Republican Operative on Maliki's statement: "We're f*&ked"
By John Amato Sunday Jul 20, 2008 5:00pm
I wrote this yesterday, but deleted it by accident. I still love this:
(Via e-mail, a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally provides advice to the McCain campaign said, simply, "We're f*&ked."
I figured BushCo would go after Maliki after he basically signed on to Obama's Iraq position.
In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible. “U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes”[..] And “The Americans have found it difficult to agree on a concrete timetable for the exit because it seems like an admission of defeat to them. But it isn’t,” Maliki told Der Spiegel.
Marc Ambinder writes
This could be one of those unexpected events that forever changes the way the world perceives an issue. Iraq's Prime Minister agrees with Obama, and there's no wiggle room or fudge factor. This puts John McCain in an extremely precarious spot: what's left to argue? to argue against Maliki would be to predicate that Iraqi sovereignty at this point means nothing. Obviously, our national interests aren't equivalent to Iraq's, but... Malik isn't listening to the generals on the ground...but the "hasn't been to Iraq" line doesn't work here.
Soon after, Maliki tried to clarify---errr---or verify his remarks. I bet the video conference machine was pretty busy over the weekend. So we get the Maliki Walkback, sort of...But Spiegel stands by its comments...
Obama is pleased, but McCain certainly is not. In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki expressed support for Obama's troop withdrawal plans. Despite a half-hearted retraction, the comments have stirred up the US presidential campaign. SPIEGEL stands by its version of the conversation.
And they are still similar positions with Obama:
Iraq's government spokesman is hopeful that U.S. combat forces could be out of the country by 2010. Ali al-Dabbagh made the comments following a meeting in Baghdad on Monday between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, who arrived in Iraq earlier in the day.
But how were they translated? McCain can say he's winning and we won and all that...Then why aren't we leaving? Well they say "Iraq is fragile." Huh? So McCain says we won, but we can't leave because it's fragile. Will it be fragile for 100 years?
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I can't argue with that--it could not have been said any more elegant.
“We’re f*&ked.”? ....past tense....“We’re f*&ked.”? We have been for the last 8 years. Reich-wingers are always last to the party.
I can see the timetable right over the "horizon". And if I was Maliki, I wouldn't be flying in any small aircraft for awhile.
If the MSM wasn't pulling for McGrampa, Obama would have a 22 point lead by now.
DFT broke this story a bit back, What does a girl need to do to get honor killed anyway!?
BUSH AND MCCAIN ARE SIMPLY LYING AGAIN!
The following is a direct translation from the Arabic of Mr. Maliki”s comments by The Times: “Obama”s remarks that ” if he takes office ” in 16 months he would withdraw the forces, we think that this period could increase or decrease a little, but that it could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq.”
He continued: “Who wants to exit in a quicker way has a better assessment of the situation in Iraq.”
Maliki was obviously referring to Obama’s timeframe because he actually mentioning that it was “16 months”. He even goes further by stating that the “better assessment of the situation in Iraq” is the one “who wants to exit in a quicker way”. Obama is the one who “wants to exit in a quicker way”. Exiting in a “quicker way” has never been something that John McCain or George W. Bush has advocated. Only Barrack Obama has advocated that! Clearly, Maliki agrees with Barack Obama in that he prefers that American forces leave Iraq “quicker” than McCain and Bush claims he does.
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 4:
Right you are, Dr. But I can't see how the Corp. News are going to be able to cover for McSame this election. Too many people using the tubes for their news now a days.
I'm pretty sure bush and McCain didn't see this one coming. Wonder who was more angry, bush or McCain?
Can we start this 16 months now?
Whoa. Tweety and Co. including Andrea Mitchell are adding to the pain as we speak.
. . .and to think McCain goaded Obama into going to Iraq. SLAM DUNK diplomacy and campaigning.
McCain when asked about Maliki's statement had this to say... http://youtube.com/watch?v=-IEcO82_2TY&feature=related
They are actually pointing out that the translator was Maliki's aide. They are even showing the trrops cheering Obama and Obama sinking hoops.
