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People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

General McChrystal will rue drunken Irish pub scene

Posted on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 02:13 PM
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Looks like Afghanistan commander Stanley McChrytal's ill-advised decision to allow Rolling Stone access to his staff and their private moments, including getting drunk in an Irish pub, is going to backfire badly.

The Irish American general has been called to the White House to face the music after he and his men made disparaging comments about Obama and Vice President Joe Biden among others.

Seems like a lot of the action happened around an Irish pub as the following leaked paragraph makes clear.

"By midnight at Kitty O'Shea's, much of Team America is completely [drunk]. Two officers do an Irish jig mixed with steps from a traditional Afghan wedding dance, while McChrystal's top advisers lock arms and sing a slurred song of their own invention. 'Afghanistan!' they bellow. 'Afghanistan!' They call it their Afghanistan song.

"McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team. 'All these men,' he tells me. 'I'd die for them. And they'd die for me"

Amazingly, McChrystal appeared to not demand that the pub scenes and other out-of-office events not be off the record.

He may well pay for it with his job.



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161 comments

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shuvonn | Jul 04, 2010, 05:14 PM EDT
Never once in any one of my posts have I praised or defended jihad, not once, your attempting to infer or state that I have is a lie and a manipulation of facts. You are simply of a mind that anyone who has the gall to question the rogue state of Israels illegal actions is a terrorist supporter and antisemitic, classic standard pathetic lame argument that is always used. You and your ILK think Israel has the right to defend itself in a manner that has no respect for International law,it attempts to justify the illegal usage of forged passports, choosing whom it trades with and does not and yet denying basic human rights in an illegal manner to Gaza. It is not just the UN that questions the legality of the blockade, Amnesty International, Gisha, Red Cross and Oxfam also feel that it is illegal. Funny Israel frequently complains when other countries do not adhere to UN sanctions against them and they have NOT taken seriously one taken against them by the UN. The state of Israel has not proven the legality of the illegal blockade of Gaza or the acts of Piracy they committed in International Waters on their ally Turkey. The world is NOW watching and NO final say has been taken on this. FACT!

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Monsoonman | Jul 04, 2010, 04:23 PM EDT
How arrogant of you to point a finger at someone who questions your dogma? Your respect of our intelligence so low as to use the UN, one of the most corrupt and incompetent institutions in the world, to bolster your defense of the jihadis. No the one true fair arbiter of this situation has spoken.

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shuvonn | Jul 04, 2010, 03:28 PM EDT
Israels blockade is illegal, “International humanitarian law prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and it is also prohibited to impose collective punishment on civilians,” There is evidence that suggests that it is being imposed upon the civilians of Gaza to punish them for having elected Hamas.

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shuvonn | Jul 04, 2010, 03:06 PM EDT
FINAL ?? I find it amusing that you consider the United Nations, Amnesty International, Oxfam, Gisha and the International Committee for the Red Cross Moot. How arrogant you come across, attempting to bolster the rogue state of Israel. There is NO final say on this matter YET. Israel have yet to prove to the world they are not committing economic warfare on Gaza and going against every rule established for war reducing the aid by 75% since its ILLEGAL blockade. You have PROVEN NOTHING as usual...

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Monsoonman | Jul 04, 2010, 12:28 PM EDT
The commission who has the FINAL SAY on these matters, has had the FINAL SAY, Shuvonn. The SHAM entities used to bolster your argument mean nothing anymore, they have been rendered MOOT by the TCIB.

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shuvonn | Jul 04, 2010, 08:31 AM EDT
Hamas does not administer a state that is internationally recognized. And Israel has not adhered to the Geneva Conventions and the San Remo Manual regarding the blockade, as it is supposed to have specifically listed the goods that it considered banned and has not done so. Israel is using collective punishment against Gaza, without distinguishing between military and civilian population. Gisha an Israeli human rights group had to take the Israeli government to court to NAME the products they banned from entering Gaza, that has not fully occurred yet.. As for who has the final say, they are WRONG, it is internationally recognized as being illegal by the UN, Amnesty International, The Goldstone report, Care International, Oxfam, International Committee for the Red Cross to name a few. Israel *CLAIMS* it no longer occupies Gaza, yet it controls who leaves, who enters, as well as what enters and leaves, and it THAT ain't occupying, I am not sure what is???????

