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Neocons are obsessed with the exceedingly childish idea that wars — however ill-conceived — are won through the sheer force of Some Great Man’s “will.”
And one of the leading neocons, unsurprisingly, doesn’t think Obama has it.
Words matter because will matters. Success in war depends on three things: a brave and highly skilled soldiery, such as the 2009 U.S. military, the finest counterinsurgency force in history; brilliant, battle-tested commanders such as Gens. David Petraeus and McChrystal, fresh from the success of the surge in Iraq; and the will to prevail as personified by the commander in chief. [...] We cannot prevail without a commander in chief committed to success.
George W. Bush’s failure to win the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Nixon’s failure to win in Vietnam, and Eisenhower’s failure to win in Korea — all due to insufficient spine.
Why do so many Republican presidents lack will?
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All right, everyone: Fire at Will!
Somebody needs to tell Krapper that Bin Laden has already won.
We are broke and stuck in two non-winnable wars.
Game. Set. Match.
Aw c’mon, BT, Chuck just needs a hero to worship now that W’s gone.
A success made possible only because al-Sadr told his people to stand down. The neocons always leave that little historical fact out of their “success” stories.
Dear Charles Krauthammer,
If there is any failure in Afghanistan or Iraq, it won’t be because President Obama lacks will. It will be because Bush, Cheney and the inept Bush administration started the missions out so badly, had no strategies that clearly defined success (we’ll never forgive or forgot “Mission Accomplished”), and spent years making the situations worse.
See my Obama’s “Dithering” on Afghanistan: Neocons Should Shut Up & Let Real Leaders Fix The Mess.
If anything, rather than blame Obama for not being able to fix Bush’s messes fast enough for your taste, why don’t you just thank him? Or, after what our troops were given to work with by the failed Bush administration, you could at least have the dignity and grace to shut the fuck up.
Charles sounds so Nazi when he talks about Will!
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will
Charles after 8 years of Bush trying and failing to win why are you getting on Obama now?
It never ceases to amaze me how Orwellian the NeoCons are. Krauthammer tries so hard to have us concentrate on the idea of “will” that he fails to define his view of success and whether that success in Afghanistan is at all obtainable given the imperial aspirations of the Cheney-Bush administration.
The Surge hasn’t succeeded. The point was to ensure political reconciliation, which hasn’t happened.
Heckuva job.
The Nazis were also purveyors of “newspeak”.
A-yep.
The presence of Sadr is the main reason why the US has managed to resist neocon calls to nuke Iran ’till it glows. He’s the big wheel with Iraq’s Shiite majority, and it’s been his reining in the Shia that has made the pullout a lot less nasty than it could have been. (All the attacks on US forces have been coming from Sunnis who used to be in Saddam’s armed forces, a fact the US press doesn’t emphasize anywhere near as much as it should as that would point out Sadr’s real power.)
Without Sadr, the US would not be able to stage a peaceful withdrawal. It would be the Chosin Reservoir restaged on a much bigger scale.
Wilt.
Success the worlds most powerful army fighting how many years and billions of dollars never mind the troops we lost and what have we achieved? Democracy? a stable Government? a Government friendlier to out interests rather than Iran’s, lower oil prices, a safer middle east for Israel, an end to al Quieda?
How does Charles define success Iraq probably won’t collapse the second we leave?
Also just what wars have these Generals won?
The level of violence has dropped enough to allow a relatively smooth withdrawal. And that’s largely due to Sadr’s not unleashing the Mahdi Army against us, despite immense provocation.
The Neocons and the GOP do seem to admire many things Nazi.
Grenada.
He’s a neocon. He doesn’t think except in terms of the Ledeen Doctrine.
Yes such a fierce battle!
Charles the Kraut just likes war. He’s unconcerned about the US getting out just so long as we get in.
Why did Bush lose Afghanistan.
1) troops we needed in Afghanistan got sent to Iraq.
2) Bush refused to send more troops and equipment to Afghanistan he was to afraid of the political consequences of raising taxes right after he just lowered them.
3) Bush did not listen to his generals who called for more troops.
4) After how many years of fighting Bush never demanded from his generals results in Afghanistan. He never fired a single General for incompetence and considering the years soon to be a decade spent in Afghanistan I’m sure several Generals were incompetent.
You’re right – Don’t confuse him with facts or a reality he hasn’t made up himself.
Does Charles or his readers never get tired of being wrong? Charles was prowar, he thought we would win easy, no Neocon thought the war would last 9 years, he thought we would not need to raise taxes to pay for the war?
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong yet Charles still has a job because speaking sweet lies that the stupid inbred Elite in Power want to hear pays well.
