Posted on 12/06/2006 9:08:30 PM PST by dennisw
Smug, Arrogant, Insufferable [Bill Bennett]
I’ve now read the report, and I can’t add much beyond what Andy McCarthy and Rich Lowry have written about its contents and internal contradictions. For a report to identify the outside agitators (which happen to also be the worst terrorist-sponsoring states in the world — Iran & Syria) as “provid[ing] arms, financial support, and training for Shiite militias within Iraq,” i.e., fomenting war, and then say we should negotiate and offer incentives to those countries is simply too much to bear. Insult is added to injury with the absurdity that Iran and Syria then become members of something called the Iraq Support Group. Committeeism simply got out of control here.
But bear this report we have — for many months in the making. The denouement of the report may not be, however, the contents themselves (we had a pretty good idea of what was coming) but the behavior of the commissioners and the media.
James Baker opened his thoughts today by saying Iraqis “have been liberated from the nightmare of a tyrannical order only to face the nightmare of brutal violence.” So much for any moral distinction between a terrorist sponsoring dictatorship and an embattled, weak, effort toward self-government. The distinction between permanent darkness and days of light and darkness both, and a hope for dawn was lost.
Here’s what I observed from the press conference and subsequent commentary on cable news.
One reporter got it exactly right in his question: “[T]ell me, why should the president give more weight to what you all have said given, as I understand, you went to Iraq once, with the exception of Senator Robb. None of you made it out of the Green Zone. Why should he give your recommendations any more weight than what he's hearing from his commanders on the ground in Iraq?”
Who are these commissioners and what is their expertise in Iraq — or even foreign policy? Ralph Peters has made the point, “Washington insiders pretend to respect our troops but continue to believe that those in uniform are second-raters and that any political hack can design better war plans than those who've dedicated their lives to military service.” The entire report is contemptuous of the military, spoken of as pawns on a chess table, barriers, observers, buffers, and trainers. Never as what they are trained to be: the greatest warriors in the world. Would it have been too much to ask that one general, or even one outspoken believer in the mission from the get-go, be on this commission?
I’ve heard again and again — at the press conference and on subsequent interviews — variants of “this is how a commission should work in Washington,” “this has been great bi-partisanship,” “it’s too bad we can’t operate this way more,” “if any message is to be sent it’s the message that five Republicans and five Democrats of goodwill sat down since March and put together a remarkable document.”
This is the triumph of the therapeutic, where bipartisanship — a hug across the aisle — has become a higher value than justice. The crisis of the house divided has been inverted; we no longer are worried about the crisis but the House, the moral, the good, and the just take a backseat to collegiality. Does history really give a hoot about bipartisanship? Who cares whether they are getting along? The task is to do the right thing, especially in war. But, when relativism is the highest value, agreement becomes the highest goal, regardless of right and wrong. And, woe to those who disagree, they will be sent whence they came — the outer reaches of “extremism.” This is the tyranny of the “best people” today’s equivalent of the Cliveden set.
One reporter asked if the president would accept this “edict,” as if there's force of law here. (the press has bought into the tyranny already). Another asked how hard it would be for the president to give up his power, “to take his hands off the wheel.” Do we all need a civics lesson? I’m tempted to go on about knowledge of American government, but for brevity, can we just say the president is the commander-in-chief and in charge — because he is elected by the people.
Perhaps the most systemic problem with the report is it didn't tell us how to win; it answered how to get out. The commissioners answered the wrong question, but it was the one they wanted to answer.
In all my time in Washington I've never seen such smugness, arrogance, or such insufferable moral superiority. Self-congratulatory. Full of itself. Horrible.
Posted at 4:20 PM
All right, now I'm getting angry. If there is a degree of smugness to be highlighted here it isn't altogether on the part of this disgraceful commission, it's on the part of the smarmy, self-congratulatory press who feel that somehow the election and this idiot report validate their sordid sellout of everything they said they were standing for in preference to everything they actually do.
This is no edict. It isn't anything at all other than the opinion of bloated egos, skewed priorities, and fat, self-righteous, disgusting nomenklatura who hide behind the efforts and lives of men and women far better than themselves.
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.
and embolden, empower and incite jihaists to visit america, the weak lowly dog who ran home to hide under the couch.....
might as well throw out the welcome mat..
