Victor Davis Hanson can’t seem get up to speed on the middle-east, Muslims, Iraq, terrorism, WWII, or political science. All understandable in the Victor down the street, but VDH is supposed to be something of a heavy weight among the neocon thinkers (I know that’s an oxymoron, but that is what his fans consider him).
In Mr. Bush’s Communication Problem
This unbalance in the media reflects — or has helped cause — a public unhappiness over Iraq that has brought the president’s poll ratings to less than 40-percent approval. Yet again, for all the efforts of the Left to demonize Mr. Bush as either incompetent or diabolical — or both — the American people hardly think we have lost — or won — the war, much less that the threat posed by Iraq, or the necessity of fighting Islamists abroad, was trumped up in Crawford, Texas.
Did Victor manage to watch the news conference where his president did say,
“Yeah, I’m not going to fall into the trap. I’ll give you my grade. On my grade, I could have — we — the federal government, and I’m responsible for the federal government, could have done better in coordinating with the state and local government in its response.
He is the federal government, he has been the government for six years and Victor thinks his message isn’t getting out because of the media. Vic has closed his eyes and clicked his heels, its not the plan its the failure to communicate. Bush’s problem is that the media points a camera and microphone at him and the public has watched. Finally it is sinking in, sans pundits and talking heads lets give the public credit for seeing and listening to the man himself and figuring out that something isn’t quite right. If Victor thinks the failure is not of substance, but of style that’s Bush’s fault through and through. Diabolical? Depends on how you define diabolical, if the president and his minions deceive, lie, and turn bungling into an art, the consequences of which land us in a quagmire in Iraq and get 2500 Americans and 60,000 Iraqis killed then yes he is diabolical and those that don’t think so need to find a moral compass. Victor is doing his part to spread the great conservative doublethink when he refers to the Left. The Left is the new center, its where the center used to be before people like Victor and his hero moved so far right they think the Bill of Rights is a luxury that we can no longer afford. Vic must think that retired General John Batiste is Castro’s cousin,
Donald Rumsfeld is still at the helm of the Department of Defense, which is absolutely outrageous. He served up our great military a huge bowl of chicken feces, and ever since then, our military and our country have been trying to turn this bowl into chicken salad. And it’s not working.
Anyway that was just Vic’s first paragraph and it doesn’t get any better, it reads more like a psychotic meltdown by the soft spoken high priest of all neoconism. I’ve read the same thing in the rabid comments section of fringe right blogs, Hanson has just handed in a version with fancier prose that would serve well as an example to college freshmen of how to mangle facts beyond comprehension,
In fact, the current strategy of having removed the two most odious dictatorships — the Taliban and Saddam Hussein’s — and fostering democracies in their places remains the only sensible course. Far from winning this war for the future of the Middle East, Syria, and Iran are increasingly isolated, desperate to thwart democratization that surrounds their borders in Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon, and facing world sanctions for their roguery. For all its messiness, the promotion of democratic reform infuriates the Islamists and paid-off Arab journalists and intellectual toadies alike, and ultimately works in our favor
When Pangloss(Vic) says current strategy he is referring to Iraq, at least in part as the giant flypaper which will magically attract all terrorists from Spain to Egypt where they will be promptly dispatched by shock and awe, about a thousand miles east of sensible. Four years in and Pangloss just can’t fathom the absurdity of that argument even as he acknowledges the attacks in Spain and the foiled plot in England. Democratic reforms? Where are those Mr. Hansen, the totalitarian regimes of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or Pakistan – all decidedly undemocratic western allies, two of whom receive enough welfare to give a real conservative nightmares. Most of us crazed lefties supported going after Bin Laden in Afghanistan, and where is he by the way? That the Taliban was brought down in the process was great, but having diverted resources to Iraq and once again having no clue as how to best implement democracy after the shooting stopped Bush blew it, not MoveOn or Cindy Sheehan, Missteps in exporting democracy
It was squandered in part because of what Chayes believes was a stunning mistake: the United States backing Gul Agha Shirzai in the chaotic weeks as Kandahar fell. Shirzai, a regional strongman with violence and corruption in his past, led one of the militia forces that attacked Kandahar. Future President Hamid Karzai led the other. Surprisingly, Shirzai, a “symbol of the arbitrary and bloody madness the populace feared, was the one U.S. advisers had urged on to attack Kandahar and snatch it from Hamid Karzai, the battle-shy mediator.” Emboldened by this support, Shirzai muscled his way into office as governor of Kandahar.
There’s Vic’s strategy, up in smoke and like any zealot he keeps the faith despite all evidence to the contrary. But hey Vic they are building schools, Afghanistan to establish indigenous Madrasahs
Afghan Education Minister Hanif Atmar said that his ministry plans to establish religious schools in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan for those students who wish to acquire religious education
And Afghanistan is establishing relationships with its neighbors, like Iran, Minister: Afghanistan’s peace, security same as that of Iran
At the first round of talks with his Afghan counterpart, Najjar referred to Afghanistan’s security and reconstruction and given close ties between the two states, declared Iran’s readiness to promote security in this country and help expedite its reconstruction process.
Congratulating the anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence, the Iranian minister said that Iran’s foreign policy gives high priority to expansion of ties with the neighboring Muslim states, in particular the brotherly and friendly country of Afghanistan.
Is Hansen hanging out in the same bunker as Dick Cheney and Ann Coulter where everything is going “swimmingly”, the bunker where there is no objective reality that Bush and Company have not been worse then complete failures, they’re just the poor little victims of bad press. Pangloss:
Leftists still harp about no blood for oil and assorted conspiracies in lieu of legitimate analysis and criticism.
If Pangloss would take his fingers out of his ears and remove the blindfold he’d see plenty of thoughtful criticism and plenty of reality. Pre-war – The president is botching the Iraq crisis with his clumsy, naive unilateralism. and War College Study Calls Iraq a ‘Detour’ Actually as far as thoughtful analysis, its the Bush administration that keeps getting in the way, Negroponte Blocks CIA Analysis of Iraq “Civil War” , but no one should have to make Bush or Hanson face reality. Bush, as president has a moral obligation to face reality not get mentally lost in grandiose halfbaked plans to make over the middle-east. While Hanson is the grand master of deep intellectual thought for the far right who keeps trying to juggle half truths, flawed analysis, grade school analogies, mangled interpretations of some history all for what? To stay on course, the course that has been proven to be the wrong course by all except the delusional like Hanson who’s loyalities extend to Bush and America be damned. Blinded by partisan politics Hanson refues to acknowledge the most basic facts. Hanson has sold any academic credibility down the river. In short he is being incredibly dishonest when he claims that the Bush administration has a positive direction and a clear plan that is not being implemented because a few people are saying things that might hurt poor little George’s feelings. I’m not sure what is more absurd, Hanson for saying it, or the National Review for publishing this drivel.
Note: The far Right needs to do some current research. The Chamberlain analogy sucks on its face unless you believe that Saddam was as big a threat as Hitler’s war machine or that the pockets of full time dedicated jihadists around the world constitute a nation-state (that would be convenient and a war that maybe even Rumsfeld could win). The Chamberlain analogy is frequently made by right-wing bloggers and their commenters, probably in some juvenile attempt to sound smart. For an historian like Hanson to sink to the same sad level is just another symptom of the meltdown. Churchill tried to occupy and subdue an Iraqi insurgency too and he wasn’t shy about using indiscriminate carpet bombing, he still ended up withdrawing. England survived and so did Iraq.
The Long Goodbye 