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Condemning Bush Foreign Policy, LA Times Columnist Manages to Overlook 9-11
Los Angeles Times/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

Posted on 07/21/2006 3:52:15 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest

by Mark Finkelstein

July 21, 2006 - 06:38

Compare and contrast these two passages from today's Bush's Burned Bridges by LA Times columnist Rosa Brooks:

"Things fell apart so quickly. At the beginning of this millennium, the Cold War was over, the prosperous United States was the sole remaining superpower and global opinion was largely sympathetic to U.S. aims. In the wake of brutal ethnic wars in Central Europe and Africa, the international community had forged a new determination to prevent conflict and atrocities. The volatile Middle East was quiet, and the world seemed headed toward stability rather than chaos."

"After 9/11, the world was on our side, and we had a unique opportunity to turn tragedy into triumph."

Notice something? We managed to go directly from the mythically marvelous near-past of the Clinton years - when lions were poised to sit down with lambs to the music of swords being beaten into plowshares - to the period "after "9-11," in which all the world loved us. But, somehow, we managed to skip over the small detail of 9-11 itself.

There's the rub. If indeed Bill Clinton had bequeathed us such a wonderful world, poised for global Kumbaya had only the Bush administration not squandered the moment, then why did 9-11 happen just months after W took office? What of Khobar towers, the African embassy bombings, the USS Cole, not to mention the first bombing of the WTC itself? Did those not occur during the Camelot - Part Deux that was the Clinton administration? Were the seeds of 9-11 not merely sown on Clinton's watch but coming manifestly close to deadly fruition?

Brooks, a quintessential member of the liberal legal establishment, was during the Clinton years a senior advisor at the deliciously-named 'Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor' at the State Department.

Her column would have to be sunnier by several degrees to qualify as a jeremiad. Consider these excerpts:

'The total implosion of the Middle East highlights the continuing decline of U.S. prestige and influence.' 'The conflict will breed a new generation of martyrs, a new generation of hungry children growing up amid the rubble and a new generation of mistrustful, bitter fighters — some of whom will be willing to blow themselves up for the chance of taking Israelis or Americans down with them.'

'The cataclysm in the Middle East represents the final and total failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy.'

'As the conflagration worsens, Washington is indecisive and impotent.'

'We've burned up every ounce of goodwill we ever had, we've burned every diplomatic bridge we ever had, and now we can do nothing but sit on our hands as the ashes rain down all around us.'

Ah, if only we could return to the days of wine, roses and incipient world peace that was the Clinton administration. But, wait - we might yet have another chance to do so!


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; US: California; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 911; bush; clinton; foreignpolicy; iran; iraq; latimes; nkorea; rosabrooks; syria
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1 posted on 07/21/2006 3:52:20 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
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To: Behind Liberal Lines; Miss Marple; an amused spectator; netmilsmom; Diogenesis; YaYa123; MEG33; ...

LA Times/NewsBusters doom-'n-gloom ping to Today show list.


2 posted on 07/21/2006 3:52:58 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show Since 2002 So You Don't Have To.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

I got into a very big argument with a good friend over 9/11. She blamed Bush and America.

It was the death of a friendship.


3 posted on 07/21/2006 3:53:59 AM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

You can't lead a liberal to truth.


4 posted on 07/21/2006 3:58:54 AM PDT by auboy
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To: auboy

No but keep hitting them with it over and over like a 2x4 upside the head.


5 posted on 07/21/2006 4:04:48 AM PDT by flynmudd (Proud Navy Mom to OSSR Richard T. Blalock)
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To: coconutt2000

"It was the death of a friendship."

I know what you mean. Same for me. A lot of my "friends" (but not all, thank God) don't want to talk to me about "politics". What they mean is MY politics or facts. If you don't hate or have contempt for Bush, you can't talk to them.

I've had "friends" hang up on me. One of my cousins said they thought 9/11 was "our fault". My jaw dropped.



6 posted on 07/21/2006 4:08:35 AM PDT by garyhope (It's World War IV, right here, right now courtesy of Islam.)
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To: auboy
You can lead a liberal to water...
Then grab them by the neck and hold them under.

