Krauthammer on Iraq elections, then and now

What Charles Krauthammer giddily opined about Iraqi elections in 2005:

The Iraqi elections vindicated the two central propositions of the Bush doctrine. First, that the will to freedom is indeed universal and not the private preserve of Westerners. And second, that American intentions were sincere.

His description of skeptics:

Embarrassingly, scandalously, blessedly wrong.

What Krauthammer says now about his call to reboot the Iraqi government:

New elections are not a panacea.

Vindication ain’t what it used to be, apparently.

(HT to mcjoan at dKos.)

You saw this episode already

I’ve had nothing to say about Larry Craig and his Minnesota restroom stall travails; it seems to me that most everything that can be said already has been. However, the transcript of Craig’s interrogation by investigator Dave Karsnial fairly demands some comment or other. This is fascinating reading, not just for its obvious prurience or the clash of banality and status - a United States senator being grilled by a cop over an alleged sexual solicitation in an airport restroom, criminy - but for the inescapable familiarity of the narrative. We know this routine by heart, after all: the interrogation of the suspect, the dangled offer of the “out,” the resistance, the evasion, the pursuit. The struggle over the framing of the truth. It’s the stuff of every gritty cop show on television, every true crime series offered on cable.

We know this ritual like we know our own names, our own lives. It’s in our cultural DNA. We just never, ever expected to see it applied in this context.

Highlights, sort of, from the exchange:

Read more

If only it was the other kind of PCP

Instead, it’s the Performance Communication Program:

Performance communication discussion, self-assessment, supervisor’s performance communication discussion outline, accomplishments for the last six months, goals and objectives for the next six months, performance standards, job description.

To be followed, as soon as is practicable, by liberal amounts of Jack Daniels.

Repeat in six months.

What a day

Alberto Gonzales resigns. Michael Vick pleads guilty. Owen Wilson reportedly attempts suicide. Criminy, it’s not even noon yet.

Don’t be surprised if the day ends with a stock market crash and a combined Al Qaeda/Martian attack on the entire East Coast.

Not-yet-driving while black

St. Louis-based blogger supreme Dana Loesch of Mamalogues shares a delightful story of police attention where it was most decidedly not needed.

What other purpose could black people have in Soulard except to steal cars from affluent white yuppies, right? What the hell are black people doing out of North County? They’re stealing our cars!

Just a tiny slice o’ life in the Gateway City. Y’all come back now real soon, y’hear?

Wanker of the day

R.L. White, president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP:

White also said he didn’t understand the uproar over dogfighting, when hunting deer and other animals is perfectly acceptable.

Is this the stance of the NAACP as a whole? Hard to imagine that would be the case. Perhaps Julian Bond can clear things up for us.

Incidentally, if the NFL slaps a ban on Vick, it’ll probably be for gambling.

Pulp nonfiction

Sigh. (Link to Post-Dispatch law and order story now defunct, of course.)

Bullets riddle truck — and man — in city

A young man staggered from a bullet-ridden pickup truck and died on the streets of St. Louis early today.

It just goes on and on. And on. And, uh, on.

I actually take less pleasure from criticizing Harry Levins’ awful crime blotter writing than it likely appears…but really, this is the sort of stuff you’d expect from an eccentric tabloid, not a city’s only daily. But maybe that’s the standard now at the P-D.

The curse of the drinking class

That is, work. Blogging unlikely today.

Of course, it’s usually just after I type something like this that some tempting topic happens along.

I could use a drink.

Dog pound bound: Vick pleads out

Not elusive enough, apparently

The collective howl you hear is the canine population of America in full-throated triumph: Michael Vick pleads guilty to federal charges in his dogfighting case.

“After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick has asked that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors regarding charges pending against him,” Vick attorney Billy Martin said in a statement. “Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made. Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter.”

Of course, not “everyone” hurt by this matter is in a position to accept Vick’s secondhand apology, as the majority of them are (one) dogs and (two) dead. But still, it’s the thought that counts.

Paging Harry Levins

If the Post-Dispatch’s resident military matters writer is scanning the web, I hope he notes and comments on this take on Iraq by a group of grunts - two staff sergeants, three sergeants, and an Army specialist - in a NY Times oped. While there’s much in the article that should give everyone pause back here in the States, the assessment of the political situation is key:

The Iraqi government is run by the main coalition partners of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, with Kurds as minority members. The Shiite clerical establishment formed the alliance to make sure its people did not succumb to the same mistake as in 1920: rebelling against the occupying Western force (then the British) and losing what they believed was their inherent right to rule Iraq as the majority. The qualified and reluctant welcome we received from the Shiites since the invasion has to be seen in that historical context. They saw in us something useful for the moment.

Now that moment is passing, as the Shiites have achieved what they believe is rightfully theirs. Their next task is to figure out how best to consolidate the gains, because reconciliation without consolidation risks losing it all. Washington’s insistence that the Iraqis correct the three gravest mistakes we made — de-Baathification, the dismantling of the Iraqi Army and the creation of a loose federalist system of government — places us at cross purposes with the government we have committed to support.

Political reconciliation in Iraq will occur, but not at our insistence or in ways that meet our benchmarks. It will happen on Iraqi terms when the reality on the battlefield is congruent with that in the political sphere. There will be no magnanimous solutions that please every party the way we expect, and there will be winners and losers. The choice we have left is to decide which side we will take. Trying to please every party in the conflict — as we do now — will only ensure we are hated by all in the long run.

Not that this is a surprise, but it’s still depressing: there is more clarity and realism in this political snapshot of Iraq than we have heard, ever, from the Commander in Chief. Or any presidential candidate, Democratic or Republican. Or anyone in Congress. The soldiers here offer no easy solutions: just a realistic view of where we are now, the better to proceed without illusions. If the larger news media retains an ounce of responsibility, this oped will get at least as much tub-thumping attention as did the questionable O’Hanlon/Pollack piece.

Not bloody likely, of course.

Addendum: Like I said: not bloody likely.

(HT Kevin Drum.)

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