THE WASHINGTON POST offers what seems to me a pretty fair and, yes, balanced assessment.
And Free Frank offers the reasonable opinion that Beinart of the WaPo’s seemingly generous appreciation of the surge’s success is marred by a moralistic overreaction against the original invasion. The paper’s editorial seemes more on the mark in its opinions that the invasion seemed justified at the time, the surge will be to Bush’s great credit if its success remains stable, but the mismanagement of the war due to a disgraceful lack of planning in between is, in fact, a large and ineradicable stain on the president’s permanent record.
The phrase 'fair and balanced' will always now be understood as exactly the opposite, a code phrase for conservatives and the 22 percenters. As for Bush, I will be celebrating on Tuesday, drinking the last of the sarah palin wine and toasting the end of the goat-president. My theory is that when Bush was reading 'The Pet Goat' to those children, something happened that fused together his ragtag life of empty partying and meaninglessness. In some strange way he BECAME the goat.The last thing you want to do is allow terrorists to define you; yet Bush allowed them to define himself, define his presidency, define an entire country, even an entire age.
I wonder if "Free Frank" (is that a description or a plea?) had been hitting the sauce when he wrote that, as he somehow managed to go from writing about Beinart to a guy named "Breibart" - what gives?
As for the substance, it's hard to identify who is more silly there, Free Frank or Beinart/Breibart. Toss a coin.
My theory is that when Barack Obama said "on the other hand," he BECAME the other hand.
P.S. I have lots of theories.
I'm sure all the terrorists will be celebrating too that a president with the stones to stand up to them will be leaving office. Congratulations.
Yeah right, Hal. Bush had "the stones to stand up to" the terrorists for ALMOST his entire presidency, as long as we can overlook that minor thing on 9/11, and the subsequent anthrax attacks (the perpetrators of both remain at large), and the fact that he basically shrugged them off right up until 9/11. Yes, we got attacked on his watch, he hasn't caught those responsible, and our risk of another attack is greater than ever. That's some serious safeguarding there!
The next terror attack will happen just like the last one, when western intelligence(CIA, Mosad, MI6) decides its best. The defining moment of our age was that day. When millions of people watched two buildings designed to withstand jets flying into them fall, not just fall, collapse at free fall speed defying all known science(damaged structures follow the path of least resistence, to get a building to come straight down takes carefully timed demolition charges). Then a building not hit by a plane fell due to office fires, a first in the history of steel buildings. All the while our trillion dollar military was carrying out a drill of the exact same thing which, ironicly, caused them to not intercept the planes for nearly an hour while the highjackings of the 80's saw planes get intercepted by fighters in under ten minutes.
I realize this is not at all popular, but more and more americans believe it was in some way an inside job. In this regard, if the government never answers the questions then it will go down to many people(delusional or not) just like the whole Kennedy thing and serve to only increase the distrust and hatred of the government.
Directing criticism at Bush will never solve anything, that is what he was there for. I like ren's scapegoat refrence, maby that was not a coincidence. As for letting the terrorist define us, I completely agree. Rather the terrorist are really crazy guys in caves plotting elaborate evil plans not unlike over the top James Bond villans or peasants who succumbed to the lure of money from western intelligence agencies and grand ideas from assets/zealots the fact of the matter is that they are defining us. Living scared is a horrible way to go through life, unless you are the protector of the scared. We don't hear much about the victims familys nowadays, or the first responders. The victims familys, or at least some of them, were never given answers that satisfied their questions. The first responders are all dead or dying from lung diseases, and big brother is refusing to help them out financialy. I want a bailout for the sick first responders who risked and are now giving their lives to try to help save people on that defining day.
Terrorists celebrating the end of Bush....not likely. Especially not the leadership crew that we flew out of Afganistan and into Pakistan during the first days of the war...it was explaned later as an error. I guess in conclusion that we shure mean well, we just have too much darn incopetence. The new slick and well spoken one will change this and our life savings will soon come back, i mean the other half of them.