Letters to the Editor
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Do as I say
What is good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander. When the right shamelessly critizes the top military brass, they are "strong on defence" when the left does it, they go into apoplectic fits, such logic!
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Mmmmm...I love the smell of slander in the morning
...We certainly hope it's not true, because in a time of war, for a leader of a party that says it supports the military, it seems outrageous to be issuing slanders toward the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and also the man who is responsible for the bulk of military operations in Iraq.
But it's A O.K. to slander the Senate Majority Leader in a time of politics.... a leader of a party that "says" it supports the military....
Lovely. If he had a petard he ought to be hoisted on it.
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Engaging these morons is pointless
Honestly, there should be only one response to these right-wing idiots' constant demands for apologies to their ever-so-offended lady-like sensibilities: "Tony Snow/Bill O'Reilly/Matt Drudge/Substitute Your Own Braindead Fascist Of The Moment is an idiot," followed by a dismissive wave of the hand. Who, other than each other, is listening to these people any more?
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shorter Snow
"It's wrong for Democrats to criticize anybody!"
That's what it always comes down to, isn't it?
It's also worth noting that this comment about General Pace was made in passing when discussing why Pace was being replaced by Bush. The call was an off-the-record background conference call with a group of bloggers. This was hardly a press release or a statement from the floor of the Senate.
If only it were! This administration's military leadership, going straight to the top, needs to be called "incompentent", especially the former Defense Secretary and the President who started this disastrous war.
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Is it even worth pointing out...
that immunitity from criticism is the first step that leads directly to failure.
The reason Tony Snow is trying this tactic is because it works. Many people approach the military with the same kind of deference that others associate with religious observance. Thus the same kind of taboos apply - unless of course your a member of the priesthood.
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Performance Reviews
How about when a Press Secretary is incompetent? Can we criticize him? Or, you know, a President? I loved Jon Stewart last night when he said something along the lines of, "The Administration doesn't have any room for people who are incompetent-- all those slots are filled." Hey, Tony, somebody's got to clue you in:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/18/MN73840.DTL
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Incompetence is not questioned by these idiots
We have an administration in which NO level of incompetence is sufficiently high to lead to your being sacked. So, when Reid finally gets around to actually questioning these morons, he is condemned as a traitor.
I guess to really be acceptable he would have to reveal 5-10 covert CIA agents. Then Dick Cheney would really like him again.
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Not yet "greatest military disaster in our country's history"
I think Vietnam still has a pretty good lock on that one. More than ten times as many dead Americans, almost certainly more than ten times as many dead for'ners, more people deployed, more money spent.
Don't worry--Iraq will get there, and at the current rate may well get worse way faster than Vietnam; but it's not there yet.
I think you do the most important reporting on this site, Glenn, and some of the most important reporting, period. You help keep the "MSM", and particular the punditry, honest; I just find it ironic that your casual use of hyperbole falls so much into the mold of that which you (rightly) decry.
You've got a lot of enemies who by ink by the barrel, Glenn. You make new ones almost every day. Don't give them anything legitimate to whine about.
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Kelly:
I think Vietnam still has a pretty good lock on that one. More than ten times as many dead Americans, almost certainly more than ten times as many dead for'ners, more people deployed, more money spent.
Don't worry--Iraq will get there, and at the current rate may well get worse way faster than Vietnam; but it's not there yet.
I actually thought about that very issue when I wrote that. Clearly, if the standard is number of U.S. military deaths or duration, Vietnam is worse. But I don't think that's the only or even more important standard.
The spectacle of fighting against the entire world by insisting that we had to invade in order to eliminate weapons that did not exist is one of the most devestating humiliations - it's hard to find anything comparable. And the destruction of our credibility on every level from Iraq -- moral credibility, human rights, even our military deterrent credibility -- is, I think, far greater than from any other war, including Vietnam.
It's true that current problems always seem worse than past problems, so part of the assessment by be plagued by that bias. Vietnam was horrific, obviously, but what we are doing in Iraq has been so destructive on every level that I don't actually think it has an equivalence.
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It is way past time to slap these guys around.
Sen Reid's only crime was in not bitch slapping Tony Snow upside the head for:
Piss poor journalism - Snow quoted Politico, he didn't quote Reid
Not staying on subject - Snow criticized the fact of the Reid's criticism. He didn't address the criticism itself.
Had I been Sen Reid, I'd have said that I'd apologize for my remarks 30 seconds after the administration apologized for starting this stupid, illegal, immoral war.
This incident has several hallmarks of what the neocon gang does.
They attack the fact of the derogatory comment, not the derogation itself. In our sound bite world, the comments sound un-pc and God! we can't be un-pc. Then the commenter falls over himself apologizing and looks like a fool. And he is. This kind of crap has to be stood up to. You cannot allow the neocon gang to frame things. You must jerk the discussion back to what you said, not what they made what you said into.
Only the neocon gang can criticize. They'll generally only do this behind closed doors or, if it's out in the open, since they have neocon cred, the other members of the neocon gang won't become attack bots. Then, after some general or aide is cashiered, they'll start saying "Oh, well, this guy was incompetent." This is also known as backstabbing which many people actually find distasteful.
They use stunningly selective memory. If something that they've done or said in the past is inconsistent with the criticism that they are leveling, it is conveniently forgotten. But they reserve the right to remember it in the future without regard to the fact that they forgot it now.