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Friday, April 09, 2004
The New LebanonThe miserable news from Iraq is hard to comment on, aside from calling it miserable. Vietnam comparisons aren't helpful yet, but comparisons to Lebanon are. Sullivan hopes the uprising will calm after June 30, because it'll be Iraqis in power, not Americans. I think that's laughable. Iraq is too splintered to be quelled by any provisional government; and the simple presence of American troops — outfitted like Israelis, running checkpoints — would be enough to recruit new terrorists.
We can't pull out, though. The war was an all-or-nothing gamble. If it works, the Middle East might improve. If it fails, we might think about colonizing someplace else in the solar system. (I hear one of Saturn's moons has good surf.) Sullivan makes a cutting point about Bush's leadership: "We need a real speech and a thorough explanation of what is going on. We need an honest, candid, clear war-president. Where is he?"
Hah. Leadership -- as opposed to patronizing, leave-it-to-us bumbling, flip-flopping, and deception -- has not been the White House's style.
posted by Michael Scott Moore |
6:32 PM
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