Dawa 36, Neocons 3...with only seconds 'till victory

[Dorothy_ParkerX]

<p>Paul Mulshine in the NJ Star Ledger
Upper West Side Liberals v Charles Krauthammer:

“The only people who think this wasn’t a victory are upper West Side liberals.” …Charles Krauthammer…in April 2003…</p>

<p>He wasn’t the only one. Virtually every neoconservative commentator in print and on TV declared the Iraq war over almost four years ago. When you go back and look at their quotations, as I do on occasion when I am in need of a laugh… To the degree they address their past failures at all, they argue that it was not their brilliant ideas about spreading democracy that were at fault but rather President Bush’s incompetent execution of these brilliant ideas…</p>

<p>…Let us examine a symposium held at the American Enterprise Institute in April 2003, shortly after Baghdad fell. It was at that conference, also attended by Newt Gingrich and other prominent neocons, that Krauthammer made that crack about the upper West Side liberals. It came right after a sentence in which he said, “The Arabs themselves have said that the collapse of Iraq is the greatest defeat for the Arabs since 1967.” </p>

<p>This nicely captures the confusion at the heart of the neocon approach. Were they trying to punish Arabs? Or liberate them? </p>

<p>As it happens, a British journalist put that question to the panel. He wanted to know whether these triumphant Trotskyites weren’t a bit worried that radical, anti-American parties would win the elections in Iraq.
Not a chance, said Chuck: </p>

<p>“We have known that there are radical Shi’a elements in Iraq who are influenced by Iran. We know that the strongest Shi’a organization is headquartered in Tehran, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and we would expect that in a vacuum, it would exert its influence, show itself early,” Krauthammer said. “But to infer that they speak for the people of Iraq is simply absurd.” </p>

<p>Oops. The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution now runs Iraq. In fact, the head Islamic revolutionary was visiting the White House just the other day to thank President Bush for handing Iraq over to his party, which was founded in Iran…</p>

<p>“We’ve lost Iraq to Iran,” says Baer. Those radical Shi’a politicians who came to power democratically are now signaling that the U.S. should start thinking about pulling out its troops. </p>

<p>“It’s like a football game where the score is 36 to 3,” says Baer. “They’re running out the clock.”

<a href=“http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/mulshine/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1169532626221410.xml&coll=1&thispage=1[/url]”>http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/mulshine/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1169532626221410.xml&coll=1&thispage=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[garland]

<p>Mulshine is my favorite conservative columnist!!!</p>

<p>I violently disagree half the time, totally agree half the time, but i’m always willing to hear what he says, because it’s intelligent and well written.</p>

<p>(Except on the subject of Bruce Springsteen, where he’s just plain addle-minded. )</p>

[Dorothy_ParkerX]

<p>Another great column by Peggy Noonan [in the "Notoriously ‘Right-Wing’ WSJ]:</p>

<p>

"I found myself impressed and grateful for the words of Chuck Hagel, the Republican senator from Nebraska</p>

<p>"Sure it’s tough. Absolutely. And I think all 100 senators ought to be on the line on this. What do you believe? What are you willing to support? What do you think? Why are you elected? If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes.</p>

<p>Later: "I don’t question the president’s sincerity, his motivations in this. I never have. . . . Part of the problem that we have, I think, is because we didn’t–we didn’t involve the Congress in this when we should have. And I’m to blame. Every senator who’s been here the last four years has to take some responsibility for that.</p>

<p>"But I will not sit here in this Congress of the United States at this important time for our country and in the world and not have something to say about this. . . . I don’t ever want to look back and have the regret that I didn’t have the courage and I didn’t do what I could. . . .</p>

<p>I don’t think we’ve ever had a coherent strategy. In fact, I would even challenge the administration today to show us the plan that the president talked about the other night. There is no plan. I happen to know Pentagon planners were on their way to the Central Com over the weekend. They haven’t even Team B’d this plan. . . . And I want every one of you, every one of us, 100 senators, to look in that camera, and you tell your people back home what you think…</p>

<p>“That is the essence of our responsibility. And if we’re not willing to do it, we’re not worthy to be seated right here. We fail our country. If we don’t debate this . . . we are not worthy of our country.”</p>

<p>Whenever the camera shot broadened to show the other senators, I wondered what they were thinking. For a few it might have been, Well done, Chuck. For others, Hey, righteous indignation is my act. And some would have been thinking, That’s good, ol’ buddy, and no matter how long I have to wait, I’ll get you for putting me on the spot, for making us look bad, for getting on your high horse and charging.</p>

<p>Mr. Hagel has shown courage for a long time. He voted for the war resolution in 2002 but soon after began to question how it was being waged. This was before everyone did. He also stood against the war when that was a lonely place to be. Senate Democrats sat back and watched: If the war worked, they’d change the subject; and if it didn’t, they’d hang it on President Bush. Republicans did their version of inaction; they supported the president until he was unpopular, and then peeled off…</p>

<p>A note too on John Kerry…Clearly he saw the lipstick writing on the wall: This is the year of the woman…But there was Mr. Kerry, liberated by the death of a dream and for once quite human as he tried to tell it the way he actually saw it. Took the mock right out of me. Good for him, and for Mr. Hagel. I wonder if we are seeing the start of a new seriousness."

<a href=“http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110009577[/url]”>http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110009577&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;