Truly Scary Consequences of the White House Lies
There's a mild melancholy to Sunday that lingers from years past. It's the end of a recess in the primary life-task that might fall into a category of "uninformed consent." Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's that mortgage to pay and all, and a thousand years ago school, while not something I was eager for on Sunday night, was generally a tolerable framework for my sense of curiosity. But still . . .
These days there's a little solace in remembering that Sunday can also be a chance for some good old home cooking. No gumbo today, instead a test of a new recipe for similarly long-cooked entree, namely Beef Bourguignon. This was a great mix of beef chunks, pearl onions, fungus, and carrots in a reduction of wine. Swooning optional. Our side dish was a rehearsal for Thanksgiving, namely Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta, a la Food Network. Also noteworthy.
But now for the dessert. I never read a Frank Rich column in the NY Times that made me feel like my time wasn't well spent. Today's column is that and more, probably one of the more important pieces I have read recently. In essence, Rich begins by acknowledging what anyone paying attention (which of course can be as simple as not limiting oneself to "mainstream" media as a source of news) ought to be well aware of now. The "war" in Iraq is lost and over. A majority of our citizens have lost appetite for it. With the stated causes now proved false, the death toll mounting, and no even vague definitions of what our plans are and what would constitute success, it's a relief to find that the majority of those polled think it is time to put paid to this insanity.
It's downright scary - but not unprecedented - to see what even the idea of talking about a purposeful withdrawal from Iraq has triggered in the zealots and psycopaths who somewhat mysteriously occupy positions of authority in a supposed democracy. I guess we have to let them do their acting-out and have their tantrums, much like unsocialized and dysfunctional sorts could be expected to do in other facets of life. Whatever. With so many of us (a majority - finally!!) actually open to dealing with nuances, and, shudder, reality, they will of course just have to get over it.
In the meantime, as Rich warns, reality-faced sorts need to face a scarier issue. There is in fact an actual terrorism threat out there. Afghanistan is the exemplar of another, much more justified focus of potential conflict and threat that we seem to have been gradually losing control of. Our unjustified and provocative crusadism in Iraq has fertilized suicide-based activism like a big dose of 30-30-30. While we need to get out of Iraq like nobody's business (so to speak), we need to be very careful that we do not allow this essential move to blind us to the need to actually protect ourselves against terrorism - as compared to dressing up and playing as if we were a la the bush administration. Distasteful as it is, it appears we must collectively take on the role of grownup for the increasingly misbehaving infantile bush clan.
I give you Mr. Rich (full article is required reading):
One War Lost, Another to Go
If anyone needs further proof that we are racing for the exits in Iraq, just follow the bouncing ball that is Rick Santorum. A Republican leader in the Senate and a true-blue (or red) Iraq hawk, he has long slobbered over President Bush, much as Ed McMahon did over Johnny Carson. But when Mr. Bush went to Mr. Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania to give his Veterans Day speech smearing the war's critics as unpatriotic, the senator was M.I.A.
[snip]
Mr. Bush may disdain timetables for our pullout, but, hello, there already is one, set by the Santorums of his own party: the expiration date for a sizable American presence in Iraq is Election Day 2006. As Mr. Mueller says, the decline in support for the war won't reverse itself. The public knows progress is not being made, no matter how many times it is told that Iraqis will soon stand up so we can stand down.
On the same day the Senate passed the resolution rebuking Mr. Bush on the war, Martha Raddatz of ABC News reported that "only about 700 Iraqi troops" could operate independently of the U.S. military, 27,000 more could take a lead role in combat "only with strong support" from our forces and the rest of the 200,000-odd trainees suffered from a variety of problems, from equipment shortages to an inability "to wake up when told" or follow orders.
[snip]
One hideous consequence of the White House's Big Lie - fusing the war of choice in Iraq with the war of necessity that began on 9/11 - is that the public, having rejected one, automatically rejects the other. That's already happening. The percentage of Americans who now regard fighting terrorism as a top national priority is either in the single or low double digits in every poll. Thus the tragic bottom line of the Bush catastrophe: the administration has at once increased the ranks of jihadists by turning Iraq into a new training ground and recruitment magnet while at the same time exhausting America's will and resources to confront that expanded threat.
