If John can shred the Washington Post for not doing its job, I can laugh at the NYT running column after conservative column. Yesterday it was William Safire claiming John Kerry is a closet right-winger.
Today, it's David Brooks doing a lame job of defending the White House.
"Administration officials smile when they talk about [Ayad] Allawi," writes Brooks, "then marvel at how aggressive he is. Allawi believes that his government has to establish its authority if it, or any future government, is to do its job."Wow, that is surprising. Allawi, a leader of the Shiite majority (roughly 60% of the population) that suffered under the Sunni-dominated Hussein reign wants to aggressively crush the Sunnis (roughly 40% of the population cause no one counts the Kurds) and their rebellion? What a shock. And what determination.
"It was clear from our conversation [Brooks and Rumsfeld] (and from the way other administration officials talk about decision-making in Iraq) that the charge that Allawi is a puppet is just absurd."Oh, well, if Donald Rumsfeld -- who just yesterday said there was no "strong, hard evidence" linking Saddam and Al Quaeda and then later released a statement saying he has acknowledged since Sept of 2002 that there were ties between Al Quaeda and Iraq -- why if he says Allawi is not a puppet then it must be true.
Mind you, a Sunni cleric with power who is not involved in the government saying it might be more convincing. Or say a Kurd leader who also has been sceptical. But if Rumsfeld says it it would be absurd for anyone to question it.
"Yesterday, Rumsfeld said Iraq had "a crack" at being a success," writes Brooks. "At least he's not overhyping."Gosh, that is comforting and quite modest given violence and deaths have increased repeatedly since Bush announced "Mission Accomplished" and car bombs went off in three locations."Three powerful car bombs exploded across Iraq on Monday morning," says the NYT today, "killing at least 26 people and wounding more than 100 others in a day of carnage that demonstrated the relative ease with which insurgents are striking in the hearts of major cities."So, really, you have to admire Rumsfeld's candor. At least he didn't say "Mission Accomplished."
