More Pre-9/11 Thinking, This Time from the Belgravia Dispatch
Gregory Djerejian becomes the latest so-called “conservative” to engage in pre-9/11 thinking:
No, I don’t think civil war is inevitable. But it’s still very much a real possibility. And, frankly, blaming the horrible MSM, in the main, for this sorry state of affairs strikes me as the height of idiocy. Breathtakingly so. Did so awful MoDo fail to insert sufficient troops to maintain order after the fall of Saddam? Did Nick Kristof fail to adequately secure the Syrian border from foreign infiltrators? Did Paul Krugman drop the ball on adequacy of detention facilities/interrogation tactics and the first year or so of the training and equipping effort? And was it, I forget, Bob Herbert who failed to anticipate or game-plan an Iraqi insurgency?
Gregory is perpetuating the pre-9/11 fallacy that the American government bears responsibility for the wars it starts. As the administration has said repeatedly, the Global War Against Terror is not simply a military war, but a war of ideas. In this light, actually winning the Iraq war is far less important than giving people the idea that we’re winning the Iraq war. Once one has adopted this proper post-9/11 perspective (which one can easily accomplish by locking oneself away in one’s mother’s basement for months on end and reading nothing but the soothing “Heh-Indeeds” of Glenn Reynolds), it becomes clear that the MSM does indeed bear the blame for any failure in Iraq.
I ask you, Gregory: if the MSM had not reported on the insufficient troop levels, the lack of post-war planning, or attrocities of Abu Ghraib, would anybody know about them? Certainly not! And do you really think that 57% of Americans would not find the Iraq war worth fighting had the MSM not reported all those mistakes? The answer to this question begins with an “S,” ends with an “O,” and in the middle is “adly, n.” In a post-9/11 world, it is irrelevant whether or not the Bush Administration is actually competent. The important thing is that the public has the idea that they are.
Heh, in-dude…
Disturbing if true. Of course, I’m still clapping lauder, because better safe than sorry.
UP
Hmmm…as the good ship GWOT lists further and further amidst loud gurgling sounds, there comes to the ear a squeaking and skittering around the hawsers, as furry creatures with twitching noses and long snaky tails begin their descent…..
Pamela claps the loudest and doesn’t even use her hands.
But the wonderous thing about these ‘conservatives’ is that in a week or two, Gregory and George and John will once again be all a twitter over the genius of Bushlette, and saying that victory is inevitable. After all, we’re America and we can’t be beat except through treason.
Sure, they go off the reservation now and then, over this and that, but anyway who cares about Iraq, now it’s “On to Iran!” and if you think any of these pricks will have any qualms about the new war, think again.
Shit, I worry about Drum and Yglesias climbing on that bandwagon, not to mention the NYT and the WaPo.
The answer to this question begins with an “S,” ends with an “O,” and in the middle is “adly, n.”
Do not take Sadly, No!’s name in vain!
You shouldn’t write that Pammy has the clap — look what Debbie Schlussel did to that idiot rottweiler guy.
Here’s a contest that everyone can partake in. Can we goad Pammy into writing something so wretchedly stupid that Walcott is forced to shoot her down… again? It would have to be mightily moronic, ‘cos this most recent time, it was her confusing the Zogby brothers, and that’s quality stoopid. Give it a shot, ‘cos while I’m sure Walcott hates doing it (since it involves actually reading Pammy), once he does, it’s a thing of beauty.
Every time a warblogger compains about Chimpy McHitlerburton, Jeff Goldstein cries.
an we goad Pammy into writing something so wretchedly stupid
Ooh let me try…Pamela, right down the first thing that comes into your head…
I give myself 3-2 odds…
yes yes, write, though when she does it, “righting” might be equally descriptive.
clapping estee lauder? why?
don’t you like make-up, pooh?
Following Pooh’s link to the interview with John Bolton:JB: I thought about it a lot, I thought when I was in high school I might go into foreign service, but I didn’t do that. I ended up in law school and when I was in law school I never thought I would join the government until the Reagan administration.Man, that Reagan administration brought all the crazies out of the woodwork, didn’t it? And they never went back in again. Awakening Bolton’s interest in “public service” is just one more thing President Shoe Polish has to answer for.
Oh, it’s a war of ideas! Of course, that would explain why all the ideas have been safely hidden away where no-one can find them.