The Ministry of Truth is working overtime to keep the True Believers in line. Victor Davis Hanson writes that we are winning the war in Iraq and will prevail as long as we believe.
“What seems to me most inexplicable is the war over the war–not the purported absence of a plan, but that the more we are winning in the field, the more we are losing it at home,” he says. What seems to me most inexplicable is that Victor Davis Hanson is, I assume, bright enough to dress himself. (Fortunately, Mr. Hanson does not require further snarking; Robert Farley has snarked for us all.)
At the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, Ralph Peters writes that the reporting from Baghdad is all wrong — no civil war here —
The reporting out of Baghdad continues to be hysterical and dishonest. There is no civil war in the streets. None. Period.
Terrorism, yes. Civil war, no. Clear enough?
Yesterday, I crisscrossed Baghdad, visiting communities on both banks of the Tigris and logging at least 25 miles on the streets. With the weekend curfew lifted, I saw traffic jams, booming business — and everyday life in abundance.
“Baghdad isn’t London during the Blitz, and certainly not New York on 9/11,” he continues. Possibly not, but those weren’t civil wars, either. And as someone who traveled nearly the length of Manhattan in a slow-moving car on 9/11 trying to get off the island, I can promise you that if you were anywhere north of about 14th Street there was no sign of anything amiss on that day, except for smoke in the sky. From midtown on north you couldn’t even see the smoke in the sky. One could see shoppers, people dining in sidewalk cafes, people walking dogs, all perfectly normal. Yet it was 9/11.
The moral is, sometimes one pair of eyes isn’t seeing the whole picture.
Ellen Knickmeyer reports for the Washington Post that in parts of Iraq Shiites are being told to leave their homes or be killed. That sounds rather … uncivil.
I don’t claim to know what’s going on in Iraq. It is possible that the current round of violence will settle down. But, truly, “reporting” like Mr. Peters’s sends a bigger chill down my spine than the stories of violence in Iraq. It makes me realize what dangers we are in here.
Brilliant quote du jour: “If the president actually believes that he has never wavered from his course, it makes you remember that all motion is relative.” Snort.
Not even the Republicans can trust their corporate straw-man anymore…Why can’t the DNC draft Scott Ritter to captain Columbia, our Ship of State in foreign ports, and support Ms. Granholme, the governor of Michigan, as his running mate, to carry the domestic agenda? I could vote for these two as representative of American Veracity, Diplomacy, and Committment to World Peace.
There’s something wrong with the Robert Farley link.
Bulworth — thanks for the heads’ up. It’s fixed.
Read this line from LA.Com and it made me scratch my head. “I spent a day riding in his armored Humvee as he moved around town trying to figure out what was going on ..”
It is from LA.Com Max Boot found on Instapundit this morning. http://www.instapundit.com/
MAX BOOT: “ARE WE WINNING or losing in Iraq? Liberals and conservatives safe at home have no trouble formulating glib answers to that fundamental question. The former can always point to setbacks, the latter to successes. The picture becomes blurrier, the future murkier when you spend time in Iraq, as I did last week.”
But then again, who isn’t scratching their heads these days!
Max Boot’s vision is blurry wherever he is. Maybe we should buy the boy some glasses.
The Ministry of Truthiness would have more success making people think the Iraq war was a success if they weren’t so busy blaming us for its failure.
Just have to gloat over the fact that Bush got a lot of protesters in India and they loved Bill.
Ralph Peters makes driving around Baghdad seem like a tour through the New England countryside in the fall..He did kinda sneak in the fact that he was riding in a humvee and there was an officer accompanying him. I would assume, but he didn’t mention, that in all likelihood he was wearing body armor and was surrounded with a heavily armed military security detail.
Bush set the foundations for a civil war when he was determined to proceed with the election process for his own political reason, rather than allow the time for Iraqis to broker some sort of agreement among themselves to workout a new government.
“Terrorism, yes. Civil war, no…” — they are not mutually exclusive. Terrorism is a tactic that can be used within a civil war.
Hanson’s notions remind me vividly of an old Monty Python skit, in which tenants kept their buildings from collapsing via mass hypnosis. As long as they believed the buildings were sound, they were. Seems like a questionable way to run a war….
Bushists have long been fans of the “tinkerbell” approach – if we all clap hard enough, Iraq will become a democratic nation. Clap harder!
What does losing look like?
Yhr war was lost from the first day we went in. Mission accomplished!!!
