1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Armitage Outed Plame, So Says Associate

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Flying Headbutt, Aug 29, 2006.

  1. Fenian - both Hanson and Krauthammer hold doctorates and are very well respected in terms of history, military and geo-political matters. That is why they are invited to speak on such matters at the top universities and think tanks. You on the other hand are listened to by a cadre of message board toadies.

    I think I'll take my chances with Hanson and Krauthammer.

    Also don't think I missed the chickenhawk crack and since we are talking about Rumsfeld it should be noted that he served with distinction as a Navy pilot. But don't let that bother you - go right on spouting off about personal derision, arrogant stupidity, and invective.
     
  2. Crass - sorry I forgot that you weren't a journalist. My bad.
     
  3. I wasn't aiming the "chickenhawk" crack at Rumsfeld as should be obvious since, he is plainly not in the "cheap seats." He is, alas, still on the field, being the Don Buddin of Secretaries of Defense.
    As for Drs. K and H, well, respect away. I've watched Krauthammer's silly act -- refashioning political dissent as mental illness -- since the 1980's, when he was cheering on death squads and slandering honest reporters like Ray Bonner and Alma Guillermoprieto at the behest of creepy little turds like Elliott Abrams. And I think I'll hang with better military historians than a chickenhawk tree-farmer who's been wrong about every issue of public policy he's commented about for five years now.
    Chris, the war in Iraq is a bad one. (The "war on terror" is a meaningless combination of words.) A debacle, planned by incompetents and now defended along the low road by charlatans. I lived through this movie once. And "radical Islam" is no more a monolithic enemy than the "Communist bloc" was in 1967, and it is far less of an existential enemy. It can, however, given the right combination of unreasoning fear and unscrupulous leaders, cause us to do great damage to ourselves.
     
  4. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    I'm well aware of the Boy Scout issue. Irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

    And please, spare me with the "bad news" crap. Save that for your suburban backyard barbecues.

    " My, oh, my, those awful media just dote on the NEGATIVES, don't they?"

    I'm not taking away from this guy's heroism but from a storyline perspective, I'm not sure it has legs like the fictional Jessica Lynch rescue.

    And Abu has had and will have far more reaching implications than any of the two stories you've noted. Journalism 101.
     
  5. Fenian - people of your generation seem compelled to believe that Iraq = Vietnam.

    There's no arguing facts with that pre-determined mindset.
     
  6. Oh, come on, give it a try.
    Seriously, explain to me, mired in whatever your vision of 60s radicalism is -- and what a cartoon that must be, but no matter -- in what ways Iraq differs from Vietnam except in those ways in which it is worse.
     
  7. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    Evil Chris -

    Yes. People of my generation, and F_B's, do frequently compare Iraq to Vietnam. Having been down this rabbit hole at least once, we don't want to see the U.S. dragged under again. And people of your generation might do well to at least consider the warning of our collective experience, rather than ignoring the phenomenon entirely.

    Two further points, one important, one not.

    First, it's just the Medal of Honor. Congress awards it, but the word "Congressional" is not in the title proper.

    Second, part of the problem with covering Sgt. Smith's story is that he can't be interviewed or photographed or make the rounds of the Sunday talk shows. You know how much harder it is for the media to put together a story without the cooperation of the subject, and he is unavailable to the press. He is dead.

    He died heroically, certainly, and while performing an enviable act of bravery, patriotism and love.

    Given all the choices, what do you suppose his family would rather have? A book? A 12,000-word magazine feature? A movie of the week? Or him, as he was before he was sent off in service of bad intelligence and bad faith, safe at home?
     
  8. I think there's no better evidence of the fact that, when you whip out the old Neville Chamberlain, you've pretty much lost the argument than this quote:

    In 1985, he called President Reagan's rapprochement with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev potentially "the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Chamberlain in 1938 at Munich."

    The speaker was Newt Gingrich.

    UPDATE: Here's some more, courtesy of that guy who unfortunately worked for Lloyd Bentsen, and not the Hoover Institute.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brent-budowsky/roosevelt-reagan-rushmo_b_25506.html?p=2
     
  9. Proof that you are one insane motherfucker.
     
  10. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    The insane MFs remain the guys who sold the country a bill of goods while invading Iraq
    under utterly-false pretenses. And said guys have hardly covered themselves with
    glory, strategically, since. I remain in agreement w/W that we shouldn't announce
    any goddamn withdrawl timetable, and that there is an enemy Out There to be dealt
    with, but this crew has f'd up along the hoped-for path to success, virtually every step.
     
  11. Guy_Incognito

    Guy_Incognito Well-Known Member

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101460_pf.html

    The WP joins the VRWC.
     
  12. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    Beat me to it. Quite remarkable little piece of writing.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page