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January 11, 2007
The Democratic Response To The President's Speech
The half vast editorial staff awoke from our blissful slumber to a familiar sense of ennui. In a constantly changing world, we find it oddly comforting to realize that no matter what transpires, the landmarks we lean upon while traversing an often confused political landscape remain as immutably fixed as the Northern star.
Last night the President's speech left us feeling vaguely unsettled. For the first time in American history a wartime President, unable to stop his own countrymen's serial releases of classified military documents to the enemy, scooped the New York Times by laying out his battle plan for all to see. He explained to the American people, soberly and in detail, why previous strategies have failed and why this new tack is different. He carefully avoided the impediments his opponents had, for years, cited as justification for their refusal to cooperate with the administration: cockiness, belligerance, failure to address the risks up front, reluctance to admit that mistakes have been made. Surely this olive branch would engender a new era of warm bipartisan collegiality. Still, we could not help but feel a bit lost.
Who was this strange man? Was the earth shifting on its axis? Suddenly we felt cast adrift: lost in a kindler, gentler world where suddenly things began to look different. Hopeful, even.
But soon enough grim reality was restored as the adults took charge and the universe assumed its former look and feel:
George W. Bush spoke with all the confidence of a perp in a police lineup. I first interviewed the guy in 1987 and began covering his political rise in 1993, and I have never seen him, in public or private, look less convincing, less sure of himself, less cocky. With his knitted brow and stricken features, he looked, well, scared. Not surprising since what he was doing in the White House library was announcing the escalation of an unpopular war.The president may well be right that we cannot afford to leave or lose in Iraq. He makes profound sense when he observes that a collapse of Iraq would mean the rise of a giant version of the Taliban's Afghanistan—with a million times the oil in the ground.
Surely Newsweak could not be about to agree with the President of the United States? Uneasily we sensed the earth shifting briefly beneath our shell-pink toes, but soon the tremor subsided and a helpful translation of the President's remarks soothed our untoward fears:
His acknowledgement of mistakes was oblique and not as brave as it sounded at first blush. Mistakes were made, and he said. "The responsibility rests with me," he said. What he meant to convey was that others had made the mistakes, but that he was stepped up to take the hit. Hoo-aw! He said that he had "consulted" congressional leaders of both parties before he came to a decision on sending more than 20,000 additional troops. He didn't really consult with members of Congress, and certainly not with Democrats, unless you consider Sen. Joe Lieberman a Democrat.
Sipping the bitter dregs of our cup of coffee, we wearily crushed a half-smoked Gauloise and savored the delicious thrill of victory; an Imperial Presidency forced to its knees by the power of the press:
Problem was, Bush had long since forfeited the political credibility that FDR was able to maintain through his presidency. Roosevelt made huge mistakes, and the rules of the times allowed him to hold back much information. But the public believed him in his role as a leader of the Western World. Luckily for Roosevelt, he was on the radio for the most part.
Adrift in a world deprived of God, restrictive societal notions of Right and Wrong, or even the comforting voice of Father Olbermann shouting from the rooftops that the Oppressive Climate of Fear prevents Americans from speaking truth to power, what else can we helpless mortals do but cling to the Comprehensive Democratic Plan for Victory that has the support of at least 60 percent of the American public?
So far, the war has been a miserable failure because we never had enough boots on the ground, (but the worst possible thing we can do would be to send more troops).Everyone agrees we can't allow Iraq to drown in its own blood. As the Iraq Survey Group stated, "If we leave and Iraq descends into chaos, the long-range consequences could eventually require the United States to return."
But clearly we can't continue with our current strategy. The Iraqis aren't standing up quickly enough. The effort to train and equip them failed because it was undermanned and underfunded, but the President can't guarantee that if we fix those problems things will improve.
We can't reinforce and step up the training of these Iraqi units who aren't ready, because that might make them depend on us too much.
The solution is obvious. To safeguard our troops from the dangers of war and prevent Iraq from dissolving into chaos, we must force these woefully underprepared Iraqi units to fight the battle they aren't prepared to fight now, and won't be ready to fight any time soon, completely alone.
At times like these, we feel doubly blessed to see our nation finally come together as one. United We Stand.
Posted by Cassandra at January 11, 2007 06:51 AM
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Comments
"Suddenly we felt cast adrift: lost in a kindler, gentler world where suddenly things began to look different."
Shades of Pappy Bush, eh what?
Posted by: camojack at January 11, 2007 08:04 AM