It’s all about how we define success. To regular folks the surge feels like a success because violence declined and US troops can get out without utter humiliation. Political reconciliation in Iraq? Not so much.
“Charles still has a job because speaking sweet lies that the stupid inbred Elite in Power want to hear pays well.”
For the present. I wonder what he’ll do once print journalism no longer pays so well.
And Panama.
I wish we heard more from Obama about Bush’s failed wars. It really needs to be said on a regular basis so as not to go down the memory hole. Same goes for Bush’s economic failures.
The level of violence in Iraq is still gruesome. It’s just not reported in the U.S. media.
“Success” is all about perception.
Success is all about getting the media to do propaganda.
Juan Cole did a nice job of decoupling that Iraq “surge” bullshit from the Afghan thing…
Well…I guess Iraq is a success after all!
Krauthammer is just channeling his inner Cheney.
Neocons, nutcases, and Republicans, essentially coterminous groupings have the best of all worlds right now. Obama is executing most of their policies and they still get to blame him for it.
Neocons, nutcases, and Republicans
What do you suppose we’d get if we add them all together and divide by three? Just wondering…
He will write books nobody will read but corporations will buy in bulk. However to his shame Charlie will see his book advertised on Lefty sites. I saw Sarah’s book for sale on Brad Blog a week ago and I swear VHeadlines
http://www.vheadline.com/main.asp
A very ProChavez blog was advertising the Sarah book this morning ( I looked again and the ads no longer there)
But I think this is the new trend in Conservative books try and advertise on Lefty blogs.
Hitler had will…is he a good example? just wondering.
No he had drug induced paranoia and regular paranoia its a common mistake.
As several people have pointed out, the concept that “will” is the prime factor in “winning” wars is primarily a Nazi ideology & conceit. Goebbels left behind thousands of pages of diaries and the texts of hundreds of speeches and the “will” to win, the “will” of the people is a common thread throughout the whole sorry mess. (I would also point out that much of the modern-day behaviors and platform actually bears a very strong resemblance to much of Nazism. Yes, I am aware of Godwin’s Law. :-)
I have a question: in what way are the generals Petraeus and McChrystal “brilliant” and “battle-tested”? That’s not snark, I’d really like to know. As far as I can tell, most of the skirmishes can hardly be called battles in the accepted way (ie, the way battles were fought in WWII). When the other side doesn’t show up to fight battles, what ya gonna do?
As far as being brilliant: not based on anything I’ve read.
PS: the Afghan campaign was lost the second the Bush regime allowed Bin Laden to escape. Everything since — money spent, lives lost, rampant destruction — is an utter and tragic waste.
It owuld not be reported as Decider Bush’s failures. It would be reported as Obama blaming his problems on his predecessor.
Conservatives don’t read…can’t be bothered to learn. And even if they had the WILL to learn, their heads would probably explode from the cognitive dissonance between their opinions and facts.
Perfect there is no better measure of success or failure in Afghanistan than did Bush let Ossama go.
Yes, indeed. It was won when all the VSPs got on U.S. TV and chanted Teh Surge Is Working!! Teh Surge Is Working!!
I’d still like to hear O confirm reality by repeating it often. It would solidify what very little confidence I have left in him.
Don’t they read the Moonie Times?
Agree but the GOP does seem to use these books nobody reads as a way of rewarding and creating their media talking heads. Look Charles sold a million books people love him, never mind how many of those copies were bulk orders sold at low prices on Lefty web sites.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. He managed to fire his share, starting with Shinseki. Here’s a link you might want to follow: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/01/11/generals/
Fair point but Shinseki disagreed with him:)
Ahhh, yes. I forgot. Also, they are able to read the Bible in its original aramaic and they have the unique ability to devine God’s intention.
And we thought the Right was humorless and had no sense of irony.
Sooner or later the U.S. will leave Afghanistan without having accomplished anything constructive and people like Krauthammer will say “I told you so.” It doesn’t require prescience, he’s just playing the odds. Kind of like Cheney saying there will be another terrorist attack.
Shinseki’s disagreement was with troop strength in Iraq. He believed the war required hundreds of thousands more troops. Bush and Rumsfeld claimed their much smaller number could do the job. Shinseki was right.
Next thing you know, Dana Peroxide will announce that there were no wars during w’s 8 years.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/01/11/generals/
Nice catch Ann the GOPers seems to be dissing the Generals rather than blaming Bush when Bush was in charge and Gen Eaton predicted they would try and rewrite history.
Which Bush (& Rummy, especially Rummy) would attribute to incompetence.