[snip]
The arguments about how we got into Mr. Bush's war and exactly how we'll get out are also important. But the damage from this fiasco will be even greater if those debates obscure the urgency of the other war we are losing, one that will be with us long after we've left the quagmire in Iraq.
These days there's a little solace in remembering that Sunday can also be a chance for some good old home cooking. No gumbo today, instead a test of a new recipe for similarly long-cooked entree, namely Beef Bourguignon. This was a great mix of beef chunks, pearl onions, fungus, and carrots in a reduction of wine. Swooning optional. Our side dish was a rehearsal for Thanksgiving, namely Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta, a la Food Network. Also noteworthy.
But now for the dessert. I never read a Frank Rich column in the NY Times that made me feel like my time wasn't well spent. Today's column is that and more, probably one of the more important pieces I have read recently. In essence, Rich begins by acknowledging what anyone paying attention (which of course can be as simple as not limiting oneself to "mainstream" media as a source of news) ought to be well aware of now. The "war" in Iraq is lost and over. A majority of our citizens have lost appetite for it. With the stated causes now proved false, the death toll mounting, and no even vague definitions of what our plans are and what would constitute success, it's a relief to find that the majority of those polled think it is time to put paid to this insanity.
It's downright scary - but not unprecedented - to see what even the idea of talking about a purposeful withdrawal from Iraq has triggered in the zealots and psycopaths who somewhat mysteriously occupy positions of authority in a supposed democracy. I guess we have to let them do their acting-out and have their tantrums, much like unsocialized and dysfunctional sorts could be expected to do in other facets of life. Whatever. With so many of us (a majority - finally!!) actually open to dealing with nuances, and, shudder, reality, they will of course just have to get over it.
In the meantime, as Rich warns, reality-faced sorts need to face a scarier issue. There is in fact an actual terrorism threat out there. Afghanistan is the exemplar of another, much more justified focus of potential conflict and threat that we seem to have been gradually losing control of. Our unjustified and provocative crusadism in Iraq has fertilized suicide-based activism like a big dose of 30-30-30. While we need to get out of Iraq like nobody's business (so to speak), we need to be very careful that we do not allow this essential move to blind us to the need to actually protect ourselves against terrorism - as compared to dressing up and playing as if we were a la the bush administration. Distasteful as it is, it appears we must collectively take on the role of grownup for the increasingly misbehaving infantile bush clan.
I give you Mr. Rich (full article is required reading):
One War Lost, Another to Go
If anyone needs further proof that we are racing for the exits in Iraq, just follow the bouncing ball that is Rick Santorum. A Republican leader in the Senate and a true-blue (or red) Iraq hawk, he has long slobbered over President Bush, much as Ed McMahon did over Johnny Carson. But when Mr. Bush went to Mr. Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania to give his Veterans Day speech smearing the war's critics as unpatriotic, the senator was M.I.A.
[snip]
Mr. Bush may disdain timetables for our pullout, but, hello, there already is one, set by the Santorums of his own party: the expiration date for a sizable American presence in Iraq is Election Day 2006. As Mr. Mueller says, the decline in support for the war won't reverse itself. The public knows progress is not being made, no matter how many times it is told that Iraqis will soon stand up so we can stand down.
On the same day the Senate passed the resolution rebuking Mr. Bush on the war, Martha Raddatz of ABC News reported that "only about 700 Iraqi troops" could operate independently of the U.S. military, 27,000 more could take a lead role in combat "only with strong support" from our forces and the rest of the 200,000-odd trainees suffered from a variety of problems, from equipment shortages to an inability "to wake up when told" or follow orders.
[snip]
One hideous consequence of the White House's Big Lie - fusing the war of choice in Iraq with the war of necessity that began on 9/11 - is that the public, having rejected one, automatically rejects the other. That's already happening. The percentage of Americans who now regard fighting terrorism as a top national priority is either in the single or low double digits in every poll. Thus the tragic bottom line of the Bush catastrophe: the administration has at once increased the ranks of jihadists by turning Iraq into a new training ground and recruitment magnet while at the same time exhausting America's will and resources to confront that expanded threat.
[snip]
The arguments about how we got into Mr. Bush's war and exactly how we'll get out are also important. But the damage from this fiasco will be even greater if those debates obscure the urgency of the other war we are losing, one that will be with us long after we've left the quagmire in Iraq.
posted by Sir Gumbo at 11:24 PM
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