Sunday, September 03, 2006
Bill Kristol on Fox News Sunday:Great fun this morning. At one point during the roundtable, Kristol said this: It may be that things will look a little better in the next two months in Iraq. Two months? That's 1/3 of a Friedman. Or conversely, the amount of time remaining until the next election. Maybe it should be called a "kristol". Then there was this exchange: (emp add) Elisabeth Bulmiller: How do you define winning the war? What does that mean?
Bill Kristol: A democratic government in Iraq. The country remaining united (with some federation), with the insurgency under control in the sense of not being able to destroy the country or launch a large sectarian civil war. No weapons of mass destruction. No aggression against neighbors. And that's quite possible, incidentally. I think it was very possible three years ago, and I think it remains possible. So, it was very possible three years ago - and look where we are now. By Kristol's lights, it's still possible, but why should we pay any attention to such a poor prognosticator? That's pretty much the Bush position too. As long as there are U.S. troops there, it's unlikely the whole place will fall apart. Chances of "winning" are pretty slim, and so the administration and its supporters are arguing against "defeat", which they claim won't happen as long as we don't pull out. For years. And it might work if the country is prepared to stick it out for a decade or two, with a monthly cost of 50 U.S. casualties and $10 billion. But eventually fatigue and disgust will set in and a withdrawal will take place. And that's way into the future. In terms of politics, for the Republicans the most important thing about the Bush/Kristol plan is this: To put as much time between the instigators of the Iraq War and the denouement of this fiasco. UPDATE: Welcome Atrios readers! This blog doesn't have the resources to present you the kind of video like they do at Think Progress, but we want you to be sure that the transcript presented above is legit. So here is a small low-fi 300K wav file of Kristol's remarks (8KHz, 8-bit, mono).
posted by Quiddity at 9/03/2006 12:33:00 PM
14 comments
Is 3 years ago anything like $300 fucking billion dollars ago?
Does anyone remember when Republicans were derisive of Kerry for claiming the war would cost $180,000,000,000 simply because, while that amount had been appropriated, it hadn't actually been spent?
Those days seem so quaint – like the Geneva convention must seem to Gonzales.
Isn't the kristol a relative measurement, though? I thought its length was determined by the amount of time between the current moment and the next presidential or mid-term election. That could be anywhere from a very small fraction of a friedman to as many as four friedmans.
Kristol Meth says
"It may be that things will look a little better in the next two months in Iraq."
And it may be that the Bluebird of happines will fly out of The Creature From the Blog Lagoon's Testosterone-engorged neck.
Makes perfect sense. Note Kristol says things may look a little better, not that they will be better. Given the upcoming elections, I am sure every effort will be made to make things look better. With the current state of our media, I am afraid his prediction is probably right.
"the insurgency under control in the sense of not being able to destroy the country or launch a large sectarian civil war. No weapons of mass destruction. No aggression against neighbors"
In other words--- the situation in two months MIGHT resemble the situation PRIOR to the US aggression.
Once Fearless Leader Rumsfeld has purged the Islamofascist Nazi-appeasing morally ungrounded from the godless non-FOX News media, I am sure things will look better in Iraq.
And Kristol can get his Iran war stock options to pay off, too.
Kristol is a chickenhawk asshole who needs to sacrifice his kids for his and his friends' war.
I agree with you, Bill. Too many soldiers...
These MF'n talking heads, especially the Fox Favorites, just say dumb shit without having ANY FACTS OR EVIDENCE to back up their bullshit. Look at Friedman;how many 6 month periods until things improve? Kristol listens to Cheney, Wolfowitz, Pearle and Fieth (the dumbest MF'er I ever met according to Franks) and thinks his profound statements are worth something. No more than anybody else's asshole. Jesus Christ! What insane crap.
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