It’s been a dark October for American forces in Iraq, and it could end up being the bloodiest month since the 2003 invasion. Now even President Bush, who has preferred equating the war in Iraq to World War II, concedes a depressing resemblance to another conflict: Vietnam.
In an interview with ABC News Tuesday, Bush was asked about a Thomas Friedman column in the New York Times suggesting the upsurge in violence “seems like the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive.”
Bush answered: “He could be right. There’s certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we’re heading into an election.”
While the Tet offensive was a military defeat for the Viet Cong, its effect on U.S. public opinion is considered a turning point in Vietnam. It was then that the war began to seem unwinnable.
No doubt the jihadists in Iraq have a similar ambitions. As Friedman pointed out in his column, the current upsurge in violence is aimed at the American media as much as the American military.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Yet another sign of America’s impending doom: Cocaine, the provocatively named “energy” drink that promises an industrial-strength dose of caffeine in every can.
That’s some name. Just in case you don’t get it, the drink also has a throat-numbing ingredient that is intended to emulate an effect of its illegal namesake.
Just kidding about America’s doom. While the product has spurred howls of outrage from predictable quarters, that seems an overreaction. No doubt the maker, Redux Beverages of Las Vegas, was counting on a bit of outrage to create buzz for what is finally just another soft drink.
Yes, it has a lot of caffeine — about 280 milligrams a can — but that’s still only about half what you get in the average shot of espresso. As to the name, I don’t think anybody’s going to confuse the drink with the real thing. And finally, any publicity created by the controversy will probably be countered by outrage-wary retailers simply refusing to stock it.
Posted by Dave Knadler
It’s legitimate to question the judgment of an attorney general who hires people with criminal records. But Paul Morrison, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, overdid it with his television ad about Kline’s hiring of Bryan Brown to be the office’s consumer protection chief. The ad’s mug shot and portentous text would lead many voters to conclude that Brown’s 12 arrests were for violent felonies. In fact, they were for misdemeanors related to anti-abortion protests. We’d still argue that Brown was a poor choice, especially because he failed to pay a related $61,000 court judgment in Indiana. But Morrison’s ad went too far, in the process weakening a valid criticism of Kline’s record.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Thomas Frank argued in this best-selling book “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” that the GOP talks about abortion and other social issues, but what it accomplishes is tax cuts for the wealthy. But that’s just the disgruntled take of an angry liberal, right?
Well, David Kuo, President Bush’s former deputy director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, makes a similar charge in his new book, “Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.” Kuo argues that the Bush administration used the faith-based agenda for political purposes and that White House staffers ridiculed some evangelical supporters as “nuts” and “goofy.” He has also complained about “taking Jesus and reducing him to some precinct captain, to some get-out-the-vote guy.”
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne says these latest complaints — from one of their own — ought to cause evangelicals to re-evaluate what they are getting out of the partnership with the GOP. He wrote: “Are they mostly being used by a coalition that, when the deals are cut, cares far more about protecting the interests of its wealthy and corporate supporters than its churchgoing foot soldiers?”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Did anyone expect North Korea to greet United Nations sanctions with a heartfelt apology and an offer to host the Special Olympics? If so, the news Tuesday was deflating: After a two-day silence, Pyongyang called the sanctions a “declaration of war,” and vowed “merciless blows” on anyone who might dare violate North Korea’s sovereignty. It also threatened another nuclear test.
Sigh. It appears North Korea with nuclear weapons is about the same as North Korea without: a sullen child with a sizable gun.
Unless Kim Jong Il has to start dining on ramen, the sanctions are unlikely to have much effect. But since face-to-face diplomacy has been ruled out, they’re about all the Bush administration is going to get. Maybe now would be a good time for the United States to quietly revoke Pyongyang’s “axis of evil” status and let the nations with the most to lose — China, Japan and South Korea — take the lead in dealing with their troublesome neighbor.
Posted by Dave Knadler
The media profile of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is huge this week, as he promotes his new book, “The Audacity of Hope.” He went on “Oprah” and continues to downplay a run for president. Excerpts from the book are in the latest Time magazine, alongside an article headlined “Why Barack Obama Could Be the Next President.” Even conservative columnist George Will helped fuel the Obama phenomenon, saying Sunday during ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos “ that he noticed Obama is different when they had a sandwich together recently. “When I left the office I thought to myself, ‘This is what the scouts must have felt like when they saw Alex Rodriguez play high school baseball.’ He was a long way from the big leagues then, but he was on the way to the big leagues.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
