[Barf Alert: ORANGE] -- "Bush's Peril: Shifting Sand and Fickle Opinion"

New York Times ^ | Mar 30, 2003 | R. W. APPLE Jr.

[The Raven]

This is soooooo funny. They (the libs) --- determine themselves what is perfect news coverage (eg ABC News)....Oh never mind...I can't even type.

[biss5577]

You are right...I used to be so angered by this kind of print! Now it has become so comical...write on, you libs, write on.

[I still care]

Saddam won't win," said Richard C. Holbrooke, the former United States representative at the United Nations. "Unlike L.B.J. in Vietnam, Bush won't quit. He's a different kind of Texan. He'll escalate and keep escalating. In the end his military strategy will probably succeed in destroying Saddam.

At last it is starting to dawn on them the kind of solid character that comprises GW Bush.

Character scares Democrats.

[Maximum Leader]

Now that R.W. "Quagmire" Apple has weighed in, I suddenly feel better about the war effort.

[TightSqueeze]

and as this president remembers better than most, it happened to his father, too.

Like the stock market, president Bush has seen his high-water mark in popularity, from here on out there will only be lower lows and like his father he will be replaced next election.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

R.W. Apple- I didn't even realize that this stupid old Commie was still alive. Too bad.

[angkor]

"Our ultimate goal, which is promoting stability in the Middle East, may well prove elusive."

What gave Holbrooke the impression that we're "promoting stabilty in the Middle East."

I thought we were promoting a complete meltdown of the demonic Islamist hellhole it has become.

[RLJVet]

Barf alert ORANGE"

I LOVE it. Can't read the article I am out of antiemetics. But thanks for posting.

[okie01]

For the record, somebody should find and post what Apple wrote about Afghanistan at a comparable point in that action.

It was pretty much the same piece, as I recall. Only the placenames and dateline have changed.

Ironically, it was published on the very day Mazar-al-Sharif fell...and the Taliban was set to rout.

A visionary Apple ain't...

[bybybill]

Apple would have really enjoyed WWll, what a old fool

[Cicero]

R. W. Apple was the fellow who accused Bush of cowardice for not promptly flying back to the White House on 9/11.

He is a scumbag.

[CyberAnt]

"Is his luck about to turn"

"we hope, we hope, we hope", says the NYT!!!

[ladyinred]

The media is doing everything in it's power to turn the public's opinion on President Bush. They are working overtime under their self appointed leader Peter Arnett to put doubt in the minds of the citizens here and abroad about his ability to lead this country in war, economics, and spiritually. (He is just too religious you know, why, he actually claims to read that Bible that Bill Clinton just used to carry around for effect!)
I never thought I would see the day that the press would abuse it's power to this extent. This is frightening.

[tet68]

Could, could, could, could, could,..........

one almost feels sorry for them, NOT.

[Nick Danger]

As the war in Afghanistan showed, hard military slogging can give way suddenly to victory.

I see that Apple is not about to repeat his "we're stuck in a quagmire" silliness from the Afghan campaign.

Instead he treats us to a list of "things that might go wrong." For some reason he does not seem to envision that anything might go well. But then, his agenda is to demoralize anyone he can trick into reading his drivel, so I guess that's not a surprise.

Although Apple would like us to think that he knows what he's talking about, or is some kind of expert on these things, he is clearly just flapping his gums. He tells us that the term Shock and Awe was "intended to discourage Mr. Hussein and his circle," when in fact it is the title of a book published in 1996, long before any of this was envisioned.

Apple is certainly pompous enough, but he is also ignorant.

[deport]

The media has decided this war is lost, President Bush is a one termer because of it and that the public won't stand much longer.

All this and we haven't even begun to attack Baghdad and Saddam at his various homes. The troops are at his door now so phase two or the attack on Baghdad will begin soon. The media know it alls act as if we can't defeat the Iraqis in the city.... It maybe a tough task but with the arsenal we have at out disposal I don't think we can be denied. It maybe at a higher cost than anticipated...

[Pikachu_Dad]

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH !!!!!

DO NOT WATCH MS-NBC. THEY ARE ..., sorry but words fail me.

They were just interviewing the leader of the air campaign in Bosnia. The interview questions were designed to raise an 'issue' between Frank and Rumsfeld. They are trying to claim that Rumsfeld did not give Frank the troops he desired for the war (otherwise it would be over already).

They completely overlooked the obvious that 4ID was supposed to be in Turkey before the war and should be on the north side of Baghdad right now IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE TURKS DOUBLE DEALING.

Are these media folks morons or traitors?

(And the general was not much better, because he did not tell them NO, STOP BEING STUPID.)

[deport]

The media is all over the place, some more accurate and reasonable than others. But if you don't watch a little from them you never know what they are plotting or promoting.....


Off topic..... Is the NHRA race track still in LaPlace? I used to go there many many years ago....

[Capt. Tom]

For the record, somebody should find and post what Apple wrote about Afghanistan at a comparable point in that action. It was pretty much the same piece, as

New York Times ^ | Wednesday, October 31, 2001 | By R. W. APPLE Jr.

Quagmire Recalled: Afghanistan as Vietnam
By R. W. APPLE Jr.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — Like an unwelcome specter from an unhappy past, the ominous word "quagmire" has begun to haunt conversations among government officials and students of foreign policy, both here and abroad.

Could Afghanistan become another Vietnam? Is the United States facing another stalemate on the other side of the world? Premature the questions may be, three weeks after the fighting began. Unreasonable they are not, given the scars scoured into the national psyche by defeat in Southeast Asia.

For all the differences between the two conflicts, and there are many, echoes of Vietnam are unavoidable. Today, for example, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld disclosed for the first time that American military forces are operating in northern Afghanistan, providing liaison to "a limited number of the various opposition elements."

Their role sounds suspiciously like that of the advisers sent to Vietnam in the early 1960's, although Mr. Rumsfeld took pains to say of the anti-Taliban forces that "you're not going to send a few people in and tell them they should turn right, turn left, go slower, go fast." The Vietnam advisers, of course, were initially described in much the same terms, and the government of the day vigorously denied that they were a prelude to American combat troops.

In the most famous such denial, Lyndon B. Johnson vowed that he would not send American boys in to fight the war for Vietnamese boys.

Despite the insistence of President Bush and members of his cabinet that all is well, the war in Afghanistan has gone less smoothly than many had hoped. Not that anyone expected a lightning campaign without setbacks; indeed, both Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld have often said the effort would be long and hard.

But signs of progress are sparse. A week ago, the Pentagon said the military capacity of Taliban leaders in Afghanistan had been "eviscerated" by allied bombing raids; now ranking officials describe those leaders as "tough characters" who remain full of fight. The sole known commando sortie into enemy territory produced minimal results and ample evidence that American intelligence about the Taliban is thin.

The Northern Alliance, whose generals bragged for weeks that it was about to capture the pivotal city of Mazar-i-Sharif, has failed to do so. Nor have its tanks made any progress toward Kabul, the capital. Abdul Haq, the Afghan soldier to whom many had looked to unify anti-Taliban factions, was captured and killed by his enemies almost as soon as he returned to the country.

etc blah blah blah

[The Raven]

>>I didn't even realize that this stupid old Commie was still alive.

Oh...I didn't know his reputation proceeded him. That explains part of it.