Nicky @ 13:
Good thing he's better at hoops than bowling. Couldn't stand to watch an airball over and over.
casper46 @ 7:
I don't know. I worked from home on Friday and had MSNBC playing in the background for a few hours in the morning. It was nothing but a McGrampa commercial from 9 to noon. They aired McGrampa criticizing Obama every 15 minutes, they aired a GOP ad from Washington 4 times/hr, and did another 8 or so segments criticizing Obama for protecting his wife....it was sickening and obvious.
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 15:
And from six to nine in the morning, it's morning joe and that is just as sickening and obvious.
The beginning of the end. Wail and whine on the way out. The oil deals have been struck. Kurds Happy.Sunnis paid off,The
Shites have Iran. It's the winding down with the bitching feigned.
Of course they're fucked.
This is what they have to work with with!
This is the guy who told Conan on Friday:
Ooh...the scary cable monsters, and the blogosphere, and the continuous (?).
The only way I see the neo-cons could turn this around is if they still claimed we were at war with Iraq.
"See? we can't leave because the Iraqis want us to, we're at war with them!"
please try to remember that repubes and their opperatives have never let facts get in the way of their message. and they have effectively repeated their message/lies for a long time now, with MSM assistance..... so who thinks this will get much play or change the minds and message of the right?
anyone?
pissed off patricia @ 16:
But, now they have on Trent Lott, trying to spin McSame and daddy bush trying to compete with Obama playing with the troops. Don't think it's going to work. It's starting to look like Kennedy vs. Nixon. This time though McSame isn't running behind a popular Eisenhower. I'm going out on a limb and am predicting a Landslide victory for Barack. Remember you heard it here first.:)
Emerald City----Lt. Col. Boots de Ground issued the following statement:
"The White House regrets to have us inform you that the statements coming from the mouth of Iraqi PM Nouri "Al" Maliki about the politically expedient timetables of Obama, B.H. were mistranslations by Mr. Maliki's personal translator. In the future, no statements issued by the Iraqi government are operative unless coming from the mouth of Iraqi Baathist Reconciliation Information Minister Baghdad Bob as issued from the office of Major General Timeline, CENTCOM. Thanks for your past cooptation and have a happy aspirational goal."
Obama is a phony; he's pro-war (in Afghanistan);if you think we'll be out in 16 months you're crazy.
I don't get it? Didn't we win a couple years ago - Mission Accomplshed an all ?
I thought we went into Iraq in the first place to:
a) kill Saddam for revenge ('cause he tried to off Dubya's Daddy);
b) steal as much of their oil as possible (the big oil companies have that about locked
up; and,
c) build some big honkin' forward military bases from which to spread more peace,
freedom and democracy to infinity and beyond (maybe to Iran?).
Looks like we're done here.......
O is next prez, this election is just a Binary-party Democracy stunt.
They- Dem+Rep- takes turn to screw people of this country and rest of world.
WakeUpAmerica! @ 23:
And please, on your way to vote, remember, if you are not killed (or your grandparents were not killed) by an unsafe 1961 Pontiac Tempest or 62 Chevy Corvair, Ralph Nader has done this selfless work for you.
I am still stunned by the "time horizon" speech. Thank God Bush didn't say "timetable", because then he would have been a traitor, as we all well know. Sort of like re-defining torture, and then pretending it's O.K.
Seeing Bush Sr. and McCain today was not a pleasant picture. I'm not sure which one looked older but neither did anything for the other by appearing together like that.
And WTF was that all about on Hardball when they wheeled out Trent Lott? Why would anyone care about a single word this man has to say at this point? That ship sailed so long ago. I guess he was there to try to give first aid to McCain's campaign or something.
looking presidential..this trip is to learn and listen not
to provide answers.....bush has us in a catch-22.. obama,
i don't feel should be expected to have clear answers today about conditions that are very fluid to say the least.
http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=87463&videoChannel=1
Watching this story unfold has been frightening. The Bushies will do ANYTHING to deny and distort the truth.
Frankly, I think *we're* f#cked.
thomas @ 27:
Perhaps a time rainbow would have been more appropriate. Kind of like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that can never be found, but it keeps some people hoping it might be there some day.
