Monday, July 21, 2003
THE GOODS ON KRUGMAN
And I thought my takedown last Friday of Krugman was pretty good. You must read Don Luskin in NRO today.
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MORALE VS. HONESTY
How is it that the worst editorials in the Des Moines Register always seem to appear when I’m on vacation? Sigh. When the cat is away….heh.
On Friday, the Register exploited the outburst by the three disgruntled soldiers to bash the Bush Administration. What’s interesting is how the editorialists spun it:
The soldiers in Iraq miss their families. The heat is sweltering. Their lives are endangered by the very people they were sent to liberate. Hopes that they'd be going home soon were shattered this week.
The troops start to talk. Reporters are there to record what they're saying.
Are the soldiers really talking, or just these three? The Register portrays it as a spontaneous outburst given to ABC reporter Jeffrey Koffman. A more skeptical explanation is that Koffman went looking for some soldiers willing to make critical comments. Last I heard, reporters are pretty good at seeking out the stories they want to find.
What I find even more galling is the Register’s willingness to indulge this sort of nonsense:
Whatever the causes, there's no ignoring the words of the soldiers. They're uncertain about the future. They're angry with their government. And they're just being honest.
It's the kind of honesty that tugs at the heartstrings back here at home.
It’s also the kind of honesty that undermines morale in the Armed Forces. In an earlier era, America might have told these three fellows that they had “volunteered” for the Army, and that this was part of the job. But in our therapeutic culture, we instead praise them for their honesty.
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REVISIONIST HISTORY
Well, it didn’t take long. Sooner or later, someone in the press would find a way to blame the Democrats’ Uranium-gate harping on the Republicans. You can always rely on the Des Moines Register editorial page:
Some who characterize the president's pre-war claims as lies are muttering about impeachment. In the unlikely event there is a serious move in that direction it would be another case of "what comes around." It was the Republicans who insisted on making lying grounds for impeachment.
Actually, it was lying under oath, which is a crime. How convenient that the Register forgets that.
I also like the slippery bit about how “Some who characterize the president’s pre-war claims as lies.” Not that the Register is calling them lies. No, it’s an unspecified “Some who.” And to think that the editorial implies Bush is being loose with words.
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