June 26, 2008
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CAL THOMAS: TELL IRAQ GOOD NEWS
There is a reason progress in Iraq is not receiving more attention. It isn’t that Americans are “bored” or “tired” or have “moved on” or “don’t care” or “have already made up their minds that the war was a colossal mistake.” All of these are variations on themes articulated by certain liberals, Bush haters, Barack Obama supporters (but I repeat myself) inside and outside the big media.
The main reason progress in Iraq is not receiving more attention is that the progress is considerable and the big media are not paying attention because they don’t like the new story line.
A headline in Saturday’s New York Times told you all you needed to know about the reluctance of the mainstream media to report on progress in Iraq. It read, “Big Gains for Iraq Security, but Questions Linger.”
“What’s going right?” began the lead sentence, which quickly added, “And can it last?” This is typical Times nay-saying, which undercuts anything that might reflect positively on the Bush administration or John McCain’s election prospects.
The story continued with these reluctantly offered positive gems: “Violence in all of Iraq is the lowest since March 2004. The two largest cities, Baghdad and Basra, are calmer than they have been for years. The third largest, Mosul, is in the midst of a major security operation. On Thursday, Iraqi forces swept unopposed through the southern city of Amara, which has been controlled by Shiite militias.” And then in a rebuke to all of those Democrats on Capitol Hill who have been saying, well, yes, the military has done a great job and violence is down, but there is no political settlement and so the Bush administration has failed, the story said, “There is a sense that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government has more political traction than any of its predecessors.”
That sounds to me like an important signpost on the road to — dare anyone say it? –victory. Perhaps after the “mission accomplished” public relations blunder and previous upsurges in violence, the Bush administration and McCain are hesitant to call attention to such progress. If they don’t make noise, how will the public, which has a short attention span and doesn’t like protracted conflict, know about it?
Considerable progress is being made, and the naysayers are being proved wrong.
*****************************************************************************************
Frank Rich, WAR IS SETTLED ISSUE
The Iraq war’s defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring the good. Maybe they’ll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn’t rate anymore.
When a bomb killed at least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market last week, ending an extended run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC’s) even bothered to mention it.
If you follow the nation’s opinion pages and the presidential campaign, Iraq seems as contentious an issue as Vietnam was in 1968. But in the country itself, Cindy versus Michelle, not Shiites versus Sunnis, is the hotter battle.
In America, the war has been a settled issue since early 2007. No matter what has happened in Iraq since then, no matter what anyone on any side of the Iraq debate has had to say about it, polls consistently have found that a majority of Americans judge the war a mistake and want out. For that majority, the war is over except for finalizing the withdrawal details.
But John McCain and the war’s last cheerleaders don’t recognize this immutable reality. It’s their constant and often shrill refrain that if only those peacenik McGovern Democrats and the “liberal media” acknowledged that violence is down in Iraq — as indeed it is, substantially — voters will want to press on to “victory” and not “surrender.” And therefore go for McCain.
McCain’s first general election ad, boosted by a large media buy in swing states this month, was all about war. It invoked his Vietnam heroism and tried to have it both ways on Iraq by at once presenting McCain as a stay-the-course warrior and taking a (timid) swipe at President Bush.
But reminding voters of his identification with Iraq, no matter how he spins it, pays no political dividends to McCain. People just don’t want to hear about it. Last week, the first polls conducted in Pennsylvania and Ohio since the ad began running there found him well behind in both states.
Should voters tune in, they’ll discover that the McCain policy is nonsensical on its face. If “we are winning” and the surge is a “success,” then what is the rationale for keeping American forces bogged down there while the Taliban regroups ominously in Afghanistan? Why, if this is victory, does McCain keep threatening that “chaos and genocide” will follow our departure? And why should we take the word of a prophet who failed to anticipate the chaos and ethnic cleansing that would greet our occupation?
*****************************************************************************************
Talk about parallel universes. Rich and Thomas seem to exist on two different planets.
There has been progress in Iraq, but after we helped destroy the infra-structure, there was progress to be made. After my sister’s house was leveled by a tornado, the Red Cross and Salvation Army showed up with coffee and donuts and a coupon for a motel room. That was also progress, wasn’t it? I mean, after the tornado, my sis had no running water, no toilet, no house! To then get a roof over her head for a night or two was progress compared to the concrete slab that used to have her house sitting on top of it.
