Kristol, Gingrich: It’s All Colin Powell’s Fault
Here’s a story that was starting to make me angry, until I just collapsed in giggles. I know; I need to take these guys seriously; they currently control the white house, and have a pretty good headlock on the legislative and judicial branches, too, but still, it’s awfully funny.
For the full humor value, go thou and link unto Fox News: Gingrich slams Powell for failed diplomacy. Among the things I find funny here:
- Newt’s back! Yay!
- Consider the irony: According to Gingrich, the war happened because of Colin Powell’s “failed diplomacy.” What sort of diplomacy does Newt think would have succeeded? Given that Bush was already sold on the chickenhawk plan of going to war as early as March of 2002, when he made the “Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out” pronouncement.
- I love the idea of bringing in reigning ideological champion William Kristol at the end of the piece to tell us what to think. Gee, thanks, Fox News! I was getting so confused there, what with those bad people disagreeing with the smart neocons.
- How scary is it when the voice of reason is represented by Ari Fleischer?
- Finally, it’s quite the incestuous little club they’ve got going there, isn’t it? Everyone they quote (except for Ari and that Very Bad Man at the State Department) is a paid commentator for… Fox News! How convenient to have all the smart people working for the same organization.
Anyway, not to get lost in the absurdity of the messenger, the message itself is still pretty interesting. It’s a perfect Catch-22 they’ve got Powell in. See, we opposed you every step of the way, forced you to knuckle under and play a weak diplomatic hand in support of the pre-ordained war decision, and now, when the aftermath of the war is turning into the clusterfuck you predicted from the beginning, we’re going to turn around and blame you for it.
Truly, these people have no shame. And no honor. Colin, wake up and smell the coffee.
April 23rd, 2003 at 7:44 am
Great post, I excerpted part of it at my blog. I saw it on C-SPAN yesterday, the lies were just un-believable. At least the reporters were on to them.
I loved Krauthhammer’s response to “we’re not going in for the oil.”
“We have enough oil.”
So I guess we don’t import half our oil then? So it’s just a co-incidence the wells and Oil ministry was protected and the Museum wasn’t?
April 23rd, 2003 at 12:30 pm
I’ve said this a lot, but I still think Colin Powell could do some serious damage to the administration by resigning, then saying in plain language to the American public, “This is what happened.” I don’t think he’ll do that, especially after the dog-and-pony show at the U.N. But a lot of people still respect him, and his resignation speech could have huge impact.
April 24th, 2003 at 1:54 pm
I don’t know what is worse, ultra conservatives who see the war in shades of red, white, and blue, and lock-step their dogmatic thinking with others of their ilk to safely filter out all facts and logical thought that doesn’t dovetail to their personal belief system, or ultra liberals who see the war in the dark shades of conspiracies and deceptions and perform the same dogma dance as described above.
Lies and distortions are not the exclusive property of any one political or ideological camp. Your smug editorializing of the poor misguided, unthinking, uneducated masses is strikingly similar to the condesending attitude displayed by your polar opposites when they dismiss the views of those who are either ambivalent or against the war and its justifications.
Here’s to the actual thinkers out there who can still listen to all aspects of an issue before forming a balanced opinion.
April 24th, 2003 at 2:57 pm
I’m not sure who you’re referring to when you say “you,” but if you mean me, I’m not trying to claim that lies are the exclusive domain of conservatives.
Yeah, I’ve been hammering pretty hard on Bush lately. And when Newt Gingrich spouts the kind of bullshit he did in the linked article (or when Fox News does the kind of unapologetic propagandizing they did when they reported it), I think they deserve to be called on it.
That doesn’t mean I don’t think lots of other politicians lie, too, or that the path of wisdom doesn’t lie somewhere far away from extremists’ versions of reality.
If you have some more-specific criticism, some examples you’d like to point to of my smug condescension, I’d be interested in hearing it. The piece I posted today where I called people stupid for singing along with those patriotic country hits, maybe? I’d think the charge would be more apt there, rather than here. But maybe I’m missing your point.