Letters to the Editor
Susan Wood
Published Letters: 379 Editor's Choice: 27
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I agree, Maliki does have a point.
[Read the article: Maliki: 3,721 U.S. dead = no standing to complain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Iraq never asked us to invade, overthrow Saddam and leave the country in a state of ungovernable chaos. We've really got no standing to complain how they manage things, after telling them that we wanted them to govern themselves. Now that Bush has none-too-subtly hinted that he wants the Iraqis to get rid of Maliki, you can't complain about a little truculence on his part.
He's right that they can find other friends. We should have seen that coming a mile off when we decided to put Saddam out of business and empower the Shi'ites. The one Iraqi who WAS encouraging us to invade, Ahmed Chalabi, turns out to have been working hand in glove with Iran all along. And now Maliki's government wants to cozy up to Iran and Syria, quel surprise! So Bush, like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, frantically trying to undo the mess he's made, is trying to set things right by threatening Iran and trying to portray Iran and Syria as the enemies of the new Iraq government, when of course they're OUR enemy and Iraq's good buddies. As you might recall, trying to chop the magic broom in half didn't work too well for the Sorcerer's Apprentice, either. It only created lots more little brooms carrying water to the trough and increasing the flood.
Most people know the musical setting of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, not to mention Mickey Mouse's version, but the original is worth getting to know. Here's a link. Tell me if you can read this without thinking of Bush -- except that the poor apprentice has the decency to accept assistance from the master after he realizes he's in over his head.
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/goethe/zauber_e3.html
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Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.
[Read the article: The enduring myth of Americans' dislike of investigations]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The beltway chattering classes are still smarting from being so disastrously and embarrassingly wrong about Bill Clinton. Remember how he was supposed to resign in disgrace and slink out of town before the end of the week when the Monica story surfaced? Remember how the American public was supposed to be baying for his blood, storming the White House with pitchforks and demanding impeachment? Well, uh, they kinda got that one wrong, didn't they? And like generals who are still fighting the last war, they're still repeating the only lesson they managed to learn from the Clinton impeachment debacle: "Americans don't like investigations." The difference between investigation of a consensual, private sexual encounter and a gross betrayal of the public trust at the cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars still goes sailing way, way WAY over their heads.
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The old "sunk cost" argument.
[Read the article: Ari Fleischer: It gets worse]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Fleischer and Anonymous would both like us to stay in Iraq because if we leave now, we will have "wasted" the lives and sacrifices of the men who died and were maimed there. True enough, we will. But if we can't win anyway, and most people with the slightest awareness of the situation in Iraq know that we can't, what's the point of wasting more?
The notion that "I can't afford to waste what I've already invested, I'll keep on till I win" is the mentality that keeps people at the tables in Vegas till they're broke, and caused Enron employees to go on putting their entire retirement funds into Enron stock. ("This downturn has to pass, and then I'll really clean up.") Any economist can tell you why the "sunk cost" argument is bad thinking, although it does have powerful emotional appeal.
I give "Anonymous" this much credit: he does know what that sunk cost really entails, something that armchair hero Fleischer will never, never understand.
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Edgore, you don't expect Cheney to go anywhere that's actually dangerous, do you? He has other priorities.
[Read the article: Old-school week on Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why don't we install a sock puppet? They're available in bulk at K-mart, and when one wears out you can replace it with another just like it.
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Double standard watch
[Read the article: Ari Fleischer's misleading message]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Remember when Ann Coulter hurled outrageous personal abuse at the 9/11 widows' group called the "Jersey Girls," and justified her behavior by arguing that she didn't appreciate people using their personal losses to try to put themselves beyond criticism? We've heard much the same about Cindy Sheehan. Meanwhile, any soldier or veteran who dares challenge the official line about success in Iraq, like the group who recently published a NYTimes op ed, or reminds people of the unpleasant realities of war, like Scot Thomas Beauchamp, is immediately denounced as a phoney.
Now, will we see the same people who have engaged in these tactics tolerating criticism of the messages in these ads, on the grounds that Kreisel's personal sacrifices don't put his opinions beyond criticism? BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
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Public service
[Read the article: "Thank you, and God bless America"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is only as honorable as the people pursuing. Bye bye, Gonzo, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Now, how can Fitzgerald "flip" him?
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Be grateful for small mercies.
[Read the article: Larry Craig? Hey, look! It's al-Qaida!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At least Fox didn't have a headline on screen identifying him as "Larry Craig, Democrat" the way they did with Mark Foley. But only because they probably realized they couldn't get away with that one twice.
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The military has to know how suicidally insane this would be.
[Read the article: The president's escalating war rhetoric on Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Pray hard for generals with the courage to oppose this.
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Zees ees, 'ow you say, la justice poetique?
[Read the article: Bush's Napoleon complex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can't believe I'm the first to comment on the exquisite irony of comparing Bush's failures to those of a French general. After the disgusting, idiotic spectacle of France-bashing in this country after Chirac offered us sensible warnings about the danger of the Iraq folly and refused to jump off the cliff with us, they've earned the last laugh. This is just magnifique.