Matt Lauer: "This is obviously a big victory for Bush Administration"

[theHandpuppet]

Re: Zarqawi.

Why, specifically, is this a victory for the Bush adminstration ? Maybe I'm being dense here.

[Mass]

1. He recognizes indirectlly that it is propaganda.

Zarqawi's death will have a low impact on what happens in Iraq daily, so this is not a big victory for anybody else.

[butterfly77]

30. poll numbers

[Jack from Charlotte]

31. I thought catching Sadam was the big victory. Didn't that end the "war?"

*

[neoblues]

2. Because, But for Bush We Never Would Have Got Zarqawi...

Because, we wouldn't be involved in IRAQ and al-Zarqawi wouldn't even have been an Insurgent.

[cantstandbush]

3. Especially since Zarqarwi would never have been Iraq if US wan not there.

[malaise]

4. Expect this bullspit

from now until Monday.

[theHandpuppet]

7. I even heard Anne curry couch this in terms...

... that Zarqawi's death would mean good news in the increase of Iraq's oil production. They DO give themselves away so easily, don't they?

[Nikki Stone 1]

8. They're hoping that Wall Street will calm down

the approximately 200 pt loss on the Dow earlier this week meant that they needed some PR thing to restore "confidence". It will only be a victory if the market comes back.

[Chiyo-chichi]

32. I heard that, too.

In fact, she reported that oil prices went down.

[onehandle]

5. Propaganda.

He meant it's a propaganda victory for Bush.

Meanwhile, American Soldiers will die at the same, possibly higher rate. That won't show up in newsflashes and headlines.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. Ann Curry to Joe Biden..this should improve *'s poll numbers....

[liberal N proud]

9. All networks are playing this as the biggest victory of the war

The guy is just one man and in that organization there will be someone else step in and take his place.

[Nikki Stone 1]

10. All for home consumption. They needed a "victory"

manufactured if necessary.

If there are terrorists (as opposed to just the Iraqi insurgents resisting US occupation or killing wach other in civil war) they will regroup and someone else will become the new bogeyman.

Same ol, same ol.

[PaDem]

24. not only that, but this guy essentially.............

was a menace because of the war. No war and we don't know who this dude is in the first place. The war gave him a platform.

[Jack from Charlotte]

28. Exactly. The AWOL/moron CREATED him. Wasn't he Jordanian? (NT)

*

[mtnester]

11. I am going to scream...get your ear plugs out

EFFING OSAMA STILL WALKS FREE YOU MF MSM WHORES! DON'T YOU GET IT YOU ASSWIPES!


OK...I still do not feel better.

All references to whores and asswipes are directed at the media.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

12. sick

:hi:I can't believe he said that, It supposed to be a victory for Iraq and our Troops! The media are dumb!:grr:They should be reporting that,they can't see why the troops can't come home,now.The war could end on a good note right now.It would prove that we finished the mission and left.Instead we will continue the occupation.Things will get worse and we will never have another chance to get out with honor. You would think they would be sick of all the war and hate.:crazy: Don't you think they are just feeding Bush's ego?:dunce: I just wish we didn't have so many warmongers.:hippie: :kick:

[undeterred]

13. The only "obvious" victories Matt can detect are at the Olympics.

He should stick to covering that.

[Swamp Rat]

14. Not in an asymmetrical war... it will become a HUGH1! loss once Bushler

brags about it. That worthless piece if shit Zarqawi will become an asset to the enemy - a martyr.

[WePurrsevere]

15. Yeah right. Reality Check Matt... IF he's actually dead there's another,

possibly even much worse, "insurgent" to take his place. The way the US is fighting these "terrorists/insurgents" is creating a multi-headed "beast" much worse then the fabled Hydra.

[mikeytherat]

16. Just a week ago, Zarqawi was a joke, a buffoon, a man who couldn't

fire a gun correctly. The Pentagon was mocking him - remember the video? Now, he's morphed back into a (apparently dead) bad-ass.

What a difference a week makes...

mikey_the_rat

[long_green]

18. I'm glad someone else remembers that

from the Keystone Kop to the Desert Fox, and all he had to do was hold still for a few minutes.

[The Straight Story]

17. I would agree with Matt actually

If we blew up the wrong house with the wrong people - the blame would be placed on the bush admin (ie, a failure in the attack means a failure for the goals of the admin). In this case, they took out the target, a well known one, and acheived a goal that many people here and in Iraq wanted.

