Ted Koppel Reinforces 'False Flip-Flop' Meme, Equates Endless War With 'Toughness'

Have I been giving Ted Koppel too much credit all my life? Because whoever showed up wearing his skin today on This Week with George Stephanopulos behaved like such a drooling font of unparalleled nonsense that introducing it as "Ted Koppel" didn't adequately prepare me to have my mind blown away by some of the most specious crud I've heard in a long while.

This Week's panel was hot on the trail of the Obama "false flip-flop" meme: where the McCain camp paints Obama's unhesitating position on Iraq as a sudden and unexpected change of course and the press puts on the court stenographer's cap and tsk-tsks it into infinity. Well, Ted went a few steps beyond:

KOPPEL: You know, George, you said we'll get to the energy thing later. Let me suggest we get to that right away. I think his advisers have conveyed to him what has known all along: U.S. troops are in a part of the world that produces a vast -- not the majority, but a huge amount of oil and natural gas. We will have U.S. troops in that region for years to come, whether we want to or not. And I think Senator Obama has come to that realization. He's come to know that you cannot pull all the troops out of Iraq, unless you put them somewhere else. You talked a little bit about Iran and about the dangers in Iran. This is not a time to be saying, yes, we're going to pull all the U.S. troops out of there, come what may.

[WATCH.]

Koppel went on to say that involved upwards of "80,000 to 100,000 troops" in Iraq "three to five years from now."

Where to begin? Maybe with the notion that Obama needed "advisers" to tell him, last week, that Iraq was an oil-producing nation, and that this sudden realization is what has powered Obama's flip-flop...you know, the one that hasn't even happened yet!

Then you get this nonsense: "I think Senator Obama has come to that realization. He's come to know that you cannot pull all the troops out of Iraq, unless you put them somewhere else... This is not a time to be saying, yes, we're going to pull all the U.S. troops out of there, come what may."

But Obama hasn't recently "come to the realization" that you "cannot pull all the troops out of Iraq" without putting them somewhere else. In fact, this is the very thing he has been advocating - redeploying these resources to fight and defeat al Qaeda. Remember al Qaeda, Ted? Afghan-Pakistan border dwelling al Qaeda? Attacked us in 2001? Since let off the hook by the merry appeasers of the Bush administration? That was the "come what may" that the Bush White House turned into one big "What? How come?"

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But Koppel didn't stop there. A few minutes later, ABC's viewing audience got hit with this claptrap:

KOPPEL: And that what he is showing, essentially in just about every decision that he has made, and you can refer to it as a flip-flop, each flip has been in the direction of showing how tough he is. None of them has moved in the direction of softening a position. He's been doing nothing but hardening positions all along. And I think that's wait that he shows that he's tough enough to be president.

[WATCH.]

Wow. So "toughness" is best demonstrated through a willingness to occupy troubled Middle East nations - thus fomenting international terrorism - because their oil needs to be secured - thus bringing the nation no closer to ending our nation's oil addiction? Why stop there? Why not be a President who's tough enough to hammer a nail into his own skull with a rock?

Someone needs to drive over to Ted Koppel's home, where I believe you will find his cocooned corpse, laid out next to a seed-pod from a distant, and idiotic, galaxy.

Comments

[bascombe]

Iraq Vet Made Famous By Photo Dies Of Drug Overdose

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/07/06/iraq-vet-made-famous-by-photo-dies-of-drug-overdose/

maybe Ted will see one of these someday and grow a goddamned phuqueing conscience

[bascombe]

koppel is as useless and self-serving as ever. ABC has to dig deep because stephie and the other buffoon have no credibility whatsoever.

have a trip over to the abc news blog and witness the collection of fascists and racist they have on display. uncensored.

of course, reliable sources won't report on that. but they will single out a one-in-a-million entry from Huffpo or Kos or C&L

[debrouillard]

I could not help but to laugh to his comments even though they werent funny at all.

Looking for somewhere to keep America's troops? What is wrong with their home, America? I can imagine a wife,husband,mother ,father,kids listening to this and saying,WTF,so my dad,husband or child is no longer American or what? otherwise why should they be looking for a place for them,when they can simply come home back to America.

On a more serious note though,the media is in contempt to give these guys a pass,when they overtly admit that they are in Iraq because Iraq has OIL and want to move in to Iran for the same reason. It now seems as if the MSM has now accepted that,America reserves the right to invade any nation that has natural resources that the top 1% of America can profit from.

