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Troops are fingers in a dike around Iraq
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 6/18/06 | Trudy Rubin

Posted on 06/24/2006 11:03:12 PM PDT by RadicalSon2

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Reading articles from these natering nabobs of negativism, leaves me wondering whether these nutjobs are really from this planet or just visiting...
1 posted on 06/24/2006 11:03:14 PM PDT by RadicalSon2
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To: RadicalSon2
U.S. troops will be drawing down in 2007 because our military is overextended.

And Trudy Rubin knows this. . . how? She has a real sky-is-falling mentality - all alarmism and now answers.

2 posted on 06/24/2006 11:11:16 PM PDT by hsalaw
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To: RadicalSon2
I think "Trudy" knows plenty about... you get the title.


3 posted on 06/24/2006 11:11:55 PM PDT by SteveMcKing
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To: hsalaw

Oops. "NO" answers, not "now" answers. Up too late.


4 posted on 06/24/2006 11:12:00 PM PDT by hsalaw
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To: RadicalSon2

Lets put Trudy in charge. Given her mastery of the difficult task of putting consonants and vowels together, I am sure General Trudy could, in a matter of weeks, have the Baathists and Al Qaedites acting like they are at cotillion.


5 posted on 06/24/2006 11:12:30 PM PDT by vbmoneyspender
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To: RadicalSon2
Is this them?


6 posted on 06/24/2006 11:12:50 PM PDT by mastercylinder (Evolution: Taking care of those too stupid to take care of themselves.)
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To: RadicalSon2
I'm sorry, but what does this whiney little columnist know about the world?

We see hundreds of these columns a week on FR, and I no longer get angry, I just shake my head. Cynisim is ALWAYS the safest route a columnist can take when she is going to comment on something she knows NOTHING about other than what she's read in The Nation or heard about on Air America.

This woman shows zero--ZERO--understanding of the subject about which she writes. Simply put--Lady, how dare you write about something you know nothing about?

7 posted on 06/24/2006 11:15:33 PM PDT by Darkwolf377
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To: RadicalSon2
In my latest trip to Iraq earlier this month, elected Iraqi political leaders from all communities - Shiite, Kurd and Sunni - told me U.S. troops should not be withdrawn now.

This is precisely what I mean--WHICH elected leaders? WHO did you talk to, and how do you know whether they were telling you the truth, or what their motives are?

I could go to Washington tomorrow and speak to my congress critters, and then write the following: "In my last trip to Washington, elected US political leaders told me..." and it would mean NOTHING--absolutely nothing--without proper context; names, background, records of votes, etc.

Anyone who read my "account" would simply tote up what they know about the politicians I mention and laugh off what I wrote-- "You BOUGHT that BS? Don't you know he has union buddies, and his uncle is in the concrete business.." or whatever.

Instead, this DOPE talks about Iraqi "elected officials"--if she said that about DC, we'd just mock her--and she spouts off like she actually knows something secret, something special, something no one else knows. We're supposed to trust her judgment about "making a hash of Iraq" because, well, she went there.

I once spent a month in Atlanta--how many of you would think I could tell you ANYTHING about how the city runs based on that?

This kind of journalism is pure, unadulterated BS, cynical and without meaning.

8 posted on 06/24/2006 11:21:06 PM PDT by Darkwolf377
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To: RadicalSon2
They know the administration refrained from taking out Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2003, when he was a small fry in Iraqi Kurdistan; Kurdish intelligence officers urged U.S. officials in vain to bomb him.

I remember Alan Colmes trying to point this out to Tommy Franks on an episode of Hannity and Colmes...the reaction was one of the best laughs I've ever had: I believe it went like this:

"Well, I can tell you right now, Alan, that is flat-on-its-face absurd."

Colmes was whining: "So the whole thing is a lie, then?"

"Yes, it is."

9 posted on 06/24/2006 11:22:12 PM PDT by pcottraux (It's pronounced "P. Coe-troe.")
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To: RadicalSon2

Don't bother this blustery author with facts,she'll have none of it as she borrows liberally from current events,past history, current climate stories and Lord knows what else to contrive a make believe delimna,argue it and dispose of it as so much bother and not much else save for more evidence that George Bush is the worst President in recorded history.

If she had attended journalism courses in college she might have recieved an "incomplete" grade with a note that a passing "D" might be possible with a lot of rework.

As it is, none of whats been written here has any bearing on any thing except to show how totally out of touch lefties are from reality at this phase of their disengagement from it..


10 posted on 06/24/2006 11:23:32 PM PDT by CBart95
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To: RadicalSon2
About Trudy Rubin

Trudy Rubin writes the Worldview column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Her column usually appears on Wednesdays and Sundays. She can be reached at trubin@phillynews.com.

Her new book, “Willful Blindness, The Bush Administration and Iraq,” describes how the administration got us into Iraq and the prospects for getting out. This book of Rubin’s column from July 2002 - June 2004 draws on her extensive experience in the Middle East, four lengthy trips to Iraq and her close contacts with Iraqi officials, clerics and ordinary people.

In Willful Blindness, Trudy Rubin simplifies a complex story and lays out the steps necessary to stabilize Iraq. Visit www.trudyrubin.com for the most current listings of upcoming media and speaking appearances by Trudy and her thoughts on the Iraq situation.


