Sunday, August 28, 2005

Frank Rich strikes again!

Priceless. And the rest of the article is also hard hitting and well written.

The Vietnamization of Bush's Vacation - New York Times: "The Democrats are hoping that if they do nothing, they might inherit the earth as the Bush administration goes down the tubes. Whatever the dubious merits of this Kerryesque course as a political strategy, as a moral strategy it's unpatriotic. The earth may not be worth inheriting if Iraq continues to sabotage America's ability to take on Iran and North Korea, let alone Al Qaeda.

As another politician from the Vietnam era, Gary Hart, observed last week, the Democrats are too cowardly to admit they made a mistake three years ago, when fear of midterm elections drove them to surrender to the administration's rushed and manipulative Iraq-war sales pitch. So now they are compounding the original error as the same hucksters frantically try to repackage the old damaged goods.

IN the new pitch there are no mushroom clouds. Instead we get McCarthyesque rhetoric accusing critics of being soft on the war on terrorism, which the Iraq adventure has itself undermined. Before anyone dare say Vietnam, the president, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld drag in the historian David McCullough and liken 2005 in Iraq to 1776 in America - and, by implication, the original George W. to ours. Before you know it, Ahmad Chalabi will be rehabilitated as Ben Franklin. "

I just want to know one thing. Where was all this great writing when we needed it? This country was misinformed its way into host of bad decisions that could have been avoided if the press had done their job. I actually believe that was the point of the First Amendment. Freedom of the press, not to spread rumours, lies and gossip, but to protect the people by reporting the truth at all times and by shining a spotlight on governmental issues to prevent a madman or a group of them from abusing the power of their positions.

Now if the press was really smart they would get the heck out of New Orleans, a city that is about to go underwater. This looks nasty and I hope that packing the people who can't leave into the Superdome doesn't backfire.

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