The NY Times lead editorial is on
Dubya's press conference and what a doozy!
Happily, President Bush finally held a prime-time news conference last night. Unhappily, he failed to address either of the questions uppermost in Americans' minds: how to move Iraq from its current chaos, and what he has learned from the 9/11 investigations.
Mr. Bush was grave and impressive while reading his opening remarks, which focused on the horrors of terrorism and the great good that could come from establishing a free and democratic Iraq. No one in the country could disagree with either thought. But his responses to questions were distressingly rambling and unfocused. He promised that Iraq would move from the violence and disarray of today to full democracy by the end of 2005, but the description of how to get there was mainly a list of dates when good things are supposed to happen.
The second editorial on the
9/11 commission's findings about the FBI isn't much better for Dubya:
After President Bush came into office, the commission staff found, Attorney General John Ashcroft lowered the priority of the entire counterterrorism issue in his strategic planning. Mr. Ashcroft, who came before the panel defensive and ready for a fight, did not concede the slightest failing on the part of the Bush administration. But the acting F.B.I. director in 2001, Thomas Pickard, testified that he had never seen the famous presidential briefing of Aug. 6, 2001, which talked about a domestic threat from Al Qaeda and dozens of F.B.I. investigations of potential domestic terrorists that were reported to be under way. Communication on the subject seemed nonexistent. In that summer of sky-high terrorist threats, the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency did not even consult the F.B.I. to determine whether Osama bin Laden wanted to attack the United States.
The third editorial is on the
rise of demagogues in Central Europe.
Nicholas Kristof details the genocide going on in Sudan. Believe it or not, William Safire opens with:
Democrats worry that President Bush is slumping too soon. Six months from now, with the economy surging at a 4 percent rate and peace breaking out in the Greater Middle East, today's seeming-underdog incumbent could easily come roaring back to win going away.
But he then gives his pull-some-names-out-of-hat predictions on what a
Kerry cabinet would be. A former IRS tax collector talks about the
unfairness of the tax system to the little guy. A scholar at the AEI writes some nonsense about how are tax dollars go to
employ people who have government administrative-support jobs.
It appears that the Washington Post had an editorial staff party, as none of their editorial's reflect the days events. The lead editorial in the Washington Post is on how the IRS reforms of 1998 have damaged the IRS's ability to do its job. The second editorial is about today's South African elections. The third editorial is on Virginia budget maneuverings.
A guest editorial is about how diverse the institution of marriage is and says gay marriage would just add to the diversity. Reagan's Secretary of State whips out his rose-colored glasses and says that there are "some new possibilities" for peace in the Mideast. Dubya continues to lose George Will on Iraq:
Another officer says Iraq is for today's Marines their Guadalcanal, Chosin Reservoir and Hue City. That may overstate matters, but characterizations of the insurgents as merely "thugs" who "hate democracy" trivializes what is not trivial -- coordinated military activities by forces are menacing U.S. supply lines and that have agendas more complicated than dislike of democracy.
:
Unfortunately, how to define success in the long, or even middling, run remains unclear. Yes, of course, democracy -- a glittering example that transforms the region -- would be nice. But the first task of government is order, which is necessary to prevent Iraq from becoming a vacuum into which violent Islamic radicalism flows. Order requires more Americans carrying guns, and more nations carrying costs and responsibilities that America is now bearing.
:
It is unclear why the United States, its armed forces stretched thin and its budget spilling red ink, should hoard its responsibilities for reconciling Iraq's irreconcilables. In less than 11 weeks "sovereignty" of sorts will, the administration insists, be transferred from the Coalition Provisional Authority to. . . .
When Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator, was asked who would receive it, he said, "Well, that's a good question."
Still, Will seemed optimistic because the Marines have been training to fight popular uprisings. My impression is that the Marines have done a terrible job in Fallajuh by pointless whacking a hornet's nest. Harold Meyerson writes about a
pro-Kerry piece as you can write. It starts with, "Don't look now, but is the Bush administration creeping toward John Kerry's position on Iraq?" and basically says that Kerry made the right call about Iraq and Dubya was in FantasyLand, but Dubya is now being forced by events to move to Kerry's position:
Republican strategists have argued that the president would run circles around Kerry on issues of foreign policy -- a challenge to which Kerry's ad nauseam response during the primaries was, "Bring it on!" Now events have indeed brought it on, and it's clear that Kerry's apprehensions about a unilateral war and occupation were well-grounded, even as Bush's cavalier hopes for an all-American nation-building project were the most dangerous of fantasies. It's also clear that Bush has been forced by events to move, kicking and screaming, toward Kerry's vision of the requirements for a successful occupation.