Redstate

By tankertodd Posted in 2008 — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Who knew Time hired a columnist who could play Admiral Ackbar so well. This writer Peter Beinart is so, so wrong that it's amazing that he's a senior fellow of anything. (Of course I'm not even senior fellow of my living room.)

He tells Obama NOT to pick up the challenge McCain laid to him to actually visit Iraq before deciding to quit it after all the blood and treasure invested there. His supporting points? Why, a diplomat who served under Jimmy Carter, and the New York Times. So you can already tell where we're going here.

The gist of his argument is that because the military will take you to where they want to take you, and that since they have skin invested in continuing the fight, that they will deceive Obama into thinking things are going better than they really are.

Um, if you can't go to Iraq without being deceived by those who are showing you around, then do you have ANY business becoming the president of anything? If you can't see through the Dog and Pony show that the generals put on (after all, their promotions have to be confirmed by the Senate) then you are not qualified to lead the Fargo, ND Chamber of Commerce (beach entertainment division).

That Peter Beinhart would miss this fundamental point demonstrates that he has no common sense or understanding of people. I love how he reveals that the military will conduct a Dog and Pony show. This guy's a regular Carmac. If you visit an industrial dog food plant and you're a VIP, you'll get a Dog and Pony. Duh.

The best part is the history lesson he gives on Vietnam. Apparently this diplomat George Ball was selected by Carter for a later mission because he predicted that Vietnam would be a quagmire. He determined this by NOT visiting Vietnam, mind you, because he didn't want to be unduly influenced by the people on the ground. Perhaps that made it easier for him to recommending abandoning South Vietnam. After all if millions are killed but you never saw their eyes, did it really happen? And that a leader would think so little of our folks on the ground is unbelievable and arrogant. Back to your ivory towers.