Posted on 12/03/2005 4:32:25 PM PST by ncountylee
President Bush arrived a little late with the 7th Cavalry. Until he rode up last week with an arsenal of powerful arguments for fighting on in Iraq, his policy had been dangerously enfiladed by hostile fire, some of it wild but all of it taking a toll on public confidence.
The ambush by Rep. John Murtha was a critical moment, his record as a defender of America in blood and word suddenly legitimizing the argument for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq. A new CNN/ USA Today /Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans want the troops withdrawn within the next 12 months. That's strikingly similar to the numbers who wanted America out of Vietnam in the pivotal year of 1970.
Two developments have brought public confidence to this low ebb, and it's important to distinguish between them so that we can confront the central issue. The first is the incontrovertible evidence that sound plans for dealing with post-invasion Iraq were recklessly disregarded. This is by far a more relevant issue than the red herring that Bush lied about the prewar intelligence and misled the nation. Anybody who spoke to him before the invasion, as I did, knows that the president truly believed the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, as did British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former President Bill Clinton, ambassadors at the United Nations, and so many others, as I documented recently.
"Greatest battle." The Big Lie campaign by the Democrats is a cheap cop-out for those who voted for the war. These two strands of criticism about the Iraq venture--flawed intelligence and the execution of the occupation--are important and must be thoroughly examined--but not now.
Hard to believe he's married to Gloria Steinhem.
Have to forgive him that lapse.
In short, we must stay. What may have been originally a war of choice is now a war of necessity. So we must stop all this destabilizing talk about withdrawal. To withdraw to some timetable divorced from reality on the ground would grant militant Islam a huge victory, and Arabs who want to democratize and modernize would know they could not count on America to stand by its friends. Whatever the cost of our staying may be, the cost of retreat would be much higher. It would hardly persuade Zarqawi and his fellow terrorists to stop pursuing Americans around the globe. For those who think it was a big mistake to go in, it would be a bigger mistake to quit now.To me, this is what distinquishes a critic of the administration from a traitor. The traitors willfully misunderstand the truth of this paragraph.
Way to go Mort.
We get USN&WR. Zuckerman is great on the Middle East but way out to lunch on domestic stuff. He's barely bearable at times and the rest of the magazine routinely hacks me off. Our subscription has another year and a half to run. I pray that my wife doesn't renew it. Especially now that John Leo will no longer be in it. Maybe that will seal the deal.
If it was up to me, we would never have gotten it. It's only good in comparison to Time and Newsweek, which isn't saying much.
Bush needs to tell the nation why he lets Iran build IEDs and lets Iran off with a free pass.
Forget all the Iraq stuff for now, Mr. Bush. Tell us why Iran can kill our troops with IEDs and you do not go after "nations that harbor terrorists" like you promised.
Zuckerman is not one of the good guys.
US news is Lamestream. Gergen is an employee. Center Left is still Left.
He's a rat.
US Blues and World Retort's editorial policy is consistently left of my opinions, I wont pay for this glossy fishwrap.
Self absorbed beltway bandits.
Gloria did not marry Mort. She married a man named David Bales in 2000. He has since died.
It was his third marriage and her first.
She has not remarried.
Maybe she dated Mort.
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We SkyTroopers of the 7th Cavalry salute our Commander-in-Chief BUSH in time of war:
http://www.lzxray.com
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set2.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set3.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
.
I cut my news-junky teeth on USNWR forty years ago. Back then it was head and shoulders above Time and Newsweek, which were mostly busy slipping pictures of topless women in under the guise of news. US News has slipped a long long way since then. Time and Newsweak had little distance left to fall, but they've done their best.
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