Posted on 12/07/2006 7:17:34 AM PST by meg88
Maureen Dowd: Good gracious - It's the truth Staff Report Article Launched:12/06/2006 10:16:33 PM PST
FIRST, JUNIOR TOOK over the house with big plans to remodel it and make it the envy of the neighborhood. But then he played with matches and set the house on fire. So now he's frantically trying to stop the flames from torching the whole block.
The Bush administration has gone from a breathless plan to change the Middle East to a breathless plan to preserve it, from democracy promotion to conflagration avoidance.
That was the cold shower offered Tuesday by Robert Gates, the former CIA chief, on his way to being unanimously endorsed as the new defense secretary by a Senate panel craving a cold shower.
He told the Armed Services Committee, peppered with wannabe future presidents, that the U.S. occupation could lead to a Baghdad as hostile as Tehran, and set off "a regional conflagration" if Iraq is not deftly handled in the next couple of years.
Gates asserted that if America left Iraq in chaos, Iran and Syria could encroach more, and Turkey and Saudi Arabia might jump in to stop the ethnic cleansing of Sunnis by Shiites. "We're already seeing Hezbollah involved in training fighters for Iraq," he said. "I think all of that could spread fairly dramatically."
It was the sort of realistic assessment that never came from Advertisement Rummy, except when he privately admitted in a classified Nov. 6 memo that their Iraq strategy was "not working well enough or fast enough," offering a silly hodgepodge of wildly tardy or dubious options, like telling the Iraqis to "pull up their socks."
It was chilling to see in print that the man who spent nearly four years overseeing the war did not have any idea what to do in Iraq; his basic plan was not so much to fix the problem as to lower expectations. The memo, reported by Michael Gordon in the New York Times, offered the following lame prescriptions to manage perception:
"Announce that whatever new approach the U.S. decides on, the U.S. is doing so on a trial basis. This will give us the ability to readjust and move to another course, if necessary, and therefore not 'lose.'" And this: "Recast the U.S. military mission and the U.S. goals (how we talk about them) - go minimalist."
So with the Pentagon deciding whether to Go Big, Go Long or Go Home, Rummy urged the White House to Go Minimalist and simply streamline the spin.
Junior took the advice to manage perceptions by minimizing Rummy two days after he sent the memo. The walls had closed in on W.; he could no longer minimize the war, which was escalating, or the perception that it was not going well, which had spread into Republican ranks. Even Gen. Peter Pace, yes man that he is, acknowledged on Monday that "We're not winning, but we're not losing."
The old criticisms of whether Gates massaged intelligence were forgotten; the senators would have embraced an ax-murderer if he had seemed sensible about Iraq.
There was no blathering on Tuesday about "known unknowns" or "Henny Penny" pessimists. The soft-spoken Gates offered a sharp contrast from the finger-wagging Rummy. In a remarkable shift from the mindless bellicosity and jingoism of the last few years, Gates said he did not favor military action against Iran or Syria.
Even though he was a member of the Iraq Study Group, Gates conceded that there would be no silver bullet. "It's my impression that, frankly, there are no new ideas on Iraq," he said. Asked by Robert Byrd who was responsible for Sept. 11, Saddam or Osama bin Laden, Gates did not try to fudge. "Osama bin Laden, Senator," he replied. Asked who has represented a greater threat to the U.S., he repeated "Osama bin Laden."
W. insisted on Monday that his "objective hadn't changed" and that "We're going to succeed in Iraq." Asked by Carl Levin if America was winning in Iraq, Gates answered, "No, sir."
After lunch, the nominee clarified his remarks, saying he had not meant to criticize the troops, that the reversals in Iraq were not their fault. They don't lose battles in Iraq because there are no battles. There's just a counterinsurgency that they can't see and that they weren't prepared or equipped to fight.
Gates' friends from the old Bush 41 gang have been watching closely to see if 43 brought the old Washington hand back for "cosmetic reasons," as one put it, simply to try to change the perception that W. has been stubborn and deaf on Iraq. Or whether 43 really will give his new defense chief the parameters he needs to make real changes in strategy. Will he let him Go Maximalist?
