July 14, 2007
How Not to Debate Iraq II Posted by John Steele Gordon at 10:05 AM EST Mr. Burns writes that I cited only one article in support of the idea that matters might be improving in Iraq at long last. I cited three, one from the New York Times front page, in fact. Here are six more, including one from a journalist embedded in Iraq and one from an Iraqi blogger whose blog www.iraqthemodel.com should be read frequently. http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/al-qaeda-on-the-run-feasting-
on-the-moveable-beast.htm http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=071107A http://britainandamerica.typepad.com/britain_and_america/2007/
07/bbc-reports-tha.html http://article.nationalreview.com/?
q=MDVlZDA4NjFlNmUzZGU1OTk3MDEyNWFiNWRjN2E2Mjg= http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118420029887664045-search.html?
KEYWORDS=iraq+the+model&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118429030611165505-search.html?
KEYWORDS=iraqthemodel.com&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month As for Mr. Zeitz’s three points in his latest post, let me say the following: 1) If the military is underfunded, as Mr. Zeitz alleges, then that is easily remedied. The Democrats control Congress, which controls the purse strings, so Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi can easily add the necessary funds to the defense appropriation bill. I am confident that the President will not veto the bill because of those additions. I am, shall we say, less confident that Reid and Pelosi will do any such thing. Of course, in the strange political calculus of the left, the underfunding will then be President Bush’s fault. 2) I have now read the articles by Mary-Jo Cooney and Michael Ledeen. I haven’t changed my mind. I just don’t buy the idea that people who choose to publish articles in major newspapers are immune to criticism because they have a child in the military. I, like Mr. Ledeen, found the article remarkably egocentric. 3) With regard to Cindy Sheehan and whether she is anti-American or merely criticizing a country she loves, let her speak for herself. “I was raised in a country by a public school system that taught us that America was good, that America was just. America has been killing people . . . since we first stepped on this continent; we have been responsible for death and destruction. I passed on that bulls**t to my son, and my son enlisted. I’m going all over the country telling moms this country is not worth dying for.” That is not criticism, that is a rant by a pathological (I use the word advisedly) anti-American. The undoubted fact that there are anti-American nut cases elsewhere in the body politic is neither here nor there.
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