Embracing Orwell
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell dropped some interesting names while debating the emergency funding bill for Iraq last Thursday:
DB always likes it when Republicans quote Bin Laden and Orwell to back up their arguments. Kind of revealing, isn't it?
But I have to take issue with the Orwell quote [Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) used it on Thursday, too]. If the GOP is claiming that the Democrats are offering "a mandate for a defeat," then it should be noted that this defeat has taken longer than the victory we earned in World War II. Conversely, I suppose the slowest way to end a war is to win it? Like the longest war we were in?
Bush's father might argue that the quickest way to end a war is to have an international mandate, global support and an actual war plan.
DB thinks the quickest way to end a war is to resolve the conflict before it comes to killing.
Bin Laden knows the stakes, too. In a letter last year, bin Laden had this to say: America's defeat in Iraq would mean defeat in all its wars.
Yesterday, the commander of a senior Afghan Islamist group said bin Laden is personally involved in attacks on Americans in Iraq. General Petraeus went even further. He said al-Qaida has declared war on all of Iraq.
I call on my friends on the other side to have an open mind and listen to the general. We must give this plan for winning the military component of our strategy in Iraq a real chance to succeed. Without it , there is no political solution. Just 4 months old and operating at half its ultimate strength, the Baghdad security plan is already having an effect. Military leaders say the increased violence around Baghdad is a sign that the terrorists are shaken. The latest attacks were meant to be dramatic and to be visible. They were meant to force our withdrawal and ultimately our humiliation.
George Orwell said:
The quickest way to end a war is to lose it.
This is a road we must not take. This legislation is tragic. If the Iraqis make progress, we leave; if they don't, we leave. This is not a choice, it is a mandate for a defeat that al-Qaida desperately wants.
DB always likes it when Republicans quote Bin Laden and Orwell to back up their arguments. Kind of revealing, isn't it?
But I have to take issue with the Orwell quote [Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) used it on Thursday, too]. If the GOP is claiming that the Democrats are offering "a mandate for a defeat," then it should be noted that this defeat has taken longer than the victory we earned in World War II. Conversely, I suppose the slowest way to end a war is to win it? Like the longest war we were in?
Bush's father might argue that the quickest way to end a war is to have an international mandate, global support and an actual war plan.
DB thinks the quickest way to end a war is to resolve the conflict before it comes to killing.
Labels: GOP, Iraq, McConnell, propaganda
