Frank Rich’s column, which argues that the Bush administration – shock! horror! – tries to massage the news coverage is titled, “Why Are We Back In Vietnam?” In the last paragraph, we find that, in Rich’s view, “[a]t the tender age of six months, the war in Iraq is not remotely a Vietnam.” If you find similar examples of headlines declaring things that the body of the piece denies, please send them in.
STALIN IN THE 1930S: No one knew what was going on? That’s the New York Times’ recent excuse for Western communists in the 1930s. Here’s what Churchill had to say in 1924: “Judged by every standard which history has applied to Governments, the Soviet Government of Russia is one of the worst tyrannies that has ever existed in the world. It accords no political rights. It rules by terror. It punishes political opinions. It suppresses free speech. It tolerates no newspapers but its own. It persecutes Christianity with a zeal and a cunning never equalled since the times of the Roman Emperors. It is engaged at this moment in trampling down the peoples of Georgia and executing their leaders by hundreds.”
A NEW IRAQ BLOG: From a U.S. soldier with bad spelling. But it’s interesting, nonetheless. His depressing thought:
For so many years America has always cut and run when its soldiers die, pathetic weak leaders we have. Despite many many resistance cells and fedayeen cells that get uncovered and arrested or killed, which we find these cells all the time, despite all the successes (you never hear about in the news) we’ve had in cracking down on these guys, they still manage to hit us. We can make this Iraq a great place, but it is going to take patience and time, and sadly, the American people I dont believe have the will to do it, we aren’t the great generation like in WW2, it makes me sick.
He shouldn’t be so downhearted. This president isn’t so easily cowed. And the media isn’t so insulated from criticism any more.
The Dish 