11 posted on 06/24/2006 11:27:16 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (Read the bio THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD free! Click Fred Nerks for link to my Page.)
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To: RadicalSon2
As an Inquirer customer, I've been contemplating cancelling my subscription because of their overwhelming and naked left-wing bias. After all, how many Trudy Rubin columns can one man take? Here's the basic template of her columns: "I got of the jet in some international hot spot and spoke to the locals. I found out that Bush is an idiot and things we really be better if America just did what the wise locals, Kofi Annan, Jacques Chirac, Jimmy Carter and Trudy Rubin think is right." I've the same column a million times. They're always the same regardless of the topic. Anyway, all that aside, I have to respect the Inqy for publishing the Danish cartoons. So I've decided to keep my subscription...

http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2006/02/08/heres-journalistic-principle/feed/

Walking Garbage Can

12 posted on 06/24/2006 11:34:16 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (Read the bio THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD free! Click Fred Nerks for link to my Page.)
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To: mastercylinder

Poor Trudy ... a Conehead to the very end


13 posted on 06/24/2006 11:40:10 PM PDT by Mr_Moonlight ("The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" - Lao Tzu)
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To: RadicalSon2
U.S. troops will be drawing down in 2007 because our military is overextended.

I believe that too, Trudy, but if I had the ability to write a twice weekly column for a major newspaper, I think I'd feel the need to back it up with some concrete evidence.

Beyond that, this is where you loose any credibility with me:

In the meantime, Democrats should swallow their anger (and stop booing Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton for opposing a timetable).

It's obvious you want Hillary to prevail for no other reason than you want Hillary to prevail.

14 posted on 06/24/2006 11:41:52 PM PDT by leadpenny
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To: leadpenny

lose


15 posted on 06/24/2006 11:44:42 PM PDT by leadpenny
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To: RadicalSon2
To understand the hard choices ahead, think of the U.S. troop presence as fingers in a crumbling dike surrounding Iraq.

When a writer goes for the "stick your finger into something" analogy, I get soft.

Yet, I must still ask myself why, why we chose this region in particular to instill democracy? Why not try the instilling process on some isolated island first, succeed, and then implement what was learned on a larger scale?

Also, will their new constitution come with a built-in Bill of Rights? You know, like women having the right to wear burkhas. Like men having the right to throw rocks at someone's head while they stand buried up to the neck in sand? Camel democracy.

16 posted on 06/24/2006 11:54:27 PM PDT by budwiesest (I don't do that much diversity.)
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To: RadicalSon2
But the Bush administration has made such a hash in Iraq...

Bad U.S. policy and worse execution have left Americans with two unpleasant choices...

Republicans should swallow their hubris...


She makes all these defacto assertions and never once portrays any of them convincingly. This "writing" is pure opinion, and only opinion selected to be against the war in Iraq. For that reason this whole so called news article is dismissible.

Having dismantled all the institutions that held Iraq together, the United States has a moral obligation...

The institutions that held Iraq together? Like 300,000 Iraqis murdered over the years. I know Nazi comparisons are cliche, but you could passingly call the Gestapo an "organization that held Germany together" and not be inaccurate. But you would be unethical by leaving out the important characteristics of that institution.

think of the U.S. troop presence as fingers in a crumbling dike surrounding Iraq.

What? And do her job for her?

All in all, for this piece, the Crapo meter says,..."Perfect Score!!!!"
17 posted on 06/25/2006 12:18:12 AM PDT by starbase (Understanding Written Propaganda (click "starbase" to learn 22 manipulating tricks!!))
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To: budwiesest
Yet, I must still ask myself why, why we chose this region in particular to instill democracy?

We didn't choose the Islamic countries, they chose us. We will be engaged in that and all other regions of the world from now on. Rome isn't Rome any more.

The Iraqi government will be pretty good by middle eastern standards, but pretty crummy by our standards, and we will have connections and levers of power all through it.

The security situation is not as bad as the Drive-By Media wants us to believe. Most of the country is secure. The Iraqi militia and police are growing in numbers and in ability. A a large percentage of the security in the country is under their control, with U.S, embeds and backup, but we will never pull all of our troops out. With our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have Iran sandwiched.

Our military is doing a magnificent job and having steady success, but you would never know that by listening to the Drive-By Media. They hate President Bush, they hate the military, they hate the U.S.A., and they are praying to their pagan gods that we leave in defeat. We won't.

18 posted on 06/25/2006 12:27:39 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Refute the Drive-By Media. Sí, Se Puede!)
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To: RadicalSon2
Just what military qualifications does this writer have that would cause us to believe her when she says "the President has made a hash (whatever that means?) of Iraq"?

I am sooooo tired of hearing armchair quarterbacks try to second guess experts who have actual combat experience--in Iraq.
19 posted on 06/25/2006 12:36:34 AM PDT by singfreedom ("Victory at all costs,.......for without victory there is no survival."--Churchill--that's "Winston")
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To: Fred Nerks
Good Lord, another ugly lib female---just what the world needs. She and Helen Thomas could be matching bookends!!
20 posted on 06/25/2006 12:40:26 AM PDT by singfreedom ("Victory at all costs,.......for without victory there is no survival."--Churchill--that's "Winston")
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