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David Frum responds to Vanity Fair's lies : the Neocon still support Bush on Iraq
French blog for George W. Bush ^ | 11/4/06 | drzz

Posted on 11/04/2006 9:38:42 AM PST by drzz

After having read that Vanity Fair had "pointed out" the Neocon rebuttal of Bush's policy in Iraq, I wrote to David Frum this message :

drzz Sent : Saturday, November 4, 2006 7:55 AM To : David Frum I discovered a claim in my local newspaper that you and some neoconservatives said critics about the Bush administration. According to the website of Vanity Fair, you said that Bush "says the words but doesn't understand the ideas." I have read also Richard Perle said the Iraq war was a mistake.

I hardly believe these comments come from neoconservatives, and I write to you to know wether it is true or not. It is just a question from one of your daily reader who finds "Vanity Fair"'s claim very suspicious.

My best regards,

He then wrote a new article on his blog which denies Vanity Fair's lies.

"My most fundamental views on the war in Iraq remain as they were in 2003: The war was right, victory is essential, and defeat would be calamitous.

And that to my knowledge is the view of everybody quoted in the release and the piece: Adelman, Cohen, Ledeen, Perle, Pletka, Rubin, and all the others. "

See the whole article on : http://drzz.over-blog.org


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: arrogance; bush; conservatives; democrats; disinformation; dnc; election; generalchat; gop; iraq; jihad; liberals; media; military; msm; republican; terrorism; treason; votegop; wot
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1 posted on 11/04/2006 9:38:44 AM PST by drzz
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To: drzz
It would be better if it were hyperlinked more directly: David Frum's reply
2 posted on 11/04/2006 9:43:54 AM PST by Stepan12 (NY Times: Bush finds cure for cancer; healthcare workers to suffer massive layoffs)
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To: Stepan12

bttt


3 posted on 11/04/2006 9:59:47 AM PST by Matchett-PI (To have no voice in the Party that always sides with America's enemies is a badge of honor.)
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To: drzz

This is great. The dems are pulling lie after lie out of their pointy hats, which they wear on their pointy heads.


4 posted on 11/04/2006 10:04:19 AM PST by syriacus (Got a moment? The election prayer thread's at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1731268/posts)
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To: Stepan12

American Thiner will be running Perle's response later this afternoon. How anyone could believe the VF piece wasn't a distorted hit job is beyond me.


5 posted on 11/04/2006 10:08:14 AM PST by the Real fifi
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To: Stepan12
Frum in his blog: I can speak only for myself. Obviously I wish the war had gone better. It's true I fear that there is a real danger that the US will lose in Iraq. And yes I do blame a lot that has gone wrong on failures of US policy.

Is this Frum's endorsement of Bush's Iraq policy? With friends like these, Bush must be wondering,....

6 posted on 11/04/2006 10:11:15 AM PST by Austin Willard Wright
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To: Austin Willard Wright
The ONLY reason we may LOSE is because the DEMOCRATS, all but Joe Lieberman, have fought BUSH at every turn and that has given the Green Light to the Insurgents that they have FRIENDS in America...the DEMOCRATS!

IF this turns into CHAOS, ONLY the DEMOCRATS will be to blame for not backing our effort!!

7 posted on 11/04/2006 10:17:00 AM PST by Suzy Quzy
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To: Austin Willard Wright
Is this Frum's endorsement of Bush's Iraq policy? With friends like these, Bush must be wondering,....

The U.S. could lose, especially with the cut and run Democrats calling the shots.

8 posted on 11/04/2006 10:17:20 AM PST by Stepan12 (NY Times: Bush finds cure for cancer; healthcare workers to suffer massive layoffs)
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To: drzz
David Frum, in his blog at:

http://frum.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGIyM2M4NzFlNTQwN2QxNzU0MDg4MjNiMjMwYjk4Zjk=

Makes the following interesting points:

When I talk in the third quotation above about failures "at the center," for example, I did not mean the president. If I had, I would have said so. At that point in the conversation, I was discussing the National Security Council, whose counter-productive interactions produced bad results.

And when I talked in the second quotation about "persuading the president," I was repeating this point, advanced here last month. In past administrations, the battle for the president's words was a battle for administration policy. But because Bush's National Security Council malfunctioned so badly, the president could say things without action following - because the mechanism for enforcing his words upon the bureaucracy had broken.

He is talking about a disconnect between (1)the President's words, the policy ideas he seems to reflect in those words, and (2) the administrations actions, the "implementation" of policy which, to Frum appeared to NOT reflect the President's ideas.

