Strategies
Finally, Bush says he may change strategies in Iraq. Yesterday, he said he wouldn't. Still, not one of these strategies fixes the overall strategic problem: The war is not working and never will.
His insistence to "go it alone" in waging war on Iraq is as infuriating as his insistence that he NOT go it alone in establishing peace with North Korea. If the goal is to stop terrorism, why choose the diametrically incorrect strategy in each situation? What's worse: he doesn't recognize his strategies as hubris; he calls them a mandate; he calls them fights for "freedom"; he calls them obedience to God. And so, people die. October set records in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Democrats scramble to capitalize on the national mood before the midterm elections by airing anti-Republican commercials of increasingly dubious ethics. In my home state, one Republican congressman's half-quote, used by the DNCC to damn him in a commercial (ostensibly) in support of his Democratic opponent, actually vindicates him when seen in its full context. Are we really that desperate? Why would we resort to the traditionally Republican strategy of flat-out lying? (For a recent example of right wing false spin, on a FOX news episode after the break of the Foley story, Foley was referred to, eight times, as a "Democrat.")
Adopting Republican campaign tactics is a dangerous strategy for Democrats, especially when this is paired with the even less logical strategy of banking on anti-Republican sentiment to sway the electorate away from the status quo. People's disgust with the Republican leadership, while warranted, will not guarantee their shifting allegiance unless the agenda of the Democratic alternative is clearer than merely being an alternative.
His insistence to "go it alone" in waging war on Iraq is as infuriating as his insistence that he NOT go it alone in establishing peace with North Korea. If the goal is to stop terrorism, why choose the diametrically incorrect strategy in each situation? What's worse: he doesn't recognize his strategies as hubris; he calls them a mandate; he calls them fights for "freedom"; he calls them obedience to God. And so, people die. October set records in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Democrats scramble to capitalize on the national mood before the midterm elections by airing anti-Republican commercials of increasingly dubious ethics. In my home state, one Republican congressman's half-quote, used by the DNCC to damn him in a commercial (ostensibly) in support of his Democratic opponent, actually vindicates him when seen in its full context. Are we really that desperate? Why would we resort to the traditionally Republican strategy of flat-out lying? (For a recent example of right wing false spin, on a FOX news episode after the break of the Foley story, Foley was referred to, eight times, as a "Democrat.")
Adopting Republican campaign tactics is a dangerous strategy for Democrats, especially when this is paired with the even less logical strategy of banking on anti-Republican sentiment to sway the electorate away from the status quo. People's disgust with the Republican leadership, while warranted, will not guarantee their shifting allegiance unless the agenda of the Democratic alternative is clearer than merely being an alternative.
posted by Left of Liberal at 1:51 PM
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