Two years ago today, John Walcott delivered a speech predicting the US would not win the Iraq war. To commemorate Walcott's moronic speech I'm re-running this post I originally ran in November, 2007:
In a 2007 speech, John Walcott, McClatchy's Washington bureau chief, predicted the US would not win the Iraq war. Walcott gave the speech February 16, 2007 to the World Affairs Council of Hilton Head, South Carolina. You can read the speech here on Bill Moyer's PBS web site.
Check out this little gem in the speech:
"But still we are not winning, and we cannot win."
I emailed John Walcott and asked if he stood by his prediction. Walcott emailed me back, saying the quote was accurate as written, but he modified the statement when he delivered the speech. Walcott told me he told the audience the Iraqi people had to win, not the US military. He denied saying the US cannot win.
I have trouble believing Walcott's email denial. Scan farther down in Walcott's speech and you see he repeats the same prediction: "But I think that we're in the mess we're in Iraq - can't win and can't afford to lose...." If he really meant to say the Iraqi people, not the military, need to win, that's what he would have said.
With the benefit of a successful surge behind us, Walcott's prediction seems almost shocking because the US has routed Al Qaeda and the war's tide has turned. But it wasn't obvious at the time Walcott made the quote.
In fact, a lot of defeatists had already been saying the war was lost. Harry Reid: "The Iraq war is lost." Howard Dean: "US can't win Iraq war." In one poll, more than half of Americans had doubts the US would prevail. Even Henry Kissinger joined the Defeatist Chorus: "US can't win war in Iraq."
Thank God G. W. Bush ignored the Washington elites and know-it-alls like John Walcott.
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51 comments:
Can we move on to McClatchy news about layoffs?
Agreed move on. All this does is bring out the posters that only know 3 words. Leftist, Marxist and Liberals.
Layoff news? OK.
-Can we move on -
I agree.
This blog has jumped the shark.
Me too.
The more I find out about MNI, the more I long for the Leftists, Marxist and Liberals to go work at coffee shops!
I agree! So what are you three morons gonna do when you get fired?
Sorry, moved on.
Here is a little clue for the folks that don’t read all that well, the blog description might give you a better idea of the discussions you might encounter. The Iraq war, is clearly a stated subject.
McClatchy Watch
This blog is mainly about the spectacular train wreck at The Sacramento Bee and its parent company, the McClatchy Company. But I also post about [current events,] [the Iraq war], [politics], and [anything else that interest me.] Take a look around this blog, I hope you enjoy it.
Why would anyone expect these liberal posters to read the truth about this blog? They just want to control the discussions. I am glad they won't dictate here, you can easily see what they did for the journalism profession.
I enjoy a variety of subjects. I am not interested in a OneNote band.
Another blog for the "Marxist" crowd would be great. That kind of ranting is not what I want to read when there are layoffs and downsizings all around us. Can we stick to THE most important topic and let the nutcases spout their nonsense elsewhere?
Definitely not a liberal here, but I don't want to read the "Commie" crap on a daily basis either. If this site continues to spout this sewage, I'll get my McClathy news elsewhere.
7:34 We read well just not your slanted side. I know, if we don't agree we are leftist, marxist and liberals.
We know that only you folks know the truth. OK we get it but you'll never get us to agree. So keep it up, while we laugh at your three little words or the other slang words you know and use.
The employee layoff information can fit right into the discussion, WHEN there is something to share. Everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is not easy for anyone. I don’t mind the rumors at all, I can filter the posts for myself. Besides, so far, the rumors about my place have been true, and I read about it here first.
..To you McClatchy trolls I say : " Still, you are not selling, and you cannot sell in Sacramento " , or anywhere else you pander to your inner socialist selves. Layoffs and buyouts are the symptom, Liberalism is the disease, and you boys got it bad.
..7:53, you want the nutcases to spout their nonsense elsewhere, so do I. You and your pals have run the Bee into poverty and failure. Out, damned spot, and spout your nonsense elsewhere. You lost.
Apparently, you don’t know this blog, or you don't know what that statement means. "This blog has jumped the shark." My ass, you just won’t admit why your job is not still ‘Happy Days.’
I'm guessing 90 percent of the traffic on this blog aren't interested in political rhetoric - Iraq War, Commies, etc. They're here to navigate the tough times and blow off some steam at their moronic bosses and corporate numbskulls. We're not fringe element whackjobs, just concerned, scared McClatchyites seeking comfort.
YOU still don’t get it!
YOU write: “I don't want to read the "Commie" crap on a daily basis either”
EVERY posters has a right to their own opinions. Just because YOU don’t agree, does not change the fact that many others do agree. Why should YOU dictate anything? That is how the liberal media lost their credibly in the first place. YOU find the blog where McClatchy levels with their employees about the layoffs ahead, and then come on back, Ya Hear?
“Pink Slips Ahead“ Three little new words for you.
“So keep it up, while we laugh at your [three little words] or the other slang words you know and use.
8:35 I don't work for a newspaper and never have. I just had a neighbor that did. Sorry, no pink slips for me. I just like the banter and it always works. A good morning laugh. I love it. Keep it up.
[The Media is full of liberal bias] -- Poster writes “you'll never get us to agree”
Then you will fall on your own sword, or quill as it were. Dying an inky death by a self-inflicted wound. That doesn’t sound like the greatest intelligence at work to me.
I came here to read and remark on the shameful McClatchy coverage of the Iraq war. I think their coverage bordered on treason. Think if our brave military people were harmed by the constant echo/drumbeat coverage of a few bottom-feeders that wanted the USA to lose? Close that entire phony bureau. MNI no longer has the money for their biased crap. And, CRAP is entirely too nice of a word, but I didn’t want to write horseshit so early in the day.
