- Joined
- Jan 26, 2003
- Messages
- 22,161
Frank Rich, writing in, "The New York Times" makes a point which I am very afraid will be lost in the months to come. His thesis is that there is already a timetable for a pull-out from Iraq and that that day is Election Day. He argues that the American people have decided that it is time to get out, and that the most hawkish supporters of the war are now backing away from it.
One problem he sees is that, due to The Big Lie (that the war in Iraq had anything to do with the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US by radical Islamic terrorists), is going to make Americans also stop their vigilance against real terrorists (like al Qaeda).
"But while the war is lost both as a political matter at home and a practical matter in Iraq, the exit strategy being haggled over in Washington will hardly mark the end of our woes. Few Americans will cry over the collapse of the administration's vainglorious mission to make Iraq a model of neocon nation-building. But, as some may dimly recall, there is another war going on as well - against Osama bin Laden and company.
One hideous consequence of the White House's Big Lie - fusing the war of choice in Iraq with the war of necessity that began on 9/11 - is that the public, having rejected one, automatically rejects the other. That's already happening. The percentage of Americans who now regard fighting terrorism as a top national priority is either in the single or low double digits in every poll. Thus the tragic bottom line of the Bush catastrophe: the administration has at once increased the ranks of jihadists by turning Iraq into a new training ground and recruitment magnet while at the same time exhausting America's will and resources to confront that expanded threat."
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One problem he sees is that, due to The Big Lie (that the war in Iraq had anything to do with the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US by radical Islamic terrorists), is going to make Americans also stop their vigilance against real terrorists (like al Qaeda).
"But while the war is lost both as a political matter at home and a practical matter in Iraq, the exit strategy being haggled over in Washington will hardly mark the end of our woes. Few Americans will cry over the collapse of the administration's vainglorious mission to make Iraq a model of neocon nation-building. But, as some may dimly recall, there is another war going on as well - against Osama bin Laden and company.
One hideous consequence of the White House's Big Lie - fusing the war of choice in Iraq with the war of necessity that began on 9/11 - is that the public, having rejected one, automatically rejects the other. That's already happening. The percentage of Americans who now regard fighting terrorism as a top national priority is either in the single or low double digits in every poll. Thus the tragic bottom line of the Bush catastrophe: the administration has at once increased the ranks of jihadists by turning Iraq into a new training ground and recruitment magnet while at the same time exhausting America's will and resources to confront that expanded threat."
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