The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: The Night Owl on February 05, 2008, 11:24:39 AM
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From Prince Andrew, Critical Words for U.S. on Iraq
By STEPHEN CASTLE
Published: February 6, 2008
While Prince Andrew declares himself a fan of the United States — and his cellphone ring tone comes from the American TV drama “24†— the man who is fourth in line to the British throne has some critical words for America’s Iraq policy and thinks that Washington should have listened to advice from London.
In a rare Buckingham Palace interview ahead of his departure Tuesday for a 10-day U.S. trip to support British business, the prince described the United States as Britain’s No. 1 ally but conceded that relations were in a trough. There are, he added, “occasions when people in the U.K. would wish that those in responsible positions in the U.S. might listen and learn from our experiences.â€
The prince has a full-time role as a trade envoy for Britain but for 22 years he was in the Royal Navy, serving as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands conflict, and Iraq is a preoccupation.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/world/europe/06andrew.html?ref=world
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WTF are you talking about? :???:
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Oops! I just noticed that Sonnabend changed the IP rules to prohibit me from posting in it. Mods, feel free to delete this thread so that Sonnabend won't get upset.
Huh? :mental:
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Oops! I just noticed that Sonnabend changed the IP rules to prohibit me from posting in it. Mods, feel free to delete this thread so that Sonnabend won't get upset.
(http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/PS/87665~Dude-Wtf-Posters.jpg)
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Guys, Sonna doesn't want the troll posting in International Politics. Check the rules thread Sonna posted. He edited it. I don't know what the Admins would say, but if that's what Sonna thinks is good for the forum.... *shrugs*
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Until TNO can prove himself capable of doing more than posting useless memes, and is capable of backing anything he says up with facts, I don't want him here.
He can mess up other forums with his garbage.
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Go ahead and move this over to General Discussion then Sonna.
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I think the nocturnally foul one, the bird who farts in the middle of the night, has either read only excerpts of H.R.H. Prince Andrew's remarks, or is distorting them, if he read them in full.
I read a full transcript, which is mostly complimentary of those endeavoring to liberate Afghanistan and Iraq.
His criticisms seem based upon U.S. policies after the invasion, and he does make a valid point.
The British for 400 years maintained, for the most part successfully, the largest empire the world has ever known, while we have had no such experience, other than for about 75 years, in odd little bits-and-pieces in the western Pacific and the Caribbean.
It would have been helpful if the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and some politicians, had some knowledge of history, in this case what the British tried that worked, and what the British tried that didn't work.
And British historians--NOT British politicians--would have been a source of immense illumination also.
The brunt of HRH Prince Andrew's comments that were quoted by the media seem to be that, "Hey, we learned this stuff, it's all in the history books for all to read, and so why are you guys starting all over in kindergarten again when here's the high-school textbook?"
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Didn't we already settle the terms by which the British monarchy was already to speak for our foreign policy. I think it was in 1776. Hasn't TNO heard about it? I'm sure was in all the papers.
Frank is right though: A fuller context is necessary.
Sonna,
I think TNO is exactly the sort of liberal we need to keep around: weakly framed arguments based on faulty data. TNO is like the fat chick who rides with teh hawt chick...she makes us look that much hawter.
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Didn't we already settle the terms by which the British monarchy was already to speak for our foreign policy. I think it was in 1776. Hasn't TNO heard about it? I'm sure was in all the papers.
Frank is right though: A fuller context is necessary.
Sonna,
I think TNO is exactly the sort of liberal we need to keep around: weakly framed arguments based on faulty data. TNO is like the fat chick who rides with teh hawt chick...she makes us look that much hawter.
Because the way the media presented the (excerpted) remarks, I got suspicious.
Members of the Royal Family do NOT make political comments; if they can't say anything nice about something, then they say nothing at all. That's a very old practice, and assidiously adhered to.
Once in a great while, a member of the Royal Family will make a subtle criticism, coaching it in the mildest of terms, rendering it nearly meaningless, which appears to have been this case.
The comments were 90% full of praise for all those men and women valiantly fighting to liberate Iraq and Afghanistan from the forces of Darkness and Terror. The other 10%, that which got quoted, was exasperation that Americans don't listen to, and learn from, the British.....and then even that was distorted.
His real point was, hey, in regards to the post-invasion administration of Iraq, this is something we've been through before, and so why doesn't anybody look into our experiences, successful and failed, instead of wasting all of this time and energy and hopes trying to learn the same thing by oneself?