I am the only one on-topic.
What a bunch of Idiots.
Which bunch? Ha!
9:28 Both.
The liberal ‘off-topic’ bunch of idiots never cease to entertain. After keeping their liberal-biased heads in the sand for years, they expect everyone to feel sorry for them. I don’t enjoy anyone losing their job, but if an industry is corrupt, it has to change, or go extinct. You have said you will not agree to a “CHANGE” to honesty, so you must go. I HOPE the CHANGE you think you voted for, is as welcome as you thought it would be.
What a bunch of idiots that includes you 9:41. Can't you find your own word to use. Ha
..McClatchy puts out lefty papers. The Lefties who come here to complain are plants.......Watermelons, I think. Green on the outside and red at the core. And like all watermelons, they won't last past summer.
Re: 2-yr anniversary
Yeah, it's a good thing Bush ignored all those elites who told him the war was an EXPENSIVE DEBACLE and an all-round BAD IDEA that would divide, bankrupt and cripple the nation. In fact it's fantastic that he apparently ignored EVERYONE but Rummy and Cheney, since THEY were right about everything. "We will be greeted as liberators," remember?
The Wichita Eagle jumped the shark for me when it published a shameful, dreadful series of articles on its front page last June about Guantanamo prisoners, and how "dozens" of them were wrongly taken and held.
The screeds were written by a McClatchy reporter in Afghanistan, so they probably appeared in a number of papers. The stories were so offensive to me that I have never felt the same about the Eagle since then.
Now we have Chairman Barry closing Gitmo. So, there you go.
9:41 is more than an idiot, he/she is scary. Lock your doors America!
I'm not liberal 9:41, I'm conservative. But I'm also not crazy in head and brimming with hatred. There's a huge difference between rational and irrational thought. I'd ask you to think about it, but it wouldn't do any good.
Anyone interested in a blog where employees could talk about layoffs and to deal with them (see Gannettblog)?
To sum this thread up:
The liberal MNI Titanic pussies crying about how unfair it is that they can’t go ahead of the women and children onto the lifeboats.
Thanks 10:16.
Seems the posters that lost the election are crying big time. We love it. The more you cry the more we love it. Please keep crying.
The same minute John Walcott loses his job, the USA has a brighter future.
America did loose an election, but (Horatio Kane voice) you, are out of a job!
I am a liberal, I regret the years of biased reporting, and the out-and-out biased election reporting. My eyes have been opened to the truth.
I was a Democrat, but no more. I have a family member in the military. The Iraq war reporting from McClatchy was false. They never reported the successes, only the negative news they could find, or makeup.
Did American schools quit teaching the difference between lose and loose somewhere along the line?
Did all those useless spelling and grammar lessons get pitched so they could teach more multiculti crapola?
The school system is a disaster. Liberal teachers, and worse, liberal union teachers, have bastardized the entire system. The colleges are also a total disgrace. You worry about loose and lose? There are much bigger problems than spelling.
If we "won" the war, what's the prize?
..No prize for lefties, they weren't in on it. For the majority of Americans, the prize is a democratic Iraq that isn't a threat to us, or it's neighbors. Save your red flag, you might win the next one.
Gee, 4:27, what if the "prize" is an Iraq controlled by the Shiite surrogates of our old friends Iran, whom we then find sitting atop even more of the world's oil? Don't think it can't happen. It's like Colin Powell said, the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it . . . forever.
..We didn't break it, we fixed it, you moron. The reason you don't want to admit that is because you were rooting for the other side. The Iraqi's can have whatever government they elect. Why does it matter to you what part of the Moslem religion they believe ?
..Crawl back into your hole.
Dave: Learn to spell.
It's Muslim. And the plural of Iraqi is Iraqis, not Iraqi's.
This sort of thing makes you look a little silly when you call other people moron. Would your mom like you doing that?
There is just nothing like a stupid little leftist that has to correct the grammar of another without even knowing that, Noun 1. Moslem - a believer in or follower of Islam
You're such a stupid twit leftie.
...He attacks my spelling because the truth of the post is unassailable. But he and Colin are right about McClatchy : The lefties broke it and , at pennies on the dollar, they ' own " it. They're headed to where Ring Lardner and Judge Crater went. Oblivion.
Dave:
How did "lefties" break Iraq? The left didn't want to be there. It was Rummy's, Cheney's and the Bushes' war, all down the line. Their mistaken assumptions and foolish conduct of the conflict got us here. It matters who's in control in Baghdad -- Sunnis, Shiites or some combination -- because it has some bearing on how soon we leave and how soon we might have to return.
..When confronted with your own lies, you lefties wad up in the crotch like a cheap suit. I repeat the post I made just above yours...The lefties broke McClatchy. You broke it, you own the mess. And I repeat the post I made prior to that...Bush fixed Iraq, he didn't break it. You don't read for content, do ya ?
Sorry, Dave, far as I can tell, Colin Powell never has said anything about McClatchy . . . he was talking about Iraq, and so was I. (I guess you could argue that the Saddamites trashed Iraq, but they weren't really a threat to us; they were too worried about Iran.) As a journalist, I don't have the option of flitting from topic to topic as it suits me, ignoring facts along the way. As to who "broke" McClatchy, liberalism had nothin' to do with it; most publishers prefer to print what sells, left, right or in between. No, it was a combination of the rise of free-to-read newspaper sites on the Web and McClatchy biting off more than it could chew with the Knight Ridder takeover. Y'know, that capitalism stuff. If the venture capitalists hadn't been able to get a stranglehold on KR maybe I wouldn't have to be trolling this blog and you could go back to hanging out at Rush's website.
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