Time horizon may be one of the stupidest phrases to ever come out of this white house. Second only to "harsh interrogations"
pissed off patricia @ 28:
Trent Lott lost it with/to Katrina, sorry/happy to say....
thomas @ 27:
Our Best Prexy ever says:
American's do not torture. We know it only leads to false confessions. as the Vietnamese Army interrogators learned when they got the names of the Green Bay Packers and the Pennsylvania TV interrogators leaned when they got the names of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I did not order torture. I traded Sammy Sosa.
Ricky says: Speaking of Packer's, I caught a rerun of "Porky's" last night. That Alex Karras was one fine actor. Better in Blazing Saddles, though. The movie where "the sheriff is a...."
One can imagine that the full force of the rove/DOD/State machine was brought down on the head of Maliki. cheney and his pet chimp are not going to let that nasty Arab fuck up their carefully designed oil colony. The best they could get is a little muddying of the water. But it's too late. The cats out of the bag. Maliki sent delegations to congress with a petition signed by almost everyone in the government plus most faction leaders from all religions and sects. Hardly anyone knows this because the cabal didn't want you to. What did they petition for? For a timetable for total withdrawal of the US.
One extra item; there were more deaths by warfare in Iraq June 08 than in Jan 07. So much for the yammering lies of McSame and company about victory
Dontcha love how Obama's acting like he's already President?! Like Cancerous McCain isn't even in the picture? BTW, I was never in an accident in a '62 Corvair, but I did learn to drive a stick shift in one. What a ride!
Get out and let Israel fight its own battles from now on.
theWalrus @ 30:
yup....petraus will have his lines memorized by september and mccain/bush may be ready to take that
bomb bomb iran tune on the road
pissed off patricia @ 31:
Like to see a "time horizon" as regards Dubya's so-called legacy. Not much color in that one!
pissed off patricia @ 28:
Also in Porky's, the great scene with the Nornam Rockwell drawing of Ike was a heck of an age contrast with Mc Cain. Age and military acheivements both.
McSpin insists on sticking to his (president Bush's) 'ask the Commanders on the ground in Iraq' path, declaring that it is a misconception to think that the Iraqi PM was talking about a timeline. Instead, they label it 'time horizon' and declare they have nothing against it.
"Again, what (al-Maliki) has said is not a timeline or a timetable. He said time horizons, which, again, we think that there's nothing wrong with talking about time horizons," Petraeus said.
I wonder how they can sleep at night. Al-Maliki is reflecting his President's view, which is to get the U.S. out entirely as quickly as possible. I personally see no 'bloodbath' or 'vacuum' there, although the prospects for yet another civil war can't be discounted.
miss skeptic @ 35:
Agree with you- I love Obama's sense of being above the usual fray- such a class act that must frost the asses of all who support that 'green-screen' McWhatever platform....
From MSNBC of all places: http://tinyurl.com/5eoq5x
miss skeptic @ 35:
Mine was a '64 convertible. Used to spin out on Houston freeways at the hint of rain.
I'll never forgive Nader for that or Bush, G.W. Listen up kiddo's, except for tipping Fla. and N.H. to Bush, Ralph Nader's last accomplishment preceded McCain's mission misaccomplished in Vietnam.
WakeUpAmerica! @ 23:
Yup, the US is locked into a one way direction now, it's just a case of how much it can be worn down and eventually the world can be put out of it's misery. The US has a lot of munitions though and dosen't have the first clue about diplomacy, so it's going to be a rough ride for the real world. I just hope once it's done all americas are deported back to the US so the world can heal, without their ignorant annoying attitudes shouting their mindless propaganda sh1t in peoples faces.
pissed off patricia @ 8:
Of course they did, it's been said since day 1, it's just a case of how bad is it going to get. The american people (administration led or not, it's your people on the ground over here murdering and destroying a country) signed the death pact for hundreds of thousands of people the day they decided to rape the country for it's oil, it's just a case of how bad is it going to get now.
Or do you want to keep hiding from the truth and hiding behind "support the troops" BS.
