Cher Condi, recall, past her ‘Warrior Princess’ days, told us in 2006 that we are seeing the ‘birth pangs’ of a new Middle East. This was after she told us that politics from above could and would create a New Democratic Man/Woman in the region. All quietly forgotten today by her cheerleaders at a couple of think tanks and a few prominent blogs that thrive on gossip and factoids dropped like table scraps to them.
Like any good survivor, she now pretends she was always against Cheney and the Neocons. Yet if she is truly the World’s 4th Most Powerful Woman and can’t even persuade Tom Lantos to chill on a genocide resolution (and aren’t Neocons supposed to be in favor of declaring bold truths?), what is she good for? So many are now willing to set her up as the martyr who Stood Against Cheney.
Even Jpod is skeptical. We are forced to agree with his conclusions (but not the reasoning) that nothing will come of Rice’s next scheduled Middle East Summit on Nov. 1.
Putin’s smackdown of Cher Condi’s naive and narcissistic proclamation that “she can handle the Russians” merely proves a point Trump of all people made years ago. She is the Hollow Staffer. How many embarrassments has she endured in the Middle East at the hands of the Neocons and Likud?
Is there one thing she has touched, one policy, anything, that has borne fruit or in anyway been more than a temporary PR stunt? Perhaps as our friend Nell notes, she can salvage the Baghdad embassy or at least burn it down.
[UPDATE] State’s incompetence is so deep as to defy belief. Their inability to manage Blackwater or work with the Pentagon is detailed here. A great quote:
Meetings to negotiate an official memorandum of understanding between State and Defense during the spring of 2004 broke up in shouting matches over issues such as their respective levels of patriotism and whether the military would provide mortuary services for slain diplomats.
And as predicted above and noted in our comments section, Cher Condi’s latest plane ride to the Middle East once again produces . . . nothing.
After five days of shuttle diplomacy, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, returned home empty-handed yesterday, having failed to pin down participants, an agenda or a firm date for a planned Middle East peace conference.
At the end of a punishing round of talks with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders, Dr Rice said that she was “encouraged” by her mission, but admitted that serious obstacles remained.
What is wrong with those people? Don’t they know that Condi radiates fabulosity?
A Random Quote says
“I think we have to do everything we can as a country to get out of the Iraq war, and to take a lead on the environment.”
~Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Independent 10-29-07
Comment says
The NFL would be tough – lecture tours are a safer bet, along with being professor and then sitting on Boards in the style of Conrad Black’s former Board members – Debka is interesting they way they tie together the axis of evi nations for all stories, but it’s possible that the secrecy the admin is invoking about that military strike is actually to stoke the imagination
Dr Leo Strauss says
Don’t they know she is going to be the next NFL Commissioner?
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1310
Dr Leo Strauss says
Updated to reflect Times ME talks failure story and WaPo piece on State’s inability to manage Blackwater.
Comment says
You know what would be funny is if Sanchez, after repeatedly getting locked out of military industrial companies, decides to sign up to be a Shooter for Blackwater – But they have a hiring freeze. Dejected – Sanchez decides to become antiwar. His therapist tells him to drop the right wing ideas and accept a left leaning critique. Maybe he starts reading TomDispatch and TheNation. He gives Paul Eaton a call and together they decide to join Code Pink and become agitators for Medea Benjamin.
Comment says
For example – compare Sanchez to Gary Ackerman and Joe Wilson [R-SC] speaking on the House floor right now about Lebanon. Gary and Joe are saying a number things that are questionable or not proven. In addition, there is some insincerity when they pretend to be more patriotic for Lebanon than the actual Lebanese factions they are attacking.
But everything they say makes sense – on a political level – It is arguable, but defensible.
But imagine if Gary started demanding a one man one vote election in Lebanon so as to bring true democracy and then Joe followed up on that by calling for American firms to be held legally accountable if innocent civilians were harmed by cluster bomblets – All of sudden, you’d wonder why they are making such detrimental recommendations – you’d wonder why they seem to making counter productive requests – This is a stretch, but that it what we meant about Sanchez’s bitter , ill informed, and misdirected logic.
Comment says
We were sort of surprised when HRC started quoting Sanchez – HRC is sophesticated enoough to not quote the politically problematic Scheuer. At first we thought HRC did not read or hear the revanchist parts of Sanchez’s chat. Otoh – HRC and the Clintons are very good at just discarding past statements. It wasn’t just a lack of sophestication and nuance that we noticed – it was that he seemed like he was not in on the joke, he did not notice or know how the war started and why it happened the way it happened.
DrLeoStrauss says
Sanchez we put in the Scheuer category — a useful idiot on some days, a loaded MAC-10 dropped down a stairwell on others.
Part of his bitterness is that his viability as a Senior VP at EDS, CACI, LM, SAIC, did not materialize — he got left holding the bag as it were. So retirement and no cash out.
