Michael Ware On Iraq Hearings: I Just See A Lot Of Oxygen Being Wasted Here

Speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, the cable news outlet's Baghdad Bureau Chief Michael Ware expressed his disappointment with the way in which lawmakers were questioning General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Ware said that it seemed like the hearings were more about political grandstanding than solving the Iraq crisis. "I just see a lot of oxygen being wasted here," Ware said. He also took the members of the committees to task for their lack of knowledge about the Iraq situation. Watch the exchanges below:

Click here for updated coverage of the Petraeus hearings.

Comments

[white mende man]

One thing I know about Michael Ware, since he is putting his life on the line he doesn't pussy-foot around when it comes to telling the us the real truth on the ground. wishing him a safe return.

[BigFootJesus]

It seems as though everyone is jockeying for their position to be the correct position regardless of the facts. This same BS got us in this mess. Most politicians voted in favor just in case the Bushies were correct and they wouldn't be left "out in the rain". Does anyone have the courage of their convictions or is this all just idolatry of ideology?

[Viper]

Ware has developed shell shock syndrom after years under fire in Iraq.. note the shaking, bobbing head.

Ware does think we have to stay, because we broke it The simple problem with that opinion it assumes we have the troops to stay and the funds to spend there and we dont have either. We have a broken military and a broken budget.

A country that cant afford to rebuild its own infra structure or educate its kids, has no business in Iraq and is not a super power!

Regards

[pc51]

All this is about is putting on appearances to justify the next $$102 billion. Dog and pony, that's all.

[Rendon76]

This is all just playing out the clock until Bush leaves. The troops are the ones paying for this with their lives.

[wmbear]

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT. That's really all Bush wants to do. So "the history books" won't say he "lost" Iraq and so the conservatives can blame "losing Iraq" (whatever that means since, as with Vietnam, we never "had" it to start with) on his Democratic successor. Unless, of course, McCain is elected. Then he'll keep the troops there another eight years so HE won't be blamed for "losing Iraq." That's over 10,000 American troops dead and countless more innocent Iraqis. All for the sake of a few power-crazed egomaniacs....

[AmbivalentGuy]

Nothing here of interest.
But, I did find it amusing that on both clips the first google "sponsored ad'' ( they appear as an overwrite at the bottom) were for HRC's official website.

I found that hilarious, considering the general view of the Clinton's around here.

Don't start lecturing me about HRC though. I am pointing out something, not making an endorsement.

[little]

Finally someone impartial calls out Obama on his foreign experience. Obama's lack of knowledge of the situation is frightening according to Ware.

[Viper]

Thats not what he said. he said NONE of them have the knowledge he would expect and thats that this war is abouit now battling for our influence over Iran's.

Well, that is a whole new reason for the war., since we created this stituation by replacing the anti Iranian secular regime with a pro iranian regime.

What Ware says the war is about.. is not a sell in the U.S. Do you want to tell pareants thats what their kids are now dying for... influence?

Regards

[knerd]

I think you missed an important point, little.
America's lack of knowledge of Iraq should be laid at the doorstep of the news media.

Geography, citizenship, foreign affairs--ignorance of these issues is widespread and abysmal.

MCain can't get his militias straight, Bush thinks Sunnism is a religion. And Obama cannot ask the right questions.

[MANK]

Most, but not all, Americans know that we are so far down the road in the wrong direction that I don't know if we can get back on track in our lifetime. I blame the piss poor performance of the media* for not doing its job. They do nothing to inform the public on what is really bringing this country to its knees in front of the world.
*National Public Radio excluded

[daingel]

Um.....

Al Qaeda=Sunnis, Arabs
Iran=Shia, Persians

I'm using a fellow dems analogy for this one

If a Shia showed up at an Al Qaeda camp, they would slice off his head and use it as a soccer ball.

Only one Presidential candidate Senator thinks that Shia and Sunnis are the BFF's, and that would be McCain, and actually said it to Betrayus today.

[MariaHopeful]

Of course you know that wasn't what the despicable little man said, don't you? But you wrote it anyway. Obama showed who was the true Leader today.

[Hotshortie]

Michael Ware is an idiot.

[snruB]

LOL I love Ware. He always does ass kickin' reporting, and he totally looks like a Picasso painting

[neoconcriminals]

"It's frighteningly disappointing."

That pretty much sums up our government as well.

[lisakaz]

Whose lack of knowledge? Is he talking about the swill of the Bu$hitters or what? Who actually is talking facts in DC?

[dotmafia]

The United States of America deserves everything it gets.