Sullivan goes off his rocker. I liked Sully when he wrote for the New Republic. He provided excellent critiques of the administration and while more conservative than I am, made coherent arguments based on principles usually.Unfortunately, he seems to have become a partisan shill now.
Let’s look at a couple claims today. He seems to think the UN Strategy was a brilliant ploy by Bush? Huh? Bush wasn’t brilliant, he just got slapped by enough people in his own party to realize the go it alone strategy wasn’t going to work. If he was brilliant he would have done this i in the first place and not caused strategic allies to have to waffle. Now, the leadership in Egypt and Saudi (hardly an ally, but strategically yes) look even weaker to the alternatives in those societies.
This strategy is right and it should have been pursued right off the bat. For an administration that claims to be disciplined they have lost control of an essential debate. Now, those we need to help are in a position that weakens them. That isn’t a success in any real terms when the same result could have been arrived at without the same problems.
Josh Marshall adds a lot to this debate. ”
If the president fell flat on his face in the middle of the Rose Garden some of these characters would applaud his uncanny foresight in having arranged for the ground to be in just the right place to break his descent. Shades of the personality cult. ”
As to Clinton acting on terrorism and Iraq? Let’s remember this garbage. I was for a hardline with Iraq then, and I still am. Remember Trent:
“”I cannot support this military action in the Persian Gulf at this time,” Mr. Lott said, “Both the timing and the policy are subject to question.””
Now, who can seriously complain about Clinton letting up on Hussein? Was part of this self-inflicted by Clinton’s utter lack of self-control? Yes. Does that mean it wasn’t the best policy at the time? No.
The Sudan and Afghan strikes? Coats, Specter and Kemp all called him on it. The only people pushing for more at that time were Goss and McCain and sort of Hagel. They can bitch, Sully, you can’t. Why not? Let’s hear what you had to say
“In retrospect, only one moment in the past year will, I think, endure as a grave threat to the integrity of the United States. And that was the bombing of Afghanistan and Sudan last August. The evidence that this bombing was well-thought out and well-targeted is extremely thin. At best, it smacks of incompetence. At worst, it smacks of the use of American arms and credibility for the purposes of short-term political gain for the president. I know everyone is sick of investigations. But, if ever an independent investigation is called for, it is surely into the origins of this particular episode. I say this not because I am squeamish about the use of force abroad but because the use of such force should always be beyond suspicion and reproach. The only time, I think, when impeachment was even vaguely justified was when those raids evoked the question of something truly rotten in the White House. Republicans, however, were more concerned with what the president did with Monica Lewinsky than what he did with the Armed Forces of the United States. In the long run, there will be no more damning indictment of them than that. ”
We missed Osama by an hour or two. Perhaps Sudan was a bad choice. But by an hour or two we missed the Islamic fascist who would later kill more than 3000 Americans in one day.
Clinton shares some blame for distracting the nation, don’t get me wrong. But the bitching and moaning about his actions to take on terrorism at the time were unjustified and Sullivan was a part of that problem.