Mark Steyn: "Doers and Disparagers"

The Washington Times ^ | 12/29/03 | the great, one and only Mark Steyn

[Zechariah11]

Two weeks ago, George W, Bush's Christmas present to the world (if not to Democratic presidential candidates) prompted a wide array of interpretations. But, to simplify things, most of them fell between two extremes.

The one end is neatly distilled by the headline on John Podhoretz's column on Saddam's capture from the New York Post: "Message: America wins."

[Zechariah11]

Steyn has got to be rising to the top of the list of candidates for MVP columnist of the year. Perhaps Krauthammer as runner-up.

[txzman]

What is hilarious to me (and interesting) are the large number of previous neutral or liberal-leaning columnists and talk show hosts who now openly criticize or at least poke fun at the inane Democratic positions.

Paraphrasing Van Morrison....'Rave On Howard Dean...'

[VoodooEconomics]

I am in the America is winning group.

However, we could easily have a setback from our recent wins if Pakistan were to fall into chaos - and judging by what is going on there ... the enemy is desperate but maybe not without a few cards to play.

[rickmichaels]

"Arab street"

It's not a street. It's actually a dimly-lit alley where smelly winos drink booze, drug addicts shoot up, and flea-infested cats fight each other for rotting bones in dumpsters.

[TexasNative2000]

Col. Gadhafi is merely the latest example of what one might call trickle-down destabilization. As I wrote in early May, "You don't invade Iraq in order to invade everywhere else, you invade Iraq so you don't have to invade everywhere else."

More of that "Pentagon diplomacy. . . "

[jacquej]

Agree with you, Voodoo, and am very worried about Mushareff's (sp?) "health", and what is going to happen if the wrong people in Pakistan get control of any WMDs there.

This battle is going to get scarier before we can feel that we have won. I think it is going to be a long, slow struggle... one from which we cannot flinch, but one that is going to test our republic.

Given the crazy talk coming from the left, I am not as optimistic about the outcome of this "test", as I might have been in younger days. It seems that reasonable discourse has been lost, and how on earth do we get it back again?

[Zechariah11]

Given the crazy talk coming from the left, I am not as optimistic about the outcome of this "test", as I might have been in younger days. It seems that reasonable discourse has been lost, and how on earth do we get it back again?

Why so gloomy? Things are going well.

[jacquej]

I agree with you, Zechariah, but I am taking a look way down the road, and not happy with what I see off in the distance.