Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Quote(s) Of The Day
OK, I have time for a quick hit and run. These quotes are just too good to pass up. I'm sure by now many of you have already read the dressing down of Bush and Donald Rumsfeld by retired Marine Lieutenant General Gregory S. Newbold. If you haven't, Greg D's got the goods. Is it me, or does it seem like an unusually large number of high ranking military officials have issued scathing, yet fact-based, criticisms of this administration and its Secretary of Defense over the past couple of years? Maybe I need to brush up on my history, but I can't remember another administration being called out as often as this one. And in the middle of a war no less. Amazing. Here's a taste, but you really should read the whole thing:
What we are living with now is the consequences of successive policy failures. Some of the missteps include: the distortion of intelligence in the buildup to the war, McNamara-like micromanagement that kept our forces from having enough resources to do the job, the failure to retain and reconstitute the Iraqi military in time to help quell civil disorder, the initial denial that an insurgency was the heart of the opposition to occupation, alienation of allies who could have helped in a more robust way to rebuild Iraq, and the continuing failure of the other agencies of our government to commit assets to the same degree as the Defense Department. My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions—or bury the results.Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark. You know it's bad when your top brass is going public en masse to point out how incompetent you've been. But it might be even worse when you're driving partisan pundits from the National Review out of the GOP altogether. Via Laura Rozen, check out George Conway's existential crisis. He might not be hopping on the Dem bandwagon, but it sure looks like an apathetic malaise is descending on the Right:
I voted for President Bush twice, and contributed to his campaign twice, but held my nose when I did it the second time. I don't consider myself a Republican any longer. Thanks to this Administration and the Republicans in Congress, the Republican Party today is the party of pork-barrel spending, Congressional corruption — and, I know folks on this web site don't want to hear it, but deep down they know it's true — foreign and military policy incompetence. Frankly, speaking of incompetence, I think this Administration is the most politically and substantively inept that the nation has had in over a quarter of a century. The good news about it, as far as I'm concerned, is that it's almost over.Almost over? Not quite. Unfortunately. But I agree with everything else he said (though I was never a Republican, nor did I ever vote for Bush - obviously). Maybe 2006 is providing us with an updated version of 'Morning in America' - not in the sense that there is cause for unbridled optimism, but in the sense that so many people seem to be 'waking up' to reality. Finally. Gazing around at the situation, some might wish they were still sleeping, though. Or wondering if this is really a nightmare that they have yet to wrest themselves from. Three more years folks. Three more years.