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 4:
And it would make no difference to the outcome, americans want cheap things and don't care of the end price, be that murdered children lying in gutters around the world etc. It's money not politics that runs the US.
iraqi gov't spokesperson...were talking about our own
timetable up to 2010
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/46398-iraqi-government-we-want-u-s-troops-...
czone @ 19:
Ironic that the US is at war with the world ...........
Nicky @ 43:
McCain:Unsafe At Any Screed
My gosh, I am as prescient as McCain predicting the Steeler's to the Vietnamese. Tweety just invoked Ike after I did. Ike. Real Republican. Top military leadership. Youth.
The only thing the Iraqis agree on is that they want us OUT. That has been obvious for YEARS. I hope the Rove/Bush Hubris destroys the republican party completely.
The only way the Der Spiegel v Maliki matter will be settled will be if Der Spiegel recorded what Maliki said.
Huh. After the Maliki walkback comes the Obama walkback. Watch for it.
CAlI @ 50:
They did and the New York Times had it independently translated. Both versions wqere essentially on point: Obama withdrawal plan OK.
V LaRoche @ 51:
I haven't seen a Maliki walkback. I have seen Bush trying to play Mr. Rogers with a Maliki puppet and many American press people bought it.
CAlI @ 50:
I forget which news show it was this morning but one of them said they had a transcript sent to them by Der Spiegel. Whoever it was said the transcript fit Malaki's original statement. I think after the word got out about what he said, Cheney and bush took him to the wood shed and then he began to back peddle a bit.
As long as we have a soldier on every corner over there acting like policemen, how can that country ever take control of their own lives?
Jerry @ 44:
You're a 9/11 truther....aren't you?
I keep hearing the phrase "depends on conditions on the ground". What would the conditions have to be like before the US pulled its troops out? According to the media the last couple of months have been the safest in like forever, so aren't those conditions on the ground good enough?
constituent @ 45:
listen to this short video comment by iraqi gov't spokeperson
thomas @ 27:
I was more stunned by the reich-wing media actually spending time spinning the White House talking point and trying to convince America that a "time horizon" is NOT a time table".
Great, now MSNBC is running the Iraqi spokesman saying the withdrawal of U.S. troops by 2010 is "the Iraqi vision." Watch for CENTCOM to say this was mistranslated despite the fact the Iraqi was speaking English. "Iraqi vision" is Englarabic for "apirational goal."
BTW. I cannot figure out which talking head is worse, Trent Lott or Harold Ford.
OMG they are even now mentioning the Iraq-Pakistan border gaffe.
Why is Andrea Mitchell slamming the military coverage of Obama? She pretends like the corporate media can do a remotely better job......which they can't, haven't, and won't. There's no profit in Obama running up a 22 point lead and winning this thing in a landslide.
That's why she find some type of angle to slam Obama everyday.
The "conditions on the ground" meme is just stalling and bogus. Everyone knows this so McLame should just stop saying it.
This is all playing out in Germany, where I am pretty damn sure the leading publication in the nation does not mistranslate anything (as is now more than apparent). Obama is about to visit Germany. Expect a really big turn out for his speech in Berlin and every imaginable effort to distract the American public from putting all of this together.
remember this blast from th past mcSnickers getting
down on Romney for talking "timetables" 30sec video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctlhorse85Y
Now McCain's ad pushing his position on drilling is being shown. In between this commercial break.
Bush: "we must open ANWR and the Gulf to drilling."
T. Boone Pickens: "I've been an oil man all my life and this is one crisis we can't drill our way out of."
Bush: "But I've been an oil man too."
T. Boone Pickens: "But I actually found some."
Bush: But my general time frame had finding oil as my aspirationasl goal. Then I got the Rangers job and traded Sammy Sosa.
George W. Bush murdered what used to be the Republican Party and John S. McCain is shoveling bulls**t on the grave. McCain won't garner 200 Electoral votes and he'll lose the popular vote by double digits. Republican dissatisfaction and embarrassment will cause millions of Republicans to stay home on November 4th. That's what happened in the 2004 elections when the GOP lost their majorities in the House and Senate. Things have only gotten worse for Republicans since then. Even die hard Republicans have reached the point of disillusionment that supporting John McCain is something that they can't force themselves to do no matter what that means to the Republican Party. And there's a part of them that wants to believe that Obama is capable of at least undoing the great damage the Bush adminstration has inflicted on our wonderful country.