We don’t know if Shinseki was right. There is no guaranty that the number of troops he calculated on the back of an envelop would have been sufficient.
I propose we apply the “Canute Test” to the Krauthammer “Willpower Factor”. Can Krauthammer by force of will command the tide to stop coming in?
These GOPers dissing the Generals are now the same people saying Obama should listen to the Generals.
On a serious note, in the process of trying to trash the Powell Doctrine, looks like Vice & Rummy ended up proving it.
That’s true, success is far from achieved – But it is undeniable that Krauthammer’s buddies’ count was a guarantee of failure. They had to increase troop strength to “stabilize” the country.
Heh, Crist transposed 2 numbers on a recording to FL voters directing them to a telephone info line for medical care for poor kids. The calls were directed to a sex line instead.
Freudian slip?
True very true:)
On the news they attributed it to transposed digits, so according to them, it was dyslexia.
Added on edit: Or it was the number Crist called all the time.
Jane has a fresh cross-post already in progress: “Blue America For Single Payer”
Krauthammer needs to shut his mouth and go back to the Shire….
Well if Krauthammer pontificated it, then it must be valid, reality based…..who are these pundits…how is that attention is paid to them…do they have vast foreign service experience(and I don’t mean a Med cruise), military expertise(got a bronze star or something)…the cable networks roll out these obvious blathering idiots and give them titles so they can fill up air space and suck oxygen about stuff they have no real fact based experience and for some reason we all respond to idiots. We enable this crap. Krauthammer is a garden slug. He is like so many in DC just self promoting blowhards that have no CLUE what is going on in this country much less Afghanistan. What does Krauthammer know about tribal culture in Afghanistan that allows him to blather on? I am tired of little people passing themselves off as experts. I have read this idiots columns. He is laughable at best.
Charles KrauthammerAntichrist is at it again.You left out the part about Bin thanking his life long friend G.W.Bush for helping to destroy America.
Wouldn’t want to offend someone so powerful now would we?
Yeah, you are so right. Will has absolutely nothing to do with it. Showing the troops and the public you are committed to winning the war instead of just riding it out for political purposes couldn’t possibly send a message to the American people or our enemies. Not having the intestinal fortitude to make the tough decisions on the war when necessary? That couldn’t possibly be a factor in winning a war. Just look at Iraq for example. George Bush didn’t have a will to win, so consequently when things were going bad, he didn’t commit to a surge because he knew it would be unpopular and he just didn’t have the will. Now Iraq is lost. Oh, wait….that didn’t happen at all.
Claiming that the will to do what it takes to win the war is irrelevant may yet be the stupidest thing I have read on this website.
Iraq is lost. No working government means the surge failed. You’re not paying attention.
And Bush’s “will” was so awesome, it won the war in Afghanistan, right?
In the early 40′s Germany had the most highly skilled, high technology military machine in the world plus some of the best generals in the business, and a leader who definitely had the will to win. I forget how that turned out. Did they win?
Obviously the “will to win” when you’re talking about other people’s lives doesn’t mean diddly. All you are doing is throwing away people, Charge of the Light Brigade anyone?
The “will to win” that Charlie is talking about means that winning takes precedence over everything else. It means a draft. It means no stimulus, no domestic spending, no bonuses for the Uberrich, raising taxes to serious levels, victory gardens, gasoline rationing, the whole works. Thank you, Charlie, for pushing for the “will to win.” Also it means jail time for those CEO’s dealing with the enemy (EXXON, Halliburton, others).
Will somebody tell me why anyone listens or even pays attention to Krauthammer. I have been listening to Him for years on fox only to keep track of what their saying.
This guy has the answer to everything like He was one of our elected leaders. He doesn’t state things like I think, He says this is the way it is, like He was all knowing.
He is just a pompose ass with a high opinion of Himself. OH GOD!!! I just relized How much He is like one of our elected leaders. Thinks He knows everything but really knows shit.
You are so right about that. Bin Ladin cldnt defeat us on the battlefield but he can drain us by engaging us in multiple wars. Once Obama plunges us into Iran ( and he will) we are going to be stuck in three wars and borrowing money to pay for them. Meanwhile on the domestic front our standard of living is declining bcz we dont have the money for infrastructure, education, healthcare and job creation. Instead of treating 911 as a criminal matter and allowing small highly trained groups to handle it we chose to make it an act of war and now we are trapped in two of them. The next Al Queda attack will be plotted in a European country bcz they know we are not going to attack a European country and all of our forces are in the Middle East and South Asia. Bin Ladin is playing chess and our government is playing checkers.