Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This
I'm frequently torn between believing that our political leaders are inherently evil and believing that they are wilfully stupid. The stupid is winning out these days, especially after the responses by both major parties to Michael Steele's latest verbal gaffe. Here's what the RNC head said:
Video footage that emerged Friday shows Steele referring to the conflict as "a war of Obama's choosing" and implying that the effort is doomed to fail.
"If he's such a student of history," Steele said, referring to President Obama, "has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Everyone who has tried, over 1,000 years of history, has failed."
While it's pretty clear that what Mr. Steele said about land wars in Afghanistan is actually quite true, the rest of his statements reach into the very depths of Colbertian Truthiness. "Aha!" I thought, "The Democrats have some ammunition," forgetting what Democrats like to do with ammunition. They pack it away in waterproof boxes so as to keep the powder dry, which is what they did once again in this instance.
Instead of pointing to the fact that the "land war" was initiated by George W. Bush, a Republican President, with the assistance of the Authorization of Military Force handed to him by Congress, then led by Republicans, the Democrats lamented the poor taste of Mr. Steele in undercutting our brave men and women serving in Afghanistan. Instead of noting that we are still in Afghanistan because President Bush soon lost interest in that war and pretty much ignored it while he started another one in Iraq (where our troops still remain and where the suiciders continue wreaking havoc), the Democrats used the same lines that President Bush used to justify the start of the bombing in Afghanistan: "We were attacked!"
And instead of thinking seriously about the issue and realizing that this is a war just like Iraq and just like every other war that should never have been started, a war with which Americans are growing weary, instead of responding with an honest assessment that maybe we should just get the hell out of there, the Democrats, like their Republican counterparts, preferred to wrap themselves in a flag, now tattered and soiled by the shame of the last ten years.
Nope, no change here, and not under the coffee table either. I looked.
Video footage that emerged Friday shows Steele referring to the conflict as "a war of Obama's choosing" and implying that the effort is doomed to fail.
"If he's such a student of history," Steele said, referring to President Obama, "has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Everyone who has tried, over 1,000 years of history, has failed."
While it's pretty clear that what Mr. Steele said about land wars in Afghanistan is actually quite true, the rest of his statements reach into the very depths of Colbertian Truthiness. "Aha!" I thought, "The Democrats have some ammunition," forgetting what Democrats like to do with ammunition. They pack it away in waterproof boxes so as to keep the powder dry, which is what they did once again in this instance.
Instead of pointing to the fact that the "land war" was initiated by George W. Bush, a Republican President, with the assistance of the Authorization of Military Force handed to him by Congress, then led by Republicans, the Democrats lamented the poor taste of Mr. Steele in undercutting our brave men and women serving in Afghanistan. Instead of noting that we are still in Afghanistan because President Bush soon lost interest in that war and pretty much ignored it while he started another one in Iraq (where our troops still remain and where the suiciders continue wreaking havoc), the Democrats used the same lines that President Bush used to justify the start of the bombing in Afghanistan: "We were attacked!"
And instead of thinking seriously about the issue and realizing that this is a war just like Iraq and just like every other war that should never have been started, a war with which Americans are growing weary, instead of responding with an honest assessment that maybe we should just get the hell out of there, the Democrats, like their Republican counterparts, preferred to wrap themselves in a flag, now tattered and soiled by the shame of the last ten years.
Nope, no change here, and not under the coffee table either. I looked.
Labels: Afghanistan War, Change
posted by Diane at 3:45 AM
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