Ryan Crocker: Dangerously Unprepared
Looks like US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker is dangerously unprepared:
So is there a New Cold War, comparable to that with the former Soviet Union, between the US and Iran?
“I don’t think so,” says Crocker, formulating his answer as a putdown to Tehran. “The Soviet Union was a formidable force at its height, with a massive nuclear arsenal. It had half of Europe locked up in its grasp. Iran simply does not carry anything remotely like that weight, not internationally, not even regionally.”
Apparently he’s from the school of thought that thinks it’s wise to avoid hysterical overreactions. I look forward to conservatives calling for his resignation so we can replace him with someone with less foreign service experience and closer ties to Bill Kristol.
38 Responses to “Ryan Crocker: Dangerously Unprepared”
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August 27th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Perhaps subversive talk this dangerous requires pre-emptive airstrikes — against Ryan Crocker.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Should we conclude that Ryan Crocker is auitioning for a job in the Obama administration? Sure sounds like it.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Mr Ambassador, in comparison to the Soviet Union, would you call Iran and its threat… I don’t know… “tiny?”
August 27th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Hmmm, this does seem sorta convenient given McCain’s new ad mocking Obama for calling Iran “tiny” & posing no threat (Obama was actually calling Iran tiny & non-threatening compared to Russia during the Cold War days).
Is Crocker auditioning for an Obama gig? From what I’ve read & seen of Crocker, Obama could do worse. Just sayin’.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Wild eyed liberal appeasionistas like RYAN CROCKER have no understanding of the situation in IRAQ IRAN.
Sounds like RYAN CROCKER is about to get mugged by reality!!!
August 27th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Should we conclude that Ryan Crocker is auitioning for a job in the Obama administration?
That, or perhaps he’s just acknowledging what should be obvious to anyone with any sense of historical context.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Look, John McCain himself thinks that a minor border skirmish involving Russia–not even the full USSR–is a bigger threat to the international order than 9/11 was.
Stop taking McCain’s comments at face value! At best, McCain has identified a disagreement with Obama. How does it make Obama unprepared, let alone dangerously so? B/C that’s McCain’s answer to everything that he can’t relate to his time as a POW.
Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons, and if we adopted McCain’s Russia policy, the Nunn-Lugar and Lugar-Obama cooperative threat reduction programs would be gutted. THAT’s what scares me, not whether we can snark on McCain for being disingenuous.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Nonetheless, Obama clearly sees Iran as a threat – despite all evidence to the contrary.
Want to address that, Matt?
August 27th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
From ThinkProgress’ own site:
Can you say, “Lying sack of shit”? I knew you could. Of course, he could also be considered disingenuous, since US Special Forces could have infiltrated from Afghanistan or another country other than Iraq. That would make his statement technically true – they didn’t enter from Iraq. But anybody who believes that is probably naive, as well.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
More like dangerously prepared
August 27th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Whatever you think about Crocker, he’s the kind of person whose raw experience in the region makes him useful regardless of who’s in the White House. The number of senior foreign service officers with Arabic, Persian and 36 years on the clock can likely be counted on all the fingers of three fingers.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Well, there’s a long, sordid tradition (particularly among less savory states such as the former Soviet Union) of having one set of talking points for domestic consumption and another set for the Irish Times, er, I mean, foreign consumption….
August 27th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Just another example of how lame a duck Bush is now. Everyone will ignore him from here on out.
August 27th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
“Nonetheless, Obama clearly sees Iran as a threat – despite all evidence to the contrary.”
Iran does pose a threat, although a small one. They have the capability of slowing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. If they can reduce the traffic by only 10%, that would wipe out the reserve capacity of the current oil market, and oil would quickly go over $400/bbl.
August 27th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Point is, that’s not what Obama is talking about. He’s talking about a nonexistent nuclear weapons program. Why is nobody asking why Obama believes in that when all evidence is to the contrary? And why is nobody asking how Obama is going to “squeeze” Iran when Iran clearly can not and will not give up their nuclear energy program? How is Obama’s “diplomacy” going to lead to anything but war?
And Iran wouldn’t shut off the Straits anyway, unless they were under attack. They need to sell that oil to invest in their infrastructure, which is why they are developing nuclear energy in the first place.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Republicans are masters of the Venn diagram. They draw large circles around positive terms and place their members inside these circles. If one of their own screws up in one area, they adjust their diagram so that “certain” Republicans can be outside of the big circle on one issue, but still within the larger circle. It is complex work, and the Republicans are masters, maybe they have an internal multi-dimensional Venn diagram. BTW, it is rumored that they also has a temporal Venn diagram which allows smooth shifting of previously strongly held beliefs, which are always stated in eternal absolute terms.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Jesus, the sarcasm in the post title had me almost hook, line, and sinker. I went in not knowing if either Crocker or Yglesias had misplaced his brains.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
“He’s talking about a nonexistent nuclear weapons program.”
Yeah, that is a problem. He’s accepting the current framing of the debate rather than talking about reality. But I’m not really sure Americans are really ready for reality yet. I’ve tried to explain to people why Iran wants nuclear energy, but everyone just looks at me like I have two heads. Sadly, it’s a debate worth giving up on. I only attempt it once every three months in the interest of preserving what little sanity I have left.
“And Iran wouldn’t shut off the Straits anyway, unless they were under attack.”
True. Iran doesn’t pose any threat unless they are attacked first. But Israel probably will attack them and draw us into the fight. I’m not sure Obama is capable of reigning in Israel, so he’ll have to face the consequence of Israel’s stupidity. And that will be reduced traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Iran currently exports 5% (4M bpd) of the world’s 80M bpd. America produces 10% (8M bpd) and consumes 25M bpd. Russia exports 5M bpd. To the extent that demand is relatively inelastic, Iran is a powerful country. To say nothing of fostert’s angle. However, I would like to see more expert analysis of this situation.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Clearly we would be much better off with John Bolton screaming at invisible pigeons above his head.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
John Bolton screaming at invisible pigeons above his head.
That’s what Pamela Geller calls her breasts?
August 27th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
OK, fellas (and ladies, if there are any present) let’s not get too carried away with the assumption that politicians’ rhetoric and their policies are the same thing. High-level officials may say crazy things in public when there’s a need to throw red meat to the voters, but generally they come back to reality when it’s time to get down to business.
The Iran situation is a perfect example… at the elite level, Republicans and Democrats both understand that they have to pretend that Iran poses some kind of military threat to the US, then differ publically about how to address it. What they won’t say is that the Iranian threat is actually monetary (as this business news article explains). The nuclear program is just a red herring, endlessly hyped to a public that would simply shrug if they knew the real story. “Iran is threatening to sell oil in Euros instead of dollars? So what?” So the politicians have to shout “nukes!!” to keep Joe and Jane Sixpack interested.
The funny thing is: It worked with Iraq… nearly all of the US fell for it, then it was discredited, and now the same tactics appear to be working all over again. I hate to say that Americans are gullible, but… it should be this easy.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Great catch, Matt! Thanx!
August 27th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
And damn if I didn’t have to ruin that with a typo… I meant to say, it shouldn’t be this easy.
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