[mamacat]

Twice, Mr. Koppel equated keeping American troops somewhere in the Middle East with keeping them in Iraq. He then proceeded to say that Obama had to change his position, to allow troops to stay in the Middle East. But, that is exactly what he has been saying all along. Very strange.

We have seen the way the MSM is going to handle this campaign. Everything Obama says will be taken out of context. That is too bad. I guess it is too much to ask that they try to be responsible reporters of events.

[rhettab]

Koppel has always been a pompous ass. Enough said.

[thatvisionthing]

I DISAGREE. Koppel was amazingly good on Nightline. Not just in his thinking, but in his ability to command respect, and respect in turn, and get a decent conversation going between the people who most needed to be conversing. Kind of like a stagecoach driver; great skill, amazing touch. He had gravitas like no other, as well as sharpness and wisdom. If he and Nightline had continued, we might have kinder things to say now about the MSM's performance over the last 7 years. He actually had guests critical of the impending war back in 2003 including a program on church figures and where they stood. Some of them did remember Thou Shalt Not Kill. I think Amy Goodman said there were like five of those antiwar segments in all the MSM. I bet they were Koppel's. I'm thrown back by his comments here, but I respect him enough to wonder why he thinks this way.

[loupbouc]

No, Mr. Linkins. Obama DID shift his Iraq war position -- TWICE.

First he shifted from (1) a policy of getting out in no more than 16 months, but in less time if the troops' safety permits to (2) a policy of leaving the matter indefinite pending advice provided by high-ranking military "on the ground" in Iraq (advice concerning not only troop safety but Iraq "security," which surely means our security in Iraq's oil and its strategic position).

Then he shifted to (3) a policy of ordering, on his first day of office-holding, the joint chiefs of staff to arrange a "prudent, deliberate, but decisive withdrawal" -- which, because of the strangely, and peculiarly redundant "nuanced" diction and syntax of "prudent, deliberate, but decisive withdrawal" and because of his leaving the "tactics" to the joint chiefs, is MORE indefinite than the policy of his first "flip-flop.

[meanguy]

it's hard to find anything obama has been consistent about...FISA, NAFTA, the war in iraq, the second amendment, his pastor, his church, his friends, whether the iranian republican guard is a terrorist organization, campaign finance, whether unions are a 'special interest group'(when they donated to edwards, they were, but when they started shoving money at obama, they became freedom fighters)...so far, the only issue obama has been consistent about is...abortion

his new campaign slogan should be "okiedokie you can put up with, hopefully'

[loupbouc]

First a confession of typing error: I (loupbouc) put a quotation mark in a wrong place -- the second quotation mark of "prudent, deliberate, but decisive withdrawal" (which ought to have been "prudent, deliberate, but decisive" withdrawal). But that error doesn't falsify my point.

Now, meanguy, your comment: Obama changed his abortion position, too. Previously he had not said mental distress was not a health-of-the-mother justification of late-term abortion. I cannot think of any significant issue respecting which he has not changed his stance (unless actually the Canadian official asserted wrongly that Obama's true NAFTA position was contrary to his advertised one).

But the trouble is not that he changes, but that always he shifts to the Right -- away from a progressive position he promised his base, which got him the presumptive nomination. Will his base (and Hillary's) press the Convention to yank his nomination and make Hillary the Dem candidate?

I'll vote for Barr, to protest the Republicanization of the Democrat Party and because Barr would extract us quickly from Iraq and press Congress to remove the several civil liberty & civil right violations from FISA. (If Nader may get more than 8% of the vote, I'll vote for him, instead. Or maybe I'll write in Kucinich's name.)

I urge all progressives and libertarians to vote for a Third Party candidate or write in a name other than Obama, McCain, or Hillary. All three are shifty Neocons.

[Drewkowski]

And Nader is getting hung out to dry for long ago suggesting such things would happen. He is looking more tempting again every day.

[mjc]

Thank you, meanguy. For most of the posters here the rhetoric of Barack Obama obstructs their vision and their brains. It is great that there are a few who can unwind the shards to let in some intelligent analysis.

