Smug, Arrogant, Insufferable - Bill Bennett on the "Iraq Report"

the corner ^ | today | Bill Bennet

[Captain Kirk]

I would think that some of the folks here who want to follow McVain's nutty proposal to send even more troops would be a little shame-faced by their past record of predictions which include their failure to predict any of the following: the insurgency, the sectarian violence, the election of a Shi'ite fundementalist pro-Iranian regime, the failure for Iraqi oil "to pay for the war," the failure of the Iraqi's to greet us as liberators....and the list goes on and on. Instead, they seem positively cocky and proud of their mistakes....so much so that they want to make even more!

[kevinm13]

Read the article. I think you are putting yourself in a much more "holier than thou" position than is deserved. Judging somebody because they found a legal entertainment that hurt only their own wallet is shallow and petty. Dr. Bennett has a lot of good wisdom to offer and you should judge the words, not the character of the man.

Would you judge President Bush similarly because he had a wild life in his younger days? From the sounds of your comments, it appears to be your approach. Open yourself up to the rest of the world and not be so judgmental that you shut yourself out from words of by your definitions of so-called sinners.

May the one without sin cast the first stone.

[paulat]

Would you judge President Bush similarly because he had a wild life in his younger days? From the sounds of your comments, it appears to be your approach.

Wrong assumption. My President admitted his problem and corrected it. I highly honor him for that.

No such action from Bennett. Like I said...not "holier than thou." I just don't choose to associate any intellectual activity with Bill Bennett.

Don't worry about it. It's not your life. It's mine.

[paulat]

We give a service, people buy it. We treat our customers well.

Kudos! It's just me...I think $8 million dollars on gambling is wrong.

It's obvious that I'm in the minority. I'm okay with that.

[hosepipe]

Good analysis by Bennet..

And "we" are looking at Hillary as President in 2008 with an even stronger i.e. mandated.. democrat takover of Congress..

Because if Hillary wins 2008 so will many many more democrats in Congress..
Hopefully America has not become completely derailed..
2008 offers a train wreck of enormous import..

[colorado tanker]

Syria might cooperate - if we give them Golan, Lebanon and a guaranty of no regime change. And even then, who knows if they might still renege on the deal?

Would the price be worth it? I don't think so. (Even if we could get Israel to give up Golan.)

[Churchillspirit]

"Committeeism simply got out of control here"

The best committee consists of three people - one of whom is on vacation and another is off sick.

[SierraWasp]

Oh... I like it!!!

Check out my tagline answer to Alan "Simplistic" Simpson's cheap shot at core conservatives.

[Kakaze]

Thank You:)

[Churchillspirit]

Very disappointed in Senator Simpson.

He had one of the best lines during the 2000 election - Gore makes it up. Bush makes it work.

I liked it so much I had bumper stickers made and gave them to lots of GOP friends.

[MHT]

It was obvious that the "senior statesman" status that the media has given Baker is hollow. Just like Baker himself joked, the ISG is a bunch of has-been's. The picture of the ISG looked like a rest home advertisement. Sandra Day O'Connor is a lovely person--but would you put a former Supreme Court justice in the same league with Joan of Arc? And the last encounter Vernon Jordan had with armaments was "In 1980, [when he] was shot in the back by a white supremacist who said he was out to kill 'race-mixers.' The Jordan shooting occurred at 2 a.m. as he was returning to his motel with a white woman. The shooter was acquitted at trial but later admitted the act." (He was married at the time and his wife died in 1985 from cancer.) (Washington Post 1-27-1998)

The ISG recommendations are vapid. The audacity of this group to involve another sovereign nation (Israel) as a bargaining chip in another country's problems is beyond arrogant. Talk of returning Palestinians to their land is like talking about returning Manhattan to the Indians. Zionists bought that land starting in the 19th-century. Other Arabs in Damascus (those "flippable" Syrians) and Cairo sold Palestinian land they owned to the highest bidders. There was no fellow-Arab loyalty to the Palestinians as they are the lowest of the low on the Arab totem pole. The other lands without clear title were appropriated by the UN. If the Palestinians were so concerned then about the loss of their lands, why didn't they fight for their property rights legally sixty years ago? Baker's unathorized appropriation of Israel should have been no surprise considering that 15 years ago Baker told Israel to get rid of the settlements, their line of defense against Palestinian aggression.

Israel ceded the settlements and the land, and the Palestinians still aren't happy. The Arabs will never be happy no matter how much is ceded and how many infidels die. They will destroy Israel, overtake Europe, and do all they can to kill off Americans. They will eliminate Hindus, Buddhists, and all the rest. Then they will turn on each other, Arab v. Arab disagreeing over minutiae about shaving, how much a woman must cover herself, and who should have been next-in-line after Mohamed died. Their hunger will never be sated and the ISG appeasement is not "success in Iraq" but feeding the the machine that will destroy Western Civilization.

[SueRae]

His opinion was beautifully penned. ISn't there a place for this man in today's politics besides commentary? He's a straight shooter and I, for one would love to see him back in the policitcal scene.

[lepton]

Baker said it. Flip Syria means to change Syria from a hostile indifference or clandestine interferrence to a helpful posture, probably in return for US help in getting back the Golan Heights and improving its standing among 'civilized' nations.

Of course getting along with us would doom Syria.

[TChris]

The Saudis bought and paid for this report.

That pretty well covers it.

When it comes to the vast majority of politicians, and certainly committees full of them, one should always Follow The Money.

[dfwgator]

The Saudis fear losing their US bases to Iraq, so it stands to reason that they don't want us to succeed in Iraq.

[Colonel PK]

The report is a disgrace to the fighting man/woman in Iraq. The MSM is afraid that the American public will find out how well the U.S. and Iraqi troops are doing, and the report will then disappear.
For Christmas, I guess it will be ok to send the troops cans of lard. They can smear some on their ammo. Then watch the terrorists run back to Syria, Palestine, and Iran. Oops, only if they're not wounded, because then they could not return to their homeland.