Greatest Military Mind since Ambrose Burnside

[womzilla]

Matt Ysglesias:

By delaying any assault on the wily Salafi terrorists . . . lurking in Fallujah, Samarra, Ramadi, and Baquba until after November, we give them more time to dig in, prepare defenses, and strengthen their forces before the attack.

An important point comes next, so it gets a paragraph of its own: This plan will get people killed. If an assault is to be mounted, it should be done as soon as possible, before the adversary has been given months to prepare for it.

Digby:

George W. Bush is setting up our soldiers for a killing field in order to keep the casualty count down during the election campaign. There's a word for that and starts with a "t" and ends with a "reason."

They are governing as if they will never be caught. Make them wrong.

Comments

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Matt Yglesias, eh?

I went to high school and had a crush on that guy.

The future is weird when it's a place your high school crush is a published political commentator.

Treason Might Be Worth a Try

[(Anonymous)]

...that's what Phil Ochs suggested in "The War Is Over" almost forty years ago, perhaps thinking of Patrick Henry's defiant "if this be treason, make the most of it."

In Bush's view, in the long run we will be dead, so it won't matter what history makes of it (as Barbara Bush might say, "our beautiful minds will be quiet dust -- and please tell me about the Turds!")...which means that you might as well govern as if you'll never be caught.

Oddly enough, the post about Julius Caesar didn't set me to thinking of Roman emperors for comparison, but of the fact that Ronald Reagan apparently had a very high opinion of Calvin Coolidge. The current President has a high opinion of Reagan, but I sometimes think he believes that Reagan revered Warren G. Harding, who is to Presidents what Ambrose Burnside was to Union Generals.

Salaam from the Sparrow.