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Monsoonman | Jul 04, 2010, 01:45 AM EDT
The Transoceanic Commission on Illegal Blockades has determined that Israels self defensive actions in the screening for weapons and other banned material bound for Gaza IS LEGAL. They have the FINAL SAY in these matters.

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shuvonn | Jul 03, 2010, 05:17 PM EDT
An ILLEGAL blockade IS just that AN ILLEGAL blockade. Amnesty International, the UN, The Red Cross, all disagree...

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Monsoonman | Jul 03, 2010, 11:55 AM EDT
The International Committe on the Preservation of World Peace (ICPWP) has declared Hamas a criminal organization. Hamas is secretly funded by Iran, is dedicated to violence and the destruction of another sovereign country. (ICPWP) has determined that until Hamas and all other violent organizations dedicated to Jihad are removed from governance positions in Gaza, Israel has every right to quarantine this area for its own safety and preservation.

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shuvonn | Jul 03, 2010, 09:36 AM EDT
The International Committee of the Red Cross say that the Blockade is illegal and in direct violation of the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law. Israel has breached the Oslo Accords, they signed up to in 2001 regarding Gaza. Amnesty International consider the illegal blockade of Gaza a form of collective punishment, and a flagrant violation of International law. Israel violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. And since the blockade is ONLY permitted during times of war it is also considered an act of war by Israel on Turkey (its ally) in International waters. Israel has the right to defend itself yet not at the expense and with total disregard of every other country in the world. Scott Brown misled the people of Mass and that will most likely go against him when he has to fight for that seat again in 2013. And IF the majority of votes go in favor in congress to pass legislation then they DO represent the majority of the people of the US, as they were voted in based upon what they promised their voters.

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IrishAndProud | Jul 01, 2010, 07:32 PM EDT
And regarding the world disregarding ALL methods of Israeli self-defense, Krauthammer asks: "But, if none of these is permissible, what's left? Ah, but that's the point. It's the point understood by the blockade-busting flotilla of useful idiots and terror sympathizers, by the Turkish front organization that funded it, by the automatic anti-Israel Third World chorus at the United Nations, and by the supine Europeans who've had quite enough of the Jewish problem. What's left? Nothing. The whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense. Why, just last week, the Obama administration joined the jackals, and reversed four decades of U.S. practice, by signing onto a consensus document that singles out Israel's possession of nuclear weapons -- thus de-legitimizing Israel's very last line of defense: deterrence. The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million -- that number again -- hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists -- Iranian in particular -- openly prepare a more final solution." [END QUOTE] I for one do not see how anyone can rationally argue with any of this...and I don't see many of Israel's detractors even trying to. Their real motives are clear...and ugly.

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IrishAndProud | Jul 01, 2010, 07:29 PM EDT
Krauthammer continues: "...Oh, but weren't the Gaza-bound ships on a mission of humanitarian relief? No. Otherwise they would have accepted Israel's offer to bring their supplies to an Israeli port, be inspected for military materiel and have the rest trucked by Israel into Gaza -- as every week 10,000 tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are sent by Israel to Gaza. Why was the offer refused? Because, as organizer Greta Berlin admitted, the flotilla was not about humanitarian relief but about breaking the blockade, i.e., ending Israel's inspection regime, which would mean unlimited shipping into Gaza and thus the unlimited arming of Hamas. Israel has already twice intercepted ships laden with Iranian arms destined for Hezbollah and Gaza. What country would allow that?"

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IrishAndProud | Jul 01, 2010, 07:25 PM EDT
And from the article 'Those Troublesome Jews' (meaning the LEFT's view of them), Charles Krauthammer writes thusly: "The world is outraged at Israel's blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers. But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel -- a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets. In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded ("quarantined") Cuba. Arms-bearing Russian ships headed to Cuba turned back because the Soviets knew that the U.S. Navy would either board them or sink them. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry..."

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IrishAndProud | Jul 01, 2010, 07:12 PM EDT
And answer this one, shuvonn: does the Unites States Congress have the backing of the American people?

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IrishAndProud | Jul 01, 2010, 07:11 PM EDT
Shuvonn...answer the question: do you think the people of Massachussetts are stupid for being duped by Scott Brown (since he's their most popular politician, bar none)?

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