Posted on 10/30/2006 3:29:37 PM PST by saveliberty
To say that "exit strategies" from Iraq have become the flavor of the month would be to exaggerate the situation to the point of absurdity. Exit strategies are not even the fall fashion. They are the regnant topic of conversation all across the political establishment and have been for some time. Even the Bush administration has some share in this discourse, having now abandoned the useless mantra of "staying the course" without quite defining what that "course" might be—or might have been. (A rule of thumb in politics is that any metaphor drawn from sporting activity is worse than useless, but at least one doesn't hear people saying that in Iraq we are "at the bottom of the ninth" or some such horse manure.)
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
wow - Hitchens pens another exceptional analysis.
The only exit strategy is to establish a regime that is at once powerful enough and civilized enough to suppress the butchers we went in there to put down in the first place.
Fail to do that, and we guarantee the next war will begin at a time and place not of our choosing.
Yes he does. He was on Hugh Hewitt last week (LOL the day of the infamous interview with Andrew Sullivan and the hilarious comeback by James Lileks). It was clear that he was concerned about the idea of losing our nerve but he was also of the mind that Republicans will do better than is stated by the MSM.
Oh it's worse than that. The war would broaden, on the argument that the West will have lost its will.
Fine, but I will never understand what is so horrible about "stay the course", which even Hitchens criticizes. It's meaning seems perfectly clear to me -- stay while the Iraqi democratic regime gets established and we stand up the Iraqi forces. That has always been and remains the game plan.
Even the Bush Administration had to give it up. He's right, it was counterproductive to use the catch phrase, particularly recently when it appears that the Administration will have to (if they haven't started already) strong arming the members of the Iraqi government who appear to be actively working to defeat success.
:-)
From last week
Hitchens bump
Hitchens on Hugh Hewitt last week
http://www.townhall.com/TalkRadio/Show.aspx?RadioShowID=5&ContentGuid=dcfbb811-974c-413a-8c39-27ab596d1e26
He was great.
:-)
Too good not to reference. French blogger Sittingbull on how to face down the terrorists (advice to the French govt by a French citizen)
http://extremecentre.org/2006/10/27/francifada/
Hat tip for this excellent link to Sachi at BigLizards, from this post
http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2006/10/found_french_ex.html
My thoughts are that 'stay the course' has not sounded so good recently due to the fact that the MSM and frankly conservative media outlets don't bring us enough information regarding those in Iraq who want us there and to stay the course.
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