May 16, 2004
CAN'T LOSE FOR WINNING:
The State of Iraq: an Update (ADRIANA LINS de ALBUQUERQUE, MICHAEL O’HANLON and AMY UNIKEWICZ, May 16, 2004, NY Times)
While the overall situation is disconcerting, there is still hope — especially if the standard for success is defined realistically as an absence of civil war, a gradually improving economy, and slowly declining rates of political and criminal violence. The scheduled transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi caretaker government on June 30 may at least begin to defuse the growing anti-American anger that is helping fuel the insurgency. And most American assistance, tied up in bureaucratic red tape until now, should begin to jump-start Iraq's economy in the coming months, with a likely beneficial effect on security as well.
Which is why the media will pretty much stop reporting and John Kerry stop mentioning the story after June. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 16, 2004 12:26 PM
I keep hearing about the "growing anti-American anger" that's suppossedly fueling the insurgency, but even post-Abu Ghraid I haven't seen anything in the mainstream or alternative press that convincingly suggests that the insurgents aren't either foreign elements or the same old troublemakers we've been dealing with since we got there.
Posted by: Twn at May 16, 2004 12:54 PMThe anger exists only among the Western Left and far Right.
Posted by: oj at May 16, 2004 1:18 PMThe only credible source of broader anti-Americanism is the resentment that a people have when they had to be liberated instead of accomplishing it themselves. (I have even read letters from soldiers which allude to this, and to why it was important to pretend to eat crow in Fallujah and Najaf to let Iraqis take the initiative.) Hurt pride against all logic is not something to be proud of but it's at least understandable. Now for the hard part, someone explain to me why Ted Kennedy hates America so much?
Posted by: MG at May 16, 2004 4:08 PMMG -- Let's see:
He is not chair of some big deal committee
Neither he nor his staff read the laws he votes for and so got hoodwinked (by Bush) several times recently
He is a jerk
He is a card carrying Donk
Folks hold him responsible for the little problem at the bridge
He can't be POTUS
I expect that there are more reasons.
Posted by: Uncle Bill at May 16, 2004 4:19 PMAfter July 1, the US presence in Iraq will be the same as our presence in Germany and Japan and S. Korea. I'm looking forward to the Intelligensia explain why one is bad and the others good.
Uncle Bill:
Don't forget, he isn't as smart as his brothers were, and he hasn't aged very well, either. Plus, he "had" to get married again a few years ago (when Romney the family man ran against him). Of course, the jerk part still is no. 1.
Posted by: jim hamlen at May 17, 2004 8:17 AMYears and years of pent up frustration.
How would you feel if you were Teddy Kennedy?
A little mercy, please.
I recently came across the best possible description of the Hero of the Battle of Chappaquiddick -- "Deep down, he knows that he was the brother who wasn't worth killing."
Let see, Economy, cant use that, Iraq, ditto. So we will have to listen to Kerry bloviate about Social Security and Medicare for 4 months.
Half the people in America will kick their television screens in.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at May 17, 2004 6:58 PM