WaPo: New Intelligence Report Further Undermines Bush's Case for War
Thank God the Post is finally starting to just tell it like it is. Rarely do we find such clear refutations in politics and international affairs as we do in the case of this war. As more and more facts come in about what's happened in Iraq, fewer and fewer (sneaky, irrational, despicable) rhetorical paths remain open for the administration.
Of course in politics one never has to admit error. It's always possible--if you're dishonest enough--to continue laying down rhetorical smokescreens forever. But the fact is that, after a certain point, such tricks only fool those who want to be fooled--and those who are very, very stupid.
The debate about the wisdom of the Iraq war is over. Bush and his supporters were wrong. It was a stupid thing to do; it made al Qaeda stronger, America weaker, and the world less stable. Even if a miracle occurs at this point--and we all hope one will--that can't count toward an assessment of the wisdom of the war. It was, as reasonable people realize--one of the biggest strategic blunders in American history, and it will remain so even if David Petraeus can somehow pull our fat out of the fire in the eleventh hour.
If you're not clamoring for Bush's (and Cheney's) resignation or impeachment, you're not paying attention.
Thank God the Post is finally starting to just tell it like it is. Rarely do we find such clear refutations in politics and international affairs as we do in the case of this war. As more and more facts come in about what's happened in Iraq, fewer and fewer (sneaky, irrational, despicable) rhetorical paths remain open for the administration.
Of course in politics one never has to admit error. It's always possible--if you're dishonest enough--to continue laying down rhetorical smokescreens forever. But the fact is that, after a certain point, such tricks only fool those who want to be fooled--and those who are very, very stupid.
The debate about the wisdom of the Iraq war is over. Bush and his supporters were wrong. It was a stupid thing to do; it made al Qaeda stronger, America weaker, and the world less stable. Even if a miracle occurs at this point--and we all hope one will--that can't count toward an assessment of the wisdom of the war. It was, as reasonable people realize--one of the biggest strategic blunders in American history, and it will remain so even if David Petraeus can somehow pull our fat out of the fire in the eleventh hour.
If you're not clamoring for Bush's (and Cheney's) resignation or impeachment, you're not paying attention.
posted by Winston Smith at
7:10 AM
1 Comments:
Here's my favorite part:
"The fact is, we were harassing them in Afghanistan, we're harassing them in Iraq, we're harassing them in other ways, non-militarily, around the world. And the answer is, every time you poke the hornet's nest, they are bound to come back and push back on you. That doesn't suggest to me that we shouldn't be doing it."
-Frances Townsend
Actually, that's precisely why you shouldn't be doing it.
I don't know about you, but if I want to remove a hornet's nest, I don't sit there and poke it, getting stung. I use the proper amount of technology and force, get a fire truck hose, prop it up next to it at the right angle, and blast the nest in a nice parabolic arc into my wooded area near my house.
And I CERTAINLY don't sit there and poke two hornet's nests at the same time.
But, as he noted himself, the Bush method is to send a bunch of kids to the nest, telling them to sit there and poke it with a stick.
Very apt description by the homeland secretary there. I have this visualization of Bush sitting on his porch, watching some kids getting stung to death by hornets and doing his little "heh heh heh" that Jon Stewart emulates so well, with Cheney watching from a dark, gothic castle on a hill in the distance, silhouetted by the moon.
Yup. Good metaphor with that nest pokin'. Goooood metaphor.
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