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History, Inc., is the last and bestest manufacturing industry for all those of a certain “progressive” political bent — though, in keeping with our policy of “inclusiveness,” applications are also being accepted for motivated Marxists and tinpot despots with practical, “real world” experience and a desire to perfect their craft.
Devotees of Enlightenment principles need not apply. It’s not that we don’t like you, it’s just — well, you tend to be a bit too literal minded for our purposes.
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h/t Dan
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update: In the comments, Dan points me to this Politico piece that argues that Maliki was not mistranslated.
So maybe I’ve been led astray. In which case — whoopsie!
Don’t forget to see the comments here, though.
So who is right here?
Look around you, Jeff. Who do you see?
I think Patterico’s right, Jeff. Spiegel says that they provided Maliki’s people with their version of the text, and weren’t contacted. That’s not the same as being able to state that the version you present is unredacted, or even accurate.
It could be that Maliki had more important things to do than check Spiegel’s translation.
But as Patterico points out, that doesn’t mean that he disagrees with Obama, either. It just means that Spiegel is bullshit.
Jeff,
Patterico is right. CJR is ignoring Der Spiegel’s initial alteration of Maliki’s quotes — and saying you provided Maliki with the transcript doesn’t mean anything if you then report your own re-write of the transcript.
Now, after all of that is settled, I would bet Maliki probably did say something amenable to O!’s timetable in general. Parliament is trying to schedule provincial elections, and it’s a smart thing for him to say for domestic consumption. But Der Spiegel may have wrung a bit too much of the nuance out.
That Economist special report is many many clickings. I don’t like them that much to click and click and click.
Sigh. Another tempest in a teacup.
“His original words were unprintable. It would have been embarrassing to him”…
What’s the German/ English translation for ‘He’s an uneducated, egocentric, retard Arab (and if you’d have fucked off in 1942 and let us have north Africa we wouldn’t have to do this blödsinnig interview).’
Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance.
Oh. I have no response to that.
Sniffy British faggots.
Maybe I should start following these elections.
Thing is, it’s just so easy to blow it all off so I can learn to tear someone’s shoulder out of the socket just about at will. It’s empowering. And so good for the esteem and all.
“A bloodied America.” Not to trivialize the loss of life, but more Americans were lost on D-Day than through this entire Iraq campaign.
But because we were saving British bacon, I bet they weren’t diminishing the American effort back then.
Sniffy British faggots, indeed.
Yep. And yet the killing tens of thousands of jihadis merits no mention. I wonder why?
um, isn’t Der Spiegel known for not exactly translating their English version accurately? or have they fixed that since I read about it years ago?
Maggie just successfully deployed obostrophe!
US Military Pledge:
“To force the entire Saudi and global wahhabi treasure and most physical/ human resources into the fight in Iraq…right down the gun sights of the greatest millitary that has ever seen God’s Earth.”
How do I give those guys money? Is there a ‘donate’ button somewhwere?
Fuck it. Just take my wallet.
The Visa is maxed out, but everything else is good.
Jokes aside, you guys go and hit the ‘donate’ button if you can.
http://www.soldiersangels.org/
should I be proud of that?
I’ve given $350 to soldiersangels.
You rock like ‘Jack Black’ kelly.
At the bar last night, my father suggested that if Obama is so popular with the Germans, maybe they should elect him president of Germany. Gets him out of our hair.
Nothing to follow Jeff. If you aren’t watch the news, Obama is an idiot and McCain is sorry. For something, I don’t know what. Or he’s offended, because of something someone said about the other guy or just kinda being quiet.
If you are watching the news, Obama has already been elected and there’s an epidemic of young attractive women gone missing. Oh yeah, and they still manage to find the most unbelievably ignorant hillbilly to interview whenever there’s a fire, shooting or car accident.
And it’s hot. But not because it’s like July or anything, it’s because gas costs $5 a gallon and everyone’s gone and got the forclosures from eating tomatoes. If we had more windmills, this wouldn’t be a problem.
“At the bar last night, my father suggested that if Obama is so popular with the Germans, maybe they should elect him president of Germany.”
With all due respect to your Dad, fuck that. The last un-elected politician that gave a rally like that in Germany followed it up with a night of LONG KNIVES.
And then started a world war.
Somewhere in hell, the Anti-Christ is bitching to his Dad about Obama stealing his thunder.
Obama’s posters though…not just this tour, but all of them.
Has anybody looked at or written about them? They are all Soviet, Lennin/Stalin/Che styled, and frightening as all hell.
No, Geezer, it’s not a tempest in a teapot, it’s a calculated non-risk on Obama’s part.
Rush read off a series of quotes by Maliki for the past 2-3 years, all contradicting Bush about withdrawal, all overly optimistic about Iraqi troops/police being able to handle the problem.
I don’t know what Maliki’s game is — he could be on the take from any number of factions, he could be pandering to a general sentiment in Iraq, or he could just be filling an all-too familiar stereotype. He’s what we had to work with, heartburn and all.
It didn’t take a whole lot of research by Obama, Inc. to know Maliki would likely agree with a timeline (any timeline, if Rush’s quotes are accurate, and I believe they are, judging by my own creaky memory). So O sends his advance corps of Arabist “advisers” over before the trip, sets it up, and bingo! — who gives a crap that we’ve expended the very best of our kids’ blood on this effort for almost five years of head-banging, training Iraqis (whose first instinct is to cut and run — and yeah, it’s a cultural thing) into some kind of disciplined force? Who cares that Bush has hung tough in the face of Democratic a-holes that were hoping like hell that we could lose, so that they could gain political power?
It’s all about re-writing history to win an election — and what Maliki actually said to Speigel isn’t the point, at all.
As usual, Ramirez says it best…
http://www.investors.com/editorial/cartoons/CartoonPopUp.aspx?id=300485219118217
I think Grand Ayatollah Al Sistani (likely in consensus with the rest of the religious hierarchy) has advised Maliki on the way forward and Maliki is responding to that instruction. This push for an early exit of US troops is not universally shared in Iraq. The push back has already begun from other quarters who must be heard on the issue.
Also I don’t have to come to grips with jack. It’s Baracky what needs to come to grips. Maliki doesn’t decide what’s in the US national interest, and he has a little parliament thinger he doesn’t exactly speak for. Maliki could tell us to get out tomorrow and it would just be that he was fucking high, not that his opinion was of any particular merit. The idiot community organizer needs to unnerstand that war is a lot about crossing the bridges when you fucking get to them.
War and bridges is a way complicated subject. One thing for sure though, bridges matter a lot in war.
Oh. I just mostly know what I seen on the tv really.
In a way though, that’s going to be enough, if you think through all the permutations of the stuff you’ve seen. The movie ‘a bridge too far’ alone has most of them.
The movie ‘a bridge too far’ alone has most of them.
Also “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, “The Bridges at Toko-Ri”.
“The Bridges of Madison County”, not so much.