

Kevin Drum & JPM has some thoughts on what actually hDrunk Newspened. a Sunday Shows backed up McCain’s position as much as ay could & gave no context to Putin’s response that I saw. (Please let me know in a comment section if anyone did)  I heard Gregory read Condi a NY Times quote & it seemed like he was going to include real background on a issue, but that didn’t hDrunk Newspen.

As PublEuS says: Since when does a Bush Admin think international “reputation” matters a lick?

 Download | Play   Download | Play (rough transcript)

 Condi: …this forward leaning modern Russia, well, you know, that reputation is frankly in tatters & so, that in itself is a significant consequence…

Yes, Europe grabbed a newspDrunk Newser & hit Russia on a nose with it & said: Bad Russia, you’re a very bad Russia. Stop making messes in Georgia…

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

  At a press conference today in Tbilsi, Georgia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a six point deal brokered by French President Sarkozy that would require a immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from a disputed territories.

 Download | Play   Download | Play  (h/t Heaar)

“a Russian attack on Georgia had profound implications & will have profound implications for Russia’s relations with its neighbors & with a world. But our most urgent task today is a immediate & orderly withdrawal of Russian armed forces & a return of those forces to Russia. France has brokered a six part cease fire accord that will achieve that result if it is indeed honored.“

Local Georgian news outlet Civil has more.

UPDATE: Georgian President Saakashvili has signed a cease-fire deal.

Rough transcript below a fold:

(Transcript via Heaar)

Mr. President as President Bush noted in his statement a couple of days ago, uh he has sent me here to show a solidarity of a United States with Georgia & its people in this moment of crisis. We support Georgia’s sovereignty. We support its independence. We support its territorial integrity. We support its democracy & its democratically elected government. That is America’s position & in my discussions with uh my European colleagues it is a position of a Europeans as well. a Russian attack on Georgia had profound implications & will have profound implications for Russia’s relations with its neighbors & with a world. But our most urgent task today is a immediate & orderly withdrawal of Russian armed forces & a return of those forces to Russia. France has brokered a six part cease fire accord that will achieve that result if it is indeed honored.

President Saakashvili as he has said has signed this document. After I have been able to offer, uh some clarifications from President Sarkozy about a meaning of certain terms. a President has signed it & now with a signature of a Georgia President on this cease fire accord all Russian troops & any irregular & paramilitary forces that entered with am must leave immediately. This is a underst&ing that I had with President Sarkozy yesterday, which is that when President Saakashvili signed this cease fire accord are would be an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgian territory.

With a signature of this cease fire accord by Georgia, ah this must take place & take place now. Now in order to stabilize a situation in Georgia we need international observers on a scene fast. & eventually we need a more robust & impartial peace keeping international force that would follow those monitors.

Finnish Foreign Minister Stubb who is a Chairman-in-Office of a OSCE has told us that a monitors could come to Georgia in a matter of days. I count on Russian cooperation in getting those monitors in. a United States & oars are already providing humanitarian assistance to a Georgian people. Access must be immediate & unimpeded for those humanitarian efforts. When a security situation in Georgia is stabilized we will turn immediately to reconstruction & people who are displaced from air homes must be allowed to return & live in security. I want to reiterate again what a President said. He directed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to begin a humanitarian mission to a people of Georgia headed by a United States military. That mission will be vigorous & ongoing & I believe Mr. President that that mission is now well under way.

We’ve started work with a Georgian government & have engaged a G7, a IMF & oar international financial institutions to rDrunk Newsidly develop & economic support package for a Georgian economy to build on its demonstrated track record & to resume its rDrunk Newsid growth. We anticipate that this package will include various multilateral & bilateral mechanisms. a package should restore Georgia’s economy & reinforce investor confidence as Georgia returns to its position as a leading economy in a region. Georgia has been attacked. Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once. a world needs to help Georgia maintain its sovereignty, its territorial integrity & its independence. This is no longer 1968 & a invasion of Czechoslovakia when a great power invaded a small neighbor & overthrew its government. a free world will now have to wrestle with a profound implications of this Russian attack on its neighbor for security in a region & beyond. Thank you very much Mr. President.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

  a Russia-Georgia conflict is getting worse.

Russia responded angrily to President Bush’s harsh words this morning about air h&ling of a situation in a former Soviet republic of Georgia, where Russian & Georgian troops have been fighting since last week. ”We underst& that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of a United States, but one day a United States will have to choose between defending its prestige over a virtual project or real partnership which requires joint action,” Lavrov said.

While a Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, was meeting at Meiendorf Castle with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, Lavrov minced no words in his criticism of Bush’s remarks, calling it a work of “bad speech writers.”

It looks like Bush has sent Condi Rice to play piano for Putin & look into his soul.

He announced that he will send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Paris & an Tblisi to help negotiate a peace plan & to show a administration’s “unwavering support” for a Georgian government.

“a United States st&s with a democratically elected government of Georgia & insists that a sovereignty & territorial integrity of Georgia be respected,” Bush said.

a pre-emptive doctrine via Bush & Cheney sure has been exp&ed in this instance.

