FRANK RICH: Dying to Save the G.O.P. Congress

[kpete]

October 29, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Dying to Save the G.O.P. Congress
By FRANK RICH

............

Our troops are held hostage by the White House’s political imperatives as much as they are by the violence. Desperate to maintain the election-year P.R. ruse that an undefined “victory” is still within reach, Mr. Bush went so far at Wednesday’s press conference as to say that “absolutely, we’re winning” in Iraq. He explained his rationale to George Stephanopoulos last weekend, when he asserted that the number of casualties was the enemy’s definition of success or failure, not his. “I define success or failure as to whether or not the Iraqis will be able to defend themselves,” the president said, and “as to whether the unity government” is making the “difficult decisions necessary to unite the country.”

.........................

The ultimate chutzpah is that Mr. Bush, the man who sold us Saddam’s imminent mushroom clouds and “Mission Accomplished,” is trivializing the chaos in Iraq as propaganda. The enemy’s “sophisticated” strategy, he said in last weekend’s radio address, is to distribute “images of violence” to television networks, Web sites and journalists to “demoralize our country.”

This is a morally repugnant argument. The “images of violence” from Iraq are not fake — like, say, the fiction our government manufactured about the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman or the upbeat news stories the Pentagon spends millions of dollars planting in Iraqi newspapers today. These images of violence are real. Americans really are dying at the fastest pace in at least a year, and Iraqis in the greatest numbers to date. To imply that this carnage is magnified by the news media, whether the American press or Al Jazeera, is to belittle the gravity of the escalated bloodshed and to duck accountability for the mismanagement of the war. Mr. Bush’s logic is reminiscent of Jeffrey Skilling’s obtuse view of his innocence in the Enron scandal, though at least Mr. Skilling has been held accountable for the wreckage of lives on his watch.

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If we really support the troops, we’ll move past Mr. Bush’s “fundamental question” to one from 1971 posed by a 27-year-old Vietnam veteran, John Kerry, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”

more at:
(Behind firewall)
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/opinion/29rich.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
or:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/28/202643/07

[Sydnie]

1. Great article!

Kick and rec!

[spanone]

2. Kick & R

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. This is what the George the Chimp has created. He should feel proud.

Lousy piece of ***t.

[gratuitous]

4. Rich has it quite right

The GOP is making noises right now about how they have a plan (and the Democrats, of course, don't have any plan) to solve this whole Iraq thing. But the plan can't be implemented, carried out, or really even discussed, until the Republicans are sure they'll continue to have the majority for the next two years. So, vote out the Republicans and their cunning scheme will die a-borning, America.

The question, naturally, is if the GOP has such a terrific plan, why can't they put it in motion on October 28, instead of waiting until November 8? But the GOP voters apparently like blood and death, and what's another 10 days anyway? It's not like anyone they know is in Iraq with his or her ass on the line.

[Laelth]

5. K & R

Nicely written and spot on. Thanks for posting it, kpete.

:dem:

-Laelth

[malaise]

6. Kick

Thanks Frank Rich:yourock:

[Hugin]

7. Same time, other side of mouth....

Bush is saying, "Flip-Flop".