Michael Ware on Friday's RealTime...

[HardWorkingDem]

Anyone else see this interview?

If you can find it, give it a watch. He explains what it is about soldiers and how they feel about each other which goes to help explain the quandary for the left when it comes to this war.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Ware sounded like he drank the Kool Aid...

...he rehashed every GOP talking point.

So sad to see someone with so much talent and potential, be swept up in propaganda.

What I find most interesting is that when he started the interview, he was paranoid about getting killed, saying something about being exposed.

[HardWorkingDem]

2. Didn't take the overall context that way at all...but..

what I am mainly referring to is near the end of his interview when he is explaining how troops feel toward each other and how in my own opinion illustrates the quandary those not in the military do not appreciate.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Oh yeah...

...everyone has been saying that since WW2.

No disagreement from me on that; no one needs to go to a war zone to say that.

What I'm saying is Michael Ware did no reporting to come up with that.

I just find what he said to start the piece ironic. Considering what he said afterward.

It was almost like he was saying everything I say after this is a lie, don't believe me, I'm only saying it to stay alive.

After all, reporters are targets over there.

[still_one]

4. i think he gets high on this shit /nt

[still_one]

3. i think ware is a major nut case

he believes we need to stay and clean up Iraq, but in the same sentence says it can't be done

my gut tells me the guy gets high on war

[gateley]

5. He said that America broke it,

it's our responsibility to fix it.

I'm in total agreement with that, and have always been. I would be even more ashamed of our country if we just cut and ran.

I'm still wondering if Biden's plan would have worked. We never even tried. We haven't tried ANYTHING except sending in more troops. :grr:

[Strelnikov_]

7. "We haven't tried ANYTHING except sending in more troops. "

We really haven't even tried that, as military doctrine is that it would take 500,000+ troops to pacify and maintain order.

Since those who got us into this mess, and insist we must 'win', are too cowardly to tell the American people what the cost will really be, they simply put lipstick on the pig (aka 'surge') in order to get through to the next election cycle.

At this point, there is no plan, short of 500,000 troops, that will 'work' to stabilize the country. Barring that, the US should withdraw to bases in Kuwait, far western Anbar on the border with Jordan, and Kurdistan (yes, I called it that) with the goal of protecting Iraq's territorial integrity and facilitating aid shipments. Legislation should be passed restricting the activities of US oil companies in Iraq.


Internally, the Iraqi's are are going to have to work out their differences themselves.

[gateley]

17. Since you called it Kurdistan,

do you think that Biden's plan may have been viable? (Essentially each faction governing their own area, with a Federal government protecting the country's borders, issuing currency, etc). I ask because it was the only option even being proposed, and it seemed to get support from many of the Iraqis themselves.

The idea of 500,000 troops just sounds like more of the same squared. Instead of "pacifying and maintaining order", it would be "suppressing and enforcing 'order".

I'm in agreement with your statement that they have to work out their differences themselves -- if they can after these thousands of years. Us being there is certainly not helping them attain any progress in that area.

[lonestarnot]

8. How we going to fix a hornets' nest. They do not want us there period.

Not even to fix it period.

[gateley]

9. If that's accurate, and that's what

they really want, then we should help financially and with supplies to help them rebuild and restore the country.

[lonestarnot]

11. Oh like 10 billion a month?

[gateley]

13. Look - don't you feel any responsibility or obligation to

the people of a country we destroyed?

Would you support us just packing up, wishing them luck, and hightailing it out of there?

What would you suggest we do? Anything at all?

[lonestarnot]

14. Hell yes I would support leaving just like we did Vietnam. Just like it!

Get our uninvited preemptive asses OUT! Tomorrow!

[gateley]

15. Okay.

I do see your point, but I just don't feel the same way (like you care), so I'll quit bugging you now. :hi:

[lonestarnot]

16. It is only a ploy to create fascism here and it's almost to late, so yeah

quit bugging me! :hi:

[gateley]

18. Will do. For now.

:hi:

EDIT to add just ONE MORE THING: I'm TOTALLY with you on the fascism thing. Okay - now ipping-zay my ipps-lay.

[lonestarnot]

19. LOL

piglatin :hi: :hug:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. If it were up to Ware, we should be in Iraq for as long as McCain wants us there. 100 yrs.

[Hamlette]

12. I don't see how that is a quandry for "the left"

I heard him to say soldiers see their job in terms of covering each others' backs. Makes sense.

The hard part for the anti war crowd is the people who have lost loved ones or who are wounded. Its hard to say to them this was all for nothing. They don't want to believe it.

On another point, polls from Iraq now show they do not want us to leave.

What I don't get is why they can't train their own army. It's been 5 years. We certainly don't give our own troops that much training.

It is such a quagmire.

The Ware interview surprised me. I've listened to it a couple of times. I wish Bill had asked him why he changed his mind. It seems like not long ago he was saying we should just get out. I think that's a big problem with doing serious interviews on comedy shows.

I didn't get it at all. I've long admired him and he did not explain to me why he's changed his mind.

[HardWorkingDem]

22. The quandary I speak of...

is almost anything the left or anti-war side does is ladened with all sorts of issues that are hard to deal with. For example, the talking points of "letting them die in vain" to "not giving them what they need to do their mission."

When Ware rightfully points out how soldiers feel about each other, it is hard to build a narrative of not turning one's back on a soldier.

Really, what is baffling to me is why it seems so much easier for the right to avoid so much criticism when soldiers are getting picked off every day and to leave them there in a terribly managed war is not more shameful than getting them the hell out of there.

Don't know if I've really explained it well or not.

And I don't see Ware as changing his mind, but rather modifying his reporting in how things have changed over the last five years.

What I do find sad is how quick other DU'ers are to throw people under the bus here when they make statements contrary to what is thought here.

[misanthrope]

20. He's in love with his own celebrity and swashbuckling image**nm

**

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

21. Here it is I think, LINK

http://tpzoo.wordpress.com/2008/03/23/michael-ware-interview-with-bill-maher/