AWKward

Yet again this brings up the real question: Why is Hamid Karzai in charge of Afghanistan?
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I mean seriously, it’s not because he was a native fighter who’d been building a powerbase during Taliban rule, we picked him up out of Germany before the invasion. And it’s not as if he’s a democratically elected leader – the people tried to vote him out during the last election, except he rigged it and we supported him doing so. He’s not a US puppet since he rarely does what we want and spends a large amount of his free time bashing America and hanging with others who do the same.
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So, Why exactly is he in charge? And, more importantly, why are we supporting him? What possible positive outcome can come from supporting a leader who doesn’t like us and isn’t liked by his people and has no real authority beyond what US guns buy him? I’m pretty sure the answer is none.

Simple. He was Bush’s man.

The MSM debate:

[Left............................Center....Joe Klein..........Max Boot]

Isn’t Max Boot part of the neocon filth that got us into Iraq in the first place?
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Boot vigorously supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 2007 surge.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Boot
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So why is anyone listening to him, again?

im not sure their were a lot of great candidates initially.

Thank you for bringing to my attention the views of someone who has been consistently wrong about everything regarding foreign policy.

Let me know when neocons like Boot apologize for inflicting Ahmed Chalabi on America and then maybe I will reassess my opinion about their judgment.

Max Boot has written some excellent books; his columns and articles are always informative and well-sourced. He understands the military, which is a good thing when you are writing about military matters. Robert D Kaplan frequently writes great articles on similar subjects. And there are others whose names I do not recall at this time. Anyone wishing to learn more about the areas where our soldiers are fighting is well-advised to find out what these gentlemen have to say.
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Michael Yon is not such a great writer, but he is a fine freelance combat photographer and his pictures and captions often tell all one needs to know.

His expertise didn’t keep him from advocating for a war based on lies and torture-induced confessions, which cost 5,000 American lives and a trillion dollars, and which did nothing except enrich government contractors.
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So I’m going to go ahead and keep writing off Boot’s opinion.

jbaustian you are in the thrall of NRO and the neocons.
Please remember how well their predictions have been and how many lives have been lost while they play pundit.

Well put.

Mearsheimer and Walt label Max Boot a neocon, but then they are anti-Semites who attach that label to any Jew not on the hard Left. Neither you nor they have bothered to understand exactly what a neocon is; a neocon is someone who started out on the Left but then his poliical philosophy has evolved toward the conservative position. It has little or nothing to do with religious affiliation, but a great deal to do with where you started and where you ended up, politically speaking.
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I am a neocon — I was once a Democrat and fairly sympathetic toward the left wing of the Democratic Party. My political positions evolved until now I have little but contempt, or hatred, or both, for nearly everyone still on the Left.
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Boot, as best as I can tell, was never a man of the Left; so he cannot be a neocon. Irving Krystol is a neocon, but his son William was never a lefty so William is not a neocon. George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld were never lefties, so are not neocons. Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz both served on the staff of Senator Henry Jackson (Dem-WA), but they were already conservatives beforehand; Perle and Wolfowitz are not neocons and neither was “Scoop” Jackson.
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Digression: when “Scoop” Jackson died, it was either Time or Newsweek that published simply the greatest photograph next to his obituary. It showed Jackson standing knee-deep in a Pacific Northwest stream, holding his fishing rod in one hand and the biggest damn fish in the other, and he had this great big shit-eating grin on his face. He was a great man and his early death was a blow to the Democratic Party. It is amazing how many Republicans will admit that they used to be Jackson Democrats. — I was one of them.

square1: Meanwhile on Iraq the Kagan couple – with the always helpful WaPo op-ed space- are giving us another two cents worth on how we should now let the Iraqis govern themselves.

I should have added: which Neo-Con approved leader in Iraq is on the CIA payroll. Better yet: How many?

What is your point, Mr. Klein? That the CIA is complicit in drug-running and money laundering?

Gary Webb would be proud.

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/gary-webbs-parting-sh0t/

What is your point?

Mearsheimer and Walt label Max Boot a neocon, but then they are anti-Semites who attach that label to any Jew not on the hard Left. Neither you nor they have bothered to understand exactly what a neocon is; a neocon is someone who started out on the Left but then his poliical philosophy has evolved toward the conservative position. It has little or nothing to do with religious affiliation, but a great deal to do with where you started and where you ended up, politically speaking.
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I am a neocon — I was once a Democrat and fairly sympathetic toward the left wing of the Democratic Party. My political positions evolved until now I have little but contempt, or hatred, or both, for nearly everyone still on the Left.
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Boot, as best as I can tell, was never a man of the Left; so he cannot be a neocon. Irving Krystol is a neocon, but his son William was never a lefty so William is not a neocon. George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld were never lefties, so are not neocons. Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz both served on the staff of Senator Henry Jackson (Dem-WA), but they were already conservatives beforehand; Perle and Wolfowitz are not neocons and neither was “Scoop” Jackson.
.
Digression: when “Scoop” Jackson died, it was either Time or Newsweek that published simply the greatest photograph next to his obituary. It showed Jackson standing knee-deep in a Pacific Northwest stream, holding his fishing rod in one hand and the biggest darn fish in the other, and he had this enormous grin on his face. He was a great man and his early death was a blow to the Democratic Party. It is amazing how many Republicans will admit that they used to be Jackson Democrats. — I was one of them.