August 23, 2007

IRAQ: Danger Zone

The netroots are not encouraged by Washington Post reports that Dems are now acknowledging "recent positive signs on the security front" and instead "increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions." The Huffington Post's Brent Budowsky blogs: "This morning's story in the Washington Post is accurate and conforms to what I am hearing privately. Many Democrats are again missing the first principle of the matter and treating Iraq in political and tactical terms. ... This growing Democratic spin is incoherent. One cannot argue that the Iraqi political system is failing but the surge is succeeding. If the Iraqi political system continues to fail, the surge, or more accurately the escalation, must also fail because, in effect, the status quo ante is that America is today arming all sides in the sectarian war of Iraq."

Open Left's Chris Bowers criticizes those Dems admitting security gains in Iraq: "Iraq has been bloodier during the escalation than during any other time period. ... Are Democratic campaigns still largely unaware of how their statements will be used by the Republican Noise Machine to paint Democratic division in important upcoming legislative fights? The answer to all of these questions is basically yes."

Digby writes off the hope for the 110th and turns her eyes to '08: "Bush will never agree to a withdrawal and I think even if the congress pulled the funding he'd stubbornly keep them there. Therefore, this Iraq debate is political and mostly about 2008. Rather than recognizing that, the Democrats are behaving purely reflexively to patented GOP threats and propaganda instead of building their argument for withdrawal with strength and commitment. In the process they are running a huge danger of demoralizing their base (and the growing number of people who are willing to give them a chance) by capitulating, if not actively embracing, the policies of the most unpopular president in history. They are playing a very dangerous game. Nobody owes them a vote."

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) is still with the netroots though. He blogs at HuffPo: "President Johnson said in 1966, 'the solution to Vietnam is patience.' ... Today, we hear the same misleading rhetoric coming from this Administration.... There will be no real progress in Iraq until key political, economic and diplomatic improvements are made by the Iraqis."

IRAQ II: Back To The Future

The netroots are excited that Ari Fleischer is heading up the 'Freedom Watch' group that will be pouring $15M into ads supporting "President Bush's Iraq war strategy."

MoveOn.org's DC dir. Tom Matzzie blogs at AMERICAblog: "Dear Ari Fleischer, Thank you. ... The revival of your role as salesman-in-chief for the White House's failed war policy is also welcome. We were looking for a way to connect this mysterious 'Freedom Watch' outfit to the White House Iraq PR machine. And then it turned out that you made our job very simple-you are in charge. This is the 'White House Ad campaign.'"

Fleischer's 8/22 "Hardball" appearance also was well received. Think Progress captures video of Fleischer failing to identify the name of the wounded Iraq veteran featured in the ad. TRex at firedoglake blogs: "It took me and Google under 15 seconds to identify the soldier in the ad as John Kreisel, who lost both legs in Fallujah. But you know, I'm sure Ari's very busy right now. He might not have had a whole 15 seconds to get ready to pretend to give a sh*t about anything but providing cover for the White House."

For his trouble, Fleischer also was initiated into Atrios 'Wanker of the Day' club.

Posted by Conn Carroll at August 23, 2007 12:54 PM