[thatvisionthing]

Body snatched! ... or... alternate universe? Remember Spock with a beard? http://esotericaofleesburg.com/jane/startrek11.jpg

[unscum]

Tel Koppel is a shinning example of why people should stop watching network news. And they are. Hey Ted, how are your ratings holding up. I'm sick of these substandard journalist being the so called 'gatekeepers' of what is newsworthy and was is not.

[Beninn]

What do you think Koppel told you that isn't true?

Why aren't reporters putting it to O b a m a ?

What if what O b a m a has now qualified with that word again, "intends", doesn't happen? He says that conditions in Iraq must be a just so for him to be able to bring "combat troops" home (another weasel word, "combat" troops, versus thousands of "other" troops, or "privately contracted troops"). This is what B u s h says prevents him from bringing the troops home.

Instead of these calculated and artful words and phrases, how about asking O b a m a, "The American people want the occupation of Iraq to end, and all U.S. military and government personnel out. When is that going to happen?"

Because that's what the American people believe O b a m a promised.

[Yuma]

You are 100% Correct !
They make me sick too.
And they make so much money.
Why?

[Beninn]

Right, they should watch Fox instead. To have heard Koppel & not recognize that he was telling you the truth of what has happened (and what will be happening) is the story of the time - The Dumbing Down of Americans.

What Koppel told you today (the truth) is that no matter who is elected, the US will occupy Iraq until the Iraqis stop resisting US ownership, or until there are no more Iraqis alive in Iraq.

Instead of getting crazed because somebody said something that won't let you remain mired in denial, put it to O b a m a & demand some straight answers & not artful lawyerly qualifiers. Such as, "I intend to __", instead of, "I will bring all US military & government personnel home by this date".

Because what happens when (not if, but WHEN) the circumstances on which O b a m a 's promises are predicated don't happen? He says that conditions in Iraq must be a just so for him to be able to bring "combat troops" home (another weasel word, "combat" troops, versus thousands of "other" troops, & "privately contracted troops"). This is what has prevented Bush (B u s h says) from bringing the troops home.

How about asking O b a m a, "The American people want the occupation of Iraq to end, and all U.S. military and government personnel out. When is that going to happen?"

[waynesmyer]

OK Teddie, "Walk Hard" and carry a big twig! Jon Stewart has more news in his middle finger, then you do in your whole head-bone! So There! Take That Terrorist Fist-Jab!
Dr. Strangelove

[thatvisionthing]

Jon Stewart respects Ted Koppel. Haven't you noticed? And Ted Koppel is not Dr. Strangelove.

[marc1antony]

It's easy to talk tough when it isn't your family member being killed. Chickenhawks talk big, but are they sacrificing lives from their families? Koppel is just another corporate puppet, being led around by the nose.

[Dandrea]

I didn't know that Ted Koppel is a neocon.

[PoliJunkie]

Always has been a neocon.

[lthuedk 1]

Koppel, the shameless; always appearing sincere, but forever laying out a smokescreen for corporate.

Ted: Tragic legacy, going out for corporate.

[BOISATOOL]

What ever happened to pricipals, he ran as an antiwar candidate, and now he is going to stay. What is up with this crap. We never should have gone in to Iraq and now we are going to stay. Obama needs to man up and keep his word, he never would have gotten our votes if he said he was going to stay. Where is the hope and change we were promised, is this all about one mans ego to be President or doing the right thing by the people of the US and the world. Oil was what 20$ a barrel before we started this war and why would it not go down if we were to leave and let the Iraqies make their own deals to develop their oil fields. There are so many other alternative energys we could be developing right now that with a respectable investment by our country would drive the price of oil into single digits. There is no reason to stay in Iraq period, once it becomes clear that the Democrates are going to win this election, short any company involved with oil, health care stocks and buy Autos, Airlines, and resturants, because happy times will be here again.

[Totto]

No. What he said was: we have to be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in.
Is that too difficult for you? You really ought to see some ot the planet and have some understanding of the financial world before you utter such stupidities. This is what the "secret" Cheney energy meetings were all about: making the ultra-rich, richer!

[kinogod]

I thought the Clintons lost the nomination, but the more I see Barak Obama campaign for the general, the more I see the core principles he ran on morph like the Clintons. If I wanted a "politicians of the polls" I would have voted for the Clintons. I wanted a politician that stood for core principles and a new kind of politics.

