Rudy Says: “I Think Iraq is a Military Success”

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


A friend just emailed me with a note from the campaign trail.

Guiliani comment (right now) at a Miami conference I am attending: “I think Iraq is a military success.” In context, he goes on to discuss that it has been a peacekeeping failure, blah, blah, blah.

Still, his entire speech has been spent wrapping himself in Ronald Reagan and 9/11. He’s comparing our ‘aggressive’ strategy with terrorists now with Reagan’s bold, visionary decision to put cruise missiles in Europe. He’s going to be strong on the campaign trail and play well with a lot of segments of the population, but boy is he scary.

Blaming “peacekeeping” is really very clever. It’s not exactly wrong, and on a subconscious level it shifts blame from GOP to UN/blue helmet/world’s policemen-type wusses.

Plus, I’m sure Rudy will intimate that he’d be the toughest cop on the block. There’s just one problem with that (“Guiliani Time” aside). Bernie Kerik. He’s Rudy’s former chief of police (and member of Guiliani Partners) who totally screwed up policing in Iraq. Here’s the relevent entry from our Iraq War Timeline:

The U.S. Justice Department recommends 6,600 police advisers be sent to Iraq. The White House sends one man, former NYC police commissioner Bernie Kerik, who prepares for his job by watching A&E documentaries on Saddam Hussein. Kerik turns out to be an incompetent manager, holding only two staff meetings in his tenure, and leaves amidst failure saying, “I did my own thing.”

Read more on Kerik here.

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate