Pollack wants us to do "Iraq" in Syria

"...it is not cheap, and it requires a long-term commitment of military force and political and economic assistance. The cost can be mitigated in a multilateral intervention such as in Bosnia and Kosovo, rather than a largely unilateral effort along the lines of the U.S. reconstructions of Iraq and Afghanistan. In the case of Syria, that means the United States isn’t the only nation that needs to sign on; Turkish, European and Arab support matter as well. Right now, there is absolutely no appetite in the United States for a Bosnia-style intervention in Syria. That is understandable. Unlike in Libya, the humanitarian disasters unfolding in Syria have not been enough to galvanize the United States to action. In addition, there is nothing intrinsically important there for U.S. vital interests. Syria does not have significant oil reserves, nor is it a major trading partner ..." Pollack

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Ken Pollack wants us to do another "Iraq," this time in Syria.  The first Iraq does not seem to have been enough for him.  His recipe for Syria is for the US, Turkey and "others" to arm and train the rebels until they destroy the Syrian government and then "create" the armed forces of the new country so that they will revere us and align themselves with us internationally.  That does not seem to have worked very well in Iraq, but, no matter, Pollack hopes that it will work this time.  The Iraqi government is plainly defiant of American wishes but, who cares about little things like that.

Pollack infamously wrote a book in which he "boosted" for war in Iraq.  Then, when the war became a disaster, he pivoted and denounced the whole project.  Ken is a "weather vane." He knows that the "neo-Wilsonian" wind in the the BHO administration is blowing in exactly the same direction that the neocon wind blew for Bush.  pl  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-when-and-whether-to-end-the-war-in-syria/2012/08/10/6089d526-e0dd-11e1-a421-8bf0f0e5aa11_story.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Pollack

 

Comments

[eakens]

If The FSA starts taking down Syrian jets and helicopters using Turkish-US supplied weaponry, I fear that will be the beginning of a much wider regional war, perhaps exactly the thing the neocons would like to experiment with next.

The west is well aware of the agreements in place between Iran and Syria, and it's now high time to see how real that is. For the puppetry in the US, I can see how they would make this gamble in light of all the decisions which have been made since 2001, but Erdogan will not come out a winner. He doesn't have the political basis for this on a mass scale. Despite the beautiful secular illusion of Turkey that ismoften held, it too will prove to be a mirage in the face of a wider direct or proxy confrontation with Iran.

[YT]

RE: "His recipe for syria is for the US, turkey and "others" to arm and train the rebels until they destroy the syrian government and then "create" the armed forces of the new country so that they will revere us and align themselves with us internationally."

How many GAWD**** times must the concerned (& intelligent) public who visit this here site & others with related topic ceaselessly rant 'bout the hopelessness of such measures?

We now seem like leftist thinkers who must constantly chant their mantras to their audience to have it imprinted PERMANENTLY in the[ir] Subconscious.

How many times must America have Her a$$ bitten in order to LEARN for ONCE the lessons of the (now distant) past -- viz. "haven't they tried this back during the Cold War against the Soviets & what DID that eventually lead to"?

[Weren't the fantastic attempts of arming Greek rebels against nazi troops by that British Bulldog completely unfeasible? & yet the military planners of the U.S. still persist in working on this VIDEOGAMISH Schlieffen Plan "grand strategy(!)" to meet present challenges??]

I guess folks in the higher-up of grapevine beaureaucracy STILL BELIEVE that the U.S. of A will be left untouched by the blowback/backlash of History.

Guess it all boils down to benefittin' the military-industrial complex (mercs, weapon manufacturers, etc.)

The Forever War....

Eisenhower & Robert Heinlein did foresee the future (& tragically they were right).

[YT]

RE: "Didn't Gen Shinseki get fired"

One of the most able and successful brains I met in any army. Needless to say, he never rose in the war above the rank of colonel.”

-British Prime Minister David Lloyd George
on Colonel Richard Meinhertzhagen (WW I)

Dude, I'm surprised he even made it to General.

Guess that's what you get for telling the truth.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Same observation applies to Col. De Gaulle; his book on mechanized mobile warfare was translated into German and studied thoroughly.

In France he was a just another gadfly.

[Babak Makkinejad]

"Forever War" is by Joe Haldeman.

[YT]

Monsieur,

The tragedy of all seers....