;^)

7 posted on 07/21/2006 4:09:54 AM PDT by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon)
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To: DCPatriot

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Dunk three times and bring up twice.


8 posted on 07/21/2006 4:17:18 AM PDT by flynmudd (Proud Navy Mom to OSSR Richard T. Blalock)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
"Ah, if only we could return to the days of wine, roses and incipient world peace that was the Clinton administration. But, wait - we might yet have another chance to do so!"

What an ignorant SOB spokesman for the delusional left. He ought to emigrate to Syria before the big one.

9 posted on 07/21/2006 4:22:49 AM PDT by patriot_wes (Law of Unintended Consequences; Infant Baptism = an unbelieving, unsaved church.)
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To: coconutt2000
I will never understand the absolute ignorance that is out there among so many liberals.

How in the world do they blame President Bush for the attacks of 9/11?

I really believe their philosphy is complete with ignorance and selfishness.

10 posted on 07/21/2006 4:27:27 AM PDT by Northern Yankee ( Stay The Course!)
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To: garyhope; coconutt2000

"I know what you mean. Same for me."

Same here. A very good friend with leftie views that I'd long humored (and never argued about), ended it on November 5th 2004, simply because I made a joking comment about Kerry losing.

The only communication since then was a emailed NY Times article about the environment, with his notation "These people are criminals!!!"

OK. Whatever.


11 posted on 07/21/2006 4:35:56 AM PDT by angkor
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To: DCPatriot
You can lead a liberal to water… Then grab them by the neck and hold them under

…and if you hold them under long enough, you can make them drink. ;-)

12 posted on 07/21/2006 4:41:21 AM PDT by auboy
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To: patriot_wes

Uh, it was a she - Rosa Brooks. The quote was a bit of sarcasm from the author of the original NewsBusters piece, me: governs/Finkelstein.


13 posted on 07/21/2006 5:04:31 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show Since 2002 So You Don't Have To.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

I'm grateful to have not eaten breakfast yet... This is a *** (three star) barf bagger.


14 posted on 07/21/2006 5:23:59 AM PDT by demkicker (democrats and terrorists are intimate bedfellows)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Some of these leftist idiots won't understand until their own town is attacked in 9/11 fashion. And even then, some will still not "get it". Witness the NY Times and its staff of blathering, opinionated journalists.


15 posted on 07/21/2006 5:26:37 AM PDT by meyer (A vote for amnesty is a vote against America.)
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To: coconutt2000
I got into a very big argument with a good friend over 9/11. She blamed Bush and America.

It was the death of a friendship.

You know, if there never ever was a US of A, this still would happen, but they would be hitting Great Britan or Germany. What happened on 9/11 is nothing new, its a continuation of the "war" that started in the 7th century.

We can thank people like Martel, etc. that we are not speaking Arabic......

16 posted on 07/21/2006 6:21:54 AM PDT by machman
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
Ah, if only we could return to the days of wine, roses and incipient world peace that was the Clinton administration.

What crack is she smoking .. she's trying to rewrite history again

Violence greets Clinton visit


17 posted on 07/21/2006 7:28:20 AM PDT by Mo1 (Bolton- "No one has explained how you negotiate a ceasefire with terrorists")
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To: Mo1

Think you know, but just for the record, that last line was my facetious imagination at work as to why what she might be thinking - not what she actually wrote.


18 posted on 07/21/2006 7:51:25 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show Since 2002 So You Don't Have To.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Yes I know :0)


19 posted on 07/21/2006 8:06:24 AM PDT by Mo1 (Bolton- "No one has explained how you negotiate a ceasefire with terrorists")
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To: auboy
"You can lead a liberal to water… Then grab them by the neck and hold them under …and if you hold them under long enough, you can make them drink. ;-)

counting......1137, 1138, 1139,

20 posted on 07/21/2006 3:33:04 PM PDT by patriot_wes (Law of Unintended Consequences; Infant Baptism = an unbelieving, unsaved church.)
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