Kinsley : Trapped Behind Enemy Lines

[Manix]

<snip>

The slow souring of the American adventure in Iraq is a promising and legitimate issue for the Democrats. And they will benefit from it no matter what they say. But what they say about Iraq is a problem for the contenders who supported Bush's decision to go to war. Do they now think that support was a mistake?

If they say yes, supporting the war was a mistake, they are declaring that in a test case of the most important decision a president must make -- when to go to war -- they got it wrong. And if they try to explain their way out of this by talking about how the Bush administration "deceived the American people," they sound like George Romney, who was laughed out of the 1968 presidential race for saying he had been "brainwashed" into supporting the war in Vietnam.

On the other hand, if they say, "No, I don't regret my support for this war," the question naturally arises: Well, if everything you're complaining about doesn't change your mind about the war itself, why are you making such an unholy fuss? Apparently, if you had been president, we'd be in the same mess.


<snip>

A year ago, everyone was saying: Let's get practical. Only a Democrat who supports the war against Iraq will have any hope of defeating Bush. The idea was: Get Iraq off the table and make room for domestic issues. Maybe this is still the right idea. But many Democrats now want Iraq as an issue. And the only Democratic candidate who can use it effectively is the one who decided not to be practical.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58104-2003Dec11.html

[KoKo]

1. If I read right, sounds like Kinsley is giving "the nod" to Dean?

Interesting.

[Skittles]

2. I'll say it again

I cannot forgive those Dems who voted for IWR. They MUST have known they were being deceived but they went along anyway, for political reasons. They put thousands of lives lower in priority than their own political careers. It is not forgivable. They are through as far as I am concerned.

[Doctor Panacea]

3. Gambling and losing

I think the Democrats who voted for the war thought that the Iraq adventure would end very quickly and that they would appear patriotic for having supported it; then, in their plan, they would have moved on to other issues. However, the war bogged down in the 'peace', and they ended up with a losing ticket in that horse race.