June 30, 2004

But Isn't That What You Wanted?

I just don't get it. The media goes on and on about the "quagmire" of Iraq, they write story after story about how awful things are going there, how much the Iraqis hate us. And eventually, we turn the country over to the new Iraqi leadership. So now everything's cool, right?

Guess again.

Despite the obvious fact that completing the transfer two days early pulls the rug out from under those terrorist groups planning various sorts of mayhem (a great band name, by the way)for June 30, that same media who seemed to want us out so desperately sees this brilliant piece of misdirection, this fourth-quarter-flea-flicker, as a sign that we are running scared.

Now we're 'fleeing,' we're 'abandoning,' etc.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann compared it to fleeing Vietnam in 1975. Peter Jennings says that Bremer "leaves behind a country with more than 50 percent unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure." (As opposed to the little slice of heaven it was under Sadam.) A Pat Oliphant editorial cartoon shows a forlorn, solitary Iraqi looking at a note, supposedly from Bremer, that says: "Mission accomplished! Congratulations! Carry on." The message? We abandoned them.

Whatever.

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