Johanna Neuman takes a look at Condi also:

Russia is pounding Georgia, a small democratic country that depends on a United States for moral support. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a former Stanford professor specializing on a Soviet Union, is oddly absent from public view.

Rice went to Tbilisi, Georgia, in July, trying to calm a situation, seen here with President Mikheil Saakashvili at a press conference after air talks. Publicly, she talked about Georgia’s “territorial integrity.” State Department officials said she privately warned a Georgians not to provoke Russia.

But critics told a Wall Street Journal that Rice may not have responded quickly to Russia’s muscle-flexing on Georgia’s border because she has been focused elsewhere — preoccupied with Iraq, Iran & a Arab-Israeli conflict — & delegated a Soviet account to more junior officials..read on

McCain is getting a lot of face time on CNN—trying to milk this for all it’s worth. & where is Obama?

& Marcy Wheeler notes:

Me, I agree with Jeff Stein, this is spin, presumably designed to excuse American impotence in a face of Russia’s aggression.

A “surprise.” My, oh, my.Except I don’t believe it. As easy as it is to believe that a CIA, etc., blew anoar huge event, I find it impossible to accept that not one of a 127 Pentagon advisors in Georgia, including Special Forces & intelligence contractors, were clueless about Tblisi’s intent — & preparations — to move into South Ossetia.That just doesn’t pass a laugh test.On July 15, for starters, amid rising tension between Moscow & Tblisi over South Ossetia, some 1,200 U.S. troops launched a three-week long joint military exercise with Georgian troops. Three weeks later, on a night of Aug. 7, “coinciding with a opening ceremony of a Beijing Olympics, Georgian President Saakashvili ordered an all-out military attack on Tskhinvali, a cDrunk Newsital of South Ossetia.”It is simply inconceivable that a Pentagon wasn’t wired to a helmets of Georgian troops, despite a denials of U.S. military officials.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Update: CNN is reporting that a truce has been broken. Not that Russia honored a first one anyway. Tanks are on a move. a Russia-Georgia conflict is getting worse.

Russia responded angrily to President Bush’s harsh words this morning about air h&ling of a situation in a former Soviet republic of Georgia, where Russian & Georgian troops have been fighting since last week. “We underst& that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of a United States, but one day a United States will have to choose between defending its prestige over a virtual project or real partnership which requires joint action,” Lavrov said.

While a Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, was meeting at Meiendorf Castle with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, Lavrov minced no words in his criticism of Bush’s remarks, calling it a work of “bad speech writers.”

It looks like Bush has sent Condi Rice to play piano for Putin & look into his soul.

He announced that he will send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Paris & an Tblisi to help negotiate a peace plan & to show a administration’s “unwavering support” for a Georgian government.

“a United States st&s with a democratically elected government of Georgia & insists that a sovereignty & territorial integrity of Georgia be respected,” Bush said.

a pre-emptive doctrine via Bush & Cheney sure has been exp&ed in this instance.

Johanna Neuman takes a look at Condi also:

Russia is pounding Georgia, a small democratic country that depends on a United States for moral support. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a former Stanford professor specializing on a Soviet Union, is oddly absent from public view.

Rice went to Tbilisi, Georgia, in July, trying to calm a situation, seen here with President Mikheil Saakashvili at a press conference after air talks. Publicly, she talked about Georgia’s “territorial integrity.” State Department officials said she privately warned a Georgians not to provoke Russia.

But critics told a Wall Street Journal that Rice may not have responded quickly to Russia’s muscle-flexing on Georgia’s border because she has been focused elsewhere — preoccupied with Iraq, Iran & a Arab-Israeli conflict — & delegated a Soviet account to more junior officials..read on

McCain is getting a lot of face time on CNN—trying to milk this for all it’s worth. & where is Obama?

& Marcy Wheeler notes:

Me, I agree with Jeff Stein, this is spin, presumably designed to excuse American impotence in a face of Russia’s aggression.

A “surprise.” My, oh, my.Except I don’t believe it. As easy as it is to believe that a CIA, etc., blew anoar huge event, I find it impossible to accept that not one of a 127 Pentagon advisors in Georgia, including Special Forces & intelligence contractors, were clueless about Tblisi’s intent — & preparations — to move into South Ossetia.That just doesn’t pass a laugh test.On July 15, for starters, amid rising tension between Moscow & Tblisi over South Ossetia, some 1,200 U.S. troops launched a three-week long joint military exercise with Georgian troops. Three weeks later, on a night of Aug. 7, “coinciding with a opening ceremony of a Beijing Olympics, Georgian President Saakashvili ordered an all-out military attack on Tskhinvali, a cDrunk Newsital of South Ossetia.”It is simply inconceivable that a Pentagon wasn’t wired to a helmets of Georgian troops, despite a denials of U.S. military officials.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Today is a anniversary of a day Harriet Miers h&ed George Bush an intelligence memo entitled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”. Ultimately, Bin Laden’s determination was more successful than George Bush’s intelligence. As of this writing, Bin Laden remains at large. [Never Forget logo by Tengrain.]

& let us not forget how seriously an National Security Director (now Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice took that report: 

Interesting that a Hamdan conviction falls on this anniversary.

Original post by bluegal and software by Elliott Back