In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
I know. I'm still behind, but I wanted to post this, because in the last NYC election I didn't really like Mark Green (not that I liked Bloomberg either), but now I like him better. Here's an excerpt from an interview in New York Magazine. Taken from Joe Conason's Salon column (recommended). Yes that is Ed (Koch) and Al (D'Amato) talking. Though I liked Al's brief appearence in Godfather III, as a politician I've always found him a force for not good (evil losing its meaning these days).
In this exchange, former Public Advocate Mark Green appears as sane interlocutor:
Koch: I sent a letter to Rumsfeld saying he should advise the Iraqi government that if it wants to declare Baghdad an open city, there are ways to do it under the Geneva Conventions -- removing all soldiers, removing all artillery. And if they don't want to do that, then we ought not to fall into their trap. We should say to the Iraqi people living in Baghdad, "You have 48 hours to evacuate. After that, we're flattening the city with bombs."
Green: But how do we "liberate" a city we've flattened? And why inflame a billion Muslims worldwide who already see us as the devil?
D'Amato: I say it's a lot of bullshit to worry about their public opinion. That doesn't mean that you just go out and kill civilians. But there comes a time when if they refuse, and if it looks like we're going to get bogged down, better that we say, "Clear out, folks! Because we're gonna start bombing street by street!"
Green: I think you two are, in effect, recruiting agents for Al-Qaeda.
- rob 1:20 PM - [PermaLink] -
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