Americas first Muslim cabinet member?

[Ned]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


I have lots of concerns. Is the current weather a sign of global warming? How close is Iran to a bomb? How much trouble will I have setting up my new router? How will POTM do on her biology test? Will the Dems be foolish enough to impeach? Etc, etc.

Did you mean concerns about Khalilzad? No, none in particular. Hes been competent, and has done his level best to advance US interests in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some have accused him of leaning a bit toward the Sunnis in Iraq, but I think that was not out of line with admin strategy at that point. I get the impression he can deal with both neocons and "realists" and will fit in well with either a Rice or Negroponte led for pol team.


I particularly look forward to the first time he casts a veto of an anti-Israel resolution.

What if he persuades the Admin not to block such a resolution? Being a cabinet member, he can sit at the table and make arguments.

[Ramo]

It's interesting, though, that he was seen as a much more promising star before he got embroiled in Iraq. Makes you wonder how Petraeus will be seen in a couple years...

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
It's interesting, though, that he was seen as a much more promising star before he got embroiled in Iraq. Makes you wonder how Petraeus will be seen in a couple years...

Depends on what Petraeus manages to accomplish, I suspect.


Nice attempt to threadjack, though.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ned


What if he persuades the Admin not to block such a resolution? Being a cabinet member, he can sit at the table and make arguments.

what evidence do you have that he would do so?

[Ned]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


what evidence do you have that he would do so?

Evidence?

Concerns.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ned


Evidence?

Concerns.

"AIPAC welcomes Khalilzad

AIPAC welcomed the prospect of working with Zalmay Khalilzad, President Bush’s reported nominee as America’s U.N. ambassador.
“We’re looking forward to working with him,” said Jennifer Cannata, a spokeswoman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The New York Times reported Friday that Khalilzad, currently Bush’s ambassador to Baghdad, is his nominee to replace John Bolton, whose ambassadorship at the United Nations was killed because of congressional opposition. "

[Ned]

LoTM, well that helps. The guy may actually be a good choice then.

[Cort Haus]

Zalmay Khalilzad is a menace. If there is one man that could take credit for the rise of the Mujahadin and Islamic terror, it is he - perhaps together with his associate Zbigniew Brzezinski. Of course, those people who approve of Islamic terror when allied to US Policy will not see this as a problem.

Aneesh - you are mistaken to believe that you should support this guy. Maybe I'll PM you my sources, maybe I'll post them, but probably the former - I'm not sure if I feel like a major league ruck with LOTM over this one.

LOTM - I believe you (with millions of other decent people) have been duped into supporting the wrong side in certain key historical conflicts that Khalilzad has been involved with but I think your position is too entrenched for me to make any headway with. Believe me, there's nothing I'd like more on 'poly than to win you round, though.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Zalmay Khalilzad is a menace. If there is one man that could take credit for the rise of the Mujahadin and Islamic terror,.

Islamic terror was rising in Egypt in the 1970s, and killed Sadat, certainly youre not blaming US diplos for THAT? I presume youre talking about US support for the anti-soviet forces in Afghanistan. Which were led, in large part, by Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was murdered by Al Qaeeda on September 10, 2001.

Perhaps Aneeshim and Ned think we would be better off if the Soviet empire had not been brought down, or perhaps they are willing to conflate Al Qaeeda with its bitterest enemies (not Baathists, as some here would claim).

[Arrian]

/me gets some popcorn (despite hating popcorn)

[lord of the mark]

a quick search on Khalizad and Yugoslavia reveals attacks on ZK for supporting US aid to Bosnia and the Kosovars, and says he supported "Seperatism" for having done so. And that its wrong to see him as an "integrator" in Iraq.

Well. Yugo was already seperated when the Bosnian war began, because Slovenia and Croatia were gone. Bosnia was trying to escape minority status in a Serb dominated Yugo (minus the two northern republics) In fact the Bosnian leadership was trying to keep Bosnia as a unitary, integrated state.

The Bosnians ended up taking help from Islamists (whom they rarely got along with) largely due to the Wests refusal to take their side, until the massacre at Srebenica had happened.

I can see why Corty doesnt like ZK, though.

[Cort Haus]

I don't see the killers of Sadat as being part of the modern, internationalised, post-Afghan fashion for Islamic militancy and terror. I certainly don't believe that my country would be facing the problems that it does were it not for the creation of a culture of holy warriors and a hatred of all things western.

Perhaps Ned thinks that modern Islamic terror is a small price to pay for bringing down the USSR in the way it did. ISTR that Brzezinski likes to take credit for ending the USSR, but whether it would still be here today without the Afghan war is debateable.

[Cort Haus]

You spell it "supporting US aid to Bosnia and the Kosovars"

I spell it "Starting the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo and attempting to set up two Islamic states in Europe, one of which to be run by gun-running, drug-running sex-slavers, the other to be run by a pro-Nazi WW2 war criminal".

The state-department style propaganda phrases you use all need careful deconstruction and it'll take a while. Maybe I'll do it, maybe not, but it's time for dinner now.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
I don't see the killers of Sadat as being part of the modern, internationalised, post-Afghan fashion for Islamic militancy and terror. .

It was done by Egyptian Islamic Jihad, one of whose key members was Ayman al Zawahiri, who then went on teach radical Islamism in Saudi Arabia, long before he went to Afghanistan. It was developing already, and while AQ came to together as an organization in Afghanistan, it quite well could have done so somewhere else, given the ideological momentum it was developing before Afghanistan.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
You spell it "supporting US aid to Bosnia and the Kosovars"

I spell it "Starting the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo and attempting to set up two Islamic states in Europe, one of which to be run by gun-running, drug-running sex-slavers, the other to be run by a pro-Nazi WW2 war criminal".

The state-department style propaganda phrases you use all need careful deconstruction and it'll take a while. Maybe I'll do it, maybe not, but it's time for dinner now.

Bosnia declared independence, some folks declared a Republika Srbska on that territory, and Bosnia chose to defend the unity of the territory of the former Yugo Bosnian Republic. Which of those actions was instigated by Khalilzad.

set up two islamic states in europe? But the bosnian republic was supported by secular moslems in Sarajevo, as well as rural moslems, and in fact by secular Serbs and Croats in Sarajevo as well. Kosovo independence had support from ethnic Albanians in general, and was opposed by Serbian speaking Muslims in Kosovo. That was an ethnic conflict.

The KLA dominated Kosovar politics because the Serbian govt had destroyed all moderate Kosovar politics.

Kosovo still is not a state, though if it becomes one serbian intransigence will have played a role in getting it there. Kosovo is certainly majority muslim, if thats your definition of "islamic".

ned and aneeshm might find the following discussion, from 1995, interesting. Note that at that point what was at issue was the boundaries between Bosnia and the Republika Srbska. Khalilzad is not even advocating for a unitary Bosnian state.

http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/early/BalanceBosnia.html