Maureen Dowd is a New York Times columnist, appearing Thursdays in the Marin Independent Journal.
Dowd doesn't have the first clue.
After three years of trashing our policy in Iraq, the Times speculates on why the policy isn't working.
I'm a woman and I appreciate the required CZJ pic of the day.
Gracias!!
IMMUTABLE LAWS OF DOWD1. Ashcroft never deserves credit.
2. Offering constructive solutions to problems, instead of whining endlessly about them, is a sign of weakness.
3. The People Magazine principle: all political phenomena can be explained with reference solely to caricatures of the personalities involved ("Dubya" is stupid; "Poppy" is an aristocrat; Cheney is macho-man; etc.). Any reference to the common good or even to old-fashioned politicking is, like, so passe.
4. It is much better to be cute than coherent.
5. Maureen knows best. Her long years as a columnist (doing basically what your great-aunt Tillie does in the nursing home bull sessions, but getting paid for it) have given her deep insight into foreign relations, politics, welfare, the Constitution, and all other topics. To disagree with Maureen in any way is not only a sign of being wrong, it's a hallmark of pure evil...or at least membership in the NRA, which is pretty much the same thing.
6. It is usually possible and always desirable to name-drop and name-call in the same sentence.
7. The particulars of Maureen's consumer-driven, shamefully self-involved life reveal universal truths.
Explanation of the Dowd/Douglas connection: by Miss Marple- 2/11/03
Ms. Dowd was escorted around New York and DC for many months by one Michael Douglas of Hollywood fame and fortune. She got to go to all the best parties, was photographed for the tabloids, and was picking out a gown to wear at the Oscars. Of course, Michael had become interested in her during Clinton's impeachment, when she had written some very anti-Clinton columns. After a few weeks of the Michael treatment, she began to write anti-Starr, anti-Newt columns, ignoring Clinton.
Then Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. In an amazing coincidence, Michael Douglas dropped Ms. Dowd like a hot potato, and instead picked up a hot tomato, Catherine Zeta-Jones, who subsequently bore him a son and they were married.
Ms. Dowd cannot get over her tragic loss. Her columns are increasingly anti-Bush, in the hope of impressing her lost love, Michael.
In addition, we think she has a secret crush on the President and is trying to get him to pay attention to her. Ha!
"4. It is much better to be cute than coherent."
Too bad she's neither.
4. It is much better to be cute than coherent. Failing either, be drunk.
Drunk, ugly and incoherent is no way to go through life, but heck, I guess she won't remember much.
I do not understand how she has a career writing this rubbish. It's not only leftist drivel, it's poorly written leftist drivel.
Regards, Ivan
I'm admittedly not the best one to describe her appeal, but if I were to take a wild guess, she speaks to the PMS side of Oprah Nation.
What a cold, bitter, spiteful old hag. I cannot imagine a single man on Earth with a shred of self-respect who could stand to be in her presence for more than 30 seconds.
Regards, Ivan
That explains how she ever got started in the first place, but it doesn't explain national syndication, lol.
Mega dittos on your comments about Dowd's writing...both substance and style/syntax. Her efforts at cuteness are pathetic.
Regards, Ivan
Michael Douglas dated her for a while ... leftist nutbar though he be, he had the good sense to ditch the witch. And the good taste to take up with CZJ.
The critters you describe so very accurately don't only inhabit Manhattan, though I suspect it may be their natural environment. Washington, DC has its share of them ... I suspect most cities do.
Plus we also post CZJ pics so it shows up when Maureens name is typed into a search engine. That way if Maureen should happen to type in her name, she will run into pics of CZJ and be reminded that Michael is taken. Observe the evidence....
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=maureen+dowd&btnG=Google+Search
Gee whiz, look what immediately comes to the top and who is to the right of her pic. The right, how ironic.
What a bitter aging hag the Dowdy one is. Never gonna get over being dumped for CZJ.
LOL! I don't see how a woman could stand to be in her presence. Brutal.
A Google the Weekly Standard's 2001 critique of Dowd's writing...."The Immutable Laws of Maureen Dowd"...for a scathing critique of her sophomoric style.
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