The Corner: Military Dissent In Private Only

Shockingly, one of the best opines on the McChrystal story comes from right wing, George Bush-loving National Review's The Corner.  Military historian, and last time I checked, Democrat, Victor Davis Hanson writes McChrystal goofed up big time and that if the General can't handle a liberal rag like Rolling Stone then he shouldn't be trusted to handle the Taliban.  True Dr. Hanson stops short from calling for McChrystal to be fired.  Only by a couple inches, however.

Then of course Hanson has to follow up his well written rebuke with a total fluff job update that makes no sense at all.

And when we factor in the mistake of setting deadlines for withdrawal, the failure to inspire our European allies to stay (they see us planning to leave), the growing mutual incrimination with the Karzai government, and popular rumbling about the restrictive rules of engagement, the Afghanistan theater is in real trouble. And this is the so-called good war that Bush ignored to fight the “bad” one in Iraq, where things are relatively quiet and a constitutional government, for all its problems, is now is in its seventh year of governance.

I understand Professor Hanson is a Bush-enabler and thinks the war in Iraq was and is admirable.  All wars where you get to sit in your comfy armchair and soak up the AC and write about Great Patriotic War is inspiringly admirable.  I understand that totally.  Inferring Iraq is a model for U.S. interventionism and calling it "relatively quiet" is ludicrous.

In the last week alone, over 100 innocent people have been blown up in the streets of Iraq.  Two people were blown to smithereens just this morning in Baghdad and 27 YESTERDAY!  When Hanson says Iraq is "relatively quiet" he means American deaths are down.  Despite Hanson's inhumane view of war and cracked view of quietness, Iraq is a ruined country still very much at war.  Keeping a full day of electricity supplied to its most populous areas is impossible for this "constitutional government."  If hundreds of people being blown up every week is quiet, then I would really hate to see Iraq when it's stirred up.

The mindless point Dr. Hanson is trying to make with his update to what might have been a thoughtful post is that everything Bush was in charge of is now doing great.  While everything Obama is now doing has turned to crap.  If we ignore the daily bombings, the no electricity, no running water, the poverty rate, the fact that we are still spending billions of dollars a month in Iraq rebuilding it, that its parliament has not met since March and focus squarely on the one factor that American deaths are way down, then yes Iraq is a constitutional government that is quiet.