Hagel Gets Blunt
In this week's issue of U.S. News & World Report, Nebraska Republican senator Chuck Hagel tells it like it is on Iraq, taking Bush Administration officials to task for their rosy estimates of the state of events on the ground: "Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality. It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."
Tough talk from a man looking toward "outsider" status for 2008?
posted by JBD @ 4:27 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
So you agree that we're losing? Your problem is you pay too much attention to liberally biased media outlets like the New York Times, L A Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, and CBS. want to know what's really happening in Iraq? goto this blog and try for once to be objective: http://democracyiniraq.blogspot.com
you really need to balance the liberal propaganda you get from those outlets with FOX news and the National Review etc.
Mark: Several thoughts.
1. I've never claimed objectivity, and never will. Like every single person, be they journalist, blogger, commenter, or otherwise, I approach things with my own views. Objectivity is in the eye of the beholder, and I haven't yet found a source that can provide it.
2. In answer to "so you agree that we're losing?", frankly I'm not sure whether we are or not. But if this is winning, I'd hate to see what losing looks like. I also know Chuck Hagel knows alot more about the situation on the ground than I do ... at the same time, I agree with what McCain said today, there are many hopeful signs, and I really anticipate seeing more and more good indicators as we move forward.
The most important thing at this point, I think, is for the Administration (from the President on down) to talk straight with the American people, and tell look, this is not going to be an easy thing. We've got more work to do, and we're going to stay the course until it's done. This talk of artificial timetables is silly, but some concept of a "success strategy" expressed to the American people wouldn't be a bad idea.
3. I read (online) a minimum of five national newspapers each day (NYT, WaPo, USAT, WashTimes and LAT); check the major news outlets (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and BBC) frequently, and have a list of approximately thirty blogs ranging from The Corner to dKos that I flip through on a fairly regular basis. Sure I get liberal propaganda, but I also get my fair share of the same from the conservative end. None of it from either extreme is particularly useful, which is why I focus to the extent possible on sources from the center.
Chuck Hagel's not a liberal propagandist, Mark; he's one of the more conservative Republicans in the Senate. This isn't John Conyers saying the war's not going well, this is a major presidential ally. I wish the members of the Administration would be as candid about the situation in Iraq as Hagel has been; we'd be much better off for it.
Great replies to the first comment. It seems that Cheney, through his own fault, is becoming a convenient lightening rod for Hagel and McCain to lodge criticism of the administration. At least they'll get the reality-based vote.
If that begins to spread into the lower levels of the GOP, the White House is going to have a real problem on its hands.
But it's not to concede that "we're losing" just because your critical of Cheney for saying something stupid. There may have been some small, cynical excuse for this 2+2=5 logic before the election, but when it appears that the guy believes his own BS, then we have a real problem on his hand. Cheney's credibility problems can't be blamed on anyone but himself.
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