Just like the 9/11 Commission. Our politicians and the media, whoring off each other, one big cocktail party. It's all about them, not the problem at hand.
If the next WMD fries a good portion of them, maybe they'll get it. But, I suppose our enemies know enough to leave them alone. That old saying, something like "If your adversary is in the process of destroying himself, stay out of the way", comes to mind.
screw that- what makes better sense is to go to both russia and china as islam is busy threatening them too.... maybe a concensus can be formed without many trades....
The old... "A camel is a horse made by committee" sure fits this smashing bunch of chumps to a tea!!!
NBC news was orgasmic tonight, with the idea that Bush was now finally painted so far into a corner that he has no way out whatsoever!!! The heavy breathing was fogging up the camera lense of all 7 of the prigs!!!
America must be taught the hard lesson that there is never any justification for even short interruptions in social programs for diversions of tax dollars to military operations... NEVER!!!
We have our own "victims" on our own plantations that we dare not disturb. Katrina should have proved that to all you miserable warmongering conservatives who make these stupid attempts to save other country's people from tyranny. (/sourchasm)
"...the smarmy, self-congratulatory press who feel that somehow the election and this idiot report validate their sordid sellout..."
According to remarks made by Sandra Day O'Connor played on Rush's show, she expects the press to convince the American people of exactly that:
Rush: Iraq Surrender Group Aims For "Bipartisan Consensus" To Unite Country In Defeat
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1749542/posts
RUSH: Sandra Day O'Connor, she's a little bit miffed at the question about why should the president listen to these guys, and at the end of her answer she went another direction.
O'CONNOR: This is not an ongoing commission. It really is out of our hands, having done what we did. It's up to you, frankly. You are the people who speak to the American people. You're there interpreting this and talking to America, and I hope that the American people will feel that if they are behind something in broad terms, that we'll be better off. I think we will, and I hope in general others think so, too.
RUSH: Yeah, this is a woman who doesn't think the courts ought to be criticized, that judges ought to be criticized. And look, hey, our work's done. We wrote the book, we got our 79 Commandments here, our recommendations have been done, but we're not an ongoing commission, damn it. I mean, if we had chartered ourselves properly we'd become a fourth branch of government here, the Iraq surrender group, and we would continue to go out and make press conferences and so forth, but we can't do that, so it's out of our hands now.
RUSH: It's up to you, frankly, you in the Drive-By Media. You are the people who speak to the American people. You're there interpreting this and talking to America and I hope the American people will feel that if they're behind something in broad terms that we'll be better off. So what she's saying is to the Drive-By Media, look, take what we've said, the Iraq surrender document, go out there and convince the American people that all is lost, there's no hope, cherry-pick what we've said to fit your agenda because we gave you plenty of things in there you can cherry-pick. Go ahead and take them out of context and get the American people unified once and for all on the fact that we had no business being there in the first place, no business going there in the first place, and that we need to bring everybody home and so we can have consensus and bipartisanship.
Does Baker own the Golan Heights?
How is it his to give?
These are the words of a criminal psychopath who knows what his price is, and, it having been met by the barbarian ragheads of Araby, assumes everyone else has a reachable price as well.
By his own words James Baker stands convicted as a traitor to the American cause and should be afforded the treatment usual and customary for those who sell out their country in time of war for thirty pieces of silver.
Yes, you are correct and he's just as insufferable as Buchanan.
It is completely delusional, on Baker's part.
James Baker is an despicable, evil man. God willing he will not be long for this earth, and his demise will be long and painful.
You are just seeing the re-emergence of the "Arabists". Even GW's Dad and Reagan' to some extent' tilted to that view. GW is without a doubt the most pro-Israel president we have ever had. For those that say he is like his father don't know what they are talking about. I am fairly certain that 43's staunch support for Israel has caused some tension at times.
You know I think you're spot on with that quip.
The Saudis seem to have a string attached to GWB.
Thanks for posting this, dennis.
Bears repeating.
James A. Baker, who watched the September 11 attacks at the Ritz-Carlton with the Bin Laden family. He has been hired by the Saudi's to defend against a trillion-dollar lawsuit brought forth by the September 11 families.
Mort Kondracke said that Bush should appoint Baker to the job of getting Syria to flip............LOL.
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