Saturday, February 17, 2007

Open thread February 17, 07

Ex-envoy says Iraq rebuilding plan won't work

By Sue Pleming
Sat Feb 17, 10:32 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kiki Munshi was showcased by the media in September as a seasoned U.S. diplomat who came out of retirement to lead a rebuilding group in Iraq.

Now she is back home, angry, and convinced that President George W. Bush's new strategy of doubling the number of such groups to 20 along with a troop surge of 21,500 will not help stabilize Iraq.

A diplomat for 22 years, she quit her job last month as leader of a Provincial Reconstruction Team -- groups made up of about 50 civilian and military experts that try to help Iraqi communities build their own government while strengthening moderates.

"In spite of the magnificent and often heroic work being done out there by a lot of truly wonderful people, the PRTs themselves aren't succeeding. The obstacles are too great," Munshi said this week in Washington, where she was pressing her view at the State Department and to Congress.

"Once again we are proceeding to lay people's lives on a line drawn with faulty information. Once again the fantasies of the 'policy-makers' drive decisions without much link to the realities on the ground," said Munshi, who retired from the foreign service in 2002 .

Her postings included Romania, India and Sierra Leone before Iraq, where Munshi said he had felt a "moral obligation to sort out the mess we have made there."


LINK

17 comments:

toniD said...

Evening NC!

air-ono said...

today i called the o.g...

j. wellington wimpy

(after a popeye character)

"if you lend us a quid to buy a hamburger, i'll repay you on a thursday"

*

p.s. i also bought him a packet of tampons

air-ono said...

i have nothing further of significance to add

toniD said...

air-ono said...
i have nothing further of significance to add

You rarely do!

toniD said...

you haven't been introduced to the magic that is a Miyazaki anime film, take a little time to watch this. It's my favorite scene in Kiki's Delivery Service, and it deals with that intangible spark that we have that gives birth to creative impulse. Kiki is a young witch who has lost her faith in herself and, thus, lost her "magic" — her spirit.

Her artist friend in the film (played by Janeane Garofolo in the English dubbed version, btw), tells Kiki that sometimes, you need to take a step back and take care of yourself in order to recover your spirit. This is such great advice, as anyone who has suffered from writer's block can tell you, since the more you push the worse things generally get.

LINK

toniD said...

I'm really tired tonight. Very busy at work today.

The blog comments ar yours!

Night all

air-ono said...

//You rarely do!//

OH! YEAH!

well, try this on for significance

*

air-ono said... (over at sam's blogspot)

steph,

your non-poetry gave me a stiff

maybe we can have sex...

in yo mama's bed

air-ono said...

not only SIGNIFICANT!,

but very sexy, too

(ha!)

Unknown said...

Miyazaki!

sweet, delightful!

air-ono said...

i'm listening to a repeat of sam's show

and he said that a half-hour episode of fox's version of the "daily show" costs as much as it costs a whole year of sam shows

?

is it only production costs ?

do production costs include sam's salary ?

anyway,

irregardless of that...

either sam's show is made for peanuts

or fox's show costs a squillion

Anonymous said...

Hi toniD,

I just saw the following comment here and also on the Sam blogspot:

"This post has been removed by the author."

My question:

how does the post removal work?
and
is the original comment saved somewhere by the blog owner?

toniD said...

bridge, there is a little garbage can at the end of each post. If you want to remove a post, you just click on the garbage can.

toniD said...

The second part of your question I can't answer but I think that the post is completely removed.

toniD said...

However, my being th blog owner, so to speak, I can also remove a post if I choose. I am the blof moderator!

So if a troll stops by here. I can remove his posts.

Anonymous said...

I can't see a thing, toniD, only the date and time of post and name on top - but nothing at the end

where is the garbage can exactly?

air-ono said...

depending on the thread, bridge

if you click the "time" link

there is no bin

whereas, if you click the "comments" link

it's plain as day, just below the date

or,

you may need a blue highlighted nic...

you can obtain those from the greek embassy

: )

toniD said...

Not feeling much like posting today. I have been lurking at both blogs though. On and off.