The McCain campaign is in its last throes.
Andrea is not slamming the military. She is trying to say "try as they might there is nothing the military can do to stop the great pictures of Obama with the troops from coming out. I can't do anything today either, so tune in in a day or two and I'll crap all over him."
what the republicans need now is a good celebrity divorce, missing white girl etc. to take everybody's focus off of the news...
You can't even compare McCain to Bush anymore because Bush is actually getting some common DAMN sense his last months in office by dealing with North Korea, Iran, and at least acknowledging a "time horizon" (whatever the hell that means) to getting troops out of Iraq. McCain is on the OTHER SIDE of all of those issues.
Oh yeah, he even blames YOU for the high price of gas even though last week he said it was due to 30 years of government incompetence......and he was around for 26 years of them and did nothing.
Attila the Appeaser, No Stomach for Kristol @ 65:
McSame keeps proving time and time again he's toast.
CAlI @ 50:
On tonight's Democracy Now, Amy Goodman says der Spiegel turned over an audio recording of the interview to the New York Times, and they confirmed the quotes.
pissed off patricia @ 55:
According to Maj. General Timeline "conditions on the ground" mewans "boots on the ground."
Nicky @ 58:
They are actually the same person with different makeup.
bush will never have common sense. it's whoever it is that writes his speeches, and even that's debateable.
Nicky @ 66:
On CNN today some reporter, I think she's the one who covers the Pentagon, was going on and on about the way the photos of Sen. Obama and the soldiers are set up and posed. She said the military saw to that and blah blah blah. I think the media is pissed that Obama looks so good in the photos. Also noticed no matter who it is, big shot or soldier, when they are speaking with Sen. Obama they are smiling and look very at ease.
I think the media had secretly hoped Sen. Obama would fall on his face over there and then they could pre-crown Sen. McCain the next king, or as some of us still call the position, the president.
Well, the nightly newscasts at ABC and NBC found a way to bury the news from the Iraqi's, and Andrea wasn't gushing like she was on cable. Stepinfetchanopolous even went so far as to say Obama now agrees with McCain on sending more troops to Afghanistan. What a crock.
One piece of advise for Maliki: remember what happened to Ngo Dinh Diem and countless other US puppets who forgot their place.
This will just cement Obama supporters even more. But lets face it. McCain supporters won't budge, its just "the Party". Trust me, my in-laws are that way. "Just support THE party" they say. I keep saying to myself, "they are old and won't be a factor in a couple of years". Then I hear how large their donation is, and I want to scream. They are sending it in because the say that "I hear that Obama is going to triple the inheritance tax". I have serious T.M.J. from past visits with them.
Methinks that according to the Republican timetables (or lack thereof), Iraq will be "fragile" as long as it has oil.
Move on people, nothing to see here. @ 77:
I feel your pain.
Screw the Time Horizon. What we need is a Time Machine to go back to 2000 to set Gov. Bush up with an intern in a blue dress.
What was your first clue?
*
Yes they are! And we all need to fully ASSURE that they are F@$#kd at the polls! And in the media. And in the courts! Boy oh boy do they have it coming!!!!
Of course it's a fragile situation!!
IT's clearly fragile being on the Iraq/Pakistan/Checkoslovakian border.
What the hell is wrong with you people!!!
Fragile my ass, its a theocracy composed of multiple monotheistic sects that believes the others are "not following the true path of Allah". Iraq was never going to succeed. The violence may be down right now, but that doesn't mean shit. Every once in a while the violence between Palestine and Israel goes down too. Does it last? Of course not. Theocratic political parties can never come to terms because they are all fundamentally retarded.
As soon as we leave, whether it is 10 months from now, 10 years from now, or even 10 decades from now, any minor amount of peace held between the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shiites is still going to dissolve into theistic chaos and the sooner we leave the less the cost will be to us.
I mean its been 60 years and how many Arab countries still feel Israel is a blight upon their land?
Mark @ News Corpse @ 18:
Oh, so McCain is scared of the blogosphere, huh? Good. I'll give him something to cry about.
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