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Jonah Goldberg is the verdict of history? That didn't take very long.
Credit Where Credit Isn't Due -- By: Jonah Goldberg
‘Victory has a hundred fathers,” John F. Kennedy said, “and defeat is an orphan.”
By that standard, George W. Bush has won the Iraq war.
Last month, Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed on CNN’s Larry King Live that the peaceful transition to democracy and the (partial) withdrawal of U.S. forces “could be one of the great achievements of this administration.”
Initially, I ignored Biden’s comment because, well, he’s Joe Biden. As critical as I may be of the Obama administration, holding it accountable for Biden’s mouth seems grotesquely unfair.
But then White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended the vice president, suggesting that it was Obama who put Iraq “back together” and worked out bringing American troops home. More on that in a moment.
Then, just this week, Newsweek, which spent years ridiculing Bush, came out with a cover story led “Victory at Last: The Emergence of a Democratic Iraq,” in which the authors grudgingly and tentatively credit Bush with creating a democratic Iraq.
No word yet on whether Michael Moore will publicly cut off some fingers, like a failed Yakuza henchman, to atone for his misdeeds.
The Newsweek story might indeed be premature; recent upticks in Iraq violence demonstrate that nobody’s out of the woods yet. From what I can tell, there may be a rough summer ahead if a new government can’t be formed quickly. There almost certainly will be more bombings during this weekend’s elections and beyond.
Still, when the Obama administration starts taking credit for success in Iraq, you know things have changed for the better. Now, of course, it is a grotesque distortion of logic and even political decency for the White House to be taking credit for victory in Iraq.
Obama wouldn’t be president today if he hadn’t opposed the war. His opposition is what most distinguished him from Hillary Clinton in the primaries. Obama also opposed Bush’s surge, which turned Iraq around. He and Biden both claimed that it would actually make things worse. “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence,” then-senator Obama declared in January 2007. “In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”
When Gibbs went to bat for Biden, he said that Obama’s achievement was “putting what was broken back together and getting our troops home, which we intend to do.” When it was pointed out that the proposed U.S. withdrawal had been set in the Status of Forces Agreement signed by the Bush administration, Gibbs claimed it was the “political pressure” of candidate Obama that made such an agreement possible.
On the merits, this is pretty pathetic stuff. The same administration that blames all of its mistakes on problems it inherited now wants to take credit for accomplishments it inherited.
Still, it’s good news. First and foremost, it’s a sign that the war in Iraq, while costly and deservedly controversial, was not for nothing. Putting Iraq on a path to democracy and decency is a noble accomplishment of which Americans -- of all parties -- should be proud. Even if you think the war wasn’t worth it or that it was unjustified, only the truly blinkered or black-hearted can be vexed by the fact that Saddam Hussein’s regime is gone and the country is on the path to better days.
Second, it shows that America’s victories aren’t Republican or Democratic victories, but American victories. The same goes for its losses. At times it seemed that at least some opponents of the Iraq war wanted America to lose because they thought that was synonymous with Bush losing. It doesn’t work that way.
Indeed, that’s what’s so interesting about the strange turn in the zeitgeist. Many of the war’s most ardent opponents claimed that Americans didn’t like the war for the same reasons the hard Left didn’t. But all that talk about “imperialism,” “neoconservatism,” “Cheney-Halliburton blood for oil,” and the rest was not at the core of the war’s unpopularity. What most Americans didn’t like was that we were losing militarily and costing the precious lives of our troops. Unlike the hard Left (and certain quarters of the isolationist Right), most Americans don’t care that the U.S. has troops stationed all around the world. They don’t think we’re an evil empire because of our troops in South Korea or Germany.
What most Americans care about is winning -- or, more accurately, winning in a good cause. Public at udes are still raw when it comes to the war, and for good reason. But a generation from now, if Iraq is a stable, prosperous democracy, Americans will in all likelihood think the war was worth it, and that George W. Bush was right.
-- Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online and the author of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. © 2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
Jonah Goldberg is the verdict of history? That didn't take very long.
Bush ed up Iraq.
Horribly.
If he won, we should be out of there altogether.
Jonah Goldberg is the verdict of history? That didn't take very long.Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed on CNN’s Larry King Live that the peaceful transition to democracy and the (partial) withdrawal of U.S. forces “could be one of the great achievements of this administration.”When Gibbs went to bat for Biden, he said that Obama’s achievement was “putting what was broken back together and getting our troops home, which we intend to do.” When it was pointed out that the proposed U.S. withdrawal had been set in the Status of Forces Agreement signed by the Bush administration, Gibbs claimed it was the “political pressure” of candidate Obama that made such an agreement possible.
So when are we out of there completely?
Jonah Goldberg?
He's the Jewish, right-wing extremist, Muslim-hating version of Michael Moore.
All of his articles are crap just like this. Anybody, like Yoni, still justifying the Iraq invasion and congratulating dubya and his criminal team of lying incompetents is ed up.
2SnC: If Jonah Goldberg relies on the authority of Biden and Gibbs's idle boasts about what they intend to have accomplished in Iraq -- future perfect -- to be the factual baseline of the more general discussion, or more broadly of <<reality>>, then so much the worse for him.
Last edited by Winehole23; 03-07-2010 at 07:47 AM.
Will you please stop sidetracking threads, troll?
Maybe if the ing re ed original poster wasn't constantly starting threads with right wing drivel from the National Review. There's nothing in this thread to protect except snc's partisan dumbassery.
Not surprising that you defend a right wing hack..
I'm just jumping on Chump for twisting the words, and trying to sidetrack another thread. He's making a big fuss about winning. The article hasn't declared a win yet. It said "By that standard, George W. Bush has won the Iraq war."
Typical chump. Changing the argument so the er can troll.
Chumped just got chucked.
So Bush didn't win?
OK.
Not yet, but it looks like things are going well.
So when do we leave completely?
Do you really think me dumb enough to make such a statement?
I'll give you my best guess...
Never!
I think once the mission [Iraq is it's own free nation] is accomplished, we will have a few military based there, like we still have in Korea, Germany, etc.
That would be a horrible failure.
Anytime someone calls out the obama crew on their LIES, it is always the same "business as usual" line. The entire Dem party gave up on the OIF. I remember being there reading the newsweek article on how we are going to get everyone out and how many americans are going to be left behind or die from the attacks as we run away. Biden sealing his failed presidency because he wouldn't vote to stop the funding of the military. Calling bush, and petraus a liar for suggesting that Iran was directly training, funding and bankrolling the groups that were killing americans. these guys, for many stated reasons, gave up on iraq. now they want to take credit.
F a whole lot of that!
"Not yet, but it looks like things are going well"
dubya lost Iraq and Aghanistan, and absolutely can't win now, since the Repugs and their suckers in corporate media have declared dubya's pile, inherited, dubya-botched wars belong 100% to Magic Negro, so "things are going well" (WC's fantasy) is therefore due to Magic Negro.
We should def. keep a base in northern iraq.
That would be a horrible failure.
How about no bases in Iraq, Korea, Japan, Germany, and the 70+ other countries worldwide?
I don't think we can determine the scuccess of failure of Iraq's democracy at this point.
We should at least wait until US soldiers are out of there to see how the local populace reacts.
And that still wouldn't excuse Bush for his lack of planning after the ground war, or for not changing his ineffective strategy until three years later.
While you're at it Marcus, you should wish for a magic poop-to-ice-cream converter.
In all honesty Marcus, I'm curious what you think about this question. Obviously, in order to satisfy a rapid worldwide response time, America needs bases in other countries. These are also used for refueling and supply.
So, do you think a low number of foreign bases are acceptable? Or do you think America should relinquish the idea of rapid worldwide response?
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