To those who wanted him dead or captured this is a victory. For those who want him free to kill this is a defeat.

The question we have to ask ourselves is - are we upset because a goal was reached because it may help bush's numbers? If they caught osama tomorrow, would we be bitching about how that sucks for us - or seeing it as good for others in the world?

so bush gets a blip up in ratings. The asshole ain't running again. That freak in iraq is dead, good riddance.

[mwb970]

20. If this is a big victory for *, than Haditha should be a big loss.

All his life, the Chimp has been lionized for things he didn't really do while his failures are swept under the rug and hidden. I hope we don't see this pattern again with the Zarqawi/Haditha combination.

[The Straight Story]

22. Um, isn't that we have been saying here anyway?? (nt)

[The Magistrate]

29. The Fact Remains, Though, Mr. Story

That this death is a matter of no consequence.

This reptile was but the nominal leader of one small faction among many in the violent chaos of Iraq. That he was elevated to symbolic prominence as a point of propaganda by both the U.S. and some jihadi elements did not endow him with real signifigance, in terms of explosives delivered and deaths and maimings inflicted. The foreign jihadis will continue to enter Iraq, and make their contribution to the killing; his death will not have the slightest effect in this. The nationalist resistance of Iraqis will continue; the sectarian violence between Iraqis will continue. There wil not even be a blip of reduction in the casualty firgures: more people will be killed in June than were in May; more wil be killed in July than were in killed in June, and so on and so forth.

[The Straight Story]

35. The same could be argued here in the US

We catch one serial killer, another one is out there doing the same thing.

There will always be bad guys - should we stop trying to catch them?

[The Magistrate]

36. No, Sir, Of Course The Effort Should Be Made

But the effect to be expected from success should not be exaggerated; that will lead only to disappointment, even for those who seek to benefit from it.

Mass movements are not defeated or destroyed by the death of leaders, for leaders neither create nor impell them, but simply rise up out of the mass. They can only be defeated by altering the conditions which impell a great many people to see them as the expression of their own hearts.

[theHandpuppet]

34. I see what you're saying, Straight Story...

It's just the way this news is being presented which is more than curious -- it's rather twisted. The death of this mad scumbag is a victory for the Iraqi people most of all, since they are the ones doing most of the dying at Zarqawi's hands. But the media couching it in terms of how this will help the stock market, Bush's prestige, the flow of oil, etc is pretty sick, do you know what I mean? This was the point of my OP -- I said nothing about being upset because it may help Bush's numbers nor did I say I wasn't glad that the fucker is dead, because I am. But the media response is almost cold and sociopathic, in its own way. A kind of detached, corporate way, in which death is measured by poll numbers, barrels of oil and stock trades -- I can't really describe the gut feeling I get but it's creepy. I just can't wrap my mind around it. Capisce?

I also think that too much public crowing about the death of Zarqawi -- a single, overblown thug figure IMHO -- may backfire just as surely as the "Mission Accomplished" pronouncement did. Crossing that line could be very deadly not only for our own troops but many more Iraqis. This is a serious concern.

[Joe Bacon]

19. What do you expect from Matt Liar?

Hey he loves to go golfing with Old Fart Bush!

[w8liftinglady]

21. um,Matt...wipe your chin...and you can stand up now...what a tool.

[myrna minx]

23. Why is it what when anything bad happens,

it's blamed on a few bad apples, but when anything good happens, it is the heroic *mission accomplished*, cod-piece wearing buffoon's victory? :puke:

[Toucano]

25. "I am authorized to say, the action we are now reporting may well bring

the war within measurable distance of its end."

Doubleplusgood!

[Jacobin]

37. Damn. Light at the end of the tunnel talk

I'm having forking flashbacks from VietNam now

[Javaman]

26. This is a paper victory, not an actual victory. nt

[stanwyck]

27. Does this mean the war on terror is over?

Since that's how it's being played. There's this finite number of terrorists. You eventually kill them all. And the war on terror is over.
Our troops come home. We quit spending billions on protecting the corn in Nebraska as part of Homeland Security.
And all is well with the world.

[Jacobin]

33. Time for another golf trip in Scotland with Limbaugh

Matt is such a fucking useless tool.