Between the rescue of Pvt. Lynch (which seems an interesting comment on the Greenberg piece linked yesterday) and the advance of American forces to within 20 miles of Baghdad, we’ve gotten a recent spate of good news on the war front. But, as Terry Neal of the Washington Post notes, trouble is now brewing in the rest of the Arab world. And given both Saddam’s deliberate attempts to incite Muslim rage and the shocking, extremely graphic images of civilian carnage being broadcast on Al-Jazeera, it’s little wonder why. (I caught ’em via Week in Review, but the Al-Jazeera site seems to be down now.) Even if Saddam’s regime falls soon, and let’s hope it does, we have our work cut out for us in rebuilding the region’s faith in America. And, as I said before, it will take reservoirs of diplomacy and goodwill that the tone-deaf and heavy-handed Bushies have yet to manifest.
Category: Donald Rumsfeld
Delusions of Grandeur.
Mickey Kaus often gets on my nerves, but I have to admit he’s probably dead-on with his assessment of General Rummy’s Iraq strategy. This is the only reading of his behavior I can think of that doesn’t paint Rumsfeld as criminally inept, and while Rumsfeld is many things, I don’t think he’s stupid. Nevertheless, if it turns out the Secretary put his dreams of neocon hawk domination above the lives of America’s fighting men and women, neither stupidity or anything else will save him from the opprobrium of the nation.
War Games.
Who’s running this war, anyway? As the American offense tentatively bogs down, more information surfaces that the Bush Hawks ignored the Pentagon and downplayed possible guerrilla resistance by the fedayeen in order to sell their war to the American people. I never thought I’d agree with Barry McCaffrey, but there you have it. Why would you ever put American lives at risk without preparing for the worst possible consequences? God willing, the Bushies bet correctly and our forces will be able to break the back of Saddam’s regime regardless. But, if our men and women start dying because of Rummy’s unbridled optimism, there’ll be hell to pay. Update: The wartime hubris of Rumsfeld is further explored in this week’s New Yorker.