The Op-Ed is an exercise in rank deceit from the start. To lavish themselves with credibility -- as though they are war skeptics whom you can trust -- they identify themselves at the beginning "as two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration's miserable handling of Iraq." In reality, they were not only among the biggest cheerleaders for the war, but repeatedly praised the Pentagon's strategy in Iraq and continuously assured Americans things were going well. They are among the primary authors and principal deceivers responsible for this disaster.
Worse, they announce that "the Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility," as though they have not.
read on...
- Pollack and O'Hanlon have obviously not read this Oxfam report about the horrible plight of children in Iraq either. The humanitarian crisis there doesn't fit with their cheerleading talking points, obviously.
- While they're at it, they might also want to read this: "Misunderstanding Moqtada al-Sadr".
- Supreme court justice John Roberts had a "benign idiopathic seizure" (cause unknown) on Monday and has apparently "fully recovered". He had a similar seizure back in 1993. (h/t penlan)
- Sad news. Reportedly, (but not yet confirmed) a second South Korean hostage has been killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
- Condi and Sec Def Robert Gates are over in the ME handing over billions of dollars in "military aid". Fear not. It's not like they're aiming to start a full-scale ME war or anything. (cough cough)
- Senator Ted "The internet is a series of tubes" Stevens' (R-Alaska) home was searched on Monday "focusing on records related to his relationship with an oil field services contractor jailed in a public corruption investigation, a law enforcement official said." I wonder if Stevens cleaned out his tubes before the cops showed up.
- Via The Independent, the headline: " Britain will take troops out of Iraq regardless of US, says PM"
And a quote:
President Bush heaped praise on Mr Brown after their first meeting since he became Prime Minister, playing down suggestions that Mr Blair's departure would weaken the strong US-UK partnership. Revealingly, Mr Brown did not return the personal compliments, instead focusing on the historic links between the two countries and predicting they would get even stronger. This reflected his desire for a more business-like relationship with the President, instead of the strong personal bond forged by Mr Blair.
It also reflects the fact that Bush won't be making many new friends any time soon - except for those he can buy.
- Ujjal Dosanjh on the Conservative government's handling of the Afghanistan war: "“Canadians need to know who's in charge here,”. Well, with a useless defence minister like Gordon O'Connor, we know it can't (and shouldn't) be him.
In Ottawa, General Rick Hillier seemed to contradict Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor's optimistic predication that the Afghans would be taking on most of the front-line combat by next spring in Kandahar province, where Canada's powerful battle group is waging a tough counter-insurgency war against the Taliban.
“It's going to take a long while,” Gen. Hillier told CTV's Question Period, referring to the training of the Afghan National Army. “We've just started the process.”
Umm...what??
Also of note, when Conservative mouthpiece John Reynolds was on Sunday's CTV Question Period he actually said that he didn't think the war would be a major issue during the next election. I think Reynolds has been getting just a little too much sun - or maybe not enough.
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