Optimists in America are the realists...
Ben, you should disabuse yourself of the notion that things are "GOING WELL" in Iraq. You are the only person in Washington who seems to really believe that. How in the world can you think things are "going well" in a country where today, dozens of government employees were rounded up and kidnapped by gunmen in Iraqi police uniforms? The Iraqi GOVERNMENT cannot even protect itself. THIS IS NOT A CHARACTERISTIC OF A NATION IN WHICH THINGS ARE "GOING WELL." The security situation is getting objectively worse, and the rising body counts for Iraqi civilians is the objective measure for that. This war can still be won. But it will not be won by Pollyannas like you who continue to bleat the "stay the course" nonsense which even Bush has wisely abandoned.
Iraq cannot be won if we pretend that things are getting better when they are not. Wake up.
Ben's response:
Suggest blogger read the history of the U.S. --- including draft riots in the North during the Civil War, riots after after Dr. King's murder, hatred --- raw hatred --- of every group that came to the U.S. of A.
See particularly B. Franklin's screed against German-Americans.
posted by Ben Wattenberg at 8:40 PM
2 Comments:
Great examples. Yes, the United States has had its share of problems. Our bloody Civil War, as you have pointed out. But as they say, 20/20 is hindsight. Obviously our nation recovered from civil war and is a stable democracy. Iraq is in the thick of it, and sober thinking is required to improve the situation and more importantly, WIN. We will not win by reassuring ourselves that things are "GOING WELL" when they are clearly not. Optimism is a wonderful thing, but being optimistic 100% of the time is just plain moronic.
Ben, do you think Abraham Lincoln's reaction to the draft riots was to say to the world, "Things are going well"? When he had to declare martial law in Maryland, do you think he thought things were "Going well"? When Robert E. Lee destroyed John Pope's Army at Bull Run, do you think the Union Army strategiests said things were "Going well"? No, they didn't. They recognized their failures and learned from them and built upon them. That's what we need to do in Iraq.
Suggest blogger read the history of the U.S. ---...
He isn't a "blogger" here; while he may have his own blog (somewhere), he is just someone who left a comment here on your blog -- YOU are the "blogger" here.
I hope this is clear now.
eh
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