Four years in, still no honesty

I watched "Meet the Press" yesterday for the first time in years. I hate news on the teevee, and I hate the Sunday shows even more, but somehow an actual anti-war activist snuck on with Russert (seriously!), plus Admiral Sestak (ret.) was on, and as a bonus, the android formerly known as Tom Delay and Richard "Jabba" Perle appeared as comic foils.

Still, even with Rep. Sestak and Win Without War director Tom Andrews absolutely destroying Delay and Jabba, it was profoundly depressing to see the total ignorance and mendacity of the latter two. Delay obviously has no clue whatsoever about the war or the region, and he couldn't stop embarrassing himself. At one point, he claimed redeployment to surrounding nations wouldn't be possible because countries like Bahrain and Qatar wouldnt accept U.S. troops. Sestak looked at him like he had three heads and informed him that we have bases in these nations. Perle trotted out the same tropes he's spewed for years, and Andrews just shredded him, especially bringing home the fundamental point that we still -- after four years of war -- don't know who we're trying to support in Iraq. The people we train by day we fight at night, and the idea that trying to kill anybody with a gun is a *strategy* is unbelievably ridiculous.

Sestak and Andrews did extraordinarily well, speaking reasonably, firmly, and logically, while Perle and Delay fumbled and made wild, unfounded claims and accusations. We have the right information and the right people on our side, and we'll either get the right policies now or we'll get them in 2008 by a landslide.