Otoh, if a general were to quit after the Ukraine was reconquored in 1943 and held a press conference, could one expect a more coherent press conference? MacArthur’s weren’t exactly politically nuanced either. Sanchez also violated a principle of military and political theory by dividing message and targets.
Put bluntly, the real scary part in our country’s decline comes WHEN the generals are able to make a more compelling political narrative than the civilians, perhaps. (And no, we don’t count Wes Clarke). This is will come — if not this regime, then the next.
Anon says
Reading Sanchez’s bio on Wiki , we could not help but notice a contrast between his steller bio or accomplishment and the medicore and bitter analysis we saw on c-span. For example:
“The death knell of your ethics has been enabled by your parent organizations who have chosen to align themselves with political agendas. What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our servicemen who are at war.”
If he doesn’t like partisanship, what the heck is doing pretending to be familiar enough with his own country that he thinks its worth defending? If he really believes, as he said, that the whole world, including the UN, was in favor of going to war – then we have to ask how he got so far while being so sheltered from reality.
Anon says
Buchananism alert – this headline will serve as the future equiavlent of “we had the Vietcong crippled, but then Kerrey and Fonda and Ivy Leaguers…”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/14/AR2007101401245.html?hpid=topnews
Comment says
Sanchez complains of a lack of resources for the “strategy” which is just laughable becaus he does nothing to help explain where the trillions went. Then he wines about Abu Ghraib and being sued by the aclu and too many senior commanders being punished for this.
If Sanchez reflected a bit , he would understand that one of the many reasons we were unprepared when he arrived inn Iraq was that the Bush admin and OVP didn’t want to prepare because that would reveal the true cost of the coming war and make it less politically viable – That’s why Wolfowitz went after Shinseki and why Lindsey was punished for his cost estimate (an undercount, btw)
Comment says
Your characterization earlier (“chirp chirp chirp” was on point – Sanchez makes many poor points, but what stands out -even if we agreed with him, is the truly medicore nature of his analysis — Complete lack of sophestication in his thought – surprising for a General in some respects. Lots of undirected and unspecified attacks on “media” and “politicians.” It’s worth reading and seeing – we would appreciate your analysis of his transcript , but the video tells the tale better in many ways.
Comment says
Just tuned into the beginning of Sanchez’s speech – which is being replayed on c-span. It’s worse than we assumed after reading and seeing excerpts earlier. It’s a very bitter speech filled with laughable drive-by asides such as commenting on the poor media treatment of “Secretary Brown” [sic] during Katrina. The beginning portion is just an attack on media bias – alleged.
This is all coming from the General who used the movie Red Dawn for the name of Operation Wolverine early in the insurgency – He obviously had no sense of irony – being an invader and occupier, but identifying himself with characters in that movie – If this was done with grim irony, then it would have been funny. Anyway – opppositionists should avoid this guy. His opening attack is more limbaugh than hackworth.
A Random Quote says
“The difference between Winston Churchill and Ward Churchill … is that for Sir Winston talking was a call to action while for poseurs like Professor Churchill it’s a substitute for it.”
~Mark Steyn
NY Sun, 10-07
Comment says
Doc – do you know anything abou these reports that have surfaced that both Gee Dubs and Condi promised Armenians recognition some time in the past? If this really causes problems – (Turkey did threaten France a while back but it blew over after a while) – then Dubya can blame himself, which he won’t do. Anyway – whether this resolution is wise or not, we think the Turks are very lucky that so few Americans now know about it.
Recall a while back Comment said that Turks will use this issue or Cyrus as a pretext to invade N. Iraq at some point and “reclaim” that oil up there = But we expected it to be sometime after we withdraw and after Sarkozy locks them out of EU hopes.
Nell says
Thanks for the link!
Following up that post immediately with the Gore Nobel, though, made me think about the carbon offset for torching the embassy. Might be prohibitive… so controlled demolition would be the way to go.
I can only imagine the agony of having to take part in the November summit, knowing that virtually nothing can possibly come of it.
Anon says
Newt would explain this all due to unhealty mixture of treasonous humours and menstrual stress:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/13/AR2006051301311_pf.html
DrLeoStrauss says
re Stupid Party — that is an old self-imposed label from the Movement Days when having to explain things like GHWB and read my lips, kinder gentler, and brother can you paradigm, etc.
(This was when Newt was running the ‘Conservative Opportunity Society which featured such serial lunacy that it was not far from advocating an orbiting White House with a direct mail economy in the immortal words of one of the Stiftung’s friends at the time).
Doubtlessly, Kristol intends the varied meanings you suggest, and he may be trying to re-integrate the Neocon fringe with the other strands of the Movement by invoking that hallowed phrase inclusively.
Anon says
Murdoch allows some temporary liberalism, just to pile on Conrad:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142007/postopinion/postopbooks/they_are_not_a_crook.htm?page=3
Comment says
Is there a real point to Condis trip to Israel – one that is other than what she says? It’s doubtful that the trip has meaning – she cannot tell the Israelis or the Palestinians to do anything that they don’t feel like doing themselves.
