How to Win in Iraq
Military strategist William S. Lind explains how the invasion of Iraq has benefited stateless terrorist groups and the logic behind his proposal for withdrawal.
MP3 here. (16:53)
William Lind is Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation. He is a former Congressional Aide and the author
of many books and articles on military strategy and war.
Pat Tillman Murdered?
John Soltz from Co-Founder and Chairman of VoteVets.org, discusses the newly released information about the mysterious death of football player-turned soldier Pat Tillman and George Bush’s recent invoking of “executive privilege” in the cover-up.
MP3 here. (19:36)
Jon Soltz, Co-Founder and Chair of VoteVets.org, is a leader of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans community and is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From May to September 2003, Soltz served as a Captain during Operation Iraqi Freedom, deploying logistics convoys with the 1st Armored Division. During 2005, Soltz was mobilized for 365 days at Fort Dix New Jersey, training soldiers for combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also served his country with distinction in the Kosovo Campaign as a Tank Platoon Leader between June and December 2000. Soltz is a graduate of Washington & Jefferson College with dual degree in Political Science and History. He has completed graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.
Jon Soltz has quickly become one of the most authoritative voices on veterans issues and military issues. He has been interviewed by national outlets such as the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Newsweek, among others, and in dozens of local outlets. He has made numerous media appearances including Jim Lehrer’s Newshour on PBS, CNN. MSNBC, FOX News and ABC News and Nightline, and national radio programs including Air America Radio, the Ed Schultz Show, the Bill Press Show, Alan Colmes Show, and Mancow in the Morning. Jon is a frequent contributor to Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
For the latest on the smear campaign against Ron Paul, our Kurdish problem, and the evils of Kammunism, follow the links.
Kenneth Pollack and Michael O’Hanlon, two top Democratic party foreign policy mavens, were instrumental in bringing around the Democrats in the run-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Now they’re back, with more advice: we’re winning and the “surge” needs to go on until at least 2008. And we should listen to them … exactly why? Their predictions weren’t all that great last time around. Here’s Pollack on the eve of the invasion:
“I believe that we are going to have to go war with Iraq sooner rather than later. The reason that it has to be sooner rather than later is because of Iraq’s development of nuclear weapons. …Â Â the problem is that containment was a good policy when it was put in place, but by 1996, ’98, we realized that it really was failing. The inspectors weren’t finding anything. The Iraqis had gotten so good at hiding their weapons of mass destruction that the inspectors just couldn’t find anything.”
The reason they weren’t finding anything is because nothing was there. But that wasn’t an option for Senor Pollack. After all, he had an agenda …
O’Hanlon had — has? — an identical agenda, and was similarly completely, utterly, and totally wrong about Iraq’s alleged “weapons of mass destruction”:
“What we know for a fact from a number of defectors who’ve come out of Iraq over the years is that Saddam Hussein is absolutely determined to acquire nuclear weapons and is building them as fast as he can.”
And this nonsense, uttered in the winter of 2003:Â
“Democrats implicitly assume that Iraq will still be as big a national problem come election time next fall. That assumption is probably wrong. For one thing, a number of trends in Iraq today—in the education and health sectors, in electricity levels, in availability of fuels for cooking and heating, and in market activity—are more positive than commonly appreciated.
“Perhaps most crucially, U.S. troops in Iraq will almost surely be fewer in number—and less exposed to attack—come next fall.”Â
Tell me this: why in the name of all that’s holy should anybody listen to these guys — about anything? What this warmongering duo needs to do is take a vow of silence for the next decade or so.
Here’s why Giuliani and Romney can’t face YouTube questions:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEsdtg9ZZUM[/youtube]
Only Ron Paul could answer that one.
The Politics of Armageddon
Max Blumenthal discusses the theology and politics of John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel as he documented for the Huffington Post.
MP3 here. (20:17)
Max Blumenthal is a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute based in New York City. His work has appeared in The Nation, Salon, The American Prospect, The Huffington Post and the Washington Monthly. He is a research fellow for Media Matters for America. Click here to read his blog.
Related: Bill Barnwell from March 27th.
