Washblog

On What Obama Should Say, Or "I Don't Believe You."

This campaign can still be lost.

Because the Iraq War can still be won.

As a talking point, John McCain's "The Surge is Working" is essentially impossible for Democrats to counter. And in less than a month St. David Petraeus will affirm that the magical Surge has converted ignominy into inevitable victory. The media - pre-persuaded that this is true and having shown no capacity whatsoever to question the fundamental strategy or intent of the war - will take this on faith. Oh, sure, they will put on their "journalist" suits and make much of their impartiality. They will stage debates among talking heads who will argue over this number and that, but they will all decide that the numbers are better and, thus, The Surge is Working.

The Democrats will be defeated then. The Democratic National Convention will be an anti-war convention at a time when we are winning the war. We will be undermining the morale of our brave soldiers just at the time when they are finally winning. Rep. Brian Baird will seem prescient and wise for the title of his pro-war Seattle Times opinion piece: "Our Troops Have Earned More Time."

The election won't be about health care or the economy or gas prices and certainly not about education or the environment. It will be about the war: how honorable Republicans like John McCain are winning it and how the Democrats want to give up and lose.

And there won't be a damned thing you, or I or Obama can say about it.

Oh, except just this one little thing:

"I don't believe you."

Mightn't that - at this late, late date - finally, finally be the appropriate thing to say? The military, the Administration and anyone who wants anything from them have shown they will lie about  Iraq in every way and even set up programs designed to deceive. They have made absurd, ruthless, cynical misrepresentation upon absurd, ruthless, cynical misrepresentation piled on top of just, plain making stuff up. Might now not be a terrific little moment to stop debating these people and just tell them we don't care to hear their opinion, thanks all the same?

In his August 24, 2007 opinion piece Brian Baird stated this:

I do not know the details of what the September report will contain, but I trust and respect Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. I have seen firsthand the progress they have made, and I firmly believe we must give them the time and resources they need to succeed.

Are you kidding me, Congressman? I, you, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The Queen of England and Mickey Mouse knew what Archduke Petraeus and his little friend were going to say. There are homeless guys sleeping under bridges drinking paint thinner who knew what those two were going to say. Hell, they could probably have written their introductory remarks for them. Mitch McConnell's staff did. How hard could it be?

Cut. Paste. Done.

And I know what Cardinal David Petraeus is going to say in July. Hell, you can read rough drafts of it on the American Enterprise Institute's web site.

Difference is, I won't BELIEVE him.

And neither should you or any reasonable person. Petraeus, McCain and the rest of the Republicans who have been lying about the war for five years are not credible and I am done listening to these goddam people. There simply isn't a way for any true and rational position on Iraq to get out of this Administration. Haven't they proved that? And when they are desperate - as they are now - Republicans will say anything.

So you shouldn't believe them. It's just common sense.

This is what Obama is going to have to remind America of. Obama is going to have to remember his law school days. If you have a witness on the stand who you know will say anything - true or untrue - you don't debate him. You demonstrate why he is not credible and then you simply dismiss his testimony out of hand.

Out of hand.

The Republicans no longer deserve to be heard on the issue of Iraq.

As if we need more proof, the New York Times didn't have the nerve to come out and say it - of course - but in their usual, fumbling, intellectual, ineffectual way, they alerted us in this article to John McCain's fundamental belief about politics in times of war: that our democracy must serve the military and our problem during the Viet Nam war was inadequate indoctrination. This is a twisted notion from a damaged person.

Fortunately, it's not up to soldiers to make foreign policy but to serve what we hope will be the smallest possible part of that policy. That won't happen until we get people in government who haven't been telling an unbroken string of lies about foreign policy for five years.  

"I don't believe you" is not a fancy message, but sometimes it's a necessary one.

< On A Civil Campaign, Or Things I Hope We Don't Say About McCain | The culture of corporate welfare and the trial to Save our Sonics. >
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What else needs to be said.

by Pen on Wed Jun 18, 2008 at 03:53:23 PM PST

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  • Right on! by The Left Shue, 06/18/2008 06:18:30 PM PST (none / 0)

...and the plain, old nerve.

That's what's needed and it's all that's needed.

We have to be frank: the first step in solving the problem in Iraq is getting rid of the people who were complicit in this fiasco for 5 years.

Thanks for the kind words.

by dlaw on Wed Jun 18, 2008 at 05:02:51 PM PST

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