Monday
Apr232007
Harry Reid and the 'lost' war
Monday, April 23, 2007 at 3:00AM
By Ellen Ratner
In politics, honesty is never the best policy. If you doubt that, just ask Democrat Sen. Harry Reid. He simply gave voice to what 99 percent of the world and at least 60 percent of Americans already know – Bush's Iraq gambit is lost. For this bit of honest, Reid has been pummeled relentlessly by every armchair patriot, knight of the carpet and drawing-room hero in the country.
If he was willing to go that far – and he wasn't for very long, because he had no sooner made his remarks than he was on the Senate floor, issuing ''clarifications'' – let me, with a lot less to lose, be equally blunt: the war is lost. Bush won't admit it – how can he? – although he has talked of ''mistakes'' being made. Naturally, he hasn't specified, but he has no need to because virtually every observer of this war already knows what those mistakes were – something in the core of President Bush prevents him from recognizing that he is doing a poor job as commander in chief . Not only has he bungled the management of the war, he has done a poor job communicating about the war to both the world and his fellow Americans. You see, he's bungled the message, too. If he has a clue about ''Why We Fight,'' he hasn't been able to convince many even in his own party, let alone the loyal opposition.
So along comes Sen. Reid who declares at last that the emperor has no clothes. Only unlike the story, Reid doesn't wake up his fellow citizens to this fact – he merely articulates what they already know. After all, the Democrats weren't given control of both houses of Congress last November because of Harry Reid's good looks. So an angry electorate that has for years been whining about the fact that all politicians are liars, finally gets one who tells the truth, and voila! – the incoming mail suggests some people would just prefer to be lied to.
I'll be the first to admit Harry Reid should have coupled his absolutely on point observation with a few plans, like, ''the war is lost unless we ...'' Or ''the war is lost, so let's cut our losses and redeploy in such a way that we can win, etc.'' But there is no denying the truth about what he did say. He talks like Gen. Patton and my right-wing friends accuse him of being Casper Milquetoast. People love to complain about how America has changed since 1945 and about how we couldn't win one like we won World War II. I say fiddlesticks. If America's changed, it's because we've become a country in denial – I hate to quote a movie, but as Jack Nicholson said in ''A Few Good Men,'' ''You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!'' This week as a country, we've proved that we can't handle the truth.
We've had no real debate about this war. We've shouted about patriotism, treason, support the troops, cowards and liars, but no real debate about strategy, tactics and whether the Iraqis want the vision of Toledo, Ohio that George Bush is selling. Or whether they're even capable of re-creating Toledo in a place like Sadr City.
The way I figure it, bad policy is like joining AA – first you have to admit there's a problem. Harry Reid, two years late, finally admitted there was a problem – that the old ways couldn't continue and that the war is lost. If we all just face reality, we might be able to climb out of this hole.
Sorry folks, but Harry Reid, thank you.
In politics, honesty is never the best policy. If you doubt that, just ask Democrat Sen. Harry Reid. He simply gave voice to what 99 percent of the world and at least 60 percent of Americans already know – Bush's Iraq gambit is lost. For this bit of honest, Reid has been pummeled relentlessly by every armchair patriot, knight of the carpet and drawing-room hero in the country.
If he was willing to go that far – and he wasn't for very long, because he had no sooner made his remarks than he was on the Senate floor, issuing ''clarifications'' – let me, with a lot less to lose, be equally blunt: the war is lost. Bush won't admit it – how can he? – although he has talked of ''mistakes'' being made. Naturally, he hasn't specified, but he has no need to because virtually every observer of this war already knows what those mistakes were – something in the core of President Bush prevents him from recognizing that he is doing a poor job as commander in chief . Not only has he bungled the management of the war, he has done a poor job communicating about the war to both the world and his fellow Americans. You see, he's bungled the message, too. If he has a clue about ''Why We Fight,'' he hasn't been able to convince many even in his own party, let alone the loyal opposition.
So along comes Sen. Reid who declares at last that the emperor has no clothes. Only unlike the story, Reid doesn't wake up his fellow citizens to this fact – he merely articulates what they already know. After all, the Democrats weren't given control of both houses of Congress last November because of Harry Reid's good looks. So an angry electorate that has for years been whining about the fact that all politicians are liars, finally gets one who tells the truth, and voila! – the incoming mail suggests some people would just prefer to be lied to.
I'll be the first to admit Harry Reid should have coupled his absolutely on point observation with a few plans, like, ''the war is lost unless we ...'' Or ''the war is lost, so let's cut our losses and redeploy in such a way that we can win, etc.'' But there is no denying the truth about what he did say. He talks like Gen. Patton and my right-wing friends accuse him of being Casper Milquetoast. People love to complain about how America has changed since 1945 and about how we couldn't win one like we won World War II. I say fiddlesticks. If America's changed, it's because we've become a country in denial – I hate to quote a movie, but as Jack Nicholson said in ''A Few Good Men,'' ''You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!'' This week as a country, we've proved that we can't handle the truth.
We've had no real debate about this war. We've shouted about patriotism, treason, support the troops, cowards and liars, but no real debate about strategy, tactics and whether the Iraqis want the vision of Toledo, Ohio that George Bush is selling. Or whether they're even capable of re-creating Toledo in a place like Sadr City.
The way I figure it, bad policy is like joining AA – first you have to admit there's a problem. Harry Reid, two years late, finally admitted there was a problem – that the old ways couldn't continue and that the war is lost. If we all just face reality, we might be able to climb out of this hole.
Sorry folks, but Harry Reid, thank you.
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