Democratic Incoherence Personified
Rahm Emanuel is a smart man most of the time. After reading
his LA Times op-ed, it's obvious that he isn't a smart man all of the time. Let's check out his logic on a few statements.
On the other hand, though we've suffered setbacks, we've deposed a dictator and killed his sons in a gunfight, turned over sovereignty to the Iraqis, seen three elections, helped in the writing of a new Iraqi Constitution while training a military capable of defending Iraq against terrorists and hostile neighbors like Syria and Iran.
In other words, Emanuel is comparing Somalia, where nothing got accomplished and our military was humiliated and defeated to Iraq, where a free nation has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of a repressive dictatorship as a symbol of hope to that troubled region. Emanuel's comparison isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Meanwhile, readership of serious bloggers like the Belmont Club, Black Five, Michael Yon and the columns from Austin Bay and Ralph Peters have attracted substantial readerships.
It means installing 'Cut-and-Run' John Murtha as House Armed Services Committee Chairman. Would that mean he'd have weekly trials of Marines based on the selective leaks of people close to the Haditha investigation? It'd also mean Speaker Pelosi, who supported, even encouraged Murtha's "immediate redeployment" stunt. That's something to hold unserious Democratic politicians accountable for, not the President.
In the end, Emanuel's op-ed is nothing more than the latest episode of Democrats coming unhinged at the thought of Republicans being in charge. Don't mistake it as a serious policy statement.
That's a mistake only a moonbat Democrat would make.
Posted Monday, May 29, 2006 12:08 PM
Comment 1 by nyomythus at 19-Jun-06 07:49 PM
ON OCT. 3, 1993, an American helicopter was shot down in Somalia. Efforts to rescue the downed pilots went terribly wrong, and 18 Americans were killed. It was a humiliating incident for the world's most powerful nation. It also devastated 18 American families. When President Clinton was told that his commanders on the ground had requested more troops but had been ignored by Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, Clinton acted decisively and fired him.Mr. Emanuel is rewriting history here. What happened is that commanders on the ground asked for more troops and tanks but Aspin denied the request, citing "political considerations" as the reason for not sending more. At the time, everyone took "political considerations" to mean that the President didn't want to commit troops for fear that his poll ratings would drop. Clinton did fire Aspin but it was seen as Clinton skapegoating Aspin instead of fessing up that he wouldn't send more troops.
President Bush has chosen a different course. As criticism mounts over the planning and execution of the Iraq war, eight retired generals have come forward in an unprecedented manner to call for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. The president has held firm, stating, "I'm the decider, and I decide what's best."Talk about hypocrisy. Comparing Somalia with Iraq is shameless and intellectually dishonest. Somalia was an American embarrassment of the highest order. No progress was made. When we cut and run, the warlord who ran Mogadishu was still in power. Rush frequently belittled Clinton's ineptitude, citing the military's not capturing Aidid as Clinton's failure. I remember Rush saying that Clinton looked like a fool for not finding Aidid when Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather conducted interviews with him on the nightly network news. I might add that we cut and run at John Murtha's urging.
On the other hand, though we've suffered setbacks, we've deposed a dictator and killed his sons in a gunfight, turned over sovereignty to the Iraqis, seen three elections, helped in the writing of a new Iraqi Constitution while training a military capable of defending Iraq against terrorists and hostile neighbors like Syria and Iran.
In other words, Emanuel is comparing Somalia, where nothing got accomplished and our military was humiliated and defeated to Iraq, where a free nation has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of a repressive dictatorship as a symbol of hope to that troubled region. Emanuel's comparison isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Congress had a constitutional responsibility to oversee the president's actions. Instead, it has spent the last three years on the sidelines, approving every funding request, nearly half a trillion dollars, no questions asked. The glaring mistakes made at every stage of the war were ignored in favor of feel-good speeches about staying the course.Is Emanuel suggesting that we shouldn't stay the course? Is Emanuel suggesting that Congress shouldn't have approved the military supplementals? What's the point that he's making? Is it that he's agreeing with Dean's statements that we can't win the war in Iraq? Or is he saying that spending all that money isn't worth it? I don't know the point he's trying to make. I suspect, though, that he's just trying to rip on the President's administration to score cheap political points. I don't think he's trying to make legitimate policy points. It wouldn't be the first time that a Democratic politician thought that a diatribe could be taken as a serious policy statement.
To date, Congress has held no hearings on the conduct of the war, and Wilson's question remains unanswered. Three years of worsening news have eroded the public's faith in the war.TRANSLATION: Three years of worsening news have eroded the public's faith in the Agenda Media. After all, they're the ones who've done everything in their power to paint Iraq as an unmitigated disaster. The NY Times running above-the-fold front page articles of Abu Ghraib 53 straight days was the most telling sign. Michael Isikoff saying on Softball with Chris Matthews that "We don't do school openings. We do bombings" was another telling moment.
Meanwhile, readership of serious bloggers like the Belmont Club, Black Five, Michael Yon and the columns from Austin Bay and Ralph Peters have attracted substantial readerships.
The president must be held accountable for deciding to stick with failed leadership, at a tremendous cost to our nation. And this Congress must be held accountable for letting him get away with it. After three years, nearly 2,500 lives and half a trillion dollars, it's clear we went to war with the leadership we had, not the one we needed.How do we hold the President accountable, Mr. Emanuel? He's run his last campaign. And if the buck stops with the President, why should the American people take it out on Congress? Let's also look at what holding Congress accountable means.
It means installing 'Cut-and-Run' John Murtha as House Armed Services Committee Chairman. Would that mean he'd have weekly trials of Marines based on the selective leaks of people close to the Haditha investigation? It'd also mean Speaker Pelosi, who supported, even encouraged Murtha's "immediate redeployment" stunt. That's something to hold unserious Democratic politicians accountable for, not the President.
In the end, Emanuel's op-ed is nothing more than the latest episode of Democrats coming unhinged at the thought of Republicans being in charge. Don't mistake it as a serious policy statement.
That's a mistake only a moonbat Democrat would make.
Posted Monday, May 29, 2006 12:08 PM
Comment 1 by nyomythus at 19-Jun-06 07:49 PM
I don't know what accounts for Murtha's near incoherence lately.
It's a Lovecraft Novel meets Mahatma Gandhi.
He is evolving.
It is an imposition of the unreal into the real, a seemingly incomprehensible force that stands behind an unborn mythology and pushes it to breach reality. It is the consciousness as a tool that is self realized between the adepts; to define the metaphor, which goddamned Conservative invariably do, is to obliterate the metaphor , which explains the seemingly unfounded passion. Peace be upon you all.
