Talk Talk: Open Surge; Open Primaries

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Every weekend CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist and philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogues compiled on Sunday, February 22, 2009 "Open Surge; Open Primaires" after watching selections from "Hardball with Chris Matthews," "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," and a Charlie Rose interview. Salit: So, we're losing the war. And Odierno, and later Petraeus, come in and say the thing has to be completely redesigned and here's what we have to do. We've got to put more troops in. We have to turn the American army into the "glue" that holds the society together.   Newman: And we have to pay the Sunnis. That's how we win the war.   Salit: Yes. And, as you're referencing, Ricks goes on to talk about how, as they got to know the insurgency, both on the ground and in detention, they learned that most of these guys were being paid to fight us. And all the Americans had to do to turn the situation around was to offer them more money than Al Qaeda was paying them.   Newman: A dollar more.   Salit: Yes.   Read Talk Talk in its entirety here.  If you haven't signed the Open Primary Letter to President Obama, go tohttp://www.gopetition.com/petitions/independentvoting.html to sign the letter.