# AM drive talk Radio: "Al Qaeda is over-running Iraq - Bill Kristol blames Obama. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 6, 2014, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021 "2014-01-06T14:11:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/21 "2014-01-06T20:40:11Z")
Making the bomb squad’s job so much easier. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/22 "2014-01-06T20:45:41Z")
What’s that you say, Iraq devolving into a civil war after we invaded them for no reason? Color me shocked. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/23 "2014-01-06T20:59:32Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > What’s that you say, Iraq devolving into a civil war after we invaded them for no reason? No, this isn’t a civil war. This is, I believe, more spill-over from the Syrian Civil War. And it’ll be a good test of the Iraqi Security Forces, although anyone following this news story should know that we are sending weapons (including missiles and surveillance drones) to Iraq specifically because of this situation. [Link.](http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/26/politics/us-iraq-missiles/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/24 "2014-01-06T21:22:13Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Al Qaeda has a flag? Yeah, it looks like [this](http://i.imgur.com/eRgsdIY.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/25 "2014-01-06T21:28:56Z")
They should get that Saddam guy back, he battered Al Qaeda when he was in charge. Fwiw, I didn’t realise there was anything of Falujah left after the Marines flattened it. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/26 "2014-01-06T21:37:21Z")
[QUOTE=BrokenBriton] Fwiw, I didn’t realise there was anything of Falujah left after the Marines flattened it. [/QUOTE] Probably because you were too wrapped up in hyperbolic horseshit and propaganda. We didn’t flatten [Fallujah](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah). ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/27 "2014-01-06T21:48:11Z")
> [@](#): > > …US officials report that “more than half of Fallujah’s 39,000 homes were damaged during Operation Phantom Fury, and about 10,000 of those were destroyed”… From your cite. More than half destroyed may not meet your standard of “flattened”, but neither does it qualify as “hyperbolic horseshit and propaganda”. As well, this piece of history: > [@](#): > > …The U.S. military first denied that it has used white phosphorus as an anti-personnel weapon in Fallujah, but later retracted that denial, and admitted to using the incendiary in the city as an offensive weapon… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/28 "2014-01-06T21:54:06Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > From your cite. More than half destroyed may not meet your standard of “flattened”, but neither does it qualify as “hyperbolic horseshit and propaganda”. To be clear: From his cite 1/4 of the homes destroyed. Half were “damaged”. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/29 "2014-01-06T21:55:08Z")
Only a quarter “destroyed”. Point still stands. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/30 "2014-01-06T21:57:10Z")
I wonder what definition of “damaged” might be… ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/31 "2014-01-06T22:04:14Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > From your cite. More than half destroyed may not meet your standard of “flattened”, but neither does it qualify as “hyperbolic horseshit and propaganda”. > > As well, this piece of history: Maybe our definitions of ‘flattened’ is different. I consider the term to mean something that’s flat. Using the term for something that’s not flat indeed qualifies as ‘hyperbolic horseshit and propaganda’. A quarter of the houses destroyed and half damaged doesn’t seem to qualify, unless one is indeed trying to be hyperbolic. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/32 "2014-01-06T22:06:09Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Only a quarter “destroyed”. Point still stands. Yes it does…indeed, it was hyperbolic horseshit, and there was indeed plenty of Fallujah for AQ to continue to destroy long after the marines (who didn’t exactly ‘destroy’ all the buildings on their own) were gone. Thanks for admitting that 'luci…big of you. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/33 "2014-01-06T22:09:00Z")
It’s not bad going for a town in a country the US was liberating from oppression. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/34 "2014-01-06T22:10:44Z")
They had to flatten it to save it. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/35 "2014-01-06T22:11:07Z")
> [@BrokenBriton](#): > > It’s not bad going for a town in a country the US was liberating from oppression. Haven’t been keeping up with current events I see. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/36 "2014-01-06T22:20:33Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Yeah, it looks like [this](http://i.imgur.com/eRgsdIY.jpg). It looks like the side of a 1978 Ford van? ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/37 "2014-01-06T22:55:47Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > They had to flatten it to save it. or maybe more girls are now going to school … ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/38 "2014-01-06T23:01:59Z")
> [@BrokenBriton](#): > > or maybe more girls are now going to school … Less. Women were better off under Saddam than they have been in post-Saddam Iraq. They had more freedom, more rights, more respect, more education, more jobs, more _everything._ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/39 "2014-01-06T23:02:49Z")
It was a joke, **DT**. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021/40 "2014-01-06T23:05:25Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Less. Women were better off under Saddam than they have been in post-Saddam Iraq. They had more freedom, more rights, more respect, more education, more jobs, more _everything._ … they don’t have more Falujah. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-drive-talk-radio-al-qaeda-is-over-running-iraq-bill-kristol-blames-obama/678021.md?page=3)