|
|
|
Become a
Paid Mullings Subscriber!
(To join the FREE mailing list or to unsubscribe Click Here)
Iraq Speech - 1
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
MULLINGS needs your help! Click here for all the details.
Extra Credit Question: How much of the reaction to the President's speech on Iraq could have been written in advance - even before the speech itself was written?
A. None of it
B. Some of it
C. All of it
D. None of the above
E. All of the above
F. A and C but not B
G. B and C but not A
H. E and D but not A and C
I. I and E except after C or when sounded as "A" as in neighbor or weigh.
Dear Mr. Mullings:
We think you've milked this for just about all it's worth.
Signed,
The National Dairymen's Association
Ok, but I think you get my point.
President Bush, on Monday night, delivered the first in a series of speeches regarding Iraq.
The Democrats issued their pre-written responses to the President's speech complaining about the lack of specificity and/or the lack of new ideas about what to do about Iraq.
If the President's speech had contained a laundry list of specifics, I guarantee you the responses in the AM papers would have taken each and every one and found some fault with it.
If the President's speech had contained new initiatives the press would have proclaimed in banner headlines: BUSH ADMITS MISTAKES IN IRAQ.
Alas, to the disappointment of the press and their allies in the Democratic Party, the President did not say that.
It is not exactly stop-the-presses news to point out that the course of events in Iraq was not exactly what we thought it would be when we got into this adventure.
However, it is also true that, notwithstanding the media's laser-focus on violence in Iraq, officials have said for about the past six months that as we got closer to the June 30 hand-off date, violence would increase.
On the other hand, it will not surprise you to find out that things are better in Iraq - for IRAQIs - than the popular press generally portrays.
First of all, there are 26 million Iraqis. Most of them do not live in Fallujah or Najaf or Karbalah. Most of them are sending their kids to school, going to work, starting or operating businesses and generally doing what civilized people do everywhere in the civilized world.
Second, it is useful to remember that the last time we did something like this was when Douglas MacArthur ruled Japan after WWII:
Japan was a country which was absolutely monolithic - unlike Iraq with its bewildering assortment of geographic, religious, and tribal differences.
Japan was a series of islands, unlike Iraq which has enormous borders with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, and Syria
Japan had lost a war of attrition - almost everyone who might fight back had already been killed in the course of the war.
And there was no 24-hour news cycle where MacArthur had to explain every thought which passed through his mind. If he didn't like what someone reported, they were put on a boat back to San Francisco.
Not only that, but consider this: Japan signed the instrument of surrender on September 2, 1945. The US did not return full sovereignty to Japan until April 1952.
1-9-5-2!
In the early evening of the night of President Bush's speech the Washington Post published, on its website, the results of a poll it had taken in conjunction with ABC News.
After a litany of what are called "issue handling" questions on the economy, Iraq, prison reform, bicycle riding and so forth, came the big one: If the election were held today �
Even after allowing respondents to think about what they didn't like about what was going on, Bush still led Kerry 45 - 44.
If you're Kerry's people you had to look at that, and think: If, after the past six weeks of nothing but really bad news our guy is still one point behind the President, we can stop measuring for the new drapes in our West Wing offices.
Because George W. Bush is likely to win in November.
On the Secret Decoder Ring today: A link to the Washington Post/ABC News poll, all the links to the Mullings' pleas for help, an amusing Mullfoto, and a frightening Catchy Caption of the Day.
--END --
Copyright © 2004 Richard A. Galen
Current Issue |
Secret Decoder
Ring | Past
Issues | Email
Rich | Rich
Who?
Copyright �2002 Richard
A. Galen | Site design by Campaign
Solutions. | |
|
� 
