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June 30, 2005

Oliphant on the Elephant King

Oliphant hits the mark:

via TJ at AlsoAlso, who hits the mark as well:

I know the fashionably liberal blog response seems to be outrage at Bush's conflation of 9/11 and Iraq. But that is such old news, and I actually think it's turning into a negative for him, or at least subject to rapidly diminishing returns. No, what really caught my attention from the speech was "It's worth it."

I'm racing my way through Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz today, so I'm keenly observant that the problem I'm having here is probably one about me--but my first thought on those words from the President was literally "you miserable fucker--what would you know about it?" What galls me is the presumption about something that is ultimately individual and personal. All of the sunny crap that we're turning the corner and things are moving well ahead--that's his call to make those statements, and if I don't believe them then I don't, but he's certainly got a big right to his opinion on the matter. But it truly shows supreme disregard to to declare for those who have really made a concrete and brutal sacrifice, that it was worth it. And to say so, knowing how tenuous even this level of instability might be? I couldn't believe the nerve.

I hadn't really looked at Bush's speech from that perspective until I read TJ here. I'm certainly not surprised at the arrogance of Bush's remarks. It's typical Wspeak hubris. The fact that a guy whose father pulled strings to keep him out of Vietnam and couldn't finish the cakewalk TANG service his father did get him manages to be the guy whose colored as the Uber Patriot Troop Supporter is a tribute to GOP marketing prowess (hows that for a run-on sentence..?).

I think the speech is having the opposite effect than what was intended. It seems like Iraq war morale is lower now, rather than the upswing that Bush/Rove had hoped for.

Oddly, Tony Blair is dancing on the heads of his cabinet much the way Bush is dancing on the graves of dead Americal soldiers:

"The trouble with having a political discussion on the basis of things that are leaked is that they are always taken right out of context. Everything else is omitted from the discussion and you end up focusing on a specific document," he said. "It would be absolutely weird if, when the Iraq issue was on the agenda, you were not constantly raising issues, trying to work them out, get them in the right place," he said.

So release to the public all the government records having to do with the decision making in the lead up to the Iraq invasion. Problem solved.

In the meantime, stop sniveling:

Despite his strong linkage of the Iraq campaign to the Sept. 11 attacks, Blair denied that the decision to go to war had been fixed long before it was carried out. He said the so-called "Downing Street memos," which suggest the Bush administration had made up it mind to invade by 2002, painted a distorted picture.

"People say the decision was already taken. The decision was not already taken," he said.

Then you'd better fire your cabinet, Tony. The noise from them NOT denying the content of the Downing Street memos is deafening.

Posted by Carla at June 30, 2005 11:29 AM