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June 23, 2008

CNN's Fareed Zakaria Compares Bush Invasion Of Iraq To Hitler's Invasion Of Russia

Topics: Political News and commentaries

Kathryn Jean Lopez writes at NRO: "Forgive me but my Bush-defense reflex is kicking in. Am I overreacting to this CNN clip from Sunday? You watch, you decide."

Having watched, I've decided; it's biased poppycock and typical liberal imaginative stretch to fit an agenda.

And isn't Zakaria the liberal nutjob that compared Huckabee to Ahmadinejad? I'm no Huckabee fan and would never have voted for the clown, but he's certainly comparing the Huckster to Ahmadinejad is more than a little stretch.

Here's NewsBusters on Zakaria:

Zakaria, author earlier this year of the book, The Post-American World, which contends the "era" of "'American exceptionalism' is over," snidely quipped in a 2005 Newsweek article: "As an Iraqi politician said to me, 'There are currently two Grand Ayatollahs running Iraq: Sistani and Bush. Most of us feel that Sistani is the more rational.'" A regular for several years on ABC's This Week, in 2006 Zakaria castigated an English as the official language bill as "nonsense" and "nativist populism that is distasteful." Back in 2004, he ridiculed President Bush's promise to usher in a "new responsibility era" as he concluded: "Whether he wins or loses in November, George W. Bush's legacy is now clear: the creation of a poisonous atmosphere of anti-Americanism around the globe. I'm sure he takes full responsibility."

From the not-always-reliable Wikipedia, liberal journalist Fareed Zakaria's Iraq War views are described (emphasis mine):

While Zakaria initially supported using military force against Iraq, he argued for a United Nations-sanctioned operation and occupation with a much larger force (approximately 400,000 troops). He also called for a Bosnia- or Kosovo-style occupation that was international, rather than American, in nature. He wrote a Newsweek cover-essay the week the Iraq war began entitled "The Arrogant Empire", which detailed the failures of the Bush foreign policy in the run-up to the war.

He was an early and aggressive critic of the occupation, arguing against the disbanding of the Iraqi army and bureaucracy, which the administration accomplished under the guise of "de-Baathification". He predicted that accelerating the build-up of the Iraqi military would create a Shia and Kurdish army that would exacerbate the sectarian tensions in the country. Four months into the occupation, his columns bore such titles as "Iraq Policy Is Broken," and in September 2003 he wrote a cover story for Newsweek entitled "So What's Plan B?" In February of 2005, the week before Iraq's elections, he wrote, "no matter how the voting turns out, the prospects for genuine democracy in Iraq are increasingly grim." In his October 2006 Newsweek cover essay, Zakaria called for a reduction in American troops in Iraq to 60,000 by the end of 2007.

Clearly, wrong on all counts emphasized. Iraq democracy is taking hold and the violence continues to diminish, in spite of all our mistakes.

Just as wrong as Bush was to not go with General Petraeus in the first place.

As for comparing Bush and Iraq to Hitler and Russia, clearly wrong and out of line. But, after all, it's on CNN. On the other hand, like Kathryn Jean Lopez suggests, what do you think?

Posted by Abdul at June 23, 2008 10:38 AM

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• CNN's Fareed Zakaria Compares Bush Invasion Of Iraq To Hitler's Invasion Of Russia - Jun 23, 2008