William Kristol v John Judis Debate (Vanity)

[RightInEastLansing]

I will be attending a debate title "The War in Iraq: What is to be Done” between Kristol and Judis an hour from now.

Any freeper input for the Q & A afterwards is appreciated.

[jsmith48]

Bill Kristol is the man, he spoke at a conference I was at in DC last December.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20030501fareviewessay11224/john-b-judis/putting-liberty-first-the-case-against-democracy.html

[BCrago66]

Where is this event?

[cksharks]

Ask him why about a month ago he was bashing the administration about not enough troops and the elections and on and on. Then after the election he tried to pput his whole body up Bushes a$$. He had a brown stain down to his navel.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

Besides, he was much funnier on Saturday Night Live than he is now.

[Dolphy]

I'd nail on him for going wishy washy a few months ago and attacking Rumsfeld. Kristol contributed a great deal to the side of the debate that said the Iraqis would greet us with flowers. That has been the biggest miscalculation of the entire war. As Cheney said, and few covered, they were surprised at how far down Saddam's rule had taken the Iraqi's spirit.

[ScottM1968]

Ask him why he's caved on Rumsfeld and Iraq in general.

I would bet he eats his words.

[Alberta's Child]

Ask Bill Kristol how he can keep a straight face when he supports the "war on terror" in Iraq while at the same time he supported the Clinton administration's disgraceful decision to lay waste to Serbia on behalf of a radical Islamic faction in Kosovo.

While you're at it, you can also ask him why he and a whole bunch of his fellow "neo-cons" are members of a group called the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, which has consistently criticized the Putin government for pursuing its own "war on terror" against radical Muslims in Chechnya.

[RightInEastLansing]

The event was in East Lansing (Michigan State)

Every question from the audience was directed at/against Krisol - except mine. Kristol did a wonderful job.

Judis was a little too dry and professorial.

Judis said he struggled to find any justification for the current Iraq war. I asked him if he thought the first Gulf War was justified and he said yes. I then brought up the capitulation agreement that American's died to secure, and Saddam's violation of said agreement. Needless to say, the crowd, and Judis weren't impressed.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

I think that Christopher Caldwell laid out the most coherent, cogent argument against NATO's decision to initiate hostilities against Yugoslavia in 1999.

There was one very beneficial but unintended aspect of the resultant conflict, i.e. the victory of the peaceful, democratic opposition-led by activist student groups like OTPOR, Western technocrats like Zoran Djindjic, and democratic Serbian nationalists like Vojislav Kostunica-over the autocratic heirs of Josip Broz (Tito).

The specified goal of the bombing campaign, i.e. stopping the slaughter of innocent Kosovars, was another noteworthy accomplishment, which has to be weighed against the negative consequences generated by that conflict-a military escalation that contravened the most basic principles undergirding this transatlantic defense pact.

To continue as a U.N. protectorate, a veritable political and economic basket case, open to infiltration by officially-sponsored Wahabbi clerics from the Gulf, and surreptitious invasion by Islamic terrorist organizations, is a situation that is simply untenable in the long run.

Instead of debating the relative merits of Clinton's decision to attack the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, I think that we need to focus on how best to solidify America's diplomatic/military relationship with a potentially invaluable ally in the WOT.

It is infinitely more desirable to have Kosovo follow the path trod by Albania, rather than becoming a charnel house of human misery, which is the current state of affairs in Chechnya.

[Destro]

Horse puck is still horse puck - and the Clinton campaign made it possible for 9/11 to happen because the jihad organization that developed in Yugoslavia was used to carry out 9/11.

And I am also sick and tired of American pundits trying to turn sow's ears into silk purses. It was wrong - on many levels - PERIOD.