And where is it that he is talking about that disconnect taking place? At the National Security Council. And who was in charge of the National Security Council? Condi Rice. And what have I been noting here in Freeper land for ages now? Ever since Condi became head of the State Department and appointed Nicholas Burns as her Deputy Undersecretary for Political Affairs, the State Department policy, particularly in the Middle East with respect to Israel, Syria, and Iran has seemed at a disconnect with the President's words and the ideas he promoted in his first term - your'e either with us or against us. Day by day, Condi has taken our foreign policy to the extremes of everything Kerry promoted in the 2004 campaign (when Nicholas Burns was his cheif foreign policy advisor) - talk and retreat, talk and retreat, talk and retreat.

I think that Condi remains a source of where the "Neocons" have concerns with the administration. Bush speaks one thing, while the implementation, the actual actions by Condi and Burns works at cross purposes to what Bush thought went he spoke of his policy goal. Why should we be surprised; her political mentor was Chuck Hagel.

9 posted on 11/04/2006 10:18:47 AM PST by Wuli
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To: Stepan12
I should have known better, instead of buying into the Vanity Fair lies. Great to see that Frum sets straight what Vanity Fair distorted. Nonetheless it was no wise choice to give VF an interview to this time, which they could use for the Democrats.
Nonetheless I would also like to hear a statement by Perle, what he has to say to VF and his stance on Iraq.
10 posted on 11/04/2006 10:40:22 AM PST by SolidWood
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To: SolidWood
I should have known better, instead of buying into the Vanity Fair lies. Great to see that Frum sets straight what Vanity Fair distorted. Nonetheless it was no wise choice to give VF an interview to this time, which they could use for the Democrats. Nonetheless I would also like to hear a statement by Perle, what he has to say to VF and his stance on Iraq.

I'd like to see those remarks from American Thinker, too.

11 posted on 11/04/2006 10:44:57 AM PST by Stepan12 (NY Times: Bush finds cure for cancer; healthcare workers to suffer massive layoffs)
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To: drzz

bttt


12 posted on 11/04/2006 10:46:17 AM PST by 1035rep
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To: Stepan12

Seven news cycles left before election day...almost all on the weekend. Not good.


13 posted on 11/04/2006 11:00:16 AM PST by soupcon
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To: Wuli

Frum and the other the Neocons are searching for a new host on which they can serve as parasite, just like when the switched from the Democrats to the GOP. I think Frum was mainly bothered that this was published before the election. He is hedging his bets and some freepers are buying it hook, line, and sinker.


14 posted on 11/04/2006 11:05:45 AM PST by Austin Willard Wright
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To: Suzy Quzy

"all but Joe Lieberman,"

And Zell Miller.

Those two should start a third party.


15 posted on 11/04/2006 11:07:20 AM PST by Names Ash Housewares
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To: Austin Willard Wright

Sorry, I have not kept up with whatever history is driving your animus towards Mr. Frum.

I think you should take your confirmed bias concerning him out of the issue and look at the specifics of the facts and ideas and, on that basis, decide if his comments have merit.

I have been pointing out, for a long time here, how the new State Dept under Condi has, week by week, month by month, relfected what has seemed to me like a disconnect between Bush's ideas and State's actions. I thought only a John F. Kerry State Department could - in the midst of the standoff between Israel and Hizbolla - demand that no cease fire was worth having if it returned everything to the "status quo ante" and then deliver just such a result, and worse. Yet, that is the kind of ineffective, feckless State Department Condi has delivered and nothing about her chuminess with Palestinian terrorists is reflected in any words from Bush. She seems to be running her own foreign policy.

What does this matter, with respect to David Frum's comments. Part of his comments noted the same kind of diconnect between Bush and the actions of the National Security Council - when Condi was in charge there.


16 posted on 11/04/2006 11:19:35 AM PST by Wuli
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To: drzz
Vanity Fair


17 posted on 11/04/2006 12:10:59 PM PST by Donald Rumsfeld Fan ("Fake but Accurate": NY Times)
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To: syriacus
Suprised? I didn't think so.

If they misquoted Adelman, Cohen, Ledeen, Perle, Pletka, Rubin, it will be...interesting to watch.

18 posted on 11/04/2006 1:25:11 PM PST by Valin (http://www.irey.com/)
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To: the Real fifi

Nothing yet.


19 posted on 11/04/2006 1:32:38 PM PST by Valin (http://www.irey.com/)
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To: Valin

No. He's traveling and it may take a while.


20 posted on 11/04/2006 1:34:40 PM PST by the Real fifi
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