I grow tired of people claiming that we are creating more terrorists in Iraq. Are we? Are we really and how do you know? Prove it.
Here is something that we know for certain. The ideology espoused by Al Qaeda preceded our entry into Iraq. We know that they attacked the WTC twice. We have reasonable belief that they may have been involved in the Oklahoma City Bombing and we know for certain that they were involved in many many attacks prior to the second Gulf War.
We know that they are patient, determined, steadfast and resolute and that they will come at us again.
We know that at one time Saddam had WMDs but we don’t know what happened to them.
We know that through luck, skill and hardwork there haven’t been any more successful attacks on US soil.
I am not a big fan of Dubya’s, I criticize many of his actions. But it would be hypocritical of me not to give his admin some credit for preventing terror on our shores.
There are many many questions here. I most assuredly agree that one of them is whether we have the stomach to fight or not.
Damn conservative media always reporting bad news. Why don’t they talk about all the wars we’re not protesting. Plus I heard a few of us liberals got together and painted a school today.
There are many many questions here. I most assuredly agree that one of them is whether we have the stomach to fight or not.
What the hell is that supposed to mean? Of course we’ve got the stomach to fight…I’m willing to send a million young kids to their deaths because I’m a macho American who doesn’t take shit from no one. Guys like me and Jonah Goldberg are willing to fight to the bitter end of somebody elses life. Bring ’em on!
Swami, it means do we have patience. This is not like standing in line at Burger King. The whines are all over the place, “When will the war be over?”
And if they had said that about the Nazis, then what would you have said then?
Are you so convinced that Saddam wasn’t supporting terrorists? Is that OK w/ you that if he was?
I’m sorry that I didn’t catch Terrence’s post earlier. I can’t be here all the time.
Terrence, son, educate yourself. Saddam Hussein was not supporting or cooperating with al Qaeda. I’ve addressed the WMD issue in countless posts, and I’m not about to keyboard it all again to educate you. Start here, read all the documents linked, work on it.
If anyone else has some links handy that would help Terrence learn please post them, but don’t argue with him. He just needs to catch up.
Are you so convinced that Saddam wasn’t supporting terrorists?
He had donated some money to the Palestinians, but he and al Qaeda did not play well together. This has been documented thousands of times. Saddam was a secularist dictator, and Osama bin Laden is an Islamic fundie. Oil and water.
I say again, instead of asking stupid questions and expecting other people to cough up answers for you, educate yourself. Any more idiocy posted here will, however, cause you to be twit filtered.
Plus I heard a few of us liberals got together and painted a school today.
LOL!
If you want Terrence to go away just say boo.
I read today where Bush is still baiting simpletons with the phrase..” cut and run” in refering what action needs to be taken to correct his blunder in Iraq. It really irks me when Bush uses such base terminology to continue his deceptions.. It’s similar to when we used to tell little Paulie that he was yellow because he was afraid to throw a rock through Mrs. McGinty’s window.
I think it would be important to counter Terrence’s posts, even if you could provide links and faqs to previous discussions.
Some people are only now awakening to the fact that the s*** they bought is not, in fact, roses and sweetcakes(they SHOULD have noticed the smell but…). Give them a chance to catch up. Not all of us have distrusted Dubbya from first sight.
Ellen Knickmeyer reports for the Washington Post that in parts of Iraq Shiites are being told to leave their homes or be killed. That sounds rather … uncivil.
Hrm. That sounds rather…Bosnian.
Those who don’t learn from history… (And no, I’m not saying that the Bosnians and the Serbs were the only people to ever play that game. But they’re some of the most recent.)
I think it would be important to counter Terrence’s posts, even if you could provide links and faqs to previous discussions.
I don’t have time to run seminars. Anyone who wants to know what I’ve written in the past about something can use the search box in the right-hand column. For posts written before October 2005 google
site:www.mahablog.com [key words]
Perhaps someone could give the keywords. I for example looked up Osama and did not get a whole lot.
Jobber: I got more than ten pages of hits. Try again. GOOGLE (do not use the “search” box, use GOOGLE:
site:www.mahablog.com osama
I changed publishing platforms in October 2005 and the “search” box only works for posts since then. For material from 2003 to October 2005, you have to google.
(Jeez, I don’t have time to give seminars, so I have to teach people how to google? I give up.)
PS — the second hit is a favorite of mine:
https://www.mahablog.com/oldsite/2004.03.21_arch.html
There’s of course no guarantee, but patriotboy has been known to help those of a serious mien such as Terrence.