American forces, allied forces, internal contingents within Iraq have all contributed to the destruction of buildings. All have contributed to the destruction of the water and electrical services. Some – just some, of these essential basic have been restored, but still Baghdad doesn’t have a continual supply of electricity to all parts of the city for more than a few hours a day.
That they have some electricity is progress over having no electricity, and having no electricity was a downgrade from the days prior to our invading Iraq.
Today, in Wichita, we have police officers in out schools. Today, in Baghdad, we have soldiers and policemen in large numbers walking the beat and sitting in humvees to attempt to maintain peace and order. Even then, two days ago two Americans were killed while conducting a meeting in a building in one of these “safe” zones.
Every mark of progress that Cal Thomas mentions must be weighed against the past, present and future. There is a reason John McCain says we may be in that area for a hundred more years. The tenuous progress isn’t freedom and liberty, nor is it the kind of progress American cities enjoy when we have policemen patrolling the area to help enforce regulations, rather than to enforce curfews, search people and having to be combat ready at all times.
I read cal Thomas and wonder how he can see to write anything with his head so far up George Bush’s ass. He gives heads that say there is progress, but lingering questions. Well, Car, there are lingering questions and they are legitimate questions. You mention cities which are now occupied by security forces, cities which are calmer than before. Before when? Before we invaded? Before yesterday or last year? New York is calmer than it was on the afternoon of 9/11, but look at the facts. We have more security, more fear and less freedom. Yet, the major players – Bush and McCain still speak of terror attacks and a need to be increasingly secure. The fear factor remains with the flames being fanned at every opportunity by not only some of the media, but a media reporting on what our leaders and contenders tell us – that we have to be afraid, very, very afraid. My lingering question is how log the fear factor will continue. My lingering doubt is that no one will come along and be rational enough to trump fear with reason.
Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in, but nothing changes unless people sit down and talk. I don’t mean the Bush kind of talk where he acts like a parent ordering others to do as he says. That’s not dialogue, that’s tyranny.
******************************************************************************************
When did adultery become so acceptable that it is over-looked, or forgiven in people who wish to be the leaders of our nation?
CAL THOMAS: TELL IRAQ GOOD NEWS
There is a reason progress in Iraq is not receiving more attention. It isn’t that Americans are “bored” or “tired” or have “moved on” or “don’t care” or “have already made up their minds that the war was a colossal mistake.” All of these are variations on themes articulated by certain liberals, Bush haters, Barack Obama supporters (but I repeat myself) inside and outside the big media.
The main reason progress in Iraq is not receiving more attention is that the progress is considerable and the big media are not paying attention because they don’t like the new story line.
A headline in Saturday’s New York Times told you all you needed to know about the reluctance of the mainstream media to report on progress in Iraq. It read, “Big Gains for Iraq Security, but Questions Linger.”
“What’s going right?” began the lead sentence, which quickly added, “And can it last?” This is typical Times nay-saying, which undercuts anything that might reflect positively on the Bush administration or John McCain’s election prospects.
The story continued with these reluctantly offered positive gems: “Violence in all of Iraq is the lowest since March 2004. The two largest cities, Baghdad and Basra, are calmer than they have been for years. The third largest, Mosul, is in the midst of a major security operation. On Thursday, Iraqi forces swept unopposed through the southern city of Amara, which has been controlled by Shiite militias.” And then in a rebuke to all of those Democrats on Capitol Hill who have been saying, well, yes, the military has done a great job and violence is down, but there is no political settlement and so the Bush administration has failed, the story said, “There is a sense that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government has more political traction than any of its predecessors.”
That sounds to me like an important signpost on the road to — dare anyone say it? –victory. Perhaps after the “mission accomplished” public relations blunder and previous upsurges in violence, the Bush administration and McCain are hesitant to call attention to such progress. If they don’t make noise, how will the public, which has a short attention span and doesn’t like protracted conflict, know about it?
Considerable progress is being made, and the naysayers are being proved wrong.
*****************************************************************************************
Frank Rich, WAR IS SETTLED ISSUE
The Iraq war’s defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring the good. Maybe they’ll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn’t rate anymore.
When a bomb killed at least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market last week, ending an extended run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC’s) even bothered to mention it.