A Random Quote says
“WHILE we have seen the apparent death of Communism, ways of thinking that were either born under Communism or strengthened by Communism still govern our lives. Not all of them are as immediately evident as a legacy of Communism as political correctness. – The first point: language. It is not a new thought that Communism debased language and, with language, thought. There is a Communist jargon recognizable after a single sentence. Few people in Europe have not joked in their time about “concrete steps,” “contradictions,” “the interpenetration of opposites,” and the rest … Words confined to the left as corralled animals had passed into general use and, with them, ideas. One might read whole articles in the conservative and liberal press that were Marxist, but the writers did not know it … the heritage of dead and empty language these days is to be found in academia, and particularly in some areas of sociology and psychology.”
~Doris Lessing
NY Times 6-26-96
Comment says
That is to say – contingent on an HRC win.
Comment says
To clarify the above point – re “The Stupid Party,” might be read esoterically as form of ‘entrism’ because the godfather thinks it is a good thing to be in the stupid party.
Comment says
This morning on McLaughlin, Pat and Mort linked up in opposition to the Armenians – It would be interesting to know Pat’s reasoning – maybe he resents something some ancient Armenian King did to one of the Borgia Popes, or maybe he thinks they were obstructionists in one of the Crusades. It seems Mort is on shakier ground when he points to the Armenian lobby – if the Armenian lobby were as powerful as he suggested our entire FP would be different and this resolution would have garnered over 400 signatures.
Comment says
To clarify – Tom Delay would probably not yet acknowledge the Armenian genocide – Even if Clinton were in office. But if Israel made recognition official (which it is close to doing, according to some), then that would free him up to do so. But in any event – we do think that most Republicans don’t know that the Armeniams were killed, in part, because they were Christian. We know from experience hearing from wingnut friends amazed to learn that very fact – They just assume otherwise because of Pelosi etc
Comment says
Soner Cagapty of WINEP is on c-span this morning talking about the Amrmenia gemocide resolution – He’s very subtle in issuing threats on behalf of Turkey – He is the head of WINEP’s “Turkish Research Program.” – which sounds like some sort of front group. We don’t know what to make of WINEP – we heard Dennis Ross sometime ago basically catagorize it as not neocon or mixed, but then again we have heard others say that is silly.
The politics of the Armenian genocide are pretty funny, but that is somewhat due to ignorance. It’s true that many conservative Republicans oppose recognition, but that’s only because they have no idea that Armenians were Christian and they were killed for that very reason. It’s odd because this was a huge Christian cause when it was actually happening, but somehow todays Republicans did not get the memo – But Gee Dubs told his base what actually happened he could get support for a crusade against Ankara if he wanted. If Clinton were now President, it’s easy to imagine Tome Delay and Tancredo turning Armenia into a cause.
Hey – the whole pointg of denying the genocide was to appease the Turks so they would let us invade Iraq and give Richard Perle consulting contracts. Since that’s already done, who cares what happens now?
Comment says
“The Stupid Party” is the cover story in the Weekly Standard this week – Interesting, because we recall reading(correct us if we are wrong, anyone) that Irving Kristol gave up socialism {“I can’t build socialism with these people [fellow army draftees]”) and became a Republican precisely because he, Irving Kristol, thought the GOP was “the stupid party” and he thought that was a good thing.
Doktor – an exoteric reading of this weeks Weekly Standard would see this as just another weak tea attack on tthe ‘Democrat’ party.
But if you put on your Kristollian Esoterica Glasses ™ you might be able to read the article as a subtle aknoldgement that they think Hillary will be President and they are doing battlefield prep work to lock out true liberals from her administration so it can stuffed up with “serious” crypto Kristollians.
Anon says
Ann Coulter is a genius – take not how she was able to get that woman (Viera) to repeat all of her classics – her Christianity schick is actually pretty new:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/gibberish-by-digby-its-been-long-week.html
Comment says
We just watched that interview w/ Kurtz (not the intro segment) and that was just hilarious – as Howie drones on about Couric’s use of the word “nightmare” and Gibson “hammmering home.” Hilarious – it could be a stoner classic in the dorms – replace
Comment says
We have not read Jpod in a while – but lets guess, he’s a Rudy supporter? LOL – Ofcourse nothing will come of Condi’s next scheme – nothing ever does – she never gets anything done and that just might be her job.
Comment says
Gary Kasparov on c-span now – He could probably beat Condi in chess, but even Condi would probably get more votes than him in a fair Russian election.
Comment says
It’s a good thing Putin didn’t bring up waterboarding.
Comment says
If someone like Lantos was thinking of chilling on the resolotion, it would have been harder to be less persuasive than Condis pathetic protest – Condi gave all the worst reasons, instead of crafting a reply that would have let an intelligent person reflect on issues of timing and/or method.
Comment says
A number of years ago we were talking with some folks that worked for the US in that region and they spoke of mass graves of Armenians – still unexplored, still unmarked – thru that whole region. But the topic was verboten.