++ A few weeks ago, I wrote how I enjoyed the Ukraine crisis because I saw commentators emerge whom I used to read during the Cold War, including the Trotskyists.
++Now with the disintegration of Iraq, it is horrifying to see all the enablers of the American invasion re-emerge on the corporate media without any recognition of their past statements or actions.
++The Morning Joe actually had on Paul Bremmer, the American pro-consul to Iraq, who unilaterally disbanded the Iraqi army, whom you see now charging to Baghdad these many years later. At least Mark Halperin raised the question about why should we listen to him. Bremmer said his earpiece fell out so as not to answer.
++Frederick Kagan, the man who created the idea of the surge, appears in the New York Daily News and suggests a whole range of military options but claims this doesn't mean "re-invading" Iraq.
++Face the Nation actually had Paul Wolfowitz on to say we should have stay on like we did in Japan. Now, this man underestimated the cost of Iraq by several trillion, not billion, dollars. Let alone the inconvenient fact that the Iraqis, the American people and the American military wanted us to leave.
++On the blame game, could we be clear--the Iraqi government changed some 200 items in the withdrawal agreement and George W. Bush had no choice but to agree and win a later date for withdrawal. Otherwise, we would have been forced to leave in 2008. Both the Bush and Obama administrations failed to get a Status of Force Agreement because Iraq would not agree to immunity from persecution. And who would disagree with that given Maliki's human rights record. There is an assumption going around that if the United States just huffed and puffed, we could have stayed--and like the advocates of the invasion ignore the cost and blood of staying and the fact that Iraqis were not welcoming us as liberators.
++EU member Straun Stevenson from Scotland wrote an op-ed piece that said that the current situation in Iraq is an Arab uprising against Maliki and his Shiite sectarianism.
++Wolfowitz,McCain and the Bush Administration always argued that sectarianism wasn't a problem in Iraq. The media has done a great job is showing all of McCain's countless Iraq positions.
++Lindsey Graham complains that President Obama is a stubborn man and should have stayed in Iraq. Then he spins around and says we should cooperate with the Iranians to go after ISIS, which I believe we will do.
++Unfortunately, we are back to the rhetorical frenzy before the Iraq war. Lindsey Graham warned about another 9-11. Hopefully, we have more competent people and have taken measures to prevent a recurrence.
++However, I am not so sure. Remember the NSA was created to prevent such an event and it failed. Where was the NSA in predicting the seizure of the Crimea by Putin and the long trail of military operations against the series of Iraqi cities. No where but they have your credit card information.
++I forget Feith appearing over the weekend. The first time in years anyone has heard from the former Deputy of Defense--Douglas Feith. Unbelievable.
++And I forget Pollack at Brookings, who wrote two books on invading Iraq. Naturally, it was going to be short, cheap with few casualties. Pollack now warns of sectarian strife and naturally the Obama Administration can stop it.
++Andrew Sullivan over the weekend wrote about the mind-bending options for President Obama ending up on all sides of the conflict. I think Sullivan maybe over-optimistic that Obama can escape the war machine. I think he will do something and probably aerial attacks because it is an issue of power projection and we have been conditioned to expect this.
++Tony Blair said that the US and UK are not to blame for this fiasco. He actually came out from under a rock and appeared several times in the media.
++The lesson of all this is Shit Floats and you will make good money in Washington, if you are egregiously wrong.
++Meanwhile John Kerry and the Iranian government said they will hold talks this week about cooperating in their efforts against ISIS. The Iranian government also suggested there was a good chance there may be a nuclear agreement by July 20.
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