My candidate Barak Obama can explain away his support of the wretched and mistaken FISA compromise bill, but his capitulation on this core principle is disturbing. But we now have other dangerous precedents in his campaign for president...moving toward McCain on Iraq, tallying with the gun lobby, voting for the death penalty in an effort to move away from the Dukakis debacle. I disagree with Koppel, but he essentially has it right and I weep at the thought.

In every of Obama's recent moves, one sees MORE OF A LESS PRINCIPLED POLITICIAN and LESS OF A NEW LEADER. I am getting supremely disappointed. What is more troubling still, is the amount of old-school political cronies who now work and help the Obama campaign, many of them the same political hacks that ran Kerry and Gore into the ditch. Funny how their employment by the Obama campaign coincides with Obama's "changed message" and "the worst week in his campaign to become president."

[PoliJunkie]

Go to his website, you really need to do more research.

[Beninn]

Yes, you're right.

Read Malcolm Gladwell's book, "blink", for some of the strategy that's being employed in this campaign. "Priming" is a one tactic that you may recognize that was used by both H i l l a r y 's (and now O b a m a ' s) campaigns, but there are so many at work here.

[BeltwayBette]

For all the folks who listen to Obama with personal filters. Obama has said from the get go the following; We will get out of Iraq as carefully as we went in carelessly." (paraphrased but accurate). He is now saying, as he did earlier, that he will listen to the commanders on the ground and will be instructing, as president, his military commanders to get us out -- as safely as we can. I would hate to be the last soldier standing on the soil of Iraq if we simply pull out our by dateline. Wouldn't you?
His statements concerning Iraq and ending the war are consistent.
A military vet for Obama . . .
PS Why I am NOT for McCain: he has flip flopped all his career. His POW status does not automatically equate with commander in chief capabilities. That's smoke and mirrors. McCain abandoned his severaly injured wife for Cindy who started dating him while he was married. . .He calls Cindy, he admits, a c**t. His response to the accusation: So what? It was totally justified. She criticized my haircut.
McCain woudld revoke. Roe v Wade. The C word alone would make this female kick his a** from here to California. But some old geezer telling all the women of the nation how to handle such an intimate female issue as pregnancy, whether by rape, incest or whatever... BS. NO MCCAIN FOR PRESIDENT -- OR DOGCATCHER -- he'd probably euthanize all the female puppies.

[walk0nwalls]

Dude, like you need to chill with it man, Koppel's same old same old.

He is just a reporter, and to insist that Obama's never changed his positions is absurd. Hell Ted didn't even say he changed them, he said he's refined them.

As for the rest of the post, it's really vitriolic dude, I don't know where it's coming from but it's kind of misdirected at Ted there. Anyhow, yeah... easy on the caffeine dude.

[Totto]

Bush/Cheney have gotten us into a hole that will take time to get out of no matter who will be President (yes, even the beloved Kucinich). This Week featured a lot of talk about "flip-flops" and curiously avoided McCain's unending list of complete reversals. Guess Disney (ABC) loves the same dictators and crooks as does sunglasses wearing McCain. Old "I'm sorry to tell you, there will be more wars" McCain doesn't give a damn about this country's future or that of the people in it, and neither does "realist" Koppel.

[PoliJunkie]

Remember its George S? Remember who he worked for.

[Beninn]

"and curiously avoided McCain's unending list of complete reversals."

Because they've already been discussed. O b a m a 's have just happened.

[Middleclassvotingbloc]

I attempted to watch ABC this morning and quickly turn from the channel when I heard all of the talking heads repeating the same montra from the McCain campaign.

[OBXartist]

This is the oldest trick in the book. Misrepresent someone's position, then, when they reiterate their original position, brand it a flip-flop and try to make some political mileage from the confusion of the ill-informed. Unfortunately, these days the ill-informed seems to include the majority of our esteemed media, who all seem to be news readers as opposed to actual reporters and investigative journalists.

Obama has never said he would immediately pull our troops out of Iraq. He has always said that any withdrawal would take months (usually defined as 16-18 months) and that the actual timetable would depend on events on the ground in Iraq and the candid advice of the military leaders in theater. Obama has said that any withdrawal he ordered would be done responsibly, strategically and honorably.

Imagine, taking the advice of your military leaders regarding a military situation! If Bush had listened to his military advisors or Colin Powell, we wouldn't ever have invaded Iraq and we wouldn't be sitting here five years later trying to decide how to get the hell out.

SSDD. The rightwingers just make stuff up and the media reports it uncritically.