First off, this is my first kos submission (I've been a commenter up until now) so feel free to criticize me and stuff.
On June 22, Karl Rove said that "conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."
Consider, then, this article from the AP.
LONDON - U.S. officials recently met secretly with Iraqi insurgent commanders at a summer villa north of Baghdad to try to negotiate an end to the bloodshed, a British newspaper reported Sunday.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, asked about the report, suggested that meetings between Iraqi officials and insurgents "go on all the time" and said "we facilitate those from time to time."
The insurgent commanders "apparently came face to face" with four American officials during meetings on June 3 and June 13 at a summer villa near Balad, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, The Sunday Times newspaper in London said.
The U.S. officials tried to gather information about the structure, leadership and operations of the insurgent groups, which irritated some members, who had been told the talks would consider their main demand, a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, the newspaper said.
...
A senior U.S. official said earlier this month that American authorities have negotiated with key Sunni leaders, who are in turn talking with insurgents and trying to persuade them to lay down their arms. The official, who did not give his name so as not to undercut the new government's authority, did not name the Sunni leaders engaged in dialogue.
So let me get this straight. The conservatives, who wanted to go out there with guns blazing, are now sitting down to figure out how these insurgency groups work. Seems like a contradiction to me. If the conservatives are as strong as Rove would have us think, wouldn't they have just killed everyone in that room? Admittedly, this story isn't about them giving the insurgents therapy or anything, but they are talking to them. If it had come out that a Democratic administration had done the same, they would have been bombarded by the right.
I don't know what else to say here. I'm disgusted by the inherent contradiction, and how they're allowed to get away with it. The story just came out an hour ago, but I can bet we won't hear about it too much. Well, on Air America maybe. And the blogs.
I'm going to stop the incoherency now. Bye.