Full bore bilge pump

The debate over troop levels will rage for years; it is both characteristically American and somewhat beside the point.

... to think that higher troop levels would have been a magic bullet is to indulge a very American faith in the power of mass to overcome anything.

-- Rich Lowry, Editor,
National Review,
April, 2006

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The president should therefore order a substantial surge in overall troop levels in Iraq, with the additional forces focused on securing Baghdad....

There is now no good argument for not sending more troops.

-- Rich Lowry, Bill Kristol,
Reinforce Baghdad,
September, 2006

So what exactly has changed in five months? In Iraq, not much, though the violence has certainly gotten worse. Or could it be that Lowry and Kristol simply have neither any idea what they hell they're talking about nor any grasp of what to do. Of course, their flip-flopping cluelessness has mimicked that of George Bush, who has constantly resisted calls for more troops until he sent a bunch more into Baghdad.

It is always enjoyable seeing the White House conduit pumping its bilge straight into The National Review, The Weekly Standard and, by extension, The Washington Post. As things continue to worsen, that pipeline is operating at full capacity or close to it. Also at issue here is the fact that WaPo sees it fitting to publish an Op-Ed written by the editors of The National Review and The Weekly Standard, as though these two don't have enough of an outlet already. This alone ought to disabuse us of any contrary notion that WaPo is, to no small degree, part of the media problem in this country.


[via Glenn Greenwald]