[turcopolier]

Babak

Ever read "West of Honor" by Pournelle? pl

[jonst]

How many more times Monsieur? My guess is a few more times...but not many more. The end is drawing near, I believe. It may be decades off...but it can be imagined now. My guess is, and this is a very unpleasant subject, but....my guess is; right around the time the people figure out that cutting Medicaid funding down to a Nursing Home ratio of 1 aid per 25 patients, means the vast, vast, majority of us will spend out last years sitting in our own defecation. When that begins to really dawn on people...watch out. The walls will come tumbling down. But, till then, there is money to made, books to write (no one will read...but many will be bought by a few) reputations to be gained, and scholarly chairs to sit their fat asses in as they poison other minds, and send others children off to war.

[Thomas]

They got a Mig 23 today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYdklyy91UY&feature=player_embedded

[Fred]

Sadly being down wind of all this is the realization that the only think worse than the smell from a chicken coop is the one eminating from a chicken-hawk coop.

BTW I liked all of Pournelle's work.

[mbrenner]

Pollack and his numerous companions in arms prove the adage that ignorance is bliss. In his case, very lucrative bliss. He pops down to Florida frequently to pocket $75,000 in exchange for feeding paranoia and exciting the elderly. His passion on those occasions, I am told by a listener, goes far beyond what he conveys in his Brookings incarnation. The intellectual level is unvarying.

[turcopolier]

mbrenner

Yes. One of his specialties is frightening retired elderly people. pl

[Babak Makkinejad]

Yes.

[Babak Makkinejad]

No need to be so gloomy.

I think there is a possibility to develop semi-autonomous robots that can render assistance to the elderly and the infirm.

[Matthew]

Thomas: It didn't crash.

[Mark Logan]

rick,

Along with Lawrence Lindsey for saying it would cost as much as as $200 billion.

Saw a hopeful sign on CNN a couple weeks ago. Keane, Max Boot, and some other guy were trying to convince a Congressional committee to budget a lot more money for Afghanistan. Watched a distinguished, old southern conservative in a white suit give them something less than they were hoping for.

Stripped of the courtesy and paraphrased: "Are you people f'ing nuts?!?"

[YT]

Col. sir,

He was a TV evangelist?

[YT]

Ah, mon erreur.

[YT]

RE: "till then, there is money to made, books to write (no one will read...but many will be bought by a few) reputations to be gained, and scholarly chairs to sit their fat asses in as they poison other minds, and send others children off to war."

jonst,

Dude, we seem like lab rats running in some damn cage.

REAL mean & vicious déjà vu on constant re-run since the Great War.

Fact is [truly] stranger than fiction....

[confusedponderer]

Fear of imminent death - by hand of vile terrorists or through the workings of the antichrist - there is little difference practically. John Hagee has managed to combine both in his (equally lucrative) Christian Zionism product.

In 2003 Hagee's total compensation package amounted to more than $1.25 million, for heading an organisation that's nominally "non-profit". Well, obviously, a sign that he is blessed, how else to explain his prosperity?

Retirees have spent a lifetime accumulating enough wealth to be able to retire, in that sense they are a very lucrative customer group, and apparently, having someone scaring the bejeezus out of them is something in demand.

[stanleyhenning]

Medicare rises as prime election issue. What is not said is that the bailouts in the sub-prime loan fiasco and the dead and billions spent and continuing to be spent from the Neocon initiated Iraq and Afghanistan bottomless pits are expected to be paid for by Americans through loosing their healthcare and other support, while at the same time the high rollers are not expected to give an inch - and now Pollack and buddies want to continue the foolishness in which much of the money spent goes to contractors and the like. Under such circumstances the America I was born into as begun to disappear.

[Thomas]

BS

[YT]

cp,

Ah. Even in (ultra-capitalist) America, the Word of God has become a business.

Pure blasphemy....

[YT]

S. Henning 先生,

RE: "Under such circumstances the America I was born into [h]as begun to disappear"

The "good old times" -- all times when old are good --

Are gone; the present might be if they would;

Great things have been, and are, and greater still

Want little of mere mortals but their will:

A wider space, a greener field, is given

To those who play their "tricks before high heaven."

I know not if the angels weep, but men

Have wept enough -- for what ? -- to weep again!....

Yes! where is he, the champion and the child

Of all that's great or little, wise or wild;

Whose game was empires, and whose stakes were thrones;

Whose table earth -- whose dice were human bones?

Behold the grand result in yon lone isle,

And, as thy nature urges, weep or smile.

Sigh to behold the eagle's lofty rage

Reduced to nibble at his narrow cage;

Smile to survey the quelller of the nations

Now daily squabbling o'er disputed rations;

Weep to perceive him mourning, as he dines,

O'er curtail'd dishes and o'er stinted wines;

O'er petty quarrels upon petty things....

Carmen Seculare Et Annus Haud Mirabilis

Impar Congressus Achilli

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

The Second Coming