Surgin' Into DC With Peter Beinart
By Cernig
Very Serious Person and Iraq flip-flopper (he was for it before he was against it before he was for it again) Peter Beinart writes that Democrats need to admit Bush was correct on the Surge. He "has been vindicated. He was not only right; he was courageous. It's time for Democrats to say so."
This is absurd. First, it's far from clear what role, if any, a 15% increase in total U.S. troop deplooyment in Iraq has played in the country's journey from something close to all-out civil war two years ago, to today's merely horrifying levels of sectarian violence (500 Iraqis are still dying in such violence each month, the per capita equivalent of another 9/11 attack in the U.S. every two weeks. This is what strikes Beinart as a marvelous success, requiring bipartisan hosannas).
That a relatively modest increase in the U.S. troop presence might in and of itself have played no role whatsoever (as opposed to, say, bribing tribal leaders in Anbar, and allowing Baghdad to become almost completely "ethnically cleansed," as well as the purely internal dynamics of Iraqi politics) is quite possible, yet Beinart is so eager to be the classic Beltway centerist voice of reason that he doesn't even consider that possibility.
Even more objectionable is Beinart's insistence that President Bush showed great courage by ordering the surge. Do we really need any lectures from conspicuously non-combatant warmongering pundits of military age on the meaning of that word? Two years ago Bush was a lame duck president facing a compliant and spineless Congress, who he knew full well would never have the political will to resist whatever new war strategery he deigned to jam down its collective throat. If he had admitted that the invasion of Iraq was a tragic mistake -- now that would have required something like courage. Instead he "stayed the course," despite the immense damage his bull-headed idiocies have wreaked.
What else has the man ever done in his whole life but that?
Thank you, Paul Campos. You should have all of Beinart's jobs.
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