Letters to the Editor
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"Bush Regains his Footing" - Yeah, that was a bad one.
Though to be fair, the Administration is in a bit of a balancing act. They only have one foot on 'solid' ground.
Their other foot is already off the cliff.
Hopefully, they'll all topple over soon.
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But did the surge in publicity last week
cause the support to drop, or prevent it from dropping even more by holding onto most of the base? I suspect the latter.
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Awww...
If "they" thought that the moveon.org ad was reprehensible, maybe they should have avoided savaging John Kerry, Max Cleland, and Jack Murtha. I personally find their reaction to being on the receiving end of the kind of crap "they" put out in the 2004 election hilarious.
More importantly, the surge never had a hope of "succeeding" (whatever that really means). Armies fight battles, they don't make peace. Diplomats and politicians make peace. The presence of our military in Iraq is pointless. They have no battles to win, only population to subjugate.
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You, the People
Who cares what the people think, George II is still "The Decider". If you think it's bad now, just wait until El Presidente Giuliani ascends the throne of this little banana republic. He'll have Truth Squads taking care of the Unpatriotic Majority and special places to send them for re-education.
W may have said, "The Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper", but Rudy the Ruthless won't give it that much respect. He already tried to scuttle the NYC mayoral elections in the wake of 9/11. It's really too bad there is no opposition party in the United States, only the Democrats.
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The next and last card to play- Iran?
Since the American people did not fall for the surge is working and Gen. Petraeus knows best ploy, the last and most dangerous card left could be the Iranian nuclear threat. Two articles yesterday, one by the AP quoting former Central Command CINC Gen. Abizaid and another by Chicago Tribune conservative columnist Steve Chapman downplayed this threat. Rather than just pointing out M$M weak sisters (no accusation against you Glenn), we should also support sound journalism like this.
Abizaid: World could abide nuclear Iran
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer, Monday, September 17
WASHINGTON - Every effort should be made to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but failing that, the world could live with a nuclear-armed regime in Tehran, a recently retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Monday.
John Abizaid, the retired Army general who headed Central Command for nearly four years, said he was confident that if Iran gained nuclear arms, the United States could deter it from using them.
"Iran is not a suicide nation," he said. "I mean, they may have some people in charge that don't appear to be rational, but I doubt that the Iranians intend to attack us with a nuclear weapon."
The Iranians are aware, he said, that the United States has a far superior military capability.
"I believe that we have the power to deter Iran, should it become nuclear," he said, referring to the theory that Iran would not risk a catastrophic retaliatory strike by using a nuclear weapon against the United States.
"There are ways to live with a nuclear Iran," Abizaid said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. "Let's face it, we lived with a nuclear Soviet Union, we've lived with a nuclear China, and we're living with (other) nuclear powers as well."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070917/ap_on_go_ot/abizaid_iran
Steve Chapman, RealClear Politics, September 17
Osama bin Laden must rejoice to be depicted as endangering our entire culture and way of life. In fact, his movement has failed to gain power in a single country even in the Islamic world, and he hasn't been able to carry out an attack on American soil in over six years. His movement exists today as a fragmented network of terrorist cells, with only a modest capacity to harm us.
Iran, with its fire-breathing president and nuclear ambitions, is supposed to be a looming threat to our existence. But as the world's only superpower, we can easily contain and deter even enemies with nukes -- which is why no one talks about fighting World War IV against North Korea.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/09/america_is_not_fighting_ww_iv.html
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There is no truth in Pravda
The rapid Soviet-ization of the American news media has been astonishing.
America's media cheerleaders may fool themselves into thinking they are being "patriotic" by acting as government stenographers. But they should consider that the USSR didn't collapse due to Ronald Reagan's arms buildup.
It was because the lies, incompetence and brutal corruption reached such a critical mass that literally everyone said "to hell with it."
True patriotism requires a devotion to, and respect for, hard truths -- not pleasant (or profitable) fictions.
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red meat
I agree with Glenn's analysis, for the most part, especially the disconnect between the rhetoric surrounding last week's testimony and the polls that followed it. But I think Glen glossed over the point of the long quote he cites from the ad exec. In fact, I agree with the exec- the "Betray Us" ad was a bad idea. Bad, bad, bad, bad. Unusually bad for moveon, who's ads are usually sharp, interesting and productive, in my view. It was a needless potshot that focused attention on the man instead of the issue. Would the noise machine have found something else to spin the story in Bush/Petraus' favor? Most likely. But why put raw steak in front of the lion's nose.
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Joe Klein...
Glenn,
Your BFF, Joe Klein, offered this conclusion:
"It seems clear the President has won this round. An optimistic general will trump a skeptical politician anytime."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1661686,00.html
Much of Klein's article is sensible, but as ever, Time's franchise DC commentator has measured the political temperature by sticking the thermometer where the sun don't shine.
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"Victory is fleeting" or in this case never occurred.
Glenn, good stuff. I just wanted to highlight this odd statement.
“MILBANK: Petraeus --it's no accident he had a Latin name.”
What in the name of Mars is that supposed to mean?
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PDonaer
Bad, bad, bad, bad.
Why does this matter in any way? What was the result of it? What was the harm that it caused?