Friday, September 12, 2003
Changing the Tone
The doggedly sweet but droll Molly Ivins is apparently fed up:
Good. I've been waiting for Molly to get in touch with her inner Barbara ("It rhymes with 'rich'") Bush and drop her folksy, can't-we-all-just-get-along tone. (She was on the infamous BookFair panel with Franken and O'Reilly where she appeared somehwhat ashen at Al's attack.) Nice just doesn't cut it with these people.
At least Molly doesn't have to apologize for supporting Whistle Ass's PNAC folly in Iraq, unlike pundit William Saletan, who hastens to make clear that he never supported Bush for the reasons stated by Bush, which he says he knew were lies, but simply because the U.N. wouldn't take action. As a justification for supporting a stupid policy, this makes John Kerry's explanation look positively airtight. I bet Saletan wished he'd thought harder about the answer to the question he posed in the Spring, when he advised, "Give [Bush] the gun": Whom do you trust? Bush or the United Nations?
Great, anybody who opposed this war in the first place was accused of lack of patriotism, and now anybody who points out that it's not going well is guilty of defeatism. If you raise your hand and ask where the weapons of mass destruction we were told were the reason for this war are, you're instructed to just Get Over It.
Well, I ain't gonna take it anymore. I am not shutting up for Bill O'Reilly or anyone else. I opposed our unprovoked, unnecessary invasion of Iraq on the grounds that it would be a short, easy war followed by the peace from hell. I predicted every terrorist in the Middle East would be drawn to Iraq like a magnet. I was right, and I'm not going to apologize for it.
Good. I've been waiting for Molly to get in touch with her inner Barbara ("It rhymes with 'rich'") Bush and drop her folksy, can't-we-all-just-get-along tone. (She was on the infamous BookFair panel with Franken and O'Reilly where she appeared somehwhat ashen at Al's attack.) Nice just doesn't cut it with these people.
At least Molly doesn't have to apologize for supporting Whistle Ass's PNAC folly in Iraq, unlike pundit William Saletan, who hastens to make clear that he never supported Bush for the reasons stated by Bush, which he says he knew were lies, but simply because the U.N. wouldn't take action. As a justification for supporting a stupid policy, this makes John Kerry's explanation look positively airtight. I bet Saletan wished he'd thought harder about the answer to the question he posed in the Spring, when he advised, "Give [Bush] the gun": Whom do you trust? Bush or the United Nations?