If you follow the nation’s opinion pages and the presidential campaign, Iraq seems as contentious an issue as Vietnam was in 1968. But in the country itself, Cindy versus Michelle, not Shiites versus Sunnis, is the hotter battle.
In America, the war has been a settled issue since early 2007. No matter what has happened in Iraq since then, no matter what anyone on any side of the Iraq debate has had to say about it, polls consistently have found that a majority of Americans judge the war a mistake and want out. For that majority, the war is over except for finalizing the withdrawal details.
But John McCain and the war’s last cheerleaders don’t recognize this immutable reality. It’s their constant and often shrill refrain that if only those peacenik McGovern Democrats and the “liberal media” acknowledged that violence is down in Iraq — as indeed it is, substantially — voters will want to press on to “victory” and not “surrender.” And therefore go for McCain.
McCain’s first general election ad, boosted by a large media buy in swing states this month, was all about war. It invoked his Vietnam heroism and tried to have it both ways on Iraq by at once presenting McCain as a stay-the-course warrior and taking a (timid) swipe at President Bush.
But reminding voters of his identification with Iraq, no matter how he spins it, pays no political dividends to McCain. People just don’t want to hear about it. Last week, the first polls conducted in Pennsylvania and Ohio since the ad began running there found him well behind in both states.
Should voters tune in, they’ll discover that the McCain policy is nonsensical on its face. If “we are winning” and the surge is a “success,” then what is the rationale for keeping American forces bogged down there while the Taliban regroups ominously in Afghanistan? Why, if this is victory, does McCain keep threatening that “chaos and genocide” will follow our departure? And why should we take the word of a prophet who failed to anticipate the chaos and ethnic cleansing that would greet our occupation?
*****************************************************************************************
Talk about parallel universes. Rich and Thomas seem to exist on two different planets.
There has been progress in Iraq, but after we helped destroy the infra-structure, there was progress to be made. After my sister’s house was leveled by a tornado, the Red Cross and Salvation Army showed up with coffee and donuts and a coupon for a motel room. That was also progress, wasn’t it? I mean, after the tornado, my sis had no running water, no toilet, no house! To then get a roof over her head for a night or two was progress compared to the concrete slab that used to have her house sitting on top of it.
American forces, allied forces, internal contingents within Iraq have all contributed to the destruction of buildings. All have contributed to the destruction of the water and electrical services. Some – just some, of these essential basic have been restored, but still Baghdad doesn’t have a continual supply of electricity to all parts of the city for more than a few hours a day.
That they have some electricity is progress over having no electricity, and having no electricity was a downgrade from the days prior to our invading Iraq.
Today, in Wichita, we have police officers in out schools. Today, in Baghdad, we have soldiers and policemen in large numbers walking the beat and sitting in humvees to attempt to maintain peace and order. Even then, two days ago two Americans were killed while conducting a meeting in a building in one of these “safe” zones.
Every mark of progress that Cal Thomas mentions must be weighed against the past, present and future. There is a reason John McCain says we may be in that area for a hundred more years. The tenuous progress isn’t freedom and liberty, nor is it the kind of progress American cities enjoy when we have policemen patrolling the area to help enforce regulations, rather than to enforce curfews, search people and having to be combat ready at all times.
I read cal Thomas and wonder how he can see to write anything with his head so far up George Bush’s ass. He gives heads that say there is progress, but lingering questions. Well, Car, there are lingering questions and they are legitimate questions. You mention cities which are now occupied by security forces, cities which are calmer than before. Before when? Before we invaded? Before yesterday or last year? New York is calmer than it was on the afternoon of 9/11, but look at the facts. We have more security, more fear and less freedom. Yet, the major players – Bush and McCain still speak of terror attacks and a need to be increasingly secure. The fear factor remains with the flames being fanned at every opportunity by not only some of the media, but a media reporting on what our leaders and contenders tell us – that we have to be afraid, very, very afraid. My lingering question is how log the fear factor will continue. My lingering doubt is that no one will come along and be rational enough to trump fear with reason.
Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in, but nothing changes unless people sit down and talk. I don’t mean the Bush kind of talk where he acts like a parent ordering others to do as he says. That’s not dialogue, that’s tyranny.
******************************************************************************************
When did adultery become so acceptable that it is over-looked, or forgiven in people who wish to be the leaders of our nation?
