Another rant about barefaced hypocrisy. Look, I personally agree it’s probably a good thing to start talking terms with potentially sympathetic members of the Iraqi insurgency, as Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has now confirmed we’ve been doing:
As we’ve found in many terrorist battles from Northern Ireland to Sri Lanka, it can often be pretty constructive to open talks with some of the people who are trying to kill you. And I’m willing to believe the Administration’s claim that they’re talking to comparative moderates in the insurgent forces and not extending their diplomatic efforts to the most fanatical wingnuts like Zarqawi, which I agree would probably be just a waste of time.
And even some conservatives agree with this, e.g., Rich Lowry in a recent National Review column:
In short, I’m not pitting the talks themselves: in fact, I think they’re one of the least half-assed things our leaders have attempted in the whole course of this half-assed war.
But I gotta point out that these leaders have some fucking nerve still trying to paint Democrats and liberals as soft on terrorism (as per the whole recent Karl Rove flap) when they’re the ones who are confessedly, currently, deliberately negotiating with commanders of forces that are trying to kill our soldiers. We’ve seen time and again that this crew is a bunch of shameless hypocrites, but this is a new low.
This is all so very odd. Why even bother to negotiate with an insurgency already in its “death throes”, a final impotent spasm expected to last no more than ten years (twelve, tops!)? Are these still the remnants of the Baathist regime, determined to return Saddam to power? And if soveriegnty as been entirely placed in the hands of the democraticly installed government, what place does the occupying power have at the table, by what legitimacy do they negotiate, since they are presumably not empowered to offer anything? Has the Iraqi government ceded its authority?
Between a rock and a hard place. They’ve been forced by the plummeting polls to sell the war all over again, however, whatever positive spin they attempt to produce is belied by the reality on the ground.
Fact is, there is no military victory to be had. Too many tragic mistakes, too late to turn back the clock. Face-saving time against an increasingly hostile American public that finally (!) appears to be waking from the 9/11 induced, post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Neocon Empire might not be crumbling yet, but the size of the cracks have become evident to all but the willfully blind. Speaking of “last throes”…I shudder to think what these might be like.
Some of you might profit from reading the following article prior to Dear Misleader’s umpteempth attempt to market the invasion. Which, BTW, happens tonight.
We should play a drinking game during his speech tonight. Everytime he says “freedom” or “stay the course” everyone takes a shot. We’ll be drunk by 8:06.
He sure did, “hinting” that it was a deliberate act of treason- purposely getting “our own people” killed. Lots of talk about eeevulll motives and such.