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Sent to DS from Joel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 11, 2008
10:00 a.m.
CONTACT: The Real News Network
Taruna Godric, 416-916-5202 ext. 414
E-mail: smcommunications@therealnews.com
Website: http://www.therealnews.com
Obama’s Vietnam?
Ray McGovern: Will Afghanistan be Obama’s Vietnam?
In our second segment with Ray McGovern, The Real News elaborates on Barack Obama’s appointment of Robert Gates to his cabinet. Ray McGovern is a retired CIA analyst who worked with Gates and conducted his fitness reports; reports that raised concerns with McGovern about Gates’ emphasis on his own ambition, not good intelligence.
Obama and Bush are supported by the corporate media in representing the surge in Baghdad as a success, McGovern feels that there is “a lack of objective information from..the fawning corporate media.” He feels the surge was succesful in it’s intended purpose which “prevented a definitive loss of the war..on Bush and Cheney’s watch,” but this is not how it is being reported in the corporate media.
He says the appointment of Gates demonstrates a continuation of the mentality that led the United States into war in Vietnam, Iraq, and now again, in Afghanistan, noting “Afghanistan, if Obama does this wrong, is going to be his Vietnam, it’s going to be his Iraq.”
While Obama campaigned and won on the idea of change his continued appointments are proving to be less in line with such change, seeming more like a continuation of the Bush protocols. According to McGovern, “Obama has really missed a good chance to get a thoughtful Secretary of Defense in there who would be open to new ideas and who would do things right.”
Dandelion Salad 
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“You can’t flatten Afghanistan”
“you can’t ‘prevail’ in Afghanistan”
Thanks so much for posting this– I’ve been reading his articles, but never saw him interviewed– this guy really knows exactly what’s going to happen.
The Gore Vidal part is awesome.
We need to hear from these brilliant men who remember how we got here. We need not be destined to repeat the past.
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Just before the Iraq war started there was a huge peace demonstration in England. I and a friend were awed by the floats, puppets and pageantry. It was cut off by a terror attack in Turkey. When the protest was back on the screan, my friends gut reaction was, “Why don’t they protest that.” Then Majority Leader Bill Frist was in charge of reviewing additional Abu Ghraib photos. During his grim speech he was going to call for bipartisan detention reform, but was cut off the air by a bulletin of Nick Berg’s beheading. After bin Laden on the internet demanded that Iraqis not vote (instead of disappearing in the night like in Afghanistan) the claim that the Iraq War had nothing to due with fighting terrorism lost its zip. Tom Fox went to Iraq to declare peace as did Doctor’s Without Borders Physicians in Afghanistan, but got beheaded. Al Qaeda has been sicking the US on Moderate Muslims long enough. I know it’s not quite that simple since some neocons and Israel fanatics consider Al Qaeda a blessing in disguise. The reason there has probably been no Al Qaeda attack domestically is that sleeper cells might be hair-triggered to turn the US into fireworks if the US goes into Pakistan to stop Al Qaeda from inheriting Pakistani Nukes. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned Hillary not Gates is a problem.
If I was Obama however, I would demand that al Qaeda fight by Prophet Mohammad’s rules. By not attacking the two US embassies in Africa when the streets were filled with people during rush hour. No kids and women fighters ( Joan of Arc was a Christian not a Muslim). No taxing drugs, and no getting drunk before battle. However, the